Today’s post is going to be a tangent; it is not about Elixir. It is about something that is a much more critical skill: completing things.

I am, by default, a very lazy person. This is a self held opinion, and one which my wife chastises me for regularly. According to her, I am quite motivated! I think this is a matter of perception; just because I get a lot done does not prevent me from being lazy, in fact I think it helps. It is precisely because I am so lazy that I am able to get things done! Because my goal is to revert to laziness, I aim to complete things efficiently. My main tool in this is a humble Rhodia Notebook and a nice pen (which is an indulgence). Every time I start a new “in depth” task, I jot down some notes on what I am doing and put together a brief abstract of what I would like to accomplish. As I move through my task, I cross out things that are not relevant anymore, and use new pages as needed. When my task is completed I trash the pages!

“Why not use something digital so that you preserve history, how do you know what you are writing won’t be important later?”

Fair question. I learned a long time ago that I tend to remember things that I physically write down much more effectively than those which I type. By writing things down, I find that I end up remembering the series of steps which I am following to find the solution much better than if I were to type it. Also, if I write something down that is genuinely important, you can be sure that a version of that text makes it into a commit message!

The added bonus of all of this is seeing the physical impact of the completion of your TODOs! My notebook gets slimmer day by day, I guess I better grab a new one.

Thats all for today!