Beginner's Guide to The Medium Method 

I enjoy combining both paper and digital planning. At work, I follow a method similar to the Medium Method. Each day, I jot down my top three tasks in my paper planner, selecting them from Todoist “today” tasks, and some P1 flagged tasks to complete the trio. Once those are done, I can move on to my P2 tasks in Todoist, although it's not obligatory as they aren't dated or flagged as P1. Throughout the day, I record new tasks, ideas, conversations, and projects in my daily planner. This serves as a reference to revisit the day's events and agreements. At the end of my workday, I transfer tasks from my planner to Todoist, assigning the appropriate date or priority. This for me is the best way to go!

This is what I have been doing for years! The big notebook is a great way of processing and planning the project in mind. It is not possible to do it on any app, paper and pen has the magic of mental processing. I also don’t like to look at my todo app multiple times a day, post it just sits in front of my eyes. One trick works really well; I collect those post its in a jar instead of throwing them. Seeing them accumulating weirdly makes you more productive.

Love, love, love the out-takes

I use this method, although didn’t know it had a specific name, by necessity in my job as a teacher. It is so much easier and faster to keep and write in an open notebook on my desk than it is to use my phone in front of a class. At the end of the school day, I'll review what I have written and add items to their appropriate place, eg calendar, Todoist, etc.

I love these videos. You deserve way more views than you get! My top tip is that if I write something in my paper notebook that needs to go into Todoist as an action, it gets a box around it and an asterix. If it's just something to think about, it gets no box, just the asterix. ✅

I've recently switched from a paper and digital method adopted back in time when GTD was first circulated to purely digital, partly because sticky notes do get lost; I've set up a Todoist label called "Big 3" holding the three most important tasks for the day. This label is also on the top of my Favorites list. The Android app also is set to open on this so I get presented with that list every time I use the app. Every night I set the next Big 3, although if I don't manage to do all 3 I carry them over. Karma enthusiasts could set the tasks to be due today, to keep score if you don't finish a specific Big 3 for too many days in a row. That said I still carry a paper notebook for drawing things, to give notes to other people and so on. It has a few sticky notes on the inside of the cover and the back of the cover, too.

Great, this is really useful. I love that you don't just give us a piece of software but also put in so much effort to explain your philosophy behind it!

If I take physical notes in a meeting or after a call, I try and update my calendar and Todoist with the points I need to within 10 minutes of ending the call or meeting so it’s recorded. Applying the 2-5 minute rule often means getting some of these cleared up before needing or note them (or still note them and have the dopamine joy of completing a task!) Also giant stickies and sharpies are a great combo for me - v satisfying to write with, they stick well to things (post it brand, ymmv) and scoring through notes as either completed or recorded online with a big thick marker line is a great feeling!

This was a great recap of the Medium Method -- finding the balance between analog and digital brings that elusive "planner peace"! And the importance of the daily review (the workday shutdown ritual) can't be ignored.

Big fan of combining paper and digital. My desk as a student isn't very wide, so when I'm working on writing then having Todoist's quick add feature means I can write down tasks without losing my flow. Important to get it down asap because otherwise I have this open loop in my head trying to make sure I don't forget. The big tasks for each day get transferred to my paper journal, because there is something far more satisfying about crossing it off and reflecting at the end of the day on what was done...and then giving myself a quick idea of what helped/didn't help get stuff done so I can be better equipped the next day.

I use a scanner and save the file to computer and use the then the attachment button under comments section and attach file 🎉this works amazing when you are working on a project and need a document right away 🎉 your company concept to get organized has blew up our minds thank you for creating this🙏

Hi Naomi, I love your content. I use a Clever Fox planner, an index card - for my top 3 priorities each day, Tattooist - I use the projects for top 3 dream goals and google calendar for events and time blocking. I use of all this in conjunction daily and plan as part of my morning routine and weekly planning. It really helps to motivate me and achieve my goals. 🙂

My setup includes an iPad mini for my digital notebook. During meetings, indicate action items - myself or others on my team. At the end of the day I review my notes and any items outstanding I transfer to Todoist and indicate priority, deadline, assignee, etc.

Personally, I find it too complicated to rely on both paper and a digital system. I always prefer the digital one because it is always available. Todoist ist best!

