Adding changes to the list

It’s no secret that I have trouble with personal organisation, and that I’ve come up with strategies to deal with that. The system I came up with has had some successes, and one major failure. I’ve now changed directions to try and fixt the one that didn’t work.

Back in 2023, I wrote about a personal organisation system I’d created for myself. That system had a section called “What’s Up” that I intended to help me keep track of things I wanted to get done. I explained it in more detail in a post after six months using it, and that’s how I used the system throughout 2023 and 2024—and then I didn’t.

In January of this year, I started writing out the dates on the sheets for this year’s “What’sUp” section, but I struggled—or, more accurately, I struggled. At the time I thought to myself that “I’m just not feeling it”, and so, I stopped. I’d gotten as far as June 1, but just couldn’t face it any more (and I’d just bought a new ring binder to put the old sheets in; more about about in a bit).

Part of the problem was that it had become a list of what I did, not what I wanted to do in a day. That’s still useful for things I don’t do on a schedule so I can tell how long it’s been since I did that task (which is why I was going to save the old sheets in a binder). Even so, it had become useless for scheduling things—because I didn’t use it for that. I also found the limit of six items to be arbitrary and utterly silly. So, it wasn’t working, I was frustrated, but also unsure what to do about it.

In the meantime, I made a version on Apple’s Notes app, and I just listed what I did on a given day—pretty much like I did on the handwritten version, but not limited to only six items. However, just as with the paper version, I sometimes forgot what I did on a day, or over a few days, and I had to try to remember later. It wasn’t a huge improvement—except that the Notes app is on all my devices and I could add something to my list anytime, anywhere—even if I suddenly remembered something as I was getting into bed (it’s happened).

I next made a temporary “to do” list using Notes because users can add check buttons—to make the list an electronic checklist. I was originally thinking how I could copy-and-paste items from one to the other, and then it hit me: Why not just make it one list? And that’s what I did (shown in the screenshot up top).

At the end of May, I made up the entire month of June in Notes, and each day has “Something or other” as the default placeholder text (I can type over it, obviously). So far, it’s been a combination of the old system and improvements. As I said, a list of what I actually did each day is useful, but the new system means I can schedule things for that month, too, then click the button for the things I’ve actually done, and if I don’t get it done, I can easily copy anything I didn’t do and add it onto the list for the next day.

It’s very early days for this revised system, but I’ve already noticed that I’ve been scheduling things I’d like to get done because, first, it doesn’t matter if I go beyond six items, and second, I can easily move an uncompleted task to another day if I don’t get it done. This suggests that the new system may finally be one that can actually work for me—MAYBE.

This has been a particular kind of journey, but I think I knew all along there would be changes to my systems as I found things that didn’t work. Coming up with ideas I think would work better is hte easy part. Actually successfully using it? That’s the unknown part. Maybe I should schedule a review in six months…