PTPL 099: The Vital Bridging Habit That Makes My Task Management System Abandon-Proof
PTPL 099: The Vital Bridging Habit That Makes My Task Management System Abandon-Proof
There’s productivity power in noting where you’ve been and where you need to go next
This week: Links for plain text story formatting and home organisation, and file sharing on non-Apple devices. How writing down the right things helped my productivity practices stand up to the test of being completely abandoned for an entire week.
No AI input here; all words 100% human made.
Cool texty tech finds
Plain text story formatting, using Pandoc, part 1: — The premise
Plain text story formatting, using Pandoc, part 2 — The geeky details
Universal Airdrop on non-Apple devices — Ars Technica — Solutions for instant file sharing
Home Manual in Markdown — GitHub — Organise and document your stuff
An abandon-proof productivity system put to the test (I’m on holiday)
Car → train → train → train → car → interstate holiday destination: I’ve spent the past week in the Gippsland area, staying with family. And for the first time in I-can’t-remember, the bulk of my work tasks have remained untouched as I’ve enjoyed a time of intellectual rest and mental recuperation.
My task management system, being nothing more than a series of lists, has stood up to the neglect very well. I’m confident in being able to pick things up where I left off because of this one vital, bridging habit: writing down what I did immediately after last working on it, and making a note of what needs to be done next. Call it interstitial journaling, or process documentation, or whatever you like; it’s crazy simple and insanely effective!
The only list I’ve been following closely and updating throughout the week is the one I created specifically for this trip. I kept the list on paper in my discbound notebook, but it could just as easily have been in a plain text file, or in a task manager. (In other words, the tool doesn’t matter.)
This list came into being last November, the moment the trip was planned. Every time I thought of something that needed to be done to prepare for going away or something I wanted to do while there, I’d add it as the next item on the list. I then classified each task into one of three categories:
Before leaving
Bring
While there
Being a paper-based list, I used different coloured highlighters to mark the categories. If this was a plain text list I’d have created three subheadings and used a keyboard shortcut to move items to the right heading, and up and down the list to show priority. In Obsidian I’ve assigned Command+1 to the move line up command, and Command+2 to move line down.
Having a well-documented place for everything I know will be back on my plate next week has allowed me to relax into spending precious, fully-present time with my family.
I’ve stayed off my computer and greatly reduced phone time, leaving my mind free to witness and absorb the sacred minutiae of daily life. Here’s a good example of what I mean by that: a short series of life-nuggets observed by George Penney at a New Zealand Easter market. It made me smile, and I hope it does the same for you!
I love hearing from readers, and I’m always looking for feedback. Why do you read Plain Text. Paper, Less? Is there anything you’d like to see more, or less of? Which aspects do you enjoy the most? Found a typo? Let me know in the comments, or hit reply if you received this as an email.
No AI input: all words 100% human made. Download productivity goodies (including a soon-to-be-released updated Obsidian Planner demo vault) here.