Long Story Short

This site was built because I was lazy one day and didn't want to go to the store to get a new set of spiral-bound index cards. I had recently been reading Steve Pavlina's blog, which is exceptionally motivational, and decided to channel the laziness into a challenge. So I gave myself 20 hours to use my web skills and program my own web-based tool to do what I wanted it to do -- mimic the spiral bound index cards I was buying to track my goals.

You see, part of the laziness stems from the fact that I use a wheelchair and it takes twice as long to run errands for me, so I avoid errands whenever I can to save time. So the 2 hours to go to the store was already 10% of my development time budget.

So I built this virtual index card system for myself, hoping that others like me, who have lots of ideas and so little time, could benefit.

Long Story

Externally it appears I am terribly disorganized. But 99% of the time I can tell you exactly where something is based on the memory of where it was the last time I saw it.

Unless it's a sheet of paper.

I love lists. I used to make lists of my favorite teachers, my favorite subjects, my favorite sports, and yes, even my favorite relatives (which as a kid usually was highly correlated to what they gave me for Christmas.)

But I would constantly make lists of things I needed to do on paper and then inevitably lose the sheet of paper. Since all paper tends to look alike (I have a good memory, just not photographic), the lists would get lost in the mountains of bills and junk mail on my desk and I'd just start over with new lists.

This was highly inefficient and highly unsatisfying because I could not see the progress I was making on my lists. Even though I loved to make the lists, listmaking itself became a procrastination tool.

So first I tried notebooks. This seemed to work, except that then the tasks would be in one long list on one sheet in the notebook and then get lost amongst the pages of scribbles, diagrams, notes-to-self, and other musings about how I could complete these tasks.

Plus then I would look at a long task list and the ink would suddenly transform itself to a cartoon of Mount Everest with me at the very bottom.

So then one day I saw these spiral bound index cards at the store and I said to myself, "Self: This might work perfectly for you. Buy it and try it." And I did.

I bought the cards and came home. Eagerly I wrote down one thing on each card that I could do to make my quality of life immediately better, such as:

• Hang art in the bathroom
• Get the TV out of my bedroom
• Buy soft blankets
• Pay an accountant to worry about my taxes for me

The notecards quickly filled up with 50 things I could do easily to make my life better. Some were as easy as sticking a nail in the wall and hanging up a picture I already owned. Others involved a little more effort, like finding an accountant. But they all pertained to the same goal: MAKE MY LIFE BETTER.

Suddenly a better life didn't seem so difficult to obtain.

Amazingly, I started flipping through the cards immediately and spotted some things I could do right then and there. AND I DID THEM.

Each day after that (sometimes more than once a day) I would flip through the cards and pick out a few things to do that day. AND I WOULD DO THEM. Or I would contact people who could help me do them and bring them in on my mission.

After I would do the task on the note card, I would rip it out and toss it. I thought maybe I should keep them for posterity, but then I realized the fruits of my labor were now tangible and no longer on an index card, so that was proof enough. Plus if I kept them, God knows I'd just have ripped-out index cards strewn about my apartment.

So once I figured out that this system was working, I bought a couple extra sets of spiral bound index cards and made one for each distinct goal or area of my life that wanted to keep track of. So now I have a couple of them lying around, in addition to the Quality of Life notecards:

• General Goals For Life: These are BIG goals that I can't do in one day, but I flip through daily before I flip through the others (that will inevitably get me to the point where I can rip out the big goals!)
• Ideas: These are things I may never do, but I don't want to lose track of -- such as business ideas or writing topics. Eventually they might have a note card spiral of their very own.
• Places I Want to Visit
• Nice Things to Do For Other People

Then one day, I needed more cards but I was lazy. So I decided I sould use my web skills to build my own online system to keep track of things better. Thus, this site was born.

Why it worked for me (I think)

There are a bunch of reasons why I think this system has worked for me:

• I was forced to write down tasks that could fit on a note card.
• I was forced to organize them under a common theme.
• I had fun flipping through them and it felt like less guilty procrastination.
• I had fun ripping them out and hearing the sound.
• They didn't get lost in the shuffle because they were like mini booklets.
• On the back, I could write down notes about the task as I was flipping through even if I wasn't going to do it that day but I might have thought of someone or something that could help me get it done eventually.
• I could easily tell whether a task was something I was "in the mood" to do that day, so I was more likely to do it.
• In flipping through the cards, I would constantly remind myself of things that needed to be done on a daily basis. Sometimes then I'd remember to buy something or do something when I was out and about, even if it wasn't a task I specifically had in mind.

How it might work for you

If you can relate to me at all from what I've written here, this system might very well work for you. The only way to find out is to try it online or offline. I tried to make the online experience as close to the offline experience as possible.

You could use it to organize your thoughts however you like:

• Create a master Goal List
• Create a spiral for a specific individual goal like "Get a new job"
• List all the places you want to visit
• List people you need to contact
• Create a spiral for your everyday chores

Advantages to doing this online

I've actually found that I have been able to do a few extra things that I wasn't able to do with the offline version:

• Edit a card so it still looks nice and not have to read my own handwriting which is often illegible.
• Add unlimited cards instead of being limited to 50 or 100 that come with each spiral
• Make sure I keep my tasks short (255 characters or less for those of you that are counting)
• Keep a count of how many things I actually completed and when.
• See how many times I looked at a card.
• See which ones are completed.
• Print out a list if I want to.
• Get relevant (or mostly relevant) search results instantly.

The list goes on and on.

My overall goal for this site is to make it easy and usable for myself and others like me. Ideas and feedback are always welcomed.