Are you a person who has a lot of creative interests and projects? Do you have a variety of non-critical short-term and long-term projects you want to work on? I do. I love exploring new ideas and topics as well as having long-term interests with no real definable end, like gardening and genealogy. I like having a variety of projects going on at any one time so I can work on a complicated piece one day and have something fairly simple to work on when I only have ten minutes the next. I also like to eventually finish most of what I start. The question is how to keep track of all these projects and keep them all moving forward? What do you do?

My solution is an empty gelato jar and slips of paper. I write my to-dos and projects onto these bits of paper, fold up them up and put them into my jar. Every morning the fun then begins. I pull out up to six pieces of paper and those random drawings become the extra projects that I can focus on that day. I like the randomness but also like the specific to-dos spelled out for me. Every day is different. Every day there is progress.

Why six slips and not two or seven? I have found that six is the most I can do on a good day. Typically, I’ll get three or four done. I like having the choice of deciding what will be my top three for the day and I’ll do more if I can. I also like having the freedom to put off a project if I want to. Your mileage may vary.

I don’t have to do a lot on any particular to-do but I do feel I need to do something tangible before I can put it away. When I’m done, after I date and refold it, I then have two choices with the slip of paper. If it’s something I’d like to work on more frequently, I put it back in my gelato jar. Otherwise I put it in a holding tin with other recently worked-on slips of paper. When the gelato jar is empty, I put all the folded slips from the tin back into the jar and start the process over to select again from all possibilities.

Occasionally I do actually finish a project and it gives me a great deal of satisfaction to throw away that small slip of paper!

Why do I date my slips? Besides it showing that I’m slightly obsessive about keeping notes, writing down the date I worked on a project gives me accountability and shows my progress.

I currently have 49 projects rotating through my gelato jar. I could have more but I’m going to work on these for a while. I’m really pleased with this strategy. I’ve been using it for 4-5 months. It’s fun because every day is a surprise. I enjoy the excitement of pulling items out of the jar wondering, “What will it be?” It’s a good way for keeping me accountable to myself. It also helps me avoid procrastinating. Every item I’ve written down is something I’ve chosen to have as a project. That piece of paper is a reminder for me to work on that thing. I don’t get to put it away until I’ve done something to move my project forward.

This is my strategy for working on my to-dos, projects and interests. How do you keep track of yours? Let me know how this works for you. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. Any type of wide mouth container would work to hold slips of paper, but having an excuse to eat gelato first is rather nice too!