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I've always kept a text file or spreadsheet of things to do, priorities, etc... My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering
by mwattsun 5y ago
I've always kept a text file or spreadsheet of things to do, priorities, etc... My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list. I tend to space out for days working on a problem and forget to look at my list.
I've experienced a big productivity boost by using the desktop background of my 43" monitor as a whiteboard (blackboard actually). I have an jpg the size of my monitor that I jot things down on as text on the image. I can store meaningful small images the trigger my memory to do something. I've become so used to visually thinking about what I'm doing that I switched my text file todo list to markdown so I could store images in it.
It's surprisingly quick to keep my large jpg open in paint and jot or paste things to it and then reset it as the desktop background. I learned later this is called a "vision board"
Still, I'm so bad at spacing out that I need more than looking at my vision board monitor all day, so I use the Windows system scheduler to bring up a daily, weekly and monthly html file that reminds me to do things.
- jamil7 5y agoI do something similar for language learning, every new tab in Firefox shows a flashcard. If I'm in the middle of something I can ignore it but when my minds already wandering I tend to notice the word there, hopefully it helps.
- mwattsun 5y agoI'm working on a simple flash card app for learning. People have decided to call those "wisdom cards" and I plan to have a folder of them for my app to bring up once in awhile. The coolest thing about vision board desktop background is that I save them every two weeks or so and start another. I now have a folder of two years of my thinking in visual form that's easy to review in just a few minutes. It may be that this works for me because I'm a visual person and others need to write it down and rewrite it down often to learn it.
- ad404b8a372f2b9 5y agoThat's a cool system, how did you set it up?
- jamil7 5y agoThere's a few Firefox extensions to do it, one of which "Flashcard New Tab" I was able to write a bit of javascript to paste into the console to bulk import a word list. It's a hack but it works for me. You might be able to find more complete solutions around.
- shnock 5y agoWhat's the implementation? Hoping to do something similar for language learning
- a9h74j 5y ago> My biggest problem isn't keeping a list and getting organized, it's remembering to look at my list. You need to put "Look at the list" on the list! That sounds facetious, but for GTD it makes some sense. "Do maintenance on GTD" as one periodically-important goal.
- jiggunjer 5y agoI recall Windows has/had yellow "sticky notes" that could be used for that purpose.
- mwattsun 5y agoIt still does. They work ok but I came up with something better for myself. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-sticky-notes/9nblggh4qghw?activetab=pivot:overviewtab https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/microsoft-sticky-notes/9nb...
- thmorriss 5y agoThat is a cool system, thanks for sharing.