Each project I'm working on - or parts of a project - get an index card. They're color coded for what they are, and then go up on the massive pinboard in my office. As things move into different categories, they get moved around physically.
This does a couple things:
1) There's something satisfying about physically moving a thing
2) I can get a quick visual representation of the balance of my work. Am I conspicuously low on a certain type of project in the queue? If so, why?
3) When they're done, they go in a pile of either successful or unsuccessful (I'm an academic, so for example a rejected grant is unsuccessful). When I need to work on my annual report? I just grab 2018's successful pile and it's an accounting of what I've done.
Personally, I like the finality of committing something to ink. If it needs to be changed, it's not as if index cards are expensive, but I like there being a sense of solidity to "What we're doing".
This does a couple things:
1) There's something satisfying about physically moving a thing 2) I can get a quick visual representation of the balance of my work. Am I conspicuously low on a certain type of project in the queue? If so, why? 3) When they're done, they go in a pile of either successful or unsuccessful (I'm an academic, so for example a rejected grant is unsuccessful). When I need to work on my annual report? I just grab 2018's successful pile and it's an accounting of what I've done.
Personally, I like the finality of committing something to ink. If it needs to be changed, it's not as if index cards are expensive, but I like there being a sense of solidity to "What we're doing".