My analog task migration system, for when life lives outside of my plans
Migration assistance and recall are the primary goals of task management. Make sure I remember what I need to do. Ensure I revisit tasks that take place across multiple days. And move tasks that still need love and attention to future checklists.
My system relies on a simple combination of two symbols: a reticle and an x. A four line filter to capture important tasks when over days and weeks.
Unfinished tasks are marked with an over-large horizontal dash. The dash runs outside of the checkbox lines. Horizontal lines signify that I’m not going to finish that particular task.
Each morning begins with a brief scan through the prior day’s checklist for horizontals. I migrate each to a new day or week.
I then scratch another over-large line, this one vertical, over the checkbox once I’ve added the task to anther day’s or week’s list. The completed reticle tells me that the task is migrated and accounted for. My ADD requires checks and double-checks.
I sometimes discover that I no longer need to work on a task from my list. Someone else completed it or my priorities changed. Those unnecessary tasks get an x inside their check box. Quick and easy.
Move along. These are not the tasks you’re looking for.
I’m ready to put a daily, weekly or monthly to bed once all of my reticle and x-es are closed. A quick scan over the page confirms I’m ready to move forward. Rock on.
This week’s Inked Tines update includes my most recent currently inked writing tools.
Toolset
Pens. Without any doubt, this week’s standout combo is the pairing of the TWSBI 580 in Prussian Blue, a Predator Hybrid grind care of Mr. Bacas, and Troublemaker’s Petrichor. The mullet of writing performances: business in EF (Petrichor’s dried grey lines), party in M (Petrichor’s fun purples and greens). Party hard. Task management, meeting headings, lesson plans, professional development notes, reading notes. Feed.
Nakaya Neostandard (B) — Empty. A reliable and comfortable pairing. The round B nib accommodated brainstorming where I paid little attention to the angle of my pen to the page. Higashiyama’s color also suited lesson plans and lecture outlines.
Monteverde Giant Sequoia (EF) — 1/6. Heavy use as a status keeper throughout the conference planning lists I visited and revisited throughout the week. Worked well for accent notes, lesson plans, and list tracking.
Franklin-Christoph 03 (EF) — 1/5. Wrote a reliable, wet EF line. Excellent for detailed notes, and marginalia.
ASA Brahmaputra (M Architect) — 1/4. A long-form writing driver throughout the week. Wide section kept writing comfortable. Also lent flair to meeting notes — especially headings and highlighting tasks that need to be migrated into my weekly spread.
Kaweco Sport (B) — 4/5. Barossa appears as a dusty purple with high shading in this dry Kaweco nib. No clogging, even after sitting in the penvelope for a full day. Started as pocket carry. Ended as a discussion notetaker given the forgiving round B nib.
Notebooks. Work bujo. Musubi Cosmo Air Light 83 (A5). I added a whopping 20 pages to my work bullet journal last week. That’s a lot of writing, even for me.
Last week’s scribbles take the Musubi to page 201 — leaving seven blank pages remaining. Oof.
I anticipate using more than seven pages this coming week. The time has come for notebook three for the 21-22 school year.
Where the notebook ends
The two-page weekly is written entirely with my TWSBI’s Predator Hybrid and in Troublemaker’s Petrichor. And two colors of highlighter: blue for asynchronous classes and pink for student-led roundtables. It’s helpful to see my teaching loads across a week, all at a glance.
My favorite combination was the TWSBI and ASA. I used them both to separate headings from detailed notes during my professional development workshop on conflict management during DEI work.
Two ground nibs for meeting notes
Bright M-sized purple headings for easily scanning each of the topics covered. M-width Petrichor lines for emphasizing key notes. And EF Petrichor lines for details. A solid, reference-able pairing.
Journal. YT Bindery Yu-yo (A5). I added nine pages to my personal journal. My writing spread across three entries. One list and two long-form reflections.
The new ASA pen and new Kaigelu architect nib drove my writing throughout the week. The ASA was my choice for the body of one long-form entry and the poem at the end of the other. A fun nib and ink combination.
A surly pen with a pop of inky personality
Written dry. I wrote two pens down to their feeds this week. Such low ink levels highlight both the TWSBI and Nakaya as pens to swap out for next week.
The odd couple
The TWSBI has been my daily driver for two sequential weeks. The pair was used for just about every kind of writing, from task management to meeting notes to pocket carrying into the local post office. Strong.
The Nakaya has also ridden the penvelope for multiple weeks. Higashiyama’s orange stood out against the rest of my subdued color palette. And the Nakaya’s feel in my hand encourages me to create excuses to write with it. Also strong.
Newly inked. Nice and quiet — especially after last week’s multiple new inkings.
The collection
Incoming / new orders. No new pens this week. I welcomed three new pens in the last three weeks. That is quite enough action.
Outgoing / trades or sales. I posted three pens for sale over on the Pen Addict Slack’s sell and trade channel. Leaves a sad-happy feeling anticipating each will find a home where they will be used more frequently.
A Karas Kustoms special issue acrylic Decograph, A Diplomat Aero and a Faber-Castell Ondoro in the now-discontinued white body. Fun times.
The Diplomat is already on its way to a new home. I’ll reconfigure my offers for the Decograph and Ondoro through the coming week and try again in a different after-market forum.
Currently reading and listening
Fiction. I voyaged off into Jacques’ Mariel of Redwall this week. Seven chapters in and I’m attached to the main character, Mariel. The daughter — and likely apprentice — of a renowned bell maker. With trauma-induced amnesia. Who calls herself Storm Gullwhacker. Which will absolutely be my next D&D character’s name. Possibly.
Read the Redwall books on a full stomach. There are frequent and extensive descriptions of recipes. No complaints. Just a light-hearted recommendation.
Nonfiction. My reading time at work involved reviewing annotations from Yilek’s neat History of Norway. I use his chapter on the Norwegian pushes for independence from Sweden through the late 1800s to present historical references for convincing large audiences to take your side.
40 pages of review and edited annotations. I leaned heavily on my Blackwing 602 and a green Mildliner.
Excitingly, I finished Gessen’s award-winning, and startling, The Future is History on Monday evening. A great, human-centered history of Russia - as told through the eyes of a handful of individuals’ experiences. Clever lens.
Music. A reader, Bull, suggested I explore the band Pan-American for more minimalist background music. Excellent recommendation!
Subdued, well-organized arrangements. More instrumental than lo-fi. A soundtrack that truly lends personality to the room while you work.
Their most recent release, The Patience Fader, played on heavy rotation throughout the week.
