Working from home has afforded me the chance to get better organized in how I use paper. So I’ve been trying some things that may be super-obvious but which I’ve never really implemented before.
I’ve usually always maintained one single notebook or pad at a time for work. In there would go all my meeting notes, as well as the tracking of ongoing projects and daily tasks lists. The exception would be when I had to do any long-form writing, when I would reach for a separate pad.
As my ongoing projects piled on an on late last year, I finally realized that this was all less than ideal. I would lose things between all the meeting notes, daily tasks, and project deliverables. So I finally made a change.
Here’s what’s working from me right now:
- One A4 or A5 pad for meeting notes
- Index cards to jot down daily tasks
- A Rhodia dotBook divided up into sections for the ongoing long-term projects.
At day’s close, I take any unfinished tasks in the index card to a fresh one. This is in no way revolutionary. But index cards—GAME CHANGER. Just using the index cards has made a huge difference for me!
And of course—coffee!
INDEX CARDS? GAME CHANGER!
The story of how I started using index cards is further proof of this crazy stationery habit. We were fortunate to spend a few days on the North Carolina coast late this summer. In one of my hurried jaunts into a local supermarket I found several packs of Top Flight index cards. I grabbed a couple of 3×5 and 4×6 sizes in lined and blank, and was shocked at how relatively well they took fountain pens.
They were super-cheap—like 70 or 99 cents a pack. (Never mind the prices on Amazon; you should be able to find them much cheaper at your local U.S. supermarket). So of course I had to run back and grab the rest of their stock.
Actually I left two or three for the next stationery nerd to find.
Index cards help you get that rush of accomplishment each day; I like to emphatically cross out items as I do them. Then at the end of the day you can chuck it or recycle. Nothing to store.
Nothing revolutionary. It just works for me.
What works for the way you work?
Pens Pencils Plus 