Witty Writeups
I did a lot of research for this post. Shoutout to all the girls on tumblr and youtube who’s life is perfect and together. For example:
Especially their handwriting. One of my best friends has perfect handwriting:
I should just hire her to write all my crap down. Her handwriting is literally so perfect it could be its own font. Mine’s okay when I try and kinda gross when I don’t.
I had a good way of keeping track of my shit in high school, specifically my homework. That’s almost all I had in high school. We got a school agenda, and six lines a day was enough to capture the homework/stuff I had to do, bless my heart. This is partly a chronology of my journey through college. I had a hard time replicating my set up in high school because there has been so much more to do and thus so much more to keep track of. Especially more homework. But it’s more than that- there are school events, and whole days where I’m book sun up to sun down.
And with all that, I haven’t been able to nail down a consistent way to actually track everything in my 4 years. And since it’s my last semester this spring (graduating May 15th!!), I figure I’d give it one last shot.
Here’s a list of what I have tried so far. For each method, there’s a description, when I used it and some pros and cons.
I used this during Fall 2014 and I think intermittently in the semester before. Google calendar is pretty standard fare, just having events and recurring classes, etc. gTask is a google calendar add on task manager where you can add tasks onto the same interface as google calendar. You can add homework, chores, etc in the slot where the day events normally go. Here is an example:
Good: You can put everything in one place, which is nice because that means you only have to check one thing in the morning. That’s nice. Also, I used a phone app that let you see things on the google and do recurring tasks (like for problem sets due every week or laundry, which happens on Fridays).
Bad: As you can see in the picture - lots of tasks + lots of events (aka my life) makes things hard to see. I did get a 27 inch monitor that semester so it was easier to see on the big screen, but it’s not anywhere else. It’s way too cramped. Also, recurring events was just a phone app thing which meant you couldn’t make new ones on the computer. That was kinda annoying and reduced how useable it was.
I used this primarily during Fall 2015 and mostly during the second half. The idea with this tool is that you write down what you need to get done and it acts as a dynamic check lists. It is a place to collect homework (e.g. recurring problem sets), due dates, checklists of chores.
Good: You can do recurring events pretty easily. And the built in syntax is pretty nice to capture due dates easily from English. Also there’s a million apps for it. You can do desktop app, website, tablet, and phone app. But I will say I never really looked at the phone app. You get a productivity score which can be fun if you care (I don’t). Plus, you can look at what you have to do for the next 7 days, which is pretty handy.
Bad: It’s hard to do exceptions. Like recurring events except for this week and that other week. The big thing is that it is impossible in this system to make a distinction between when something is due and when you are planning to work on it. For example, when homework is due on Friday, I will probably start on Monday, and try to attend office hours during the week and work on it a lot Wednesday and Thursday. With this system it’s just a list of due dates, so there is no way to easily capture something that’s in progress. Or map out when I am doing what homework.
I used this all semester for Spring 2015 and tried to and failed to use this for Fall 2015. I wrote down homework due dates and exam dates. As well as special events dates. It is similar to this one.
Good: When it works it’s the greatest. I loved this so much. It can be so pretty. You can use colors to do color coding. I added stickers and washi tape and some weeks are absolutely instagram worthy (not pictured above- these weeks were messy and busy, a more accurate characterization of my time at Mudd).
Bad: When the homework spills over or when things change so often it gets messy. For example, exam dates, which are usually set at the beginning of the semester might change. Meetings change. Homework sometimes even changes. Not being able to adjust to that change means really messy week views and hard to use planner - that will drive me to do something else. Also, some weeks are just too busy for this planner. You can already see that in the dead week pictures.
I used this for September in my freshman year - so Fall 2012. And then I just had too much homework and events for this so I just switched back to google calendar. Freshman year. That was a really long time ago. I don’t have much else to say for this because I distinctly remember using it for all of 2 or 3 weeks. One piece of paper a week
I’ve tried this method twice. Once in the fall of my sophomore year (so fall 2013) and once for the beginning of my senior year (fall 2015). This is a good method because it is not a long term commitment because when you mess up, you can just move onto the next week. However, I do like having more things together. It’s also surprisingly difficult to find a good place for a piece of paper.
