Paperthink’s design is based on the idea that the space a task takes up on a page should be proportional to the importance of a task. One of the downfalls of to-do lists is that all the tasks are the same size, which encourages people to look for quick wins (crossing off the easy and simple tasks) rather than working on the most important ones.
Specifications
- A7 sized (10.5 x 7.4 cm)
- 50 sheets per notepad
- Easy to write on
- Designed in Bristol, UK
- Made in Germany
1. Pick one task that you want to acoplish today
2. Break that task down into smaller tasks
3. Add up to three tasks to do that day (once you’re finished your priority)
4. Pick one short task that you’ve been putting off for a while to do first, to kickstart your day’s motivation
Paperthink solves this by making you set one task as a priority for the day, and then forcing you to break it down so that it makes up more tasks on the page. You can add up to five extra non-related tasks to the list.
We also include a frog at the top, because ticking off something that you’ve been putting off for a while is a good habit to get into, and great for kickstarting motivation.
Zeno’s scheduler organises your day by making you do your longer tasks first when you have the most focus. Get the longer deep work tasks done at the start of the day and work on shorter tasks towards the end as your attention span lapses.
Designed for people who like to organise their day by length of task, we named this one after Zeno’s paradox.
Paperthink’s design is based on the idea that the space a task takes up on a page should be proportional to the importance of a task. One of the downfalls of to-do lists is that all the tasks are the same size, which encourages people to look for quick wins (crossing off the easy and simple tasks) rather than working on the most important ones.
Big projects are hard to make a start on. Keep breaking down goals until they're arranged into manageable subtasks using this dinky little notepad. Ideally all tasks you undertake should be less than an hour, but we know that some of them will need a much larger chunk of time set aside to make progress
“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” - Mark Twain
Frogs are tasks that you’ve been putting off for a long time which somehow never get around to. “I must do that tomorrow” you think. Just as you thought yesterday, and the day before that.Keep track of your frogs and how old they’re getting.
Task bucket is a modified version of the Eisenhower matrix method. The issue we had with the matrix method is that you always need a second piece of paper to list all of your tasks before you start categorising them. This design allows you to make the list first. The second issue that we had with the original matrix was that you often have to decide on urgency and important simultaneously, which can make distinguishing between the two a challenge. Here the two are physically on opposite sides of the list, so you score each one separately.
Right place. Right time. Right task.
Some tasks require you to be in certain places or with certain people. These conditions can act as a roadblock as setting them up takes time and effort.
Batch encourages you to organise tasks with similar conditions onto the same list. Collect tasks over the course of a week and then breeze through them in one go.
The key to having good ideas is to have many ideas. Want to come up with better ideas? Decide on a number of ideas to come up with and don’t discount any until you've hit your target number. Brainstorm notepad has a set number of slots that you HAVE to fill before you're allowed to pass judgement. Picking an endurance challenge? Let's see ‘ultimate camel riding’ alongside 'marathon' and 'cycling'.
Don’t look at your to do list first thing in the morning. You’ll spend half an hour trying to work out what to do next and end up with decision fatigue before your coffee has cooled. Write yourself a daily priority list every night before you go to sleep so that you know what you need to do the next day.