Everyday Systems

New Episode -- hope you enjoy.

Episode 99: Bracket Journaling
Posted by Reinhard on 2025-10-30
Moleskines for Monkey Mind

https://podcast.everydaysystems.com/episode/99/

That was beautifully insane to read. Promoting a small t to capital T, by putting a line on top? Veering into direction, like a tornado? As if the bracketing and scheduled reviewing wasnt cool enough in itself.

I keep a really thick file with collection of vomit-papers, dating back to early 2000s which i dont think are reviewable, but I don't want to throw them out either. I am pre-mortified, so i never really open the file.

Even though a big fan of notebooks , mailny for drawing, only a couple years ago i started to keep a "regular" notebook, with daily entries, but mostly for work: tasks (a pers. punchcard essentially, but within the notebook) and "while-do" lists (a method that enables me to actually work on a computer without being distracted instatntly. I write a numbered task, then immediately do it, cross out, write the next one..)

Recently i did start to include a micro diary entry, but not always. This scheduled review concept sheds a new light and i will definitely give it a go, since usually when i try to review the entries, it is too ureadable and mostly crossed out, so i give up.

P.s. Spekaing of punch cards: at some point i felt the need for in-day scheduling, besides work/personal prioritization, so now i first make the big cross creating two columns (of course) but also two "rows", or to put it more acurately - 4 quadrants of the day with a couple of lines each. This gives me good enough "around the clock" feeling. Left column starts at the bottom , climbing up to the "noon" and then the right column goes down to "6pm". Horizontal "9am-3pm" line makes a great (well, good enough anyways) anchor when glancing at the list though out the day, and now that I think of it , the cross does remind of a letter t, as in "tasks". I might start to promote it to capital at the end of the day.

Miran, I'm so glad this episode spoke to you. And so grateful to hear it.

I would be very interested to see an example of your 4-quadrant punch card! The concept definitely intrigues me.

Interesting to hear about your drawing notebooks. When I was a kid, I drew a lot. I'd love to pick that up again. My son (now 13) has been encouraging me, but it hasn't clicked yet. Maybe my next notebook-related system or subsystem...

Reinhard

Reinhard,
so personal punchcards have always been one of my favourite Everyday systems,
because the revolutionary do-it-all approach. I have used it forever now.
But there were few issues with the original (and redux) versions:

1. the card as a medium - i love it, but im not much of a wallet guy, and i still don't have a good box to store the cards,
so they are hardly reviewable, and i can barely get a glimpse of a continuity with them.
--> So i switched to notebook, but kept the card format within the pages.

2. while it works like a charm with errands and chores and any kind of "walking" tasks, it doesn't seem to
"make me" do actual work-work, (on a computer), or "sitting tasks" that require focus
--> So i added a "while-do" section to the notebook.

3. i tend to overschedule with work tasks so i needed a better sense of time consumption slots
(without reaching for the actual google calendar, which doesn't work because its digital, and it is too
detailed and distracting and fiddly, too much organizing horsepower for me)
---> so i added time quadrants.
All tasks are roughly scheduled - it is a rough clock dial.
I've always tried to incorporate two clock dials for AM and PM to my organizational charts, but never succeeded,
it was always too much info for a single day, just as Gcal! Turns out it is not neccessary, as this is just as good enough.
It makes me mentally run trough the day in a clockwise manner and jot down priority items.
It also conveniently brings up the "healthy working hours" 9am-3pm to the "top" of the list,
which discourages me from scheduling allnighters or crazy early mornings / late evenings which never work in the long run.

I've found that 8 items is a good default granularity.
"Rougher" than an hour granularity by 50% ! So each "task" is "allowed" to take up an hour and a half.
And this is mainly for work tasks that actually take as much, and also to admit to myself that kindergarten and school dropoffs and pickups
and never ending dog walks actually do take this much time. Of course, with chores and smaller tasks i squeeze two them in a single cell as needed - chore + chore, or cooking + drawing.
So,
2 of them are always a substantial work chunk tasks
1 is always a cooking / diet related item
1 is always an art/drawing related task
1 is always a weekday specific chore
what is left are 3 slots for family appointments, errands etc.

Depicted below is my "regular" punchcard, with daunting work tasks unfinished, and to the right my current notebook system.
edit: the embedding doesn't seem to work so here's the link
https://ibb.co/HL2z1Spw

Miran,

I love this! Thank you for the detailed response and photo.

Makes a lot of sense. And I think you've perfectly capture the spirit of punchcards in the notebook medium.

The analog clock inspiration is both a lovely nod to a charmingly antiquated technology and structurally effective.

Reinhard