Done Three Ways: Marking Completed Tasks In Your Planner | Giftie Etcetera: Done Three Ways: Marking Completed Tasks In Your Planner

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Done Three Ways: Marking Completed Tasks In Your Planner

I write using Frixion erasable inks. They are fairly inexpensive, stay in my (admittedly large because I use Franklin Covey) pen holders, and are colorful.



I know they are controversial, mostly because some people are afraid that the writing would disappear in a hot car or over time. So far, even though I live in the Deep South, I've had no problems. But I accept that it is possible to have the ink fade.

TIP: If Frixion ink fades, try putting your paper in the freezer overnight.

BONUS TIP: Write a note to your kids in Frixion ink and erase it. Give it to them to put in the freezer for a few hours. Then have them read the secret message.

I am willing to take my chances, though, mostly because my archiving is just for convenience. For example, I got a text from a friend today, wanting my mailing address. The friend and I had texted back and forth in the past, so I knew it was someone who I knew. But her name wasn't in my cell phone, so who? Our last text was about her coming into town the week of Thanksgiving, so I pulled out last year's pages and found out who visited back then. If I couldn't do stuff like that, it wouldn't be a huge loss.

That said, I wanted to talk about the different ways that you can handle marking things "done" in your planner. If you don't have the option to erase or white out, of course, some of this might not apply to you.


If something is undone and recopied (with tick marks) to another day or rescheduled (without tick marks, if for a legit reason, like someone else rescheduling), I erase it. In the picture above, under the words "Allstate waiver," you can see that I erased a couple of things. One, for example, was an errand to pay my mom back some money that I owed her. My trip to my mom's house was cancelled due to bad weather, meaning I had to reschedule the task for a legitimate reason.

If something unimportant was done, I simply scratch through it. I use one wavy line, so I can still read the information. Mostly, that is what happened to tasks in the second box of the picture above.

If something important was done (like re-enrolling my kids in school), I write over the task in my highlight color "DONE" and the date. There is an example of that in the third box in the picture. It's hard to read on the computer screen, but serves as a reminder of when I completed the task, say if the school claims I didn't meet the deadline. I can say, "I did on January 28th" and start sorting things out from there.

TIP: Also note any receipt or confirmation number when you mark the task done.

Note how consistent I am about my record-keeping. Not done? Erase. Done? Scratch or note.

Actually scratching stuff out makes the rest of the writing pop out of the page so it is easy to see.

This simple method has saved me many times when someone claimed I didn't do something. Usually, that someone is not someone who actually knows me. (My husband, bless his heart, is finally starting to realize that if I say I did it, I did it, and I can produce evidence to prove it.) (Marriage is not a contest.) (But if marriage was a contest, I'd win. ;) )

Etcetera.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

This is super helpful! I hadn't thought of erasing for the purpose of rescheduling versus proving you've done it. Thanks!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tammies00 said...

I have never thought of writing "done" over the task. I like that idea.

yezenia said...

I still check off done tasks, cross out items with a line that ends with an arrow when I reschedule (cough*procrastinate*cough), and then put hashes on that line everytime I reschedule. I've adopted your reschedule five times and no more rule to postponing tasks. So far I've only gotten to five once and then I took action, so it worked! When I cross stuff out it means, for me, that is been cancelled altogether but it's still something is like to remember having been scheduled or an issue in the first place. But I do use a wavy line to show cancellation at work on my work "brain."

yezenia said...

Excuse the typos, I'm sleepy.

pattygardner.com said...

This comment cracked me up because it's so ME:

"This simple method has saved me many times when someone claimed I didn't do something. Usually, that someone is not someone who actually knows me. (My husband, bless his heart, is finally starting to realize that if I say I did it, I did it, and I can produce evidence to prove it.) (Marriage is not a contest.) (But if marriage was a contest, I'd win. ;) )"