Alright, let me break down how I got hooked on flat tracking last month after hitting a major productivity wall. Started simple – just grabbed a wrinkled notebook and a chewed-up pen from my junk drawer.
The “Why” Hit Me Hard
See, Monday mornings used to murder me. Felt like juggling chainsaws while emails blew up my phone. Coffee gone cold before I even touched real work. My brain kept hopping between Slack, sticky notes and calendar alerts – total zombie mode by noon.
Fed up, I scribbled EVERYTHING swirling in my head onto one messy page:
- Client call at 10AM
- Fix Jenny’s invoice glitch
- Water plants
- Brainstorm podcast episode
- Reply to supplier pricing email
Didn’t sort or color-code. Just dumped it raw.
My Clunky First Attempt
Grabbed a kitchen timer – set it for 25 minutes staring at that ugly list. Crossed off “water plants” immediately (took 3 minutes, felt stupid even writing it). Then spotted “invoice glitch” near “supplier email”. Realized both needed accounting login. BAM – killed two tasks back-to-back in one system.
Changed “brainstorm podcast” to “spit 3 trash ideas into voice memos”. Recorded while walking to lunch. Felt like cheating.
Shocking What Happened After
By Thursday? Wild stuff:
- Client fire drill popped up – glanced at the list. Pushed “reply to pricing email” to Friday instantly. No guilt.
- Caught myself adding “check Twitter trends” six times daily. Slashed it to one 4PM slot.
- Found three “urgent” items that magically solved themselves when ignored.
Used leftover energy to finally deep-clean my coffee maker. Achievement unlocked.
Now I keep that ratty notebook wide open all day. Cross out tasks like a caveman drawing kills on a wall. Boss asked why I suddenly ship projects faster – showed him coffee-stained pages. Dude looked confused but sent me a thumbs-up emoji.
Point is? Didn’t need fancy apps or bullet journal artistry. Just pen, paper, and permission to be brutally simple.
