Get Everything Done

Just a thought for those of you using good old pen(cil) and paper...

I've got my tasks indented from the margin, as per a forum suggestion, so that the non-ticked items stand out more clearly. But what I do as well is: once I've got three or more consecutive tasks ticked, I draw a vertical line through the ticks. This makes the remaining tasks even more obvious... and adds another layer of motivation to begin a task... because then I can extend my vertical line some more!

Not sure how this fits in with the intuition/ standing-out side of AF but I find it helps lower resistance even more to getting something started.

Happy AFing :)

nice little addition

Hi Sarah, I agree about the vertical line through crossed out items - very satisfying! You mention you tick items in the margin when done - that must look neat and tidy. I like to cross them through horizontally! Then I add the vertical line as well for emphasis. Must be a sign of insecurity or something!

To cross out or to tick - I wonder if this signifies different attitudes to our lists, or even personality types!?

I've been using the very same idea. It has been amazing to me just how effecively my vertical line clarifies where I am up to and motivates me to move swiftly down the pages..

I actually use a ruler to cross out completed items and I extend the horizontal line about 1cm into the left margin and the vertical line joins the ends of the horizontal lines. Thus the vertical line is very clear in the centre of the left margin. This simple strategy has lifted my confidence in the system during this last week..

I've also started using the vertical line and it does work very well. I experimented with highlighters and coloured pens to cross through but found they distracted too much from the reminaing open rows. I now have a neutral cross through and a vertical bar.

Along with this I've added another small change to do when striking through. I add the day of the month to the right hand margin of the task completed e.g

| task 1 09

I've found this quick addition helps in several ways
- most importantly it gives a quick way of seeing how quickly I'm getting through all the open pages. I can scan through the notebook and easily get a sense of whether I'm moving sufficiently quickly e.g. if the last completed task on the first open page showed 04 when I'm on the last page with 09 then I might decide to speed up my progress versus depth
- I have a simple record of when I worked on each item (may be useful for e.g. charging)

Works well for me.

I do something similar to your suggestion, Jonathan - instead of a tick in the left margin of an item to show that it's done, I've started putting the day number there instead. [So I'm marking tasks off with "10" today]. That way I can see which ones are done and which are not, and can also see when they were done (if I leave a task undone for more than a month I might be in trouble, but hopefully I'll have dismissed them by then!) It also means I don't need to tick it AND put in the date, since the date IS the tick, if you see what I mean. I also put the date on the right each day so I can see when each day's tasks started to be added So my list at the moment looks something like this:

 9    Check Email
 9    Feed Cat
10   Process Mail                   Tue 2009-02-10
       Launch space station
10   Water Plants
       Buy Milk
       Check Email
       Feed Cat

Hope you don't leave "feed cat" undone for more than a month or it will definitely have to be dismissed!

I use the vertical line too! It helps to locate what's still not crossed out on a list. And it's so satisfying to connect the lines and finish page.

Very nice idea, Richard.
I will follow it.

Man am I ever loving this idea. Thanks so much.

This may sound ridiculous but it is seems to help me to use a wavy line and perversely looks neater!

My notebook has blue horizontal lines with one red vertical line as the left margin. Because of this thread, I have been writing over the red margin line with my pen ink as I complete each task. It's a great idea. Thanks!

I still use the dot for tasks in progress. I put the dot in the middle of the red margin line.

For dismissed tasks I enter an "X", so they really stand out.

I do not use any horizontal lines to strike through completed tasks and I do not use the highlighter. It's been working well this way.

Mark

LOL - and that would satisfy my creative side as well!

Hi Everyone, been on night shift for a few days so good to catch up with the forum and see folks using/ adopting this idea.

Jane P - I do actually cross the items out horizontally as well, and can only wish my lists were neat and tidy :)

Jonathan/ Richard - I like to add completion date too - but mine's in the right hand margin! Oh, and because I'm using a diary (which I originally bought for DIT) I've started marking the little calendar at the top of the page - so I can see I've completed at least one task for the day. Me obessive-compulsive?... no, never!!!

I'm happy to say that I've even been completing some AF tasks whilst working 12hr shifts - would have struggled with that pre-AF. (I get an exemption from the one-task-every-page rule though :)