How to mark actions as complete on paper? (ticky boxes or cross out?)

[Sonja Elen Kisa]

When you have a written to-do list on paper, how do you mark an action as complete? Do you cross out the entire line? Or add a checkmark? Or put a tickybox in front of every item in the list, so the tickyboxes for the completed ones get filled in?

My to-do lists look messy when there are many items, some completed and some incomplete, and I tend to rewrite them to clean them up, which is a loss of time if I had a cleaner way of marking which ones are complete and which ones still need me to consider doing them, a way to let me quickly scan the list and know what's going on visually.

Sonja

[Andre Kibbe]

I cross out done items. They don't fully register in my brain as "done" if the status is denoted in the margin.

I use checkboxes during the weekly review for any two-minute items that come up. Under other circumstances, I would simply do the two-minute tasks, but during the review, even a two-minute doing can take my focus away from managing everything. So I check those short items and do them immediately after completing the review. I also do the same for any two-minute items that can't be done in my current context.

[beyerst]

Sonja,

I use a highlighter to mark finished tasks (based on a tip from of the coaches, I think).
It is easy to distinguish between finished/unfinished tasks and you still can read the finished tasks!

tb

[cctraderx]

2nd the Highlighter. Easy to id what's not done.

[flexiblefine]

I date my actions as I add them to my list, so I know how long something has been waiting to get done. So I might have an action that looks like this:
[06/30] Take car for oil change

When the action is done, I cross through the date. If I decide not do do the action at all, I cross out the whole thing.

[jennifergeorge]

I loves me a highlighter!

[dschaffner]

Most of my system is electronic, but I still do some capture using paper (pocketmod booklet) and pen (Fisher spacepen). The really cool thing is that the booklet and pen fit neatly in my cellphone pouch with my phone.

I cross out stuff that gets done or that gets entered into the system.

- Don

[DavidRParker]

Nothing gives me a better kick than seeing things getting done (TGD!)

Dave

[vatark]

I recently found a system that works really well with paper. Unfortunately I can't find the link now so I can't give credit where its due!

What I do is mark all action items with a '–' at the start of the line.

When it's done I put a vertical line through it so it becomes a '+'.

If I move it to another list I put a circle round it.

The list I'm working off was designed to be used with notes taken at meetings, etc. so had other annotations, e.g. –> means that this action is dependent on another, and <– means that the action has been delegated to someone else at the meeting, and ∆ means that there's important data in the notes at this point.

HTH.

[twljazz]

Years ago I got into the habit of writing a circled asterisk in front of each action item. It was a good way to highlight to-dos while taking meeting notes. The actions then pop out at you on any sheet that may be covered with all kinds of scribbles. Once I complete the aiction, I cross out the symbol. The same applies to any list of tasks I generate.