1) Electronic versus paper
a. Paper is good because it is just prettier. See the above for a small sample of aesthetics you can achieve with paper. I just don’t see the sample level of customization with electronic tools.
b. Paper can be harder to correct and adjust when things change - how do you write down stuff for months later. Or how do you make a change to an event that’s changing location or some other details. (For this, I’ve actually learned that you can write stuff down on stickies and then later write it in).
c. Also, preset paper planners tend to come with varying amounts of extra cruft that I don’t need and can be hard to get rid of - pages for phone numbers, important birthdays, lots of extra junk. I hate this because I won’t take the time to replicate it. I know just the basic birthdays (close friends and family) and that’s all I really care about.
d. What if things don’t fit on the paper? I know I need at least a 5x8, preferably bigger, but with whatever size I get some weeks are sorta hell anyways.
e. I have the material and I keep buying stuff to make it pretty - washi tape, index cards, stickers.
f. Electronic is better because you can do recurring events easier - you don’t have to keep writing - like laundry and back ups happens every week. But the interface for electronics has never been that impressive it always feels clunky.
g. With electronics there’s a pipe dream that it might let you do everything together - events and to dos and due dates. This would be nice because then there are less things to check. I have yet to find this.
2) Specifically for paper planners, whether it is pre decorated (aka store bought) or bare (fully customized from a notebook or similar). The benefit of having a predecorated one is that it just looks nice and gives you some place to start for decorating it. However, bare planners can look really nice, but only if you have the right handwriting and decorating time and skills (I have neither).
3) Portability - is it small enough to take with me when I need it. For this criteria, I was originally learning towards electronics for this one because I always have my phone on me even when I don’t have my computer, but I actually don’t take out my phone in class to write down something important like this. Some professors don’t like when you take out your phone and it’s disruptive to me paying attention for notes otherwise. Thus, it inevitably gets written down physically. Earlier, I was also concerned with portability when I go out with people. However, this is a good work life balance lesson for me. The only time I should be using this is in class, or doing homework; both times I should have my planner + accessories. Otherwise, I shouldn’t worry about this during social times.
a. events - appointments, classes, events on campus, talks I want to go to, lunches that I agree to have with people. The best way to characterize this category is events where my time is explicitly blocked out. Because of shared events, etc, this has to go in google calendar. Plus I like knowing where I am needed and when on a daily basis. Google Calendar is a solution that I have known and loved for this.
b. homework and other recurring tasks like chores, these usually happen on the same day every week
c. one off big tasks - like exams or other important due dates like term papers
d. one off small tasks that I think of - go to target, or finishing grading X by this Friday
e. ongoing thoughts - like a collection of thoughts for my blog post. I hate keeping this on my computer because it just sits there and I have it in like 5 different places. Plus, I think these are more thoughtful if I write them out. These also include more longer term to dos that don’t have a specific timeline attached to it.
I’m going to use 3 things to keep me organized this year.
| Tool | Product | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar | Google Calendar | Some appointments - like special occasions and lunches. Homework, Exams. |
| Planner | Bloom Weekly 7 x 9 Planner | Some appointments - like special occasions and lunches. Homework, Exams. |
| Commonplace Book | Think Happy Be Happy Spiral Notebook | Ongoing thoughts and ideas. |
For the planner, I ended up going with this. For the paper planner, I’m using stickers, and washi tape. I plan to use the notes section on the bottom for exercise, to help myself track my daily activity.
Here’s my plan for how to use the planner. At the beginning of the semester, I will compile a list of chores (gym days, vacuum, laundry (regular, bedding), backup, dishes, planning, budget (?)). Then, at the end of each week (on Friday), I will take time out of my week to decorate the weekly spread with washi tape and small stickers and using stickies to take temp dates in the future
I will update this post with my month, 3 month and 6 months progress update on what the weekly spreads look like and how I’m going.
3 Jan 2016