Would love to see if anyone has a good & sustainable system by doing this in a notebook. My system is a small notebook, with 1 week “sprints”. Inspired a bit by bullet journal. A sprint section is the start/end date of the week, underlined. Unearneath are two columns - left is for important & urgent. Right is less important / less urgent. Within these two columns I free-list my todo’s, with a checkbox next to each. If I can think about it, sorting by importance/urgency, descending. As I go through the week, I add things, check stuff off, etc. At the end of week, I start a new week sprint. For not done items from previous week, I rewrite them into the new sprint. I try to order them but most important/urgent at top.

I’ve been doing this since 2015. Works great for me. Previously, I’d tried digital systems like Asana, Trello, text files, etc. In the end, I’d use them for awhile (or for part of my life) then stop after 6 months. This one - for better or worse - has stuck. I’d love to hear about other peoples paper based systems like this. If nothing else, to iterate and improve!

Issues/gaps with my system I’d love to fix: How to handle personal vs work (1 book containing each? Or separate?). How to indicate size of effort? How to handle projects (grouping of tasks) vs free tasks? How to handle long term initiatives (e.g. “learn spanish”) in the same system? How to handle recurring tasks (e.g. call distant friend X every month)?

Screenshot of my notebook: https://imgur.com/a/XmOMR