Thanks for all the advice, encouragement and words of caution. I have moved most of my action lists to paper and am experiencing an overall improvement. Paper is nicer to manipulate, easier to read and more flexible in terms of layout, drawing, tearing, folding, highlighting, etc. I’m half way through my weekly review and it was a pleasure to scan through my action lists. My project lists are still digital and the prospect of reading through them is so daunting that I’m writing a reply here instead.

(It’s not all bad though. I’m going to try printing them out for the review.)

Some things I’m having difficulty with, or have to think about my options for:

Deadlines
My digital system handles this nicely with due dates and saved searches. At the moment I’m writing due dates in red beside actions. Hopefully, I’ll stay engaged with my lists well enough for this to work.

Start dates and Ticklers
I used start dates on my digital system to cater for both of these. I’m not sure if I want a physical tickler system so I might stick to a digital one. My biggest issue with a physical tickler file is where to put it. It’s true that I wake up (almost) every day in my own house so that’s a perfect time and place to check it, but I spend most of the working day at my office which is where and when I want to tickle most items.

Calendared Actions
I like Google calendars too much to leave it but it’s a lousy place to put action items. As much as I hate the idea of two calendars, I’m trialling an action calendar: Page-a-day with only action items that must be done on that day. I’m not sure if I want to store deadlined items there as well as on my action lists and I’m struggling similarly with start dates.

Repeating actions
Some are ideal candidates for the action calendar. Others are a bit more flexible. I remember some long threads on here recently that I should probably go back and read.

Again, thanks for all your advice. If you have any thoughts on these issues I’ve highlighted, I’d love to hear from you.