Leaving a “Later” space for brainstorming medium and long-term to-do’s

I’ve learned that my weeklies need a brainstorming maker-space. A corner to house hastily scrawled ideas for medium term and future projects.

I think about task management in three time frames. Immediate short term tasks need to be done on a specific day this week. These can be routine jobs like checking in with my advisees each Friday. Immediate short term tasks also crop up organically, often in short conversations and at the ends of meetings. These go right into my daily task lists.

RS wants notes on nationalism? Into the day’s short term task list the request goes

Medium-term and long-term tasks need loving attention in the amorphous later-times. Captured so I can dig into them weeks or months from now.

Seeds for future projects, each with multiple individual tasks that will need doing

Sizable projects lead to messy lists the day they crop up and to equally messy forests of arrows connecting items within those lists when I sit down to migrate those projects. Iterative processing.

Those with experience bullet journaling will notice that I eschew analog future logs, whole-year schedules, class schedules, and contact info. All information generally recommended to folks who choose to organize themselves in analog.

However, I store these kinds of information digitally in my calendar app and my virtual pacing guide. I’ve made in-notebook future logs in the past. But my instinct is to search my calendar app for events that are weeks or months away. I never actually referred back to their analog versions.

So, instead, the Later corner houses future projects and tasks. Messily, gloriously threaded to one another with arrows. Awaiting migration into my digital system at the end of each teaching day.

Future me can handle those

This week’s Inked Tines update includes last week’s currently inked writing tools.

Toolset

Pens. The Esterbrook Estie (M) makes a rare repeat  as last week’s standout combo. My daily driver throughout the week produced reliable, increasingly dry, writing. Became my pocket carry Tuesday through Saturday. The sturdy clip held up to denim pockets, chino pockets, jacket pockets, plastic folders, paper — basically every material I asked the Estie to clip securely onto. Task management, lesson plans, meeting notes, scratch notes, pocket notes, and D&D notes. Feed.

• Able Snail Classic (EF) — Feed. Writes increasingly wet as the air-to-liquid ratio in the converter shifts towards favoring air. Maximizes Gesztenyebarna’s shading as a fabulous side-effect. Journaling, meeting notes, creative writing, and paper marking.

• Nakaya Neostandard (M Naginata-togi) — 1/5. Moderate dry times make this pair suited to quickly moving curricular meetings. The Neostandard’s size is comfortable over long reflective journaling sessions, too. Also: lesson plans and D&D notes.

• Mr. Cypress Cone (EF) — 1/5. The Cypress’ EF nib was an excellent detailed notetaker during lesson planning and content-focused curricular meetings. Reliable, comfortable mid-sized section, and muted blue ink. Also: journaling, tracking my class schedule, and D&D notes.

• Franklin-Christoph 03 (B) — 1/5. Lake Michigan Winter hard started on hard papers. Excellent writing with noticable shading on Kokuyo and Kleid papers. Lesson plans, accenting meeting notes, reading notes, and journaling.

• Kaweco Sport (EF) — 1/3. Whelp. I left the Kaweco in a jacket pocket on Monday afternoon. It sat, in restful neglect, until Saturday morning. I only used the pair for scratch notes while drafting the final act of my D&D campaign. Wrote smoothly right away, even after six days capped.

• Pelikan m805 (F Architect) — 1/2. Took smoothly to the modicum of writing opportunities. I should reach for this pairing more frequently next week. Only lesson plans and some scratch notes.

Notebooks. Work bujo. Kokuyo Century Grid (A5). The week began on page 289 of the anniversary edition Kokuyo notebook. I scribbled my way across twelve pages between Monday morning and Friday evening, ending evenly on page 300. Five lesson plans outlined, two pages of brainstorming curricular units, and five pages of meeting notes. Back in the saddle again.

I outlined five lesson plans, crafted when needed during the week. The first four form a block of pages immediately following my weekly task list. I chose bright colors for somber lessons and muted ink colors for more neutral curricula. Color crafting an emotionally balanced tone.

The Pelikan’s architect grind sketched a day introducing my students to the causes of World War I. A cheery Spanish Blue contrasts the emotionally challenging material.

A little brightness peeking through the clouds

The week’s fifth lesson plan outline concerns another dark lesson on the experiences of colonial troops in WWI. I appreciated pairing Lake Michigan Winter’s wintry cheer with activities that walk students through a worrying historical account from the late Ottoman Empire.

However, the Franklin-Christoph’s B nib left activities’ details scrunched together. The notes proved challenging to read when taking quick glances during a teaching period. A reminder that B lines are best used for larger handwriting and headings — for my handwriting. Noted.

Wizardly remindering to choose my nib sizes purposefully

Journal. Kleid Notes Tiny Grid (B6). Counting three 2mm tiny grid lines for each line I write has become muscle memory after five more pages of reflecting.

Imperfect muscle memory

My first entry is a page-long check-in on my 2024 resolution. The Nakaya seemed a symbolically appropriate writing partner as the Neostandard is my proposal pen. A meaningful pen for making meaning.

Thursday’s and Friday’s entries are each three-quarters of a page. I wrote both in EF, in The Blues and Gesztenyebarna, respectively. The Blues’ deep denim coloration kept my mind focused on a targeted analysis of a new elective I’m designing for my school. Gesztenyebarna’s prominent shading suited a meandering account of my Friday.

Left brain and right brain action

Saturday morning’s tea-fueled scribbling was a brainstorm accounting of the events coming up for me in March. Two pages of plotting in Lake Michigan Winter’s icy teal. The B lines are legible while filling up lines quickly. A quickened pace.

Written dry. Both the Able Snail and Esterbrook Estie have empty converters and inked feeds. Enough ink for scratch notes and journaling over the weekend. And just enough ink remaining to ensure I’ll run dry early on Monday or Tuesday.

Replacing both with newly inked pens will provide a full week of writing with two more pens. Writing the Able Snail’s and Estie’s feeds completely dry will feel like a victory. Decisions.

Should you stay or should you go now …

Newly inked. I stuck to my plan for a commitment week. No newly inked pens. All of my writing took place with fountain pens — these seven currently inked fountain pens.

The collection

Incoming / new orders. I bought my tickets to the DC Pen Show on Saturday. A step toward future new acquisitions. A nudge to begin sketching out my wishlist for the summer’s penventuring.

Outgoing / trades or sales. Gulp. Such solemn silence.

Currently reading and listening

Fiction. I made my way into the fifth chapter of Zahn’s Dark Force Rising. 71 pages read entirely on my phone’s Books app. Unsurprising.

Luke is tracking down a possible extant Jedi Master. Han and Leia are dodging assassins. And Admiral Ackbar is trying to escape a political shakedown in the early days of the rebellion’s new government. All while Thrawn politely and shrewdly schemes. It’s been a quickly read 71 pages.

Nonfiction. I read and annotated twenty-three pages of history texts last week, all to serve my teaching. My Mitsubishi pencil is down to a four-inch nubbin.

I use the needle-point tips of my Mildliners almost exclusively. I enjoy having the letterforms highlighted with white space between each line. The alternation of colored highlighting and white space feels orderly to my eye.

Narrow highlighting for broadening young minds

Music. I returned to safe harbor last week. Chillhop’s Winter 2023 playlist. The playlist, as a whole, is a return to form for Chillhop’s seasonal essentials collections. Fun animations, fully instrumental lo-fi with a fun blend of hip-hop and jazz beats. Diverse enough to keep me awake and engaged in my writing, reading, and teaching.

Yep. I even played the playlist quietly underneath my teaching last week.