My brain doesn’t always do what it’s meant to.  Keeping it on track and focused is a full-time job because if I’m not careful, my crazy brain drifts off into daydream land or it is distracted by a shiny object or has a sudden urge to clean something before veering off to do other random things.  Because of this, I have to find ways to keep it engaged.

Novelty

My brain likes novelty, hence why I have so many half-finished manuscripts.  It loves when I start something new and fresh and exciting.  It’s not that the old ideas aren’t fun and exciting, they just aren’t “shiny” enough for the magpie part of my brain that loves Shiny Object Syndrome.

If I have too many boring or monotonous things going on, I seem to judder to a halt and go off in search of the shinies.  This makes doing household chores… a chore and I need high-energy music just to get me started.

The last few years have had a lot of boring things going on.  That’s what happens when you have work done on your house and then the days bleed into each other while you wait for it all to end!… the work that is.

But since all that, I’ve struggled even harder to stay focused.  If my concentration level was at 5 (out of 10) a few years ago, it’s about at a 2 right now.

It also makes prioritising and sticking to those priorities a lot harder.  Making goals helps, but to-do lists no longer work as well as they once did.  Especially if I have several things to do and any of them are boring (but necessary).

Enter the Task Game!

The Game

Now, I heard about the idea of using Playing Cards from someone who reviewed “The Anti-Planner: How to Get Sh*t Done When You Don’t Feel Like It” by Dani Donovan.

From what I could gather, in this planner the use of playing cards is broken down into four categories such as Cleaning, Admin each category is connected to a suit etc and there are time limits connected to each card depending on value.  I don’t have this planner, but I did like the basis of the idea so made it work for me.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

So, here is how I use a pack of Playing Cards.

Firstly, I use my Trello app and I have 4 cards created to match the 4 suits of a playing card deck.

Within each Trello card, I add several tasks to the checklist. I only have up to 7 tasks per Trello card at a time (got to keep the overwhelm at bay). At least half of the overall tasks have to be one-off tasks.  

These tasks can be ones that can be done over and over such as meditating for 10 mins, going for a walk, or cleaning something.  Or small one-off tasks, such as organising the box room cupboard, buying a gift for mother’s day etc.  (For big none-off tasks, I use OOT Days).

Then I take my playing cards that sit on my desk, give them a good shuffle, several cuts and then turn over the top one.  Whatever suit it is, I then go to that Trello card and pick one of the tasks.  If I can’t decide, I have to do the top one.  Once that task is done, I repeat.  I can’t just pick again if I don’t like the tasks.

If I get the same suit I can’t just re-do a “good” task, if there are one-off tasks listed there.  So if I have task: 10 min meditation on Clubs and I do that task, if I pull another Club card I can’t just meditate again.  I have to pick another task.  If I only pulled Clubs I have to go through every task on the list and can’t repeat any until the one-off tasks are done.

It’s unlikely I would only draw one suit the whole day, but most of the cards I pulled on the day I wrote this post were Spades.  In fact, “write a blog post” was one of those tasks and this post came about because of it.

I specifically don’t have “categories” connected to each suit.  I feel that would end up being more of a hindrance.  I also don’t attach time frames to a task based on the value of the playing card pulled.  This is because if I only give myself 5 mins, I will only use 5 mins and then stop.  Whereas if I just have to do the task, I’ll do the task until it’s complete.

Getting Over Inertia

I don’t do the Task Game all day.  It’s really just a novel experience that takes away the need for me to make any real decisions early.  Once I’ve kicked out two or three tasks, I am usually over the inertia and am in gear to work through other tasks without the need for the cards.

It may seem silly, but in the end, you have to go with what works.  Many people can probably just get up, do some tasks from their to-do list and go about their day.  But I can’t seem to do that as well anymore.  My overwhelm has become a problem and I needed a different solution to help me.

I’ve been using this method for over a month now and it’s been working really well.  I like the meditative motion of the shuffling before I pick a card.  I like coming up with new tasks to add to the Trello cards once a week.  So instead of realising I have to do X and then adding it to my endless to-do list, I just drop it straight into one of the 4 Trello Cards ready for the next game.

Obviously, urgent and/or time-sensitive tasks are NOT put in the Trello cards as knowing my luck I’d end up not drawing a connected suit card and then missing the deadline.

~ ~ ~

Sometimes it can be fun to add something new into the mix, this novel way of choosing tasks has meant I actually get more done in the week.  It also helped me to complete my January Goals.

Happy writing & stay safe

I write articles on writing, marketing, blogging, organising, social media, books and some random stuff.  I also create free printable resources.  If you find my content helpful and entertaining, consider supporting me on ko-fi (where you will also find extra content I post).  All donations go to keeping my website running and helping me move towards publishing my novels.