In a post last week, I discussed my strategy for using a Today Card. That is, an index card with three tasks that I would like to accomplish with some room left for additional tasks, notes, and scratchpad items that come my way. One of the things that I find fascinating about blogging is that, sometimes, the real interesting things said are in the comments, not in the original post itself. That was very true in this instance and it spurred a new iation of this idea that I am experimenting with. It was mentioned by Damon in the comments and I am calling it the Today Page (I have a picture of it posted here).
Instead of an index card, I use one of my Cornell Ruled Circa pages. Title and date go at the top, then I divide it thusly:
* Action – These are the same three items as on the index card before. Three things I would like to try to accomplish that day.
* Agenda – I write down any and all calendar items that I may have going on that day. Even though they are on the calendar, I use a web based calendar and that tab is not always front and center in my browser. Writing them here helps to keep them front and center so I am mindful of them.
* Notes – This are is for anything I need to jot down for the day. It ends up being both scratchpad and short form journal of the day.
So far, this is working out very well. Some of the advantages are that, due to the left hand whitespace, I have an area for metadata. Also, by collecting everything together on one page, at the end of the day I have a pretty good top level view of the course of my day and how the time was spent. While not as small and portable as an index card, I have my Circa on my desk anyway so why not use it and ditch the card?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this, if you have tried anything similar, and how it has worked for you. Special thanks once again to Damon for spurring the idea.
5 thoughts on “The Today Page Experiment”
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Patrick, I think the Today Page is a great idea. I have an extension in mind. I have been toying with Backpack for my productivity. What I have in mind is creating a “Today Page” that helps me focus exclusively on the MIT’s, calendar items, etc. for the day without the distraction of the rest of my lists and their actions further down the road. Since this isn’t built into Backpack, I have in mind using the Backpack API to pull my calendar items for the day and maybe two or three next actions (per context?). I’d print it with some margin on the left and bottom for notes like you are doing in the analog form. Of course, this is all in theory and I haven’t put cursor to TextMate yet, but it seems that doing something relatively static and read-only for the day would be pretty simple. I’ll add it to my list of things to explore. I’m thinking http://today.jamiephelps.com.
Patrick, I think the Today Page is a great idea. I have an extension in mind. I have been toying with Backpack for my productivity. What I have in mind is creating a “Today Page” that helps me focus exclusively on the MIT’s, calendar items, etc. for the day without the distraction of the rest of my lists and their actions further down the road. Since this isn’t built into Backpack, I have in mind using the Backpack API to pull my calendar items for the day and maybe two or three next actions (per context?). I’d print it with some margin on the left and bottom for notes like you are doing in the analog form. Of course, this is all in theory and I haven’t put cursor to TextMate yet, but it seems that doing something relatively static and read-only for the day would be pretty simple. I’ll add it to my list of things to explore. I’m thinking http://today.jamiephelps.com.
The Today Page concept is one of the most efficient for getting things done, IMHO. All the lists in the world don’t pinpoint what has to get done just today.
By listing just what has to happen today, you get that done. Then, if there’s time left over and I’m feeling productive, I can flip over to long list and knock off one or two more things.
I just came up with a similar idea for myself, stopped by for pointers, and found this article.
I just picked up a large Moleskine Cahier for a journal. But I want it to be for daily task management as well. So, I draw a box for “Today” wherever I left off in the journal. I use that box in the same way you use your “Today” Circa page: MIT’s, calendar, jot space, etc. Then, I journal away after the box, knowing that I’ll start a new box tomorrow morning.
I like the idea of keeping my actions linked to my thoughts for the purpose of reflection.
I like and use this idea as well – even though I also keep everything in a digital form as well. There’s something about working off paper through the day.