When I was in college, I chose to write a thesis. I could have taken an extra class. I had never written a thesis and there was no manual. A friend of a friend introduced me to someone who was also writing a thesis and he told me about index cards. Life changing. I went from completely frozen and zero progress to writing bite sized quotes and references on the index cards that turned into paragraphs then finally into a finished 68-page thesis. Index cards can be adapted to many uses. Thank you for reminding me how index cards are life saving devices.
I LOVE the index card idea! Lately just crossing things off my to do list has not been the motivation as it had been in the past, but it is probably because I'm not breaking things down into small enough tasks. Thank you for the reminder.
This is great! Also: apps don't have the physical component, but I absolutely love the Finch app for a compassion-based gamification of to-dos and self-care. Taking care of an adorable baby birb was what finally got me to floss regularly. Or there's Habitica for a more retro D&D-style gamification that can also be used on a browser.
As soon as I read this, I walked straight to the stationery shop and got myself a stack of index cards. Struggled a bit at first with the granularity wasn't easy breaking things down into bite-sized chunks but I got through it and now have about 50 cards ready. Been working through them steadily. The biggest challenge for me is stopping I tend to keep going until burnout, then fall off and procrastinate. But this system is surprisingly effective. Thanks for sharing it!
This is so cool! I always knew it was important to break things down into tasks, but I didn't think about using index cards and tearing them up when I'm done. I love visual cues, and I'm definitely going to put this to use.
I also wanna now download and play Stardew Valley because it sounds like so much fun!
Loved this idea and tried it out for two weeks already. It really changed my approached to gettings things done.
Instead of plain white index cards, I've picked up ones with a colored background. Each day, I chose a different color for new tasks I want to complete. This means that the next day, those old tasks will visually stand out and nudge me more to finally complete them.
This also helped a lot to fight procrastination as once a task gets written to a card, the card will stay on my desk. If I complete it, I can happily rip up the card. But if not? Well, it will stay on my desk and I'll have to look at it the entire day. It's a lot harder to ignore it this way instead of overdue tasks in some Todo apps!
Love. Love. Love. Thanks for this valuable insight. Although I despise a million sticky notes, the small ones could be used for this orrrr cut up the index cards in half to stretch them out. Can’t wait to TEAR THEM UP. I do this and never understood why it was so satisfying to rip ‘em up. Now, I will use intentional bite-sized tasks. Thank you!
Great post. I've been experimenting with a similar system using large, medium and small post it notes.
Large - Project/Idea
Medium (Descending below large) - major steps/tasks, as well as a small reward for completion (favourite take out, go to the movies, etc)
Small (Horizontally right from medium) - Each major step/task broken down into smallest possible and manageable steps/tasks
Same as your system, as you complete each small task, rip it up and celebrate your progress (dance, wolf howl, etc).
And once you finish all the small notes of a task, you get to rip up the medium one as well, completeing a milestone and earning your listed reward.
I find there's a visual element of seeing it broken down into tiny, manageable steps, as well as seeing overall progression (half of notes gone - 50% done) that helps mentally.
This looks great! I'm gonna try it! But I have a question about the 20 minute session--is that just a baseline and you can do more if you feel like it? Is there a recommended cap on how long to keep at it?
In Internal Family Systems, firefighters are the parts of us that LOVE immediate feedback, action and games.
The more I can create a game out of absolutely anything, the more I can get my firefighter parts on board with healthy habits.
Vitamin D? D minder app = goal, 1 million IU of D from the sun every summer.
Sleep? Oura ring daily feedback.
I have to-do apps on my phone but they don’t fully work… maybe not tactile enough.
I have index cards — I’m going to try this!!!
Here’s to upping my gamification of daily tasks!
When I was in college, I chose to write a thesis. I could have taken an extra class. I had never written a thesis and there was no manual. A friend of a friend introduced me to someone who was also writing a thesis and he told me about index cards. Life changing. I went from completely frozen and zero progress to writing bite sized quotes and references on the index cards that turned into paragraphs then finally into a finished 68-page thesis. Index cards can be adapted to many uses. Thank you for reminding me how index cards are life saving devices.
Nice work! Sounds like you were ahead of me on the index card magic. 🪄
I started playing Stardew Valley shortly after my last hospitalization. This is a pretty good explanation as to why!
