A List by any other name is still a list

I think I've mentioned before, but I'm a list maker. Sometimes I have lists for my lists. 

Along with being a list maker, I'm also a prolific note taker - especially at work.  I carry a notebook around with me that I jot things down in and may or may not go back to it. But it's there should I need to "remember" someday.  Especially as I get older I've noticed I tend to write more down then before. Writing stuff down helps me remember - its a win win.

BeagleBabe recently sent me this link for the Bullet Journal.  Given my type A personality, my prolific not taking, and my love for lists, I fell in love with this idea. Go ahead. Go take a look. I'll wait.

You may not have been as awestruck as I was, but let me fill you in on what I've now done with this bullet journal idea.

The idea in general, I love.  Unfortunately, I'm not as busy of a person as one might need to be for this process to be useful - at least in my personal life. AND I'm a big fan of Microsoft OneNote for work and didn't want to carry around a notebook with notes, but use OneNote instead.

So I modified OneNote and it's tagging to be kinda like the bullet journal idea.  OneNote already has predefined tags for things like a check list (check box), a question (question mark) and something important (red exclamation mark).  A little poking around in OneNote and I found that you can modify these tags, and add tags they already have. So I went to work.

I took the Bullet Journal's basic ideas of bullets for events, information, tasks. That was the easy part. The part that was more difficult was the "moving a task forward" tag. But alas, OneNote has a ton of tags and I found an arrow pointing right that would suffice. Here's what I ultimately ended up with as my top 9 tags.

I also changed my monthly project list / sync with the boss layout.  Previously I had a table in OneNote that listed all my projects down the left side. Then in a column to the right of each project I would write notes based on my sync with the boss.  I've discovered that having dates associated with notes were needed. My boss would frequently ask when we chatted about something and without any date indicators I had no idea. I have a list for each month, so I could tell her a month, but not a specific date.

So I modified my table slightly. I now have the dates of our syncs down the left side. Across the top I have a column for each project/task/discussion point.  During each sync I make sure I write out what our conversation was, my actions based on that and any other details I may need.  Let's say, for example when discussing the budget today she says, "I'd like you to review the budget with me on X date." I can now go to the cell that is the budget and the date and put myself a note that says to prep to speak to the boss about the budget.

Here's a small example.

I've used this for a month now and it has gone a long ways with keeping me focused, on task, and efficient.

I know that organization is extremely personal.  What works for me won't work for everyone, but I thought I'd share my new process in case it can/does help someone.

Now, I can scratch writing today's blog off my list.