Printable cards
These printable cards can help with learning and staying productive and organized. They're meant to be printed onto thick paper or thin card stock, but any kind of paper will work.
This is not meant to replace software solutions. Keeping a task backlog on paper is impractical, but writing down your daily tasks and ideas is helpful.
Use cases
- Simple task lists
- Reminders
- Interval-based time management
- Zettelkasten notes
- Flash cards for presentations
- Creating a 'commonplace book'
- Brainstorming
Tools needed
- A printer
- Paper
- A paper cutter (preferably, but scissors or a knife will do)
- A knife and cutting mat for tab cards
- A corner cutter (optional, if you prefer rounded corners)
Why use paper?
Paper forces you to be mindful of what you write down because it takes time and effort. The physical act of writing helps with dedicating to tasks. It helps with memorization. It allows you to go fully offline and disconnect and focus on what needs to be done. Physically checking boxes feels rewarding. Pen and paper will always work, even in a power outage. It is endlessly customisable. It is privacy friendly because it can be completely destroyed.
And most of all, putting pen to paper causes a special feeling that no software can achieve.
What about the environment?
A downside of using paper is that it isn't very environmentally friendly (but neither is the electricity usage of using software or the production of hardware). Please try to be responsible by minimizing waste and using fairly sourced, recycled paper.
Why use cards instead of sticky notes/full-size paper/a journal?
Because they can be...
- stacked and shuffled
- individually moved, rearranged or destroyed
- used for spaced repetition learning
- clipped onto things
- used to create a Zettelkasten
- limitlessly arranged on a table
- placed in a box with tab cards to create an overview of projects and ideas
These cards work well when used alongside a journal. Log thoughts, ideas, events, meeting notes, phone calls, etc. in a journal, and use the cards for task lists and all other use cases listed above.
No backups?!
A downside of using paper is that there's no automatic method of backing things up. Make sure to digitize important information.
Inspired by
- Luhmann's Zettelkasten
- PoIC (Pile of Index Cards)
- Bullet Journal