This week on Productivity Alchemy, we will check in with our Wombat Test Subject, and discuss how a simple to-do list works for her. We will also look at using a calendar as part of her organization. Our interview this week is with Author, Illustrator, and Test Subject Ursula Vernon, and after that we’ll talk about how you – yes YOU – can earn badges for listening!
 Links for this episode:
- OpenBadges.org
- Backpack
- Depression-Busting Exercise Tips For People Too Depressed To Exercise
- Productivity Alchemy Badge How-To
I swear you are leading her to bullet journal :p. Wombat test subject may like the callendex
I think Ursula might feel me on this one: crossing things off a list is not a rewarding activity (to me). So many people start their spiel on behalf of To-Do lists which sentences like “Write down something you will definitely get done, then check it off and feel good about yourself.” People who like lists might derive some enjoyment from that but for me there is only resentment, look at this perfectly good paper being wasted on something that will be useless by tomorrow and that galling bit of extra effort it took for me to find a pen. I’ve also learned not to try to use rewards systems because I am the sort of person who will happily starve to death or die of uremic poisoning if I tell myself “I’ll finish going over this bank reconciliation and then I can take a break!” There is no reward potent enough that it will drive me to clean my car.
On a TMI tangent, I was actually told by my GI specialist to start a journal keeping track of my diet, pain levels, and bowel movements just last Monday. June 16th bears the distinction of being the day I needed to decide how I was going to demarcate the occurrence of bloody stool for my new and exceptionally creepy ledger. After what was probably too much thought, I decided to go with an asterisk. I cannot say that this decision made me feel any better about the situation as a whole.