Thank you to make me remember how simple the system is, and force me to focus on few things and get it done. Right I using to many label and project, should back to basic again to make things move forward again

This was very helpful. I have been using methods similar to this off and on for the last fifteen years. What I missed from this is how the note taking app plays into this system? I personaly having been trying to use the notebook as more of a planning and journalling tool, while using the digital tools for task management and capture. I love the tactile feel of writing things down, and find it preferable in terms of remembering signifigant events and referencing them in the future. Additionally I use note taking apps for PKM and as my primary method of capture and review. I have been a todoist user for about a year. I love, love, love, the way it uses natural language for adding tasks, lables, sorting, etc... It is also super useful to have the two way sync with Google Calendar. That last thing that I find very useful for capture, is the Todoist extension in Google Chrome. I often use it to clip websites into Todoist as a way of capturing things I want to continue to review when I have more time.

I use the notebook only for project meetings, taking a class or journaling. And after that I add some tasks to Todoist. What could work for me from this video is the travel notebook. Which could lead me to not being using the phone all the time, because it's kind of an addiction. Also the post-it could really help me to focus on my main goals of the day. Thank you.😊

A tip for integrating paper and digital:attach a photograph of your paper notes to a task. Notes are now backed up. If you can stand digital at all, simply transferring tasks from paper to digital is better. But for a majority paper system, if you at least keep tasks backed up by photos or even videoing your notes, you can withstand loss, fire or theft.

Loooooove this! I've always been trying to add my favorite notebook into my system, and this is a great way. Going to implement it right away!

that was lovely, thanks Naomi & Todoist.

I'm trying to reduce my use of paper and go digital as much as possible. However, after watching this video, I realized that some paper tasks can be helpful. For example, writing a high-priority task on a Post-it note makes it easier for me to remember and ensures that I don't leave work without completing it. I also like to write down my most important tasks for the day and then check my to-do list app to see if they're already there or if I need to add them. Writing them down first helps me stay organized.

Love Todoist! It’s been a life-changer for me

I enjoyed the presentation and I'm off to read the article. I do want to say that I love the "bloopers" at the end. They're always my favorite. Thank you for the fun AND educational video!

I tend to use Todoist for my recurring tasks that are timebound (like flossing my teeth every day or watering my plants every week or paying my rent every month), but I use my bullet journal for the larger or less consistent tasks, when the manual process of writing it and rewriting it pushes me to get it done. Doing the laundry or mailing a package or organizing my desk might need to be done soon, but they don't HAVE to be done on a specific day, it just helps seeing it written out and managing my time. Some things overlap and I don't mind repeating info if it's important, but I have noticed that I can't use sicky notes anymore because it's like my brain immediately becomes blind to them.

Love the humour in your videos Naomi. While I love todoist it's pretty hard to make any task manager entertaining but you pull it off! 🙂

Medium Method - do I need a crystal ball? By the way, excellent prompt and effective customer support for me today - very impressed.

Great content on top of the monthly emails!

Thank you for this nice video!

This is wonderful! Just love the video! ;)

I use a paper planner and catch all notebooks . Todoist is used to capture email tasks, events and things from social media, plus web capture. I also use Todoist for reoccurring tasks list.

I know that paper and pen writing is more conducive to analytical thinking, so I use my notebook when I am thinking through ideas or having an engaging conversation with a coworker about what we can focus on going forward. Any tasks that come out of the ideas get added to Todoist. Writing a list + entering all of the tasks in Todoist feels like too much duplication for me, but I’m open to the idea of writing down the top goals of each day.

Excellent presentation! I use my iPad with a digital planner and generally follow a Bullet Journal type of method, together with my digital calendar and ToDoist on my Mac. It works great!

Mostly I use my notebooks only for taking all the notes I find interesting from a project meeting, a class or for journaling. After that, I might then take them to Todoist as a task. What I could use from this video is the travel notebook. It could lead me to stop carrying my cell phone everywhere, because I want to use it a little less. And also the post-it could really help me focus on the main goals.Thank you

Thank you so much! I really love planning and designing my goals in the "digital world" and only then printing on paper and having it like a vision board :) would really love to try todoist pro for a year 🤞

I definitely have a blend. I have tried with a notebook but I want to pick it back up. I currently use my phone for all calendar appts, cross-checking between 3 calendars 😱 (2 for work and 1 personal). Then for to-do items, I write some tasks that I think of on a sticky note and other tasks I schedule in my personal calendar. Not a perfect system and I snooze or ignore my reminders at time; hopefully I can find a better way to organize my tasks, etc.

