Rollabind on about:rileycsillag fka drewcsillag

Staples Arc Paper - $100 vs. $20

Sat, 15 Jul 2017 11:29:26 -0400

(see here for the full Agile Organizer series)

I’ve now been using my agile organizer system for now going on three years, with a few adjustments, but the main principles firmly in place. I did however switch form factor from letter sized to junior sized paper (5.5" x 8.5", or the half-letter-sized) and 2x2 sized stickies rather than the standard 3x3. As not everything winds up on stickies, as I keep a running log of what I’m doing, notes, etc. as written on the regular pages, I did eventually need to get refill paper.

The Agile Organizer, Part 3 - Retrospectives

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 09:52:26 -0400

(see here for the full Agile Organizer series)

Retrospectives

If you do Agile, it’s probable that you do something called a retrospective. At least in the ones I’ve been involved with, there’s usually a part where we go over what’s going well, and what could be changed. With the agile organizer, I’ve found that periodically doing retrospectives about the way I am using it is useful and worthwhile. If you use it, I hope you would too.

The Agile Organizer, Part 2

Sat, 31 May 2014 09:52:26 -0400

(see here for the full Agile Organizer series)

In The Agile Organizer, I described the basics my organization system. In this second part, I go into some ways that I use it that weren’t covered in the first post.

The Dumping Ground

Sometimes, when I’m working on an idea, I just want to get the bits down, but don’t want to think, necessarily, about how they fit just yet. In such a case, I’ll have a page where I just stick the stickies to a page wherever they’ll fit, with the idea that I’ll come back to it later to sort it all out.

The Agile Organizer

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 14:05:14 -0400

(see here for the full Agile Organizer series)

For a long time, I’ve tried a multitude of personal organization systems, from the normal calendars, to online calendars, to Evernote, org-mode, and so on and nothing has ever truly worked for me. The main reason is that I’ve got a few main needs:

Capture - if it never makes it in, it’s gone
Ideation - have to be able to brainstorm with it
Reference - for things I need frequently enough, but not so much that I keep it in my head
Planning - what am I doing?
Historical record - what did I do?
Visibility - easier to use if I can see it all the time

There’s also a simplicity hurdle involved. If it’s too much of a pain to use, it won’t get used, so it has to be convenient and easy.