Simon Hill gives us an update on his transition to paper:

Free Flow Life

Three observations I’d make so far:

1. The initial exercise of transferring all my Next Actions, Someday/Maybes and Projects from Outlook to paper provided a great opportunity to really think about my commitment to each of the items I was transferring, particularly those that had been on the list for a while. Essentially I committed to myself that if I was going to spend the time and effort writing and maintaining this item on paper then then I’d better be planning on actually striking it off sometime too.

Today we are pleased to have a guest-post from Phil Stanoch, the editor of A Better Life, Every Day. Through personal development and personal productivity articles, A Better Life, Every Day aims to help people make each new day better than the day before.

Over the years, I’ve tried many different techniques/philosophies for getting organized and getting work done. I’ve used many different types of paper organizers and software on different PDAs in an attempt to ensure that I was getting everything done that I needed to do. While I’ve had some success with these various tools, none of them ever really “stuck”.

That all changed a couple of years ago when I had the good fortune, through work, to attend a three-day training course on Getting Things Done taught by Jason Womack. To say that the GTD training course improved my life would be an understatement. While I still have some work to do on my GTD implementation, my productivity has gone up and my stress level has gone down. While reading various GTD-related blogs, I discovered the Moleskine, and I decided to add a ruled, pocket Moleskine to my productivity arsenal.

My Moleskine comes just about everywhere with me, whether at work or outside of work. While I use my Treo to house my Calendar and Task lists, my Moleskine is a repository for everything. Along with my Cross Tech3 (black pen, red pen, & pencil in one) I use it to:

• Write out any thoughts, ideas, or feelings I may have. Since I always have my Moleskine and pen with me, I am able to capture any thought or idea that I deem important at the time. I will either develop these thoughts and ideas further at the moment, or when I have time later, I sit down and expand upon them. I also note any tasks that I may need to complete at a later time.
• Write out my Most Important Tasks every morning. I usually write out 3-5 tasks that I want to accomplish throughout the day, and I immediately begin to work on the first one. As I complete a task, I check it off with my red pen, and move on to the next task. Using the red pen makes it stand out, and gives me a great feeling of accomplishment as I review it throughout the day.
• Keep meeting notes when I meet with someone face-to-face or over the phone. This works well for me because I can refer back to these notes whenever I need to, no matter where I am.
• Create mind maps for some of my projects. For instance, I created a mind map about this blog post a few days ago when Stephen first told me he was giving me the opportunity to write it. I’ve referred to it and added to it multiple times this week when using my Moleskine for another purpose.
• Create checklists projects I am involved with or with events I am attending. Having the checklist helps prevent that nagging thought that I am forgetting something. There is nothing that ruins an event more for me than constantly thinking about what I may have forgotten. With my checklist, I am able to ensure that I am fully prepared.

In addition, I add my own notations, in red, to many of the things that I write down. This makes it much easier to find various things when I review my Moleskine weekly. Some of the notations I use are:

1. A checkbox for tasks that I need to complete
2. A check mark for tasks that I have completed
3. A star for those things that I deem very important
4. The word “blog” for ideas for my blog posts
5. The acronym “TDS” for the things that I want To Do Someday. These are later added to my Life List

Discovering, and then using, my Moleskine has definitely helped increase my productivity. It has also helped clear my mind so that I have more time to think about deeper, more important things. Since I am not always in “fire fight” mode, I am much more relaxed, and I have found that I am enjoying life more than ever.

I spent a couple of days last week looking all over Maine for a bookstore that carried the Moleskine Citybook for Chicago. I wanted it so that I could have a separate place to capture all of my notes and contact info for the trip coming up in two weeks.

Try as I might, I could not find one. And I didn’t feel like ordering one from Amazon and having to wait for it, I wanted to work on it NOW!
So, I happened to have an extra 5″ x 8″ Moleskine-type notebook lying around, so I hacked it myself. Keep in mind that this is strictly utilitarian, and not meant to be pretty or elegant. Here are the pics:

This is going to be good.

My friend Skellie has a post this week about “Origami Productivity” that you should see:

I love paper in all its forms and always have. In fact, if given the choice between a notebook and a web app to fulfill the same function, I’ll choose a notebook every time. I tried Google Calendar and didn’t like it. Instead, I have a plain old calendar that hangs above my desk. I’ve got a pen stuck to the wall with bluetac next to it, so it takes about two seconds to update. I tried Remember The Milk, but I found it to involve a lot of unnecessary complication when compared to writing items down on a slip of paper. But it’s portable, they say. Well, so is paper. It even works outside wi-fi hotspots.Photo by /kallu

I agree, and if you have been reading here at all, you will know that I am a paper-planner devotee. I love the tactile and emotional response of a nice notebook, and I spent a lot of time developing a calendar system for maximum efficiency. It is so very easy for me to track my to-dos and next actions on paper, I have tried a couple of PC- and web-based systems and, well, Skellie says it best:

You want to create a to-do list? Option 1: take one small slip of paper and one writing implement. Write out to-do list and put in pocket or bag. Option 2: Navigate to RTM. Create or log into your account. Learn interface. Digitally enter and categorize tasks. To view your to-do list in future, make sure you’re near a working computer (and have a nice day).

And that is the trick, isn’t it? You can not always be near a computer, nor always have access to the internet. You can, however, always have a pen and paper with you. And most organizers are faily compact and do not require any electricity.

I know from the recent survey that you all prefer Paper-based productivity practices over Electronic versions by two-to-one. So here is another paper-planner tip:

Make sure that your organizer has an index or table of contents. Update this page every week as part of your Weekly Review. You can even write it on a 3″ x 5″ notecard and keep it in the front of your notebook with a paper-clip, especially if you update a lot.

I use my Index constantly, as I do not try to remember anything anymore. I have found that this method allows for much more creativity and time for reading and writing. Let’s face it, those activities are a lot more fun than searching your office for those files you stuck “someplace safe”.