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Keeping on top of things with paper or software
Keeping on top of things with paper or software
Why try to manage things?
Why try to manage things?
What is a task?
What is a task?
You need to get it written down in some form - if you try to hold it in your head, you will forget it.
If you forget it, you lose easy marks and get a lower grade.
If you rush it because of poor management skills, you lose easy marks and get a lower grade.
If you are struggling to remember and manage things, you get stressed out. Stressed Students lose easy marks and get lower grades.
Parts of this document
Parts of this document
Keep it short and sweet and as ‘frictionless’ as possible. Remember you want to focus on the task, and its completion, not the system
Task
Task
[ ] Subject: Task title
Eg
[ ] FA: Finish research page
Completed Task
Completed Task
[ X ] FA: Finish research page
Moved Task
Moved Task
[ >] Subject: Task title: Moved date
Eg
[ >] FA: Finish research page: 2 August
Then enter this again as a new task on 2 August
Cancelled task
Cancelled task
[ < ] FA: Finish research page: 2 August
Homework
Homework
Put Homework tasks in the day they are set and the day they are due - you need all the help you can when it comes to remembering when things are due.
Working with lists of tasks: how do you categorise your tasks to make them easier?
Working with lists of tasks: how do you categorise your tasks to make them easier?
Lists are no more than simple collections of tasks. You can arrange them in date order, subject groups or levels of time importance.
For example, you could have lists that are divided up by:
Your subject classes:
Subject 1 Subject 2 Subject 3
[ ] Task [ ] Task [ ] Task
Lists that deal with:
This week Next week
[ ] Task [ ] Task
You could have:
Most important - soon! Important - due later Further off but needed
[ ] Task [ ] Task [ ] Task
You could keep a separate page or piece of paper for each of these, depending on which seems more useful to you as a system.
By Grid view: the President's answer
By Grid view: the President's answer
President Eisenhower arranged his tasks using a simple grid view. In many of his public remarks over the years, he talked about the importance of having a reliable system of doing things.
He valued the ability to distinguish between what required your attention and what did not.
Of all his quotes focused on the nature of productivity and getting things done, there was one that resonated with the most people:
“I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important and the important are never urgent.”
Eisenhower’s grid view with examples:
Divide and rule
Divide your page into four even squares with two crossed lines as above.
Put ‘Important’ as the top row and ‘Not important’ as the bottom row.
Put ‘Urgent’ as the first column and ‘Not urgent’ as the second column.
Put your tasks in each box as they strike you in importance and urgency.
Here is a college example:
All in good time
All of these tasks need to be completed at some point, some of them though need to be done sooner than others.
Some are pressing and more important than others.
A good student will do them all, a better student will do them all in the best order.
Don't throw it all away!
Once you have completed all of these tasks, keep the paper somewhere safe - staple sheets together so that you have a pile of completed and your latest tasks
Don't forget to transfer incomplete tasks to new sheets
Working with software and tasks
Working with software and tasks
Google Tasks is free - just log on with your college google Account. You can use it on Mac, PC, Chrome, Android, iPhone and iPad (you will need Google Applications for these last two but they are free).
You can create lists for tasks and set them to days and times and look at them from Gmail and from Google Calendar. Simple and easy to use.
Google Calendar and Google Tasks
Google Calendar and Google Tasks
All you need to do is to log on to your college Google account - its all free and works on Mac, PC, Android, Chrome, iPad/ iPhone
Apple Reminders
Apple Reminders
You can use Apple Reminders with a Mac, iPhone, or Pad - they all sync up and you see the same data whichever device you use.
'Reminders' is free and allows you to create lists, tasks, and sub-tasks. Imagine having a job with several key stages, that is the task and sub-tasks.
You can give them all dates and details, you can see upcoming, scheduled and today or other combinations. Reminders syncs with MS Exchange. You can do it with Google Calendar too
Other software you could try
Other software you could try
This is the software equivalent of bullet journalling - like this and not like that. Works on Mac, iPhone and iPad with a web version in the future.
Create a task list-based note for each day. Have project notes as well. Link it all up and carry it round with you and tick of what you do as you do it.
Works on Mac, iPhone and iPad
The most elegant task list or 'to do' app. Looks simple but is powerful too.
Works on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. The most dense, complicated, and sophoiticated of these applications. Can be a pro-level sledgehammer that you might need in ten years time.
'Bo Jo' or the Bullet Journal method
'Bo Jo' or the Bullet Journal method
Watch this video. Its only 2 mins 50 seconds or so
This is useful. Its probably a bit involved to start off with but you could work your way up to this if you get happy with just doing a list per day on a piece of paper.
Don’t buy an expensive book to do this with
Do use pieces of paper
Do use a school exercise style book
Simple but Golden Rules
Simple but Golden Rules
Remember, any system is only as good as the time and effort you put into maintaining it
Remember, any system is only as good as the time and effort you put into maintaining it
Once a day plan or review - either at the start or the end of the day
Identify tasks as they come in, tick them off as you achieve them
Spend five minutes at the end of the day or the next morning reviewing where you have got to
Keep it simple
Make it easy to manage
And don’t try to keep everything in your head!
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