It's a new year, and I decided I needed something to manage my To Dos, plan my day, and act as a daily log of what I accomplished. Here's the thing––or things:

• I wanted a single tool
• I wanted something that reduced typing/writing recurring items.
• I didn't want multiple notebooks or organizer apps.
• I didn't want to learn something new,
• I don't want a calendar-based approach. I want to focus on today.
• I don't want a time-based reminder system (I have calendars and reminders for that)
• I wanted something that was both analog and digital, and
• that I could use on my SuperNote Manta or Nomad eink pads (my daily carry).

I scoured sources and various physical and digital apps. I couldn't find a single solution, but I found a few that hinted at one was possible, so I came up with my own solution.

Now, this isn't perfect––even for me. But it's close to what I need.

Essentially, I took bits of the Bullet Journal approach, the Alistair Method and combined them into a PDF template that I can use on an eInk device, or print out and use in a truly-analog style. Of course, I can use it digitally via the PDF.  The template is set up for a month-long period (4 weeks). I could have made one with 52 weeks, but I didn't feel like creating links, or a master calendar, etc. So, I'll just copy the template at the start of each month and use it.

What does it look like? 

The template contains 14 pages:

1 - A title page:

As you can see it has a place to write the current month, and a key to the tables (taken from Bullet Journaling).

This is followed by 4 sections of 3 pages each–a section per week.

2 - A Notes page:

I wanted a place to take notes for the current week. Or, actually, I thought others would want it.

3 - The two main task pages.

This is a list of tasks and a day-by-day grid for the current week. The image above shows that I've typed in and scheduled two tasks on the selected days (using the above key). This asks as my to do list. When I finish a task, I can convert the • to an x (or another mark) to act as a log of that task for that day. The other thing to note, is that you can pre-type in all of your "standard tasks" and save writing/typing each day. (Of course, you'll have to do this for each of the 4 weeks in the month–you could create a meta-template for each month at the start of the year, if you wanted to). Yes, there is a typo in the image above. Don't yell at me ;)

4 - Following the 4 weekly sections, I've included a Yearly Goals tracker. I could've split this into its own template, but I wanted to keep things simple.

The status column uses the same symbols. 

As I said, I'll use this as a template for the each month on the SuperNote device. I'll pre-fill (type) all my known/daily tasks in the grid. I'll move the template to the device, and then write in any new tasks as needed, updating the status of everything I do each day, as needed.

That's it. If you want to give this a try, you can get either the original Mac Pages document, or a PDF version on this page here.

I'm providing this free of charge and as-is. I hope you find it useful and it helps you make sense of your disorganized life ;)