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PigPog PDA

Summary: http pigpog com node 1030 What Is It A Moleskine hack An extreme Moleskine hack A simplified GTD system What system See our GTD Introduction with relatively little actual organising May be useful if you fancy Doing GTD Without Doing GTD A complete personal management system for those who s needs aren t too complicated A rather over the top system for dealing with just the capturing and processing end of GTD Why I was finding GTD a bit much for various reasons but didn t want to stop entirely I needed to be Doing GTD Without Doing GTD This is the system I came up with in the end It s simpler than GTD and wouldn t scale to the sort of level that GTD will but it works pretty well for me so it seems reasonable to think it might work well for other people too Equipment NeededMoleskine Pocket Reporter notebook This is after all a Moleskine hack Actually any notebook could be used I just find the Moleskine Pocket Reporter to be a good shape and size and has all the right features They re relatively pricey though and aren t easy to get everywhere so you may want to substitute Pen or Pencil Your choice Needs to be pocketable and work well for quick scribbled notes but if you can find something you enjoy using all the better I started with the Staedtler Mars 780 Leadholder but I m now back to using my old favourite Cross ion The Pilot G Tec C4 is another good choice writes very small so you get more notes to the page Makes my writing look even worse than usual though Post it Tags available from most office supplies places they re little tags where the sticky part is clear with a coloured non sticky part meant for adding tabs to books much as we re going to do shortly Although I ve specified colours for each use it s just to make explaining easier use whatever colours you prefer PreparingPage TemplateLooks Like ThisThe basic page template is just a ruled line at the bottom maybe two centimetres or three quarters of an inch from the bottom then a line from the top of the page down to this line about the same distance from the right hand edge Doesn t need to be exact and you might prefer wider or narrower margins Just see what you find works How To MarkTrick I picked up years ago from one of my school teachers for marking a margin line on pretty much anything with some thickness to it he used it for marking wood for cutting but it works just as well on a notebook Hold your pen or pencil in hand as usual between thumb and first two fingers Rest your second finger on the page Press the first knuckle of your third finger ring finger against the edge of the pad Slide down the page using fingers as a guide do it once or twice with the pencil just above the page to get the idea then lower the pencil and draw the line The result won t be as perfect as a ruled line but not far off and you can do it anywhere without needing a ruler Careful of paper cuts Why a Template The main section is for your notes and scribbles Drawings even if you re so inclined The margin on the right is a space for notes added later maybe actions arrising from the things on the left or follow up clarifications The section at the bottom is for two things space for the tags and a space for titles for active pages If a page is just for capturing quick notes and scribbles it will be left blank and just used for the tags If a page is brainstorming or mind mapping of an idea event or project a title can go in the middle of the bottom section where the tags won t obscure it Remember the sticky part of the tags is clear anyway Titles at the bottom seems a bit odd but it does seem to work especially with the reporter style notebook and the tags Stock Up on TagsThe last page in the Pocket Reporter is thick card use this to stick spare tags on maybe one spare each of pink and blue and a good stack of yellows They peel off this page easier than the other pages Date The EdgeNo not the fella from U2 Use a Sanford Sharpie or similar marker to mark the date you start the notebook on the edge of the pages When you re done with this one you ll mark the end date on it and they ll all stand in a line on your shelf looking impressive UsingBlue and Pink TagsThese mark out the boundaries of your active capturing area I use a blue tag for the processing point closest to the front of the book and a pink tag for the collection point closest to the back of the book Blue Tag Processing Point Anything before this point has been processed and you don t need to refer to again unless it has a yellow tag to mark it as active I keep this one stuck on the left hand side which makes it stand out better Pink Tag Collection Point This is where you need to note down any new ideas Sometimes there will be notes beyond this point but only when you ve needed a full page for something I keep this one on the right hand side so it s the only non yellow thing on its side You might want to keep all yellow tags on the left so you can find the collection point by feel and don t have to look for colours before making a quick note Obviously you can use whatever colours you like for this I ve picked yellow for the active markers because they ll be easiest and cheapest to buy and blue and pink because they stand out well against the yellow and each other Active TagsAnything that s currently being worked on gets a yellow tag I find it best to keep them all on the left side that way the pink tag can be found easily because it s the only tag on that side Good for when you need to make a note of something quickly See the Variations note further down the page I m currently using a slightly different trick for active pages which seems to work better than the yellow tags What Gets an Active Tag Anything that s active If you re planning an article or a party or you re working on a list of people you ll need to tell about something or a list of things you need to do this weekend or You get the idea Anything you re still working on that has a page of its own Single items should be moved into a list before getting a yellow tag Can Active Tags be Before the Blue Tag Yes If you ve processed all the notes past the point of that page as long as there s an active tag on it the blue marker can move forward beyond it The yellow tag keeps it active and lets the blue tag move beyond the page Can Active Tags be Ahead Of the Pink Tag Yes The Pink tag is your current capture point if you re only halfway down a page and want to start working on a list or mind