Get Everything Done

This is a very minor tweak, and while I don't usually tweak Mark's systems (he knows what he's doing better than I do!) I think this one will be useful for me.

Instead of using a pen or pencil to make a dot to mark tasks for preselection, I've started using sticky page markers (see photo below; Post-It and other brands make them). Each marker is about the same width as one line in my notebook.

When I preselect a task, I put a marker at the right-hand end of the line, sticking out over the edge of the page. This makes it dead easy to move back through my notebook as I'm actioning the tasks, and it's trivial to unselect the tasks if I need to scrap the preselections.

Here's a photo of my notebook with five tasks preselected so far (three on the current page and two on previous pages):
http://oldgods.net/alys/various/images/FV_markers_to_preselect.jpg

Yes, I do this too in exactly the same way with exactly the same markers :-). Makes it even easier to ignore any tasks between the preselected ones to stay in flow.

BTW, that looks like a very nice notebook cover!

It is indeed a nice notebook, from the Leonardo’s Sketches range from Paperblanks:
http://www.paperblanks.com/us/en/collections/1/filtered?collection_id=321
Using it makes me as smart and productive as Leonardo himself! :) Paperblanks make GORGEOUS notebooks with very high quality paper and binding. I always buy them for my todo lists to encourage me to actually use the lists. :) (Not affiliated with the company, just addicted to their books.)

I think that I'm benefiting from scanning backwards through my list looking for the next dot. But I've got a pretty long list covering several pages and don't get through it as fast as some folks. So it might be less useful for others.

This is a good idea - I'm going to try it - I like anything that makes a task more visually appealing. I also love the Paperblanks books - my biggest problem is which one to use next as I love many of them!

Yes, the paperblanks are nice. I'm using the fantastic felines series right now, never seen the Leonardo sketches but will look for them on my next shopping-for-notebooks-trip!