I take notes and write up mini reviews on my laptop when I watch shows as its the only way I can follow what’s happening. Even with no distractions I tend to drift off into my thoughts.
Once or a twice a year at work I’ll go through the cycle of creating a new planning system, doing really well with it before it ultimately fails. It’s better than nothing though. I’m using Microsoft Planner a lot now.
I have a Galaxy Watch which I use to help with my morning routine. It syncs with google calendar and I schedule in everything I need to do in minute detail (wake up, get up, make breakfast, eat breakfast etc…) it kinda works but not so much just recently. Again better than nothing.
How about you?
Kind of off topic (but I guess we’re used to that, huh?) I think it’s funny that you have trouble paying attention to the TV, because if there’s a TV playing in the room I can’t turn my attention away from it.
It could be golf playing at a bar while I’m on a date with someone I REALLY like and no matter how hard I try not to, I’ll keep looking up at it. I don’t give a shit about golf, but I HAVE to know if this guy makes his putt.
Yeah i’m the world’s worst listener and I absolutely hate it so I’m always trying to find ways to fix it. I can watch entire season runs without knowing what happened. I’ve been known to go to the cinema and leave without having paid attention to a single thing. I’ve listened to literally hundreds of podcasts but don’t bother any more because there’s just no point. Five minutes at best and my mind goes elsewhere.
Ironically if there’s something else I’m trying to focus on and there is a TV or something happening in my peripheral I often can’t tune it out… lol
I use an actual physical planner. Going to Barnes & Noble to buy next year’s planner is somewhat of a ritual at this point I guess.
If I hand write things down, I usually remember them. If it’s not in the planner, it’s not getting done. ADHD turned me into a relentless box checker.
Tried that but I forget the planner exists and inevitably lose it so I stick to cloud-based apps now. ToDoist is my go to for personal checklists and planning now
I remember learning to use a Franklin Planner at one point.
These days, I use Google Calendar and Tasks, simply because I keep my phone on my person at nearly all times. The key to using these tools long term for me is to keep them immediately available.
Weekly reminder to water my plants
Knowledge base for everything I don’t want to forget (IT related: obsidian.md | Real life and anything else: OneNote)
Google Reminders and calendar entries if something is important
Google Tasks for quick reminders (for example pre-ordered shipments that could be arriving in >24h, money someones owes me, overtime notes)Everything else can be kept in memory and is not as important
Since you’re using Microsoft already, OneNote is a great tool too. I write down most everything I do at work in it. My basic organization is as follows: OneNote NoteBook |_ Year - Collection for each year in the company/position |_ Month - Tab for every month |_ Daily Page - the title is important here, because the search function is kinda weird. It will return a list of pages the term is found, then highlight it once you’ve opened a page. For example a title like this, SA 23.09.2023, will show up. It helps me find the right page faster. I also created a second OneNote Notebook for all the projects, research, and often used procedures, organized similarly around topics rather than chronologically. For me, it’s a life saver. On my third job since I started using OneNote, still using my notes from years ago. The wiki article is what got me started. Now I don’t have remember what I did, because it’s written down and somewhat cataloged.
OK I’m sold - I hear a lot of good things about OneNote but I struggled to understand the appeal on first glance. If it is good enough that you can find notes that far back then that could work well for me.
Btw Planner is great if you haven’t used it. It’s designed as a collaborative tool but I use it mostly as a way of keeping track of where I am with various tasks. I put it in my startup folder so it comes up as soon as I log on. I’ll make checklists and basically talk to myself via card comments. Comments are timestamped and are forwarded to outlook so it’s a better way of logging things than my usual method of digging through old Outlook messages. It has a couple of shortfalls but its really keeping me sane at the moment
I just started using planner as a digital kanban board. My new job has next to nothing written down. Everyone has been there for years so they “just know how to do it”. Well that doesn’t help a new person, lol. That is an innovative way to use the cards. I will definitely look into it more. I think the key takeaway is “if it helps you, use it!”
I find putting some music on which my headphones to be quite productive
Though it has to be my headphones if I’m going to be moving around because otherwise the music at a location becomes a hurdle to getting things done
