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Organisational methods: built-in redundancy
I actually feel a fair bit of shame about having a leaning tower of interroped organisational tools. This NEITHER meets what neurotypical people would call efficiency, nor the usually-described ADHD-friendly (or autism friendly) functionality modes. Like many people with ADHD I find that the effectiveness of many methods degrades overtime; I think UNLIKE many people I don't drop them, but interlace them with new ones.
I need better systems for *retiring* organisational tools, but on the other hand, today I figured out that built-in redundancy works for me.
Organisational tools I regularly use:
Google Calendar: I've had this for a long time, and its uses have expanded. From about 2010 or 2011 it managed only my *irregular* commitments; in late 2012, when I was working in transcription plus taking a CELTA course plus volunteering, it started logging EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING. In 2019, in Japan, it logged as two separate appointments 'contracted on-campus time' (a day long slot) and each and every class I taught. When I first started using it for irregular appointments it replaced my paper organiser (also only used for irregular appointments at that time); later I had to sub the paper organiser back in; when I got a smartphone I dropped paper; I had to bring it back for to-do-lists c. 2016. I also mark in GCal as 'tasks' hard deadlines for pieces of work to submit.
>> UNEXPECTED BENEFIT: the gcal records have come in very useful when filling in employment history, and more recently, when doing three-monthly roundups of Shit I Have Done.
To-Doist: this replaces Wunderlist, which I started using in 2011 to manage the ongoing list of Shit I Should Do. It records repeating tasks (every few weeks 'vacuum balcony' pops up), things I vaguely intend to do, things assigned arbitrary to-do dates ('18th century collections online' is one I keep postponing), and actual hard deadlines. No it doesn't distinguish between them. My psych thought it would overwhelm me and make my anxiety worse: I think I'm only now approaching that point, and it's not unsalvageable. This serves the role a 'future list' would in a BuJo, I think, along with repeater-task lists and the like.
Bujo/Planner: this replaces what used to be SEPARATE day planners and notebooks for habit trackers etc. It's a Leuchtthurm1917 Monatsplanner, although I'm not sure the actual calendar parts are so crucial given gcal. In this I currently:
> have a two-year writing plan (using the two-year six-months-to-a-spread section)
> am NOT using the project planner even though i tried
> use the month planners as I used to do use the appointment section of a week planner, AND in the notes section there enter 5 work priority tasks and 3 personal priority tasks per week.
> Weekly planner pages currently include: a stencil section that looks like your average organiser week-to-a-view, except it's narrower than A5; and a five-by-six grid of squares that was originally part of a month planner stencil, which I use to break up each day into two-hour blocks.
>> Every week, after doing the entries on the month planner, I copy the priorities to a square on the week planner, that cuts off half of sat/sun. Then I may enter bonus points notes.
>> Every day, I enter three work priorities, and often some bonuses; and three to five personal priorities (rarely bonuses there since COVID happened - they used to be 'pick up x from shop' or social things)
>> The block planner gets used to plan out chunks of the day - this works PARTICULARLY well when I don't plan further than lunch in the morning, and then regroup and re-plan after lunch. Two hour blocks allow for rearranging on a whim.
>> Also on the weekly "spread" are a habit-tracker (13 items) and a reading tracker
Toggl: This is a tool for freelancers to track their work-time allocations. I use it to record, again, what the fuck I actually did. Only focused work time goes in here, even though a lot of things that aren't "work" per se are also work-ish (reading Foucault, fr'ex), and if I were tracking in a workplace my tea-making trip would be included; it's not here. Toggl talks to GCal and gives me notifications of upcoming appointments. It also allows me to look at weekly spreads and see if I did... work... this week, and, thanks to the project-tagging, how I allocated it.
