|||
This week: Links for plain text story formatting and home organisation, and file sharing on non-Apple devices. How writing down the right things helped my productivity practices stand up to the test of being completely abandoned for an entire week.
Car → train → train → train → car → interstate holiday destination: I’ve spent the past week in the Gippsland area, staying with family. And for the first time in I-can’t-remember, the bulk of my work tasks have remained untouched as I’ve enjoyed a time of intellectual rest and mental recuperation.
My task management system, being nothing more than a series of lists, has stood up to the neglect very well. I’m confident in being able to pick things up where I left off because of this one vital, bridging habit: writing down what I did immediately after last working on it, and making a note of what needs to be done next. Call it interstitial journaling, or process documentation, or whatever you like; it’s crazy simple and insanely effective!
The only list I’ve been following closely and updating throughout the week is the one I created specifically for this trip. I kept the list on paper in my discbound notebook, but it could just as easily have been in a plain text file, or in a task manager. (In other words, the tool doesn’t matter.)
This list came into being last November, the moment the trip was planned. Every time I thought of something that needed to be done to prepare for going away or something I wanted to do while there, I’d add it as the next item on the list. I then classified each task into one of three categories:
Being a paper-based list, I used different coloured highlighters to mark the categories. If this was a plain text list I’d have created three subheadings and used a keyboard shortcut to move items to the right heading, and up and down the list to show priority. In Obsidian I’ve assigned Command+1 to the move line up command, and Command+2 to move line down.
Having a well-documented place for everything I know will be back on my plate next week has allowed me to relax into spending precious, fully-present time with my family.
I’ve stayed off my computer and greatly reduced phone time, leaving my mind free to witness and absorb the sacred minutiae of daily life. Here’s a good example of what I mean by that: a short series of life-nuggets observed by George Penney at a New Zealand Easter market. It made me smile, and I hope it does the same for you!
Follow my RSS feed, or sign up to receive posts in your inbox
My posts cost you nothing to read, but a goodly amount of effort on my part to put together. If you’ve found value here I invite you to share this post with someone you think will appreciate it, or to make a contribution to my support jar.
