Stumbled on a weekly layout trick at a Starbucks in Portland

I was sitting at a Starbucks in downtown Portland last Tuesday, just doodling in my journal while waiting for a friend. The person next to me was using this super simple two-page spread where they put their tasks on the left and notes on the right. It hit me that I've been overcomplicating my weekly layouts with too many sections and trackers. I asked her about it and she said she just uses a ruler and marks seven lines down, no fancy boxes or colors. I tried it out yesterday and it saved me like 15 minutes of setup time. Now I'm wondering if I should ditch my color coding system entirely for something cleaner. Has anyone else found a simple layout that actually sticks?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendygrant27d ago

Ditch the color coding like last week's gas station coffee, it's just extra noise between you and getting stuff done. Those fancy trackers look great on Instagram but nobody actually maintains them past Tuesday morning. Try the plain ruler setup for two weeks and see if you miss the chaos, I bet you won't.

riley_coleman827d ago

Tuesday morning" is generous, I give mine until about 10am Wednesday before I'm just scribbling with whatever pen is closest and calling it a day. That color coded system looked real pretty for about three hours though, almost tricked myself into thinking I had my life together. Plain ruler setup at least doesn't lie to you about being productive.

victorbutler27d ago

Did you end up tossing all those gel pens in a drawer once the novelty wore off too?