Throwing Away Your Hipster PDA
On my flight back to San Diego from a short business trip to Corvallis, Oregon, I added a few more pages of notes and a dozen or so unchecked tasks in my Hipster PDA. Yes, I too have been following the latest life hack trend from 43 Folders. This was my effort at increasing productivity and organizing the seemingly impossible amount of work I am forever faced with. Unfortunately, I left my Hipster PDA on the plane. All my notes and unfished tasks left on some random flight. I lost my todo list!
For about five seconds this morning I freaked! “Oh crap, what am I suppose to do?” My only choice was to count on my own memory to piece things together. But I can only remember a few of the important tasks. My feeble human brain can’t handle the full details left in my Hipster PDA! How am I suppose to accomplish all those tasks?
And then the epiphany: I remember only a few of the important tasks, the few tasks that were interesting or important enough that my brain decided to keep. I have no choice but to ignore everything but the few tasks that persisted in my feedble human brain! This is the ultimate life hack, put everything in your Hipster PDA… and then throw it away!!
Technically, this wasn’t an official Hipster PDA. Not that there’s anything official about the Hipster PDA, but mine predates the invention of the Hipster. I’ve been using an old-fashion Mead Composition Book, hard cover with grid-lined graphing paper. Extremely organized, from software and data architecture, this is definitely the most flexible and scalable modelling tool I’ve ever used! I’m definitely going to get another one, and then lose it all over again! With that said, here’s my recommended life hack for anyone needing to prioritize an impossibly long list of tasks.
Step 1: Get a Hipster PDA
Step 2: Write down all of your tasks, along with detailed notes about everything you want to accomplish. This includes models, drawings, everything! Keep doing this until you become overwhelmed.
Step 3: Throw the Hipster PDA away! Better yet, light it on fire to make sure you don’t go looking for the damn thing later!
That’s it, now you just need to remember what you were suppose to do. You’re left with only the tasks that are worth remembering!