foster.jordan•1mo agoMost Upvoted

My friend said my spreads looked like a mess and I finally listened

I used to cram three months of tasks into one spread with tiny handwriting and no color coding. Last week my buddy Mark looked at it and said 'dude, this is just anxiety on paper.' He showed me his simple weekly layout with just 4 sections and a habit tracker. I tried it for 5 days and honestly I get more done now. Has anyone else found that simpler spreads actually work better for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

sean_green441mo ago

Wait, you were cramming THREE MONTHS into one spread? That's wild dude. Like that's not a to-do list that's a war crime on paper. I started doing something similar after I realized my color coded system had 17 different highlighters and I still couldn't find anything. Now I just use two columns and a weekly focus box and somehow my brain actually processes what needs to happen today instead of panicking about February.

wyatt1351mo ago

Man I felt that "war crime on paper" comment in my bones. I used to have a system where every color meant something different and by Wednesday I couldn't remember if purple was for urgent tasks or just stuff I wanted to get to eventually. Ended up with three different notebooks and still wrote appointments on napkins. That two column setup with a weekly focus box is exactly what finally clicked for me too. Keeps me from looking at the whole mountain and just focusing on the next few feet, you know? What made you ditch the color coding for good?

gray8751mo ago

That's a great question. What finally did it for me was realizing I spent more time organizing my color key than actually doing the work. And @sean_green44 is right, even the best system falls apart when you're trying to plan out three months of your life on a single notebook page.