Extended weekly checkins: I write up a week plan and currently post it to a co-working group (should start cross-posting it here) that includes Schedule; 5 Priority items; and 4-6 'Bonus Points and Background Noise' and then whatever's on the personal priority list. I also update this with reports on the PREVIOUS week. Ideally, I do 'triage list' on Thursday or Friday based on how off-track I've gotten. (This is loosely based on something Captain Awkward, or maybe AskAManager, recommended for 'managing up' with a feckless boss)
Work checkin email: The above came from something I asked my boss if we could do late last spring, to help *me* keep track of what I'm doing and increase the chances that she'd notice if I was forgetting something. It got far too overloaded, so now the work email includes only a very slimline report from the previous week (and obvs no personal life stuff).
This is a STUPID LOT of stuff. Sometimes I do it on Sunday, because it does involve non-work stuff; sometimes it chews up almost all of my Monday morning.
The 'week priorities' list gets written out FOUR TIMES. Entries in my calendar, 3-4.
I finally realised today, watching myself: the repetition and redundancy is actually productive. I start with the shortest version (the entries in the month calendar): you might think I should start with re-checking all the places obligations might be, but actually, I need to create a working model on paper, before I open my email.
Then I do Monday's day to-do-list. Then I sit down to make the extended report, and while I'm checking on last week's to-dos, I think of things, I check my emails for items missing, I check old meeting reports, etc.
The copying into the week-planner happens simultaneously, and usually shows some crossings out as I realise x CAN'T be in the top five because of Y, that I had totally forgotten.
Once ALL OF THAT is written out I write up the email that goes to the work team. Sometimes in doing that I remember ANOTHER thing I was supposed to do.
The benefits are twofold:
By writing things out multiple times, both by hand and in type, I am more likely to remember them.
In the process of writing all this up, at least four times, on Sunday or Monday, I give myself time for memory association to kick in and to remember things. Second time I write 'website' I think to ask: hey who's tweeting from the work account this week? (Me, it's me.)
I would like to streamline the system a little (one possibility is moving to-do-ist into BuJo lists, but... I've got things in there that recur YEARLY. Also I don't carry the BuJo everywhere, but I do carry to-do-ist in my phone). Definitely when I finish my current 'meetings book' I'll move meeting notes into the Bujo; maaaybe I'll do the same with my freewriting notebook, maybe not.
But the redundancy serves a purpose, it turns out.
The Brain-off-the-leash effect:
Although the Habit Tracker has a ticky for 'complete to-do-list', I do not beat myself up for not finishing the priority list in any given day, or week, or even month (oh yeah the BuJo has month plan pages too).
The week lists, with their five priorities and bonus points/background noise, are designed to encourage productive procrastination: if I don't WANNA do the thing, here's a list of other things. It... sometimes works.
What I noticed today, though, is that on days when I get to somewhere between 5 and 6 and go 'no, we are not going to complete that Big Priority Item Today, time to clock out'... in sheer relief at being freed from the Priority List my brain goes a all puppy-off-leash and sends emails, does background research, and maybe even clears off a bonus points item. This time is particularly good for coming up with New Ideas (... may be hazardous to existing schedules of commitments, granted).
It's not exactly procrastination: it's not the same thing as 'I don't WANNA do x, i must do... q and r instead', it happens when I totally meant to clock out. It's... mild hyperfixation, I guess? (Aaand I just remembered my laundry is still in the machine) Freed from The Lists, my brain remembers we are actually That Nerdy about work, and does somersaults.
(Additional data here: this late afternoon early evening phase is often a weird brain turning point. If I'm going to hyperfixate on something NOT work, it starts around here too. I can often be very anxious for an evening. Later in the spring, when it's light later, going for a run makes a good transition-energy burner.)
I need to both optimise this, and put a moratorium on the brain-puppy sending emails / writing serious tweets (immediate team excepted, they can deal with the puppy).
I actually feel a fair bit of shame about having a leaning tower of interroped organisational tools. This NEITHER meets what neurotypical people would call efficiency, nor the usually-described ADHD-friendly (or autism friendly) functionality modes. Like many people with ADHD I find that the effectiveness of many methods degrades overtime; I think UNLIKE many people I don't drop them, but interlace them with new ones.
I need better systems for *retiring* organisational tools, but on the other hand, today I figured out that built-in redundancy works for me.