mapping something you re intending to do you just move forward to a new blank page The capture point doesn t have to move forward though until the page it s on is finished In this case you ll have active work with a yellow tag further towards the back of the book than the pink tag That s ok CapturingCapturing is pretty simple just as it should be Open up a the pink tag and make your notes Draw a line across between items all the way to the edge The right hand side margin can then be used to tick off items that are done or make little notes of actions coming from that note ProcessingProcessing starts from the blue tag closest to the front of the book You check each page and if there s anything actionable in it you need to either do it or clarify what it is and add it to an active list somewhere That somewhere can be another page further forward in the book or it could be a to do list somewhere completely different If you re just capturing with this system the actual to do list could be in a copy of Outlook or index cards or whatever other system you like If this is your entire system it is for me you just make lists as and when you need them further forwards in the book If you ve got several things noted down that you need to do this weekend make a page for Things To Do This Weekend and put these on the list Then you can mark the items off When each item on a page is marked off move the blue tag forwards Skip any active pages with yellow tags they re already marked as active and when they stop being active we ll process them before removing their yellow tag Ideally the blue tag should meet the pink tag fairly regularly that means you re all up to date with things If they re too far apart too often you ve probably got too much stuff between them that s outstanding and need to either start doing things more or you might need a better Productivity system Or if you ve got mostly crossed out items with just a few that you ve not dealt with clogging things up you can move them forward Moving Things ForwardSometimes there ll be something sticking the blue tag from moving forward because it doesn t really belong in a list but you can t or can t be bothered to do it Feel free to just copy it to your current capture point and continue moving the blue tag forwards If there s a few of them you could always collect them together in a Stubborn Items list You don t want to build up too many active items though They ll all need copying forwards to a new book when you reach the end of this one or you d have to carry two books around Reference StuffPersonally I keep reference stuff elsewhere I need that stuff on a computer where it s searchable and can be archived and backed up safely If you really want reference stuff mixed in with this system I d probably just get another colour of tags and tag reference stuff with that The blue tag would obviously just move forwards past them ArchivingSimple trick mark the start and end dates of the notebook on the side and they ll all line up on a shelf with the dates showing Other TricksThe elastic on the Moleskine notebook can just about hold the tip of your chosen pen or pencil keeping them together in you pocket The back pocket in the notebook is just wide enough for credit cards and business cards http pigpog com node 1030 What Is It A Moleskine hack An extreme Moleskine hack A simplified GTD system What system See our GTD Introduction with relatively little actual organising May be useful if you fancy Doing GTD Without Doing GTD A complete personal management system for those who s needs aren t too complicated A rather over the top system for dealing with just the capturing and processing end of GTD Why I was finding GTD a bit much for various reasons but didn t want to stop entirely I needed to be Doing GTD Without Doing GTD This is the system I came up with in the end It s simpler than GTD and wouldn t scale to the sort of level that GTD will but it works pretty well for me so it seems reasonable to think it might work well for other people too Equipment NeededMoleskine Pocket Reporter notebook This is after all a Moleskine hack Actually any notebook could be used I just find the Moleskine Pocket Reporter to be a good shape and size and has all the right features They re relatively pricey though and aren t easy to get everywhere so you may want to substitute Pen or Pencil Your choice Needs to be pocketable and work well for quick scribbled notes but if you can find something you enjoy using all the better I started with the Staedtler Mars 780 Leadholder but I m now back to using my old favourite Cross ion The Pilot G Tec C4 is another good choice writes very small so you get more notes to the page Makes my writing look even worse than usual though Post it Tags available from most office supplies places they re little tags where the sticky part is clear with a coloured non sticky part meant for adding tabs to books much as we re going to do shortly Although I ve specified colours for each use it s just to make explaining easier use whatever colours you prefer PreparingPage TemplateLooks Like ThisThe basic page template is just a ruled line at the bottom maybe two centimetres or three quarters of an inch from the bottom then a line from the top of the page down to this line about the same distance from the right hand edge Doesn t need to be exact and you might prefer wider or narrower margins Just see what you find works How To MarkTrick I picked up years ago from one of my school teachers for marking a margin line on pretty much anything with some thickness to it he used it for marking wood for cutting but it works just as well on a notebook Hold your pen or pencil in hand as usual between thumb and first two fingers Rest your second finger on the page Press the first knuckle of your third finger ring finger against the edge of the pad Slide down the page using fingers as a guide do it once or twice with the pencil just above the page to get the idea then lower the pencil and draw the line The result won t be as perfect as a ruled line but not far off and you can do it anywhere without needing a ruler Careful of paper cuts Why a Template The main section is for your notes and scribbles Drawings even if you re so inclined The margin on the right is a space for notes added later maybe actions arrising from the things on the left or follow up clarifications The section at the bottom is for two things space for the tags and a space for titles for active pages If a page is just for capturing