How "to do" cards (might) work for me...

I see Stu is playing with new stock again. The Ugmonk Analog system to be precise.

I must confess that when Stu sent me the small index cards by Foglietto a while back, I struggled to use them. They were a smidge too small and just got lost on my desk. The Ugmonk system is a little different, though.

A quick overview of it... Essentially, there are sets of 3x5" index cards. Some for "Today", some for "Next" and some for "Someday". You write out your tasks for "Today" on a card, pop it in the slot in the box so that it's standing up, and keep all the other cards in the box, ready for use.

I think that one reason it works (as well as being so aesthetically pleasing that you itch to use it), is that it has your "to do" list right up there in a "ha ha, you can't ignore me" kind of way. A list inside a notebook can be ignored (just close the book). Also, the Ugmonk stuff is so nice, you don't want to waste any of it, so you're going to think about what you put on the cards (well, I would... I wouldn't really be using them for scrappy things).

And that would be why it might work for me, in a probably-not-the-way-the-designer-intended kind of way.

Any productivity system has to work, not just look nice. The tool itself doesn't make you more productive, however beautiful it it. The key to it, is to write your list on the cards, and then do the stuff.

Because the kit is so nice, I would be thinking long and hard about what I was writing on it, and so I would probably end up using it in parallel with my two notebooks in a cover. The notebooks are essentially for "capture" (in the Getting Things Done parlance): I try to clear my head and do a brain dump, and that's where it all lands up. Yeah, I could do that straight on to the Ugmonk cards, then work my way through it, but (for me) that's not efficient.

What's better, is to process that list of random items. I try to do my big tasks first, and to group similar tasks together (emails/phonecalls etc.). I sort the brain dump into what's important and what's not. Right now, I put stars against the important bits. If I was going to use the Ugmonk kit, I would write the important bits on the cards, and have them in my face on my desk, reminding me that they are what I decided I would focus on today.

So, it would be a two-handed approach: the brain dump into a book I can ignore, then processing it into a list I can't ignore. And at the end of the day, I would have the double satisfaction of ticking things off two lists.

Think this might work for you? Just like the look of the stuff? Nero has some of the Ugmonk range available, though hurry, because stock levels are limited.