Below is an excerpt from my book “Pomodoro Technique Illustrated”, which is currently available in a free public draft at: www.pomodoro-book.com
The Activity Inventory and the To Do Today does not have to literary be two sheets of paper. One alternative is to keep each single activity on its own index card. An index card is a heavy paper stock most commonly sized 76 mm by 127 mm – often named “3-by-5 card” from its size in inches.
I take a fresh card every time I realize that I must add a new activity to the Activity Inventory. Then I write the title of the activity at the top of the card with a black felt-tip pen. Below the title I can add diagrams, phone numbers, web addresses, or anything else relevant to complete this activity. This kind of nice-to-have scribble should not be as conspicuous as the title, so I use a pencil for extra information. Finally, I add the same number of boxes as I estimate that it will take – in Pomodori – to finish the activity.
My Activity Inventory is now a deck of index cards. Each card describes one activity. I select an amount of cards every morning during the Planning Stage. This selection is my daily commitment – my To Do Today deck. It’s ordered with the most important activity card on top.
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Using index cards while planning in The Pomodoro Technique
I like this idea. It eeems simple. How long have you been doing it?
Hi George,
I’ve been doing this index card adaption for maybe a year and it’s sufficient for me. It especially adds value if you have more than one independent contexts, e.g. two clients.
Btw: Kudos to your dev note “I think you ought to be warned that there is a page entitled “A cucumber and an artichoke walk into a bar,” which contains a dialogue without a punchline. No joke!” :-)
Thanks, Stafan! I’m enjoying your book (although not in 25 minute chunks) and I really like the drawings. I also mentioned it to my local java patterns study group.
By the way, do you think there is a particular social network that focusses on software development? I have noticed that people like to use LinkedIn for business (with some groups for flash), Plaxo for Europe, and Facebook for friends and family they have met in person. I’m only asking you this question because you mentioned a long list of social software, many of which I had never heard of.
Cheers!
George
George, I would go for LinkedIn anyway. They have software development groups for Java, Agile etc.
Wikipedia have a titanic list here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
Hi Staffan, I like the index card idea. One question: Do you have a seperate sheet of paper (or Index Card) for ‘To Do Today’? If not, where do you record unplanned and urgent activities and where do you record smaller tasks that are less than 1 pomodoro? Thanks.
Hi Leon,
When I use the Index Card model, then I do not have a separate paper for To Do Today. In the morning I select an amount of activities, from the Activity Inventory, which I think that I can complete during this day. I.e. I pick activities – each on a separate index card – from the Activity Inventory heap and put theses activities in a To Do Today heap.
If I suddenly realize, during the day, that I must do something else (unplanned & urgent) then I write down the title of that new activity on a fresh index card and either add it to the Activity Inventory heap (if I’m sure I will not do it today) or else put it in my To Do Today heap.
Also small tasks go on a index card by their own.
Hi Staffan, I see! Seems flexible – I may give it a try. Thanks for the advice.
Hi Staffan.
Where do you get your index cards?
Store in Stockholm or from internet. Browsed http://www.quill.se and did not found any usefull.
Bought your book btw… can really relate to the “buss time” episode. Värmdö is about 1 pomodoro away ;)
I used to buy Index Cards in my local stationery shop. In Sweden they are available at Esselte. However, I personally use a flap pad (flikblock in Swedish) and a paperclip nowadays. It doesn’t matter what type of cards you use as long as you can easily make a deck of them.
A lot of of guys blog about this matter but you wrote down some true words.