PTPL 060: Gandhi’s Best Advice For Making Simple Notes That Mean Something
PLUS a new circular 24-hour template download for hand written plans
Welcome to a once-a-week taster of things that I’ve found helpful in my quest to create a simple, future-proof, digital-analog workflow.
Productivity Inspiration
Gandhi encouraged the people around him to keep a diary. Or, you could say, he saw the value of note making. Seems like he was rocking interstitial journalling long before the phrase was coined!
You must keep an account of the yarn you have spun. Thoughts coming into your mind should also be noted down. You should keep a record of all that you have read. — Mahatma Gandhi
In this inspiring post on the notes of Gandhi by Jillian Hess, you can find her five takeaways:
Keep it simple
Record how you spend your time
Be honest
Make your own notebook
There’s many more gems in the full article. I hope you’ll find a moment or two sometime soon to give it a read and glean your own takeaways.
Handwritten, hourly planning on the iPad
Continuing from last week, I’ve been using my iPad as a scratchpad most mornings before starting work. For me this is generally around 6–6:30am. Check out the circular newcomer to the collection of 24-hour planning templates available for free download —
I love it! So much more of a sense of flow than with the rectangular version.
You know what I love more than this template for planning my day? The serene knowledge that I’m free to employ something else tomorrow, or to use nothing at all and just wing it.
Now, this scratchpad is not where I keep the record of my day Gandhi was talking about. That goes into my daily note — a Markdown flavoured plain text file that lives on all my devices — often via actions in the very very useful Drafts app.
It feels like I’ve traded my unlined skin and grey-free hair for this sense of peace. What a bargain! So many times in the past I felt harried, inadequate, and lost in the thicket of tasks and conflicting productivity advice. It’s wonderful to finally feel comfortable with my own ever-evolving style.
How do you plan your day? Freeform (the style, not the app), with a small list of tasks to be done by nightfall, matching every single hour to a task or area of responsibility, or some other way?
What might happen if you chose a different planning style for tomorrow’s plans?
Medium thought this post worth boosting, but you can read it here, too:
The Plain Text, Paper-Less Productivity Digest explores productivity through a future-proof, plain text mindset, with a soft spot for the paper that counts.
Download some free productivity goodies (including an Obsidian Planner demo vault) here.