[porcoda]

I’ve tried these kind of systems with pre-printed forms/lists/labels on cards or pages. I’m not convinced they’re worth the extra $ beyond my good old fall back: a couple different colored post it note pads and notes organized around the edge of my monitor.

[TameAntelope]

I love post it notes! I stick them semi-randomly around my desk/on my monitor and they give me a real-time sense for how I'm doing:

* I stack the completed ones, productive days have fat stacks.

* As my desk gets more cluttered by post it notes, it triggers my desire to "clean" my desk, by accomplishing the work.

* I periodically re-assess the utility of the work, which keeps me focused on the most important things.

* Their specific location on my desk is a fuzzy ranking system; the more inconvenient the sticky note, the higher priority. For example, I'll put a sticky note in the middle of my monitor if it's immensely important to more or less prevent me from working on anything else. Other times they can go next to my keyboard, further way on the edge of a desk, and I've occasionally hidden sticky notes (not entirely) behind speakers, if I just need to remember the information but don't want to be distracted by acting on that info just yet.

It's not very portable, but when I'm at my desk it's worked pretty well to keep me on task.

[porcoda]

I also like that I can prioritize things by sticking them to my laptop next to the trackpad. Important notes that need to follow me away from the desk often get stuck there.

[dboreham]

I have a problem with any paper-based solution which that the paper tends to disappear (or become lost). This effect becomes worse if you work from multiple locations, go on vacation etc. Each transition between work location introduces the potential to lose track of the paper. That said, I think a paper system is a good way to debug the workflow prior to creating a persistent software implementation.