A Plan of Action for Productivity in 2014

Today is my first day back at work for the year. With piles of emails to read and getting back in the thick of deadlines I realised that I need to rethink the way in which I keep track of my tasks and deadlines.

I’ve decided to try a mixture of a diary/planner and the Bullet Journal this year. As I already used a form of bullet journaling (is that a real phrase) I realised that the system Ryder Carroll uses may just work for the scatterbrain half of me. I’ve tried to use digital task management tools and, though I still find something like Wunderlist wonderful, I want something that is offline.

For the love of all that is analogue – theBullet Journal

First off, go and listen to this podcast of The Pen Addict where Ryder Carroll is the guest and talks about the Bullet Journal and how it can be used and adapted to fit in with the way you work. (I think some of the people who have tried it missed the part where you adapt the journal to suit how you work.)

For me the index in the front will help a lot to find meeting notes between random daily to-dos, writing notes, brainstorming for clients and the inevitable doodling. But I also need a diary/planner because of my strict deadlines – those I need to be able to write in ahead of time so I can plan all my other work around them.

I’m also not going to use a Moleskine notebook – though they are beautiful and lovely to work in, I do not want to use such an expensive notebook for everyday notes.

And Some Digital Help as Well...

I also need a bit of digital help, especially when it comes to keeping links handy for different projects or simply to read later. For this I recommend two apps – Wunderlist and Evernote. Both these apps are free for the basic app and quite inexpensive to upgrade.

The Wonderful Wunderlist

While I used to use Wunderlist for everything at work, I found after a few months that I’d rather make notes by hand and carry them around with me. I also remember stuff easier when I write with actual pen and paper rather than just typing.

What is very handy, though, is that it is available for mobile as well. If you would rather have your lists and notes available digitally, this is the app I would choose.

Evernote

When it comes to keeping links and notes for a project I need to have on a computer (or which is just more practical to keep on a computer) Evernote is a definite winner and one I’ll be making more use of this year.