Thank you. Some good advice here. I've been trying to move back to at least a partial paper system. I like what you had to say. I do use Rocketbook as my notebook instead of an actual paper notebook. There are some meetings I have where being able to scan them into a file is helpful.

At some point I started also working with a paper notebook, because my todoist was just too overloaded. I was sick right after vacation, and when I retourned my todoist just was overwhelming with 67 unfinished tasks. As I knew I could never handle all of the tasks I just changed the due date, and then more and more tasks piled up. At some point I decided, that I cannot continue with todoist like that, and bought a productivity journal, which basically works with an Eisenhower Matrix (Important/urgent) and only 8 Tasks to add to the important and 3 tasks on the not important side. After a couple of weeks I finished a lot of tasks, and was able to work with todoist on my regular tasks again. I kept the calender for stressfull times, and it helps a lot

I write everything on my notebook, and then I organize on Todoist, I like writing but my day can be so hectic that i need reminders and put things on my calendar

Combining Paper & Digital creates self-improvement loops and that's why I think it's really cute. I use time-blocking combined with paper. I leave big blanks in my notebook where I feel I need to give time to process and complete important yet small deeds like self-care routines and other minor things which I always fail to do in a day. The other tasks which are more physical, I update in todoist everyday and update them in the journal at the eod to block the particular time. I feel like i am taking care of myself better everyday while at the same time being productive. :P

Thank you so much for this video! I have been loving using Todoist alongside a digital planner on my iPad to give me the satisfaction of writing my "Top 3 MITs" (most important tasks). Inspired from this video, I will start using a 'travel journal' and the evening review to capture and organization insights, tasks, etc.

Great video! Recently, I've tried the Morning Pages journaling method and combined that with my Todoist app to turn into productive work. The idea is that the first thing you do waking up is write 3 pages 📝 (wether in a journal, notebook, diary, etc.) of what tasks you have for the day (in my case, in Todoist) and reflect the ones from the day before. It sets the energy high up for me by letting go any hard feelings I may have reflecting yesterday's tasks or events and ot gives me hope for what I can accomplish today! :)

Love the balance of this.

I have been into Bullet Journaling for the past four years now. But there are still digital tools that I use for easy search and retrival purpose. I just switch from Evernote to UpNote for my note taking and I just use Todoist free for quick capturing to an Inbox if I don't have my Bullet Journal or my pocket notebook with me. I love this Medium method because most of the tools are similar to mine

Personally, I use Todoist for daily tasks and analogical bullet journal for long-term plans including weekly, monthly and annually ones. And I value digital calendar over the analogical one, which is used for recording only sentimental events.

I use a Rocketbook to take TONS of notes during the day. Sometimes it is helpful to use writing to work through an issue, or I need to take notes while I'm tracing through a gnarly problem. I also like to take notes during meetings. At the end of the day I go back through my notebook and transfer things: tasks to Todoist, events to my calendar, and any notes I want to keep to Obsidian. Then I wipe the pages clean for the next day! I really love having that tactile writing experience -- it definitely helps to cement things in my head. And I feel like it is less disruptive during a meeting for me to write notes down than it would be to type them directly into something. I have memo-sized Rocketbooks that I keep in all my bags so that I always have somewhere to write things down. I love that I can write things and that the notes can be totally disposable, and I'm not wasting any paper. Although, I do drool over the really pretty stationary notebooks.

There are studies showing that the act of physically writing something down more fully engages your brain and helps recall and retention, asking with the other benefits discussed in the original article. So, I use paper to record, organize, etc. To-doist helps me figure out in the moment what I can be doing. And I do all this through the gtd framework

I mostly rely on Todoist to keep track of my tasks and their deadlines, but espacially at work I tend to write out the tasks, I want to Focus on, onto a little notepad! So im basically inverting what the video said 😂 have digital at the heart of the system and use paper as a supporting Method. Helps espacially with Not getting lost in the endless tasks in my Todoist ☺️

Some useful ideas here, I like the post-it in particular. Merging digital and paper works like this for me: I use Todoist and Trello to store my tasks. I have many, so I pick out the ones I want to focus on and jot a shortcut version on a steno pad, the ones with the wire at the top of the page. As I harvest tasks from, say, Todoist, I write "Todoist" at the top of the section, then the few task I mean to work on from there. Same thing with Trello: a section header, so I know where to go back and find the task to complete it, and then the task. I take my steno pad list around with me and complete the tasks, crossing through them with a single line to indicate they're done. Later, back at my computer, I update Trello and Todoist from the pad, and use a black marker on my paper list to block out what's done. That makes it easy to see gaps and what's still yet to be finished. I just start a new page when a page gets full, or when I feel like it. I do fold a sheet of scratch paper to go under my list, so the black marker doesn't bleed through and waste the next page.

