index-card-based organizational technologies

With the advent of the new year, I'm attempting a new organizational system utilizing the six-pocket Moleskine Accordion File Folder. This system replaces the PDA I was using for a little while (January-May 2005) and makes a cautious attempt to replace the spiral-bound index cards that I've been using for much longer (August 1997-present).

The new system uses the Moleskine's six pockets as follows:

1. blank index cards

2. "active" to-do cards (basically David Seah's Task Progress Tracker condensed (by me) into a 3x5 format that can be printed on Oxford Printable Index Cards)

3. "inactive" to-do cards (each card is dedicated to a different project, and if a project doesn't have any currently "active" task it gets considered dormant until I figure out what the next task is)

4. 3 "calendar cards" (current week, current month, and 12-month), also designed to be printed on those printable index cards

5. three cards for shopping lists (basically grocery store, drug store, and department store)

6. index cards filled out with notes and awaiting archiving

So far, I like using Seah's system for the to-do cards. The big advantage of his system is that the longer you work on a task, the more boxes you get to check. Ostensibly this is to track your progress, but I find that it works as a suitable incentive to take on the longer, more difficult tasks (as well as an incentive to keep working—just another fifteen minutes and you get to check off another box!).

The biggest drawback of this system is that the Moleskine Memo Pockets thingum doesn't have a place to hold a pen (like the spiral-bound index cards do).

I'll let you know how it works out as time skitters on.