A chat with a regular at the coffee shop totally flipped my weekly spread setup

I was sketching next week's layout at my usual spot when the barista, Maria, leaned over and asked why I always put my tasks on the left and events on the right. I told her it just felt right, but she showed me her journal where she mixes them all in one column by day. She said, "Seeing everything I need to do for a day in one spot keeps me from flipping pages." I tried her way for two weeks and my planning time dropped by maybe 15 minutes a week. Has anyone else tried a single-column daily log instead of splitting things up?

2 comments

2 Comments

stone.thomas1mo ago

My old boss used color coding, kind of like nora535's single list idea.

nora5351mo ago

That part about planning time dropping by 15 minutes a week is what got me. I read a blog post once that called this the "visual tax" of switching between columns. Your brain spends energy just moving your eyes back and forth. Putting everything for a day in one spot cuts that out. I switched to a single list for each day last year and it stopped me from forgetting the small stuff I used to leave in the event column.