quick notes and scribbles it will be left blank and just used for the tags If a page is brainstorming or mind mapping of an idea event or project a title can go in the middle of the bottom section where the tags won t obscure it Remember the sticky part of the tags is clear anyway Titles at the bottom seems a bit odd but it does seem to work especially with the reporter style notebook and the tags Stock Up on TagsThe last page in the Pocket Reporter is thick card use this to stick spare tags on maybe one spare each of pink and blue and a good stack of yellows They peel off this page easier than the other pages Date The EdgeNo not the fella from U2 Use a Sanford Sharpie or similar marker to mark the date you start the notebook on the edge of the pages When you re done with this one you ll mark the end date on it and they ll all stand in a line on your shelf looking impressive UsingBlue and Pink TagsThese mark out the boundaries of your active capturing area I use a blue tag for the processing point closest to the front of the book and a pink tag for the collection point closest to the back of the book Blue Tag Processing Point Anything before this point has been processed and you don t need to refer to again unless it has a yellow tag to mark it as active I keep this one stuck on the left hand side which makes it stand out better Pink Tag Collection Point This is where you need to note down any new ideas Sometimes there will be notes beyond this point but only when you ve needed a full page for something I keep this one on the right hand side so it s the only non yellow thing on its side You might want to keep all yellow tags on the left so you can find the collection point by feel and don t have to look for colours before making a quick note Obviously you can use whatever colours you like for this I ve picked yellow for the active markers because they ll be easiest and cheapest to buy and blue and pink because they stand out well against the yellow and each other Active TagsAnything that s currently being worked on gets a yellow tag I find it best to keep them all on the left side that way the pink tag can be found easily because it s the only tag on that side Good for when you need to make a note of something quickly See the Variations note further down the page I m currently using a slightly different trick for active pages which seems to work better than the yellow tags What Gets an Active Tag Anything that s active If you re planning an article or a party or you re working on a list of people you ll need to tell about something or a list of things you need to do this weekend or You get the idea Anything you re still working on that has a page of its own Single items should be moved into a list before getting a yellow tag Can Active Tags be Before the Blue Tag Yes If you ve processed all the notes past the point of that page as long as there s an active tag on it the blue marker can move forward beyond it The yellow tag keeps it active and lets the blue tag move beyond the page Can Active Tags be Ahead Of the Pink Tag Yes The Pink tag is your current capture point if you re only halfway down a page and want to start working on a list or mind mapping something you re intending to do you just move forward to a new blank page The capture point doesn t have to move forward though until the page it s on is finished In this case you ll have active work with a yellow tag further towards the back of the book than the pink tag That s ok CapturingCapturing is pretty simple just as it should be Open up a the pink tag and make your notes Draw a line across between items all the way to the edge The right hand side margin can then be used to tick off items that are done or make little notes of actions coming from that note ProcessingProcessing starts from the blue tag closest to the front of the book You check each page and if there s anything actionable in it you need to either do it or clarify what it is and add it to an active list somewhere That somewhere can be another page further forward in the book or it could be a to do list somewhere completely different If you re just capturing with this system the actual to do list could be in a copy of Outlook or index cards or whatever other system you like If this is your entire system it is for me you just make lists as and when you need them further forwards in the book If you ve got several things noted down that you need to do this weekend make a page for Things To Do This Weekend and put these on the list Then you can mark the items off When each item on a page is marked off move the blue tag forwards Skip any active pages with yellow tags they re already marked as active and when they stop being active we ll process them before removing their yellow tag Ideally the blue tag should meet the pink tag fairly regularly that means you re all up to date with things If they re too far apart too often you ve probably got too much stuff between them that s outstanding and need to either start doing things more or you might need a better Productivity system Or if you ve got mostly crossed out items with just a few that you ve not dealt with clogging things up you can move them forward Moving Things ForwardSometimes there ll be something sticking the blue tag from moving forward because it doesn t really belong in a list but you can t or can t be bothered to do it Feel free to just copy it to your current capture point and continue moving the blue tag forwards If there s a few of them you could always collect them together in a Stubborn Items list You don t want to build up too many active items though They ll all need copying forwards to a new book when you reach the end of this one or you d have to carry two books around Reference StuffPersonally I keep reference stuff elsewhere I need that stuff on a computer where it s searchable and can be archived and backed up safely If you really want reference stuff mixed in with this system I d probably just get another colour of tags and tag reference stuff with that The blue tag would obviously just move forwards past them ArchivingSimple trick mark the start and end dates of the notebook on the side and they ll all line up on a shelf with the dates showing Other TricksThe elastic on the Moleskine notebook can just about hold the tip of your chosen pen or pencil keeping them together in you pocket The back pocket in the notebook is just wide enough for credit cards and business cards

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