Evidence of motive

The iPad isn't very good, is it?

It's not? I don't know, I don't have one.

No. It's not very good. Have you ever tried to edit a long email on one?

No. I don't have an iPad.

Well you can't. It's so difficult.

I'm not sure that's what the iPad was made for.

I know, I know. And Word documents? impossible to write and edit on an iPad.

Yeh well I'm not sure that's the kind of thing you do on an iPad.

I know, but still, you should be able to edit emails on one. 

Not if that's not your core reason for being. Isn't an iPad more about consuming content rather than creating it?

I know, I know. But you try editing a word document on an iPad, it's impossible.

But is that what an iPad is supposed to do well?

I KNOW, I KNOW! But it's just really hard to do any editing on the thing.

Okay.

It's like the iPhone, when it first launched, it didn't even have a task app.

Ah..

How crazy is that?? didn't even have a way to add tasks. 

But isn't the iPhone the hardware, and the app store, over time, has fostered a community of developers who create these apps, like task apps, so now you have the apps you need?

Yes I KNOW that but in the beginning, the iPhone launched without any way to add tasks!!

...

I think that Samsung is a much better phone.

New planner

I bought a new Kikki K planner when I was in Melbourne last month. Today I spent a lovely afternoon creating the beginnings of new dividers for my planner. 

I trimmed and glued, crop-o-diled (corner rounder) and washi'd, punched holes and thought about how I'll set my new planner up. Time flew and I had a wonderful, creative Saturday. 

NEW PLANNER SETUP

I choose Summery colours as the weather raged Wintery blasts outside. It's so much fun cutting and decorating for the sole purpose of making something lovely for myself. My next step in this process, now I have the dividers done is to figure out what my "day on a page" template might look like.  

The objective is to keep my projects and promises (delcarations) top-of-mind so I chip away at them every day - I'm such a planner girl :) 

Kanban for one

I've only recently become aware of Kanban boards. Simply, they are a three column status board for projects. Each column has a heading:

1. To do
2. Doing
3. Done

One of the easiest ways to set one up is with a white board and post-it notes - write the task on one of the post-it notes and moving it from one column to the next depending on the status of the task.

Sounds simple because it is simple. 

What makes it work is that it's visible.

That sounds simple too, and it is, and it works.

Earlier this year, New Year in fact, I made a few declarations. I declared this year to be the YEAR OF THE SELFIE, and the YEAR OF MORNINGS and, not quite as loudly, the Year of Lunches. I blogged about my declarations; I wrote my declarations in my planner; I downloaded apps for taking daily selfies; downloaded Kindle books on the benefits of and techniques for rising early in the morning; I bookmarked a bunch of websites for making 'totable' lunches. 

I took two selfies; woke up early once; and now my ex husband makes my lunch but that's not what I meant with declaring 2015 the Year of Lunches.

My poor old memory couldn't keep my declarations in the front of my brain where I could see them every day. The declarations were hidden from my view behind swipes and passcodes and tabbed planner pages. That lead me on a Google journey where I discovered Kanban boards.

I made one, stuck it to the back of my bedroom door, and set about moving my post its from to do to doing to done. It's working - not 100% of the declarations 100% of the time - but a hellova lot more than none!

My butt ugly really rather useful kanban board for one

Associated links

1. Kanban boards (Wikipedia)
2. Personal Kanban boards (smallfish.co.nz)
3. Kanban board examples (Flickr)