Strikethru - time management system at the junction of GTD and goals magazine

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The Strikethru system combines the GTD methodology and the goal log. It is suitable for those who prefer a pen and a notebook to electronic to-do-lists.

To use the Strikethru technique, divide your notebook into four parts:

To Do Today: Active to-do lists for the day, compiled on the evening of the previous day. Execution priority is specified for list tasks.
"Dump": a place in a notebook where you will write down all tasks and ideas.
"Storage": lists will be here, divided into groups. Mark each of them with two letters in the corner of the sheet. For example: "PR" - project, "EN" - weekly.
"Calendar": on the first pages of the notebook, place calendars for each month or for one month, if the notebook is enough for that long. Add pending tasks there.

You can use the light version of Strikethru: only two sections - "Dump" and "Make today". The standard version of the methodology assumes the presence of "Storage". And in the pro version, the "Calendar" section is added. The technique can be combined with other productivity systems such as Kanban and Pomodoro.

The author of the system Chris told on Reddit how the idea of the Strikethru method came to him, and shared its basic principles. Below we give his story.

This system is a cross between a to-do list and a goal journal, and it helped me take control of my life. I named it Strikethru. I really like to cross out the done things. I get pleasure when I take a marker and cross out a task with a confident line, and not just delete it, as it happens in electronic lists.

How I came to my system

I had a Kickstarter project and in May I needed to package and ship items to buyers. At the same time, there were changes at work, and I was getting used to the new role, and we were in the midst of a move, and our eight-month-old baby began to crawl. I felt like everything was getting out of my control.

It was necessary to somehow streamline life. I tried GTD but didn’t see any results, I was fond of the goals magazine, but it didn’t work for me either. And I started experimenting.

I started making one long to-do list, but it didn't really apply to one day. So I broke it down into To Do Today and Dump lists, where I upload all the results of my brainstorming: ideas, deeds.

Having used this system a little, I realized that I needed to expand it somewhat. I needed to-do lists for projects, so the "Warehouse" appeared. The list of tasks for a specific project contains all the tasks that need to be done on it. Do it Today is the core of my day. In the evening, I spend a few minutes to make this list for the next day. In it I collect tasks from the "Storage" and "Dump".

As with the GTD system, I use retrospectives. I spend the big time once a month: I look through and change all the lists in the "Storage" and "Dump", update the "Calendar" section. Every night's retrospective takes five minutes, and I spend it on my to-do list for the next day. I do not differentiate between tasks, events and appointments. Everything I have to do I write in one notebook.

In Calendar, I can draw up a long-term plan. I don’t want to create a separate list with dates when tasks need to be completed, but I can’t write them in "To Do Today" either, because it will break the concept of a daily list. Thanks to the "Calendar" I can add tasks, events and appointments for a month in advance and not forget about them.

Finally, I don't completely rewrite tasks from Vault and Dump to Make Today or Calendar. Each task has an identifier - the letter code of the page or a number plus the number of the task in the list. I move it between the lists.