😀
I LOVE the index card idea! Lately just crossing things off my to do list has not been the motivation as it had been in the past, but it is probably because I'm not breaking things down into small enough tasks. Thank you for the reminder.
This is great! Also: apps don't have the physical component, but I absolutely love the Finch app for a compassion-based gamification of to-dos and self-care. Taking care of an adorable baby birb was what finally got me to floss regularly. Or there's Habitica for a more retro D&D-style gamification that can also be used on a browser.
As soon as I read this, I walked straight to the stationery shop and got myself a stack of index cards. Struggled a bit at first with the granularity wasn't easy breaking things down into bite-sized chunks but I got through it and now have about 50 cards ready. Been working through them steadily. The biggest challenge for me is stopping I tend to keep going until burnout, then fall off and procrastinate. But this system is surprisingly effective. Thanks for sharing it!
Perhaps I should write Play Stardew Valley on an index card.
This is so cool! I always knew it was important to break things down into tasks, but I didn't think about using index cards and tearing them up when I'm done. I love visual cues, and I'm definitely going to put this to use.
I also wanna now download and play Stardew Valley because it sounds like so much fun!
Try it out (both things, haha) and let me know how it goes!
Fantastic idea! Definitely going to try this. Thank you, Chris, for your creativity and consistency. You are such an inspiration!
Loved this idea and tried it out for two weeks already. It really changed my approached to gettings things done.
Instead of plain white index cards, I've picked up ones with a colored background. Each day, I chose a different color for new tasks I want to complete. This means that the next day, those old tasks will visually stand out and nudge me more to finally complete them.
This also helped a lot to fight procrastination as once a task gets written to a card, the card will stay on my desk. If I complete it, I can happily rip up the card. But if not? Well, it will stay on my desk and I'll have to look at it the entire day. It's a lot harder to ignore it this way instead of overdue tasks in some Todo apps!
Love. Love. Love. Thanks for this valuable insight. Although I despise a million sticky notes, the small ones could be used for this orrrr cut up the index cards in half to stretch them out. Can’t wait to TEAR THEM UP. I do this and never understood why it was so satisfying to rip ‘em up. Now, I will use intentional bite-sized tasks. Thank you!
Great post. I've been experimenting with a similar system using large, medium and small post it notes.
Large - Project/Idea
Medium (Descending below large) - major steps/tasks, as well as a small reward for completion (favourite take out, go to the movies, etc)
Small (Horizontally right from medium) - Each major step/task broken down into smallest possible and manageable steps/tasks
Same as your system, as you complete each small task, rip it up and celebrate your progress (dance, wolf howl, etc).
And once you finish all the small notes of a task, you get to rip up the medium one as well, completeing a milestone and earning your listed reward.
I find there's a visual element of seeing it broken down into tiny, manageable steps, as well as seeing overall progression (half of notes gone - 50% done) that helps mentally.
Cheerio
I absolutely love games and instant gratification! And I often put off simple admin tasks. I am going to put this into action today and see how it transforms my experience. Yay for more dopamine hits! 🤩
I love this and pretty use this system myself as well. I do post-it notes. I learned about scrum a million years ago when I was a new professor and my undiagnosed ADHD brain found it really useful for organizing and breaking down tasks for researching, writing and submitting stuff for publication. It is all about micro tasks, too. One thing I need to adopt from your game is tearing up the post it note upon completion. lol I have a back log of post its, like probably 100 in my bag right now and I eventually end up going through them and crumpling them up one by one and feeling proud of myself for actually doing all the things while simultaneously amused by the things that are months old that I didn’t do haha. The immediate gratification of shredding the task to celebrate your micro accomplishment seems slid to me! Implementing… NOW! 🤘oh and this was not intended to be a shameless plug, I swear on my parents’ graves but you just made me remember that episode 10 of the ADHD Peri Punks podcast that just came out Monday is on what we are calling time dysmorphia and we talked about our single task post-its etc. in that episode. Might be right up your alley given your new book. 💥🩵
This looks great! I'm gonna try it! But I have a question about the 20 minute session--is that just a baseline and you can do more if you feel like it? Is there a recommended cap on how long to keep at it?