Back in January, I discussed how I set up my monthly notebook.  I’ve since updated the system and added a new process that I thought I should share.

Previously, at the start of the notebook I would collect a running series of to-do items.  Most of the items at the top of the list would be things that had been carried-over for multiple months, with a few small items at the bottom that likely were first jotted-down in the previous month.  I found that I was continuously copying out the same items month-over-month and the list was growing.  On the one hand, if the thing isn’t important enough for me to complete in a reasonable amount of time, it could be the case that it’s not important enough for me to carry-forward and that I should just drop the task all together.

Yet, I felt that some of the tasks were things I’d want to complete “one day” in the undefined future, but that I had lots of other pressing things that needed my attention first.  Or, some tasks would require a fair amount of planning or coordination, and so I would tackle it after an adequate amount of lead time.

Some time ago, I created an account on Trello, but it was sitting unused as I didn’t know what kind of boards I would find useful.  This seemed like the perfect experiment to help me remain flexible.

I set up several columns (buckets) of items.  In the far left, I labelled the list “Pool” and dump in all to do items.  Within each of the cards I can make notes or sub-lists to help keep me on track of things.  At the start of each month, if there is something I don’t want to carry forward into the new book, I put the item into the bucket.

Next, is the “Planning Phase” bucket.  The beauty of Trello is I can drag cards from one column to the next, so when I’m ready to move stuff from the Pool to another phase of activity, I can easy drag-and-drop.  Items in the Planning Phase might require me to do research or make purchases in preparation to work on the project.

If no further planning is required, I move it into the “Active” column.  When a task is active, it’s something that I’m placing priority on and is meant to remind me to carve out space in my schedule to address.

Sometimes, a project needs to be put on hold.  I created a bucket to put tasks that are underway but I’m not making active progress on.  Items in this bucket might require someone to get back to me on some action of detail, or maybe I need to wait until a future date to complete the tasks.  Whatever it is, if I don’t want to move a task back into the pool column, I place it here and make a note of why the tasks is in limbo.

“Completed” is my win column – it gives me a chance to see what I’ve crossed of my list and as the column grows, I can take satisfaction in my accomplishments.

I created an “Abandoned” column because sometimes I will choose not to complete a task but I don’t want to delete it outright.  Maybe it’s something that’s still important, or maybe I missed a window but I want to be reminded of it.

Finally, for tasks that occur regularly but infrequently, I have a column so that I can see when the last time was that I finished a task, and remind myself that it will need to go back into the active column (e.g. changing my tires, changing the furnace filter, etc.).

I’ve been using this revised system for a few months and it seems to be satisfying my immediate needs.  It both cuts down on the number of items I need to manually copy from book to book while allowing me to indefinitely store things in a user-friendly format – effectively marrying my love of analogue with the convenience of digital.

Stay Awesome,

Ryan