The minimaList – Simplified Productivity
Managing your to-do list without become obsessive about your system is the key concept of this article. We can sometimes get bogged down in managing our systems at the expense of actually getting things done. I would say that holds true for even the most widely popular and decidedly perfect productivity system of all time, Getting Things Done. For the serious productivity enthusiast, I agree that there is no better system, but for me, I am decidedly anti-system.
But realizing that I need some way to manage my work, my family, my blogging, my songwriting, my landlording etc, some system is better than no system.
I’m looking for the simplest method to keep track of things and am recalibrating as I go. For me the easiest, lowest-tech way is to take a few index cards and slip a binder clip on them and off you go. This was recently popularized in the blogging world by noted productivity expert Merlin Mann from 43folders.com. The concept has been around forever but Merlin coined a neat phrase for it that took off like wildfire. He called it the Hipster PDA, but what it’s called is not as important as what it does for you.
It allows you the ability to capture thoughts and provide some order to process them.
So my minimaList set up goes as follows:
- One index card labeled @Work for any tasks related to my worklife.
- One index card labeled @Home for any tasks related to things outside of work
- One index card that contains my two highest importance tasks that I need to accomplish that day.
- One index card to track my spending
- Two spare index cards in case I run over on anything.
That's it. That's all I need to manage everything. I've previously written about several good options for managing your daily tasks, but this one still takes the cake.
While I am attempting to go paperless around my home and at work, I still have yet to find a digital version of what I get out of my minimaList set up.
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Comments on The minimaList – Simplified Productivity
4:49 am
Thanks for laying this technique out. I had heard of it, but hadn't actually taken the time to try it. I don't really know if I would want to go without index cards. Maybe just minimizing how much paper is used, would be enough.
1:16 pm
"We can sometimes get bogged down in managing our systems at the expense of actually getting things done. "
Oh, so true. I really like the idea of simplified productivity. Since I've been retired from my paid job, I've found being productive is more challenging than I thought. On the one hand, I have so much time to get things done. On the other hand, if I'm not careful about how to allocate my time, I don't have as much to show for it as I'd like. The boundaries blur between home and my (unpaid) work. So I just made out my cards, and I'm going to try this system.
1:41 pm
Minimalism in all aspects of your life can really be freeing.
Especially when it comes to simplifying tasks instead of making it too detailed or difficult. My personal rule is that most things can be done in 2-3 steps or levels. Any further and you're asking for trouble.
That goes for creating folders on laptops as well. The maximum drill down should be 3 folders. If you can't get it down to 3, your categories aren't vague enough
I myself don't like paper, even if it's simple & low tech, but I do something similar with my laptop by using software like Post-Its on the desktop and Evernote in my browser.
I just prefer everything put into electronic form, because I tend to create lists and lists of paper that just keep getting lost in the shuffle and nothing gets done in the end.