Why a new index card every day?
Tools are supposed to make things easier. A hammer makes it easier to drive a nail into something. A riding lawnmower makes it easier to mow large spaces. An app makes it easier to organize and act on information.
But sometimes, the tool that’s supposed to make things easier can end up doing the opposite. I’ve found this to be especially true when it comes to productivity tools. The tools out there to help us become more productive have a dangerous tendency for abuse. By abuse I mean that while we may intend to use the tools to get better at being intentional and focused on important work, we can use the tools in ways that pull us from those very goals.
How Tools Can Distract Us
When I first started trying to use a productivity system (it was GTD, of course), I was anxious to find an app or physical tool that could serve as the all-in-one repository. You know, the place where everything goes. It would serve as my task list, repository for notes, space for planning, and calendar.
In my mind, doing all of these things in the same place was the ideal–the pinnacle of efficiency and effectiveness. Why have different tools and receptacles for my work when I could just have one? So that became my aim: get down to a single tool.
Boy was I wrong.
Treat the Different Types of Productivity ‘Stuff’ Differently
What I found as a result of that experiment in unification is something I didn’t expect. Notes, project planning, and tasks don’t belong in the same place. They’re different types of things. For one thing, tasks are actionable items. They are things you do.
Notes, on the other hand, are not actionable. The same things holds true of project plans or brainstorms. They should produce actionable items, but they themselves are not actionable.
So it makes sense to keep these items separated in whatever productivity system you’re using. That may mean using a separate tool to manage one versus the other.
Another element we need to think about is time. The things you need to act on today should be in a different place than the things you need to act on later. You may be able to get by keeping all your tasks together, regardless of when they need to get done, but the risk of distraction increases. And why risk it? We’ve already got so much working against us when it comes to staying focused.
One Card for Today
Today’s focus needs to be separate from everything else. Otherwise, you run the risk of your attention being split among every other list and every other day in your productivity tool.
The best tool I found was single 3 x 5 index card. It may seem like a silly gimmick. It may even seem wasteful. But if you’ve been using The Today System, you’ll understand just how powerful that can be.
A single card separates today from every other day. It separates the non-actionable notes from your actionable items. And it separates the mass of actionable items that you don’t see as important for today from those you’ve decided are important for today.
It represents and reminds you of your focus today–because it’s physically separate. That separation of today’s tasks from tomorrow’s and next week’s becomes tangible and non-negotiable. And the points system reminds you of what you have to lose by ignoring that separation. It may sound crazy, but it makes a difference.
So if you haven’t already, get a card, and start today. You’ll be glad you did.
