I use a daily planner. I tried a weekly, but they never worked for me. There was something about seeing that full week's view that made me believe I didn't need to accomplish what I wrote under a particular day. And hey, if I didn't get it done on the right day, it was easy to let it slide to the next week. And the next.
Using a daily planner cured this bad habit. If it was written on that day, I needed to get it done.
But there were tasks that really weren't urgent, but still needed to be done. Sometime. There are experts who'll claim that these tasks don't need to be done at all, but they're wrong. They do need to be finished, but I'm willing to slide them for a while first.
The problem was if I wrote it on a particular day and didn't do it on the assigned day, it disappeared from view fast.
What I needed was a To Do List--preferably on Post-it Note paper so I could keep moving it from day to day to day if I wanted.
I measured my planner columns and set out to find a To Do List that would fit on one side (the schedule side) without covering the list side (which is what I primarily use). At that time, I couldn't find anything remotely close to what I needed. I decided I could buy a regular To Do List pad and I'd just move the loose paper from page to page.
At first, I really liked these notepads. And they're fine if I have them out and available to make notes on and cross things off immediately. They are not so great inside my planner. In fact, they annoyed the heck out of me. I started putting them months in the future and never looking at them. Not what I needed.
When I was looking at 2024 planners, I found a very narrow Post-it Note To Do List. I was ecstatic! At long last, I had what I needed!
Only these notes disappeared on the planner page. They're very small and the printing is light. They're also extremely narrow and unless an item was one or two words, I ended up needing multiple lines. I tried taking a highlighter and outlining the edges, which helped with the disappearing part, but they were still so narrow.
Still, I had proof of concept. The Post-it Note adhesive was perfect and they were narrow enough to stay on one side of the planner. I decided to take a second search for versions of this that were bigger.
I did find some options. I ordered two of them and put a few more on my wish list. I'm hoping one of the newcomers will work. Testing will commence when they arrive.