Organisational tools I regularly use:
>> UNEXPECTED BENEFIT: the gcal records have come in very useful when filling in employment history, and more recently, when doing three-monthly roundups of Shit I Have Done.
> have a two-year writing plan (using the two-year six-months-to-a-spread section)
> am NOT using the project planner even though i tried
> use the month planners as I used to do use the appointment section of a week planner, AND in the notes section there enter 5 work priority tasks and 3 personal priority tasks per week.
> Weekly planner pages currently include: a stencil section that looks like your average organiser week-to-a-view, except it's narrower than A5; and a five-by-six grid of squares that was originally part of a month planner stencil, which I use to break up each day into two-hour blocks.
>> Every week, after doing the entries on the month planner, I copy the priorities to a square on the week planner, that cuts off half of sat/sun. Then I may enter bonus points notes.
>> Every day, I enter three work priorities, and often some bonuses; and three to five personal priorities (rarely bonuses there since COVID happened - they used to be 'pick up x from shop' or social things)
>> The block planner gets used to plan out chunks of the day - this works PARTICULARLY well when I don't plan further than lunch in the morning, and then regroup and re-plan after lunch. Two hour blocks allow for rearranging on a whim.
>> Also on the weekly "spread" are a habit-tracker (13 items) and a reading tracker
This is a STUPID LOT of stuff. Sometimes I do it on Sunday, because it does involve non-work stuff; sometimes it chews up almost all of my Monday morning.
The 'week priorities' list gets written out FOUR TIMES. Entries in my calendar, 3-4.
I finally realised today, watching myself: the repetition and redundancy is actually productive. I start with the shortest version (the entries in the month calendar): you might think I should start with re-checking all the places obligations might be, but actually, I need to create a working model on paper, before I open my email.
Then I do Monday's day to-do-list. Then I sit down to make the extended report, and while I'm checking on last week's to-dos, I think of things, I check my emails for items missing, I check old meeting reports, etc.
The copying into the week-planner happens simultaneously, and usually shows some crossings out as I realise x CAN'T be in the top five because of Y, that I had totally forgotten.
Once ALL OF THAT is written out I write up the email that goes to the work team. Sometimes in doing that I remember ANOTHER thing I was supposed to do.
The benefits are twofold:
I would like to streamline the system a little (one possibility is moving to-do-ist into BuJo lists, but... I've got things in there that recur YEARLY. Also I don't carry the BuJo everywhere, but I do carry to-do-ist in my phone). Definitely when I finish my current 'meetings book' I'll move meeting notes into the Bujo; maaaybe I'll do the same with my freewriting notebook, maybe not.
But the redundancy serves a purpose, it turns out.
The Brain-off-the-leash effect:
Although the Habit Tracker has a ticky for 'complete to-do-list', I do not beat myself up for not finishing the priority list in any given day, or week, or even month (oh yeah the BuJo has month plan pages too).
The week lists, with their five priorities and bonus points/background noise, are designed to encourage productive procrastination: if I don't WANNA do the thing, here's a list of other things. It... sometimes works.
What I noticed today, though, is that on days when I get to somewhere between 5 and 6 and go 'no, we are not going to complete that Big Priority Item Today, time to clock out'... in sheer relief at being freed from the Priority List my brain goes a all puppy-off-leash and sends emails, does background research, and maybe even clears off a bonus points item. This time is particularly good for coming up with New Ideas (... may be hazardous to existing schedules of commitments, granted).
It's not exactly procrastination: it's not the same thing as 'I don't WANNA do x, i must do... q and r instead', it happens when I totally meant to clock out. It's... mild hyperfixation, I guess? (Aaand I just remembered my laundry is still in the machine) Freed from The Lists, my brain remembers we are actually That Nerdy about work, and does somersaults.
(Additional data here: this late afternoon early evening phase is often a weird brain turning point. If I'm going to hyperfixate on something NOT work, it starts around here too. I can often be very anxious for an evening. Later in the spring, when it's light later, going for a run makes a good transition-energy burner.)
I need to both optimise this, and put a moratorium on the brain-puppy sending emails / writing serious tweets (immediate team excepted, they can deal with the puppy).