ieve's Squall of Consciousness

Entry 8 - New Year, New Organization System

(Jan 2 2026)

The Hundredth Attempt At Getting Organized

I don't even know how many ways, how many different times I've tried to get organized. Complicated systems, simple systems, paper analog systems, elaborate digital systems. Getting Things Done, Personal Kanban, Cal Newport style stuff, just using a simple notebook, just using a single page word doc and printing that out every day, whiteboard next to my work desk, day-book planners.

I mean, I've been struggling with this crap since middle school when we got those holographic planners which were used mostly for making noise by running your pencil or fingernail over the cover more than actually planning anything...

Every Kid Had The Same School-Issued Planner. But…Why? - Kelly Jensen, May 28 2024

I started the year (yesterday) with lofty ambitions of doing the multiscale planning _except really this time_, but then I went back through my old systems and check-in notes where I wrote about how the systems worked, or mostly, did not work and how I was still completely overwhelmed and frustrated. Soooo ... decided to scale it waaaaaay back. Not all the way to zero, because then I'm just in pure reactive firefighting mode, but ... extremely lightweight.

New System follows a timeless principle: KISS

No seriously, I'm so stupid, I need to keep it _simple_ this time.

How does it work?

Weekly: Braindump of open loops

Make a list of everything that is stressing me out, or is top of mind as 'things I need to do'.
Ignore last week's list - it doesn't carry over. If it is truly important, it's either still top-of-mind or it'll come back.

Daily: Pick two things

(presumably from the weekly list we created but not necessarily)

Thing 1: Figure out what the most important "one thing I must do to avoid getting yelled at" is. Do that today.
Thing 2: What do I actually _want_ to do? Protect 1 hour for that.
... If there is time and executive function to do more things after that, great. If not, whatever.

(I have a wicked fawn response, so my primary motivation for getting tasks done at work is 'not getting in trouble'. Yay. But also got that ADHD interest based attention so, throwing something I actually _want_ into the mix as well.)

Where does the weekly list of open loops and daily plan get recorded?

Hobonichi Techo Graph Notebook (A5 size) with a cute as heck Moomin cover, and a heckin cute Moomin pencil board to put behind what I'm expecting to be very thin pages that may tear or bleed ink without the pencil board. (We'll see, notebook comes tomorrow.)

I wanted the Hobonichi Techo Cousin A5 daybook but it is too expensive - either pay $20 markup on Amazon for a notebook that is already expensive, or pay like $40 shipping and import fees to have it sent from Japan.

But what about forgetting things that you don't get to within a week?

Fuck em. If you can't remember, it wasn't important. And if it was important, somebody will come asking about it.

"Trust the system", my boss keeps telling me. (Sometimes the system is 'your shit gets rejected by FDA or EU notified body'. I don't know _why_ the bar is in hell, but that's where it's at.)

But what about personal kanban and GTD?

GTD is ... not entirely nonsense but just never works for me. Absolutely agree that open loops need to be out of the brain and onto some paper so that I'm not using background brain cycles on keeping that thought active.

But once I have any non-trivial amount of workplace 'stuff', the time and cognitive load of turning all the 'stuff' into actionable projects/tasks with a defined next step is just too much. I can't figure out where to put all the things -- there are just too many short-term tasks and long-term projects and "Oh I need to remember to do {thing}", especially when it's not just _doing_ something, each thing needs to be _figured out_ in its own bespoke way, I crumble.

I have almost zero rote work. Which is good, I hate rote work. But there's ... basically nothing I can do if I don't have brainpower / executive function. Everything needs to be thought through carefully ... and when I don't take the time to do that, I always end up asking later "Why in the fuck did I sign off on this half-assed plan or obviously incorrect deliverable?" -- So not a lot of my work can just be 'chugged through' the way GTD seems to imply.

That's not to say that the things aren't important, or that in a perfect world that they shouldn't all be tracked to completion. But rather to say that in this world, in the workplace I exist within, where there is so little structure, zero project management support, and utter contempt from my product development team toward processes and tools that I consider not just useful but _essential_ to organize our development processes and keep track of stuff...

I just can't anymore. I am burnt right the fuck out, and I'm reduced to maintaining my sanity and mental health by achieving "What do I have to do to avoid being seen as 'the hold up'?"

Extended rant about workplace organization

(My PD team's idea of project planning is to make a big list of the deliverables. It's actually our DHF index. It's literally just a giant excel sheet with hundreds of deliverables listed on it - no predecessors/successors, no dependency information, no discussion or planning of prerequisite scaffolding that is needed (yes guys, it really is needed) for things we haven't done as a company before, such as in-house software development. Just, a big ass list, at least with rough project phases (although project phases are not meaningful anymore because they're all in parallel?) and owners. Cool. Great. So helpful.)

I tried to convince them that this isn't effective project management, and that there are tools and systems to help. Not just gantt charts, but like ... work breakdown structures, and mapping dependencies for critical path, and doing proper estimates of effort needed for work packages so we can estimate resource needs vs resource availability and make a realistic determination of how long things are going to take.

I got told to shut up and get back in my lane ... (Not the exact words, but definitely the exact sentiment).

Oh well.

I wonder why the project is now planned to be submitted to FDA 7 months late... hrmmmm... hmm... hummmmm.... i guess there's just _nothing_ that could have been done (Jeremy Clarkson said, clinking his beer to Richard Hammond while James May floats down the river shouting for their help)

But what about time blocking?

Probably still useful. Especially to block out time for a quick lunch and midday walking or recreational reading, so that I don't just grind on a work task and forget to eat / do something I enjoy.

And all that multiscale planning / life planning Cal talks about?

Abandoning Cal Newportonian Multiscale Planning (Strategic Plan / Weekly Plan / Daily plan). No values planning, no flowing a quarterly or seasonal plan down to a weekly plan to drive my daily plan. It's all just too much for my poor brain. Just gonna do the bare minimum I need to do to get through my job, and then just ... do the rest live. As if it's like, a life or something.

- 🜌

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