Is it time to throw out technology and revert to pen and paper to re-discover your productivity?
In this article I’m going to discuss two newish forms of journaling method — bullet journaling and interstitial journaling—that might just change your life but, before I do, a bit of a back story!
I’m as guilty as anyone for rolling out of bed in the morning to grab my smartphone before reaching my toothbrush, and I’m a self-confessed tech geek with all of the toys of modern day digital living. I also have an interest in software companies and start-ups that are technology through and through. So you might be a little surprised to hear this weekend I bought a complete pack of new A6 dotted notepads. Crazy right?
Maybe, maybe not.
If, like me, you live a hectic multi-tasking life, and there’s never enough time in the day, then (again, like me) you’ve probably revisited the challenge of managing your time. You may have tried out a few alternatives to see what works best for you.
My role has brought me extremely close to the subject of office productivity. So when ‘new approaches’ or ‘new tools’ emerge through social business channels, I will always force myself to consider them.
Like many of my generation, I started life with a trusty Filofax. Then, in the spirit of geek-ism, I moved on to standard office calendaring and task list apps. When social messaging apps like Google Wave and Yammer emerged, I tried them too. And in recent years, I’ve moved on to tools like Google Keep, Microsoft OneNote, Evernote and Trello.
My progress so far? To be honest, I wouldn’t say any of the tech solutions have worked for me personally. I find myself losing time switching even more between apps and my time being stolen to keyboard data entry. While these new tech tools haven’t been good for me, they have been good for my colleagues! At least now we can share diaries and tasks.. And they know normally where I am and what I’m doing.
But that perfect approach to managing my day has still evaded me and I always have that frustration of not knowing what I did two weeks, maybe even three days ago — other than what my calendar tells me.
I was therefore intrigued when I ran across two articles in quick succession talking about the rewards of low-tech ‘pen and paper’ approaches to the age old issue of managing your own time.
And just a brief step-back on why it matters…
There is a great video of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet running around the wibbly-wobbly-web where Bill explains how surprised he was to find WB keeps all of his meetings in a pocket diary… And how few of them he booked! I imagine, in contrast, Bill was looking at an Office365 calendar, full to the brim, scratching his head! The fact is that YOUR Time is the most precious resource you have when you’re running a business. You need to treat it as the scarce resource it is. When researchers look into the common attributes of successful entrepreneurs, pretty much the only thing they can agree on is they possess remarkable focus and prioritize their time extremely well. And that’s why I found myself in a Stationers at the weekend, purchasing some notepads.
The two systems I’m trying are both approaches that contribute to managing your time in an efficient way by keeping track of what you have to do, what you’re doing, and what you’ve done. Given the focus of the activity is to manage a journal of how you plan your time, are spending your time.. and have spent your time, these methods commit as much time on recording history as they do planning your future.
Bullet journaling is the first method I came across. As the term suggests, it’s about maintaining very brief notation around your activities. The developers of this method have come up with a simple visual way of managing tasks, events, and notes.
Interstitial journaling is the other method I’ve encountered. It’s an approach that recognizes that humans are not good at multi-tasking and the best way to manage multi-tasking is to manage the transition from one task to the next by writing a simple statement of what you’ve just done, and what you plan to do next. The argument is that it helps to declutter your mind of one task before you jump into the next.
Do these systems work? Well, for me It’s early days but so far the experiment seems to be going quite well. I definitely find myself spending less time switching between tasks, and I do ‘feel’ more organized-but, with my terrible writing, well just have to see how long it lasts!
Here are links to articles on both subjects:
Have you encountered these new methods? If so, I’d love to know how you’re getting on, and whether it’s changed your time management performance.
Ian
About the Author
Ian Tomlin is a seasoned marketer, entrepreneur, and business leader with a 30+ year career at the intersection of strategy, technology, and marketing. As the founder of successful businesses, including Newton Day Ltd, Ian brings a wealth of expertise in guiding companies toward compelling brand stories. Reach out to Ian via LinkedIn to transform your marketing approach and tell your brand story effectively.
