Get Everything Done

WYSIWYG is how my mind seems to work. What you see is what you get, and writing time-sensitive items to a calendar means they are in the risk of being forgotten. So time-sensitive items need to be in the list with all other items.

Timestamping as I use it is based on having 365 days in a year. The only thing what needs to be learnt by heart is how many days there are to the end of each month (Jan 31, Feb 59, Mar 90, Apr 120, May 151, Jun 181, Jul 212, Aug 243, Sept 273, Oct 304, Nov 334, Dec 365). (Feb 29th is 59b).

I use 2 kinds of timestamps. First, if something is further away than a week like June 14th >>> 165Jun14 or 165Jun14Fri. Second, if it is within a week like May 14 >>> 134Mon. When the timestamp is changed about a week before the meeting/deadline or whatever, the item is written to the end of the FV list.

If there is a need to separate years, 2012=l, 2013=m, 2014=n, as in n165Jun14.

With timestamps, it’s easier to see how much time there is still left to the deadline. That was the other reason why I took timestamps into use years ago.

Examples of how to use timestamps;
• at; Document X review meeting; 142May22 @ 13-16
• by; Document X sent for review; 135Tue
•
• bb; Document X review meeting minutes sent; 144May24 (=best before, soft deadline)
• at; Dentist ; 136May16 @ 14
• bw; Car in garage; 129Wed-131Fri (between)
• ASAP; Boss asked report Z before his 14.00 meeting (about the next task to begin)
• NOW!; Summary Y; the boss is already in his way to the meeting (drop everything else)

The last two ones may look exaggeration but they exist in reality. Often those items are written to the list after they have been done. I don’t like to look at the list in the evening and wonder whether I have done something during the day or not when the day has been one of those days full of ad-hoc tasks.

I add time-stamped tasks to my mobile (if they aren’t there already).

Hope somebody finds this timestamping idea as useful as it has been to me. Improvement ideas and comments are warmly welcomed.

'writing time-sensitive items to a calendar means they are in the risk of being forgotten. So time-sensitive items need to be in the list with all other items.'

Most electronic agenda's have a reminder function, and people who use paper agenda's consistently will have a habit of peeking ahead in their agenda's.