The Legal Pad That Could
April 4th, 2007 : Austin SmithAfter a considerable amount of thinking and experimentation, I have reached a powerful conclusion. Gone are the days of tracking my life in various applications spread across various medium–the tool I have settled on is the conventional legal pad. It’s about the size of my laptop and much thinner, so it can ride with it in the bag, it needs no power, I don’t look like a loser using it on the bus, and in manageable doses, it’s easy enough to search. The last time I tried this, I imposed rules about how to take notes, schedule tasks, and recall information, even going so far as to limit certain pen colors to certain functions. This time, anything goes, and it’s working great.
My aunt, an attorney in Nashville, keeps a paper calendar and task list after similar electronic organizational woes. She does an amusing pantomime of the lawyers that use PDAs who sit in court trying to find a date that will work for the next hearing.
April 6th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
A piece of paper and a good pencil are with us to stay - most excellent technology.
I sport an ever present clipboard with plain white paper and attached pencil in my office. I use it daily and find that nothing beats a hand-written daily list done first thing in the AM or before leaving the office the night before.
It’s also great for ready note taking when I’m on the phone. I keep about a week or two of notes in the clipboard which makes for easy access to the stuff I’m actively working on…
October 26th, 2007 at 6:19 pm
This is EXACTLY what I do. When I started this job, I immediately knew I’d be lost without a way of keeping track of all the things people shove across my desk, so I began keeping my dated to-do list on a small white legal-style reporter’s notepad, crossing off things as they’re done. The list has two halves—the top half is “do today or as soon as possible,” the bottom half “long-term to-do.” Each list item has a number, not to denote importance but just so the item doesn’t get lost on the page and get ignored.
I also take it to meetings and devote an entire new page to each meeting.
Nice thing is, these notepads are (at least currently) provided free in office supplies.