I love both mediums and struggle to use them both the their biggest potential. Thanks for the tips, I’ll be sure to put them to the test :)

I use a notebook during my work day, but I am not always consistent with getting it moved into my digital life. I love the idea of using a post it note. I can see how that will totally motivate me. Thanks!

Yess I love this video! I actually do the opposite: I have all my tasks in Todoist (and add them into the Inbox there whenever I think of them since I'm on the computer all day), but then I also write down my top tasks on paper next to me. I love paper planners but I really find the digital system is a better fit for me usually!

Nothing clever from me regarding integrating paper and 'digital'. I just carry a wee notebook as my ubiquitous capture 'device' and, at the end of the day, move those into Evernote or Todoist. As you say, that movement of information is a useful 'distillation' process to get rid of things that seemed useful to capture at the time but, on reflection, aren't. Great video.

I use this method everyday, but with a legal pad that I can tear off when all the tasks have been recorded. I used to write things on the post it, but found it is easier and more effective to keep Todoist open on my desktop. I shrink the screen so it appears as a virtual post it (aka sticky note)😅

I have used both a bullet journalling method and Todoist in the past. I tend to keep most of my stuff in Todoist lately, but I feel the journal is a great place to process things. While i might have a list of tasks in Todoist, a task might need a game plan to execute. Sometimes writing thoughts, drawing flowcharts, and putting it on a page in a notebook hekps make it tangible. Todoist helps me remember everything and then the notebook is for those "roll up the sleeve" tasks.

Todoist is my main life management tool but I also LOVE paper calendars. I use them mostly to write about daily gratitude and draw doodles. Often during these activities I come up with a task idea so it ends up there as well ;) transferring these calendar tasks to Todoist is a part of my weekly routine 💪

As I student, find that writing the tasks I need to do down in a diary or on paper works super well (e.g. assessments, homework, readings etc). But after that, I add the task onto my todoist and break it down into lots of smaller sub-tasks, making it a lot less daunting and easier to complete! On completion, I cross it off on both todoist and on paper, giving twice the satisfaction :)

I mostly stick with paper, but with this lesson, I'm gonna try using todoist along side my notes. Thank you Naomi, Thank you Todoist Team.

Plan the next day everyday with paper, then use digital for your second brain! Definitely the way to go.

I have used the Todoist app for almost 4 years. Since then I stopped use paper for taking tasks. It is easier to put them all in the app. It is a habit I dont wanna loose 😊

Rocket notebook! Boom, an easy transition to having both systems working for you

One of my favorite methods is using Office Lens (or even Google camera/Drive) to scan in my notes to OneNote or Keep and then enter my to-do items into my productivity apps. I'm unable to use ToDoist at work, so I keep that reserved for my personal stuff, and Microsoft To Do for my work stuff. Keeping these tracts in two distinct places really helps me to unplug when I'm not at work, and likewise, avoid being distracted by life's obligations while working.

I use color coding to mark specific projects as archives where I add my paper notes for later reference with a task title that resembles the main idea

well i tend to do my tasks all digital, but i really get my best ideas writing everything down on a notebook, it's the only way i can focus 😄

I use my project notebook for my daily task. I have my project notebook broken down by project. At the end of the day, I use my scanner app on my phone to scan my notes. Then, add the scan to Todist by project. I can then set reminders for the task. I find it very quick and efficient.

Personally I have found using an iPad with Apple Pencil seamlessly merges my need for pencil to paper, kinetic feedback with digital efficiency. Whether using the internal notepad or the Notability app, in conjunction with the ToDo app, helps to enhances productivity by consolidating all the task on one device, facilitating seamless transitions, and giving instant feedback.

I use paper, write tasks in a notebook when I need to focus and not get lost in the huge number of tasks in the application. And then I transfer everything to todoist. (this message has been translated from another language). Thank you for your wonderful work! Todoist is good.

My life is in Todoist; reminders, business and personnal tasks, errand projects, everything. But, many times, priorization on the app is not enough for me, then I "offload" the most critical tasks of the current day to paper so I can tick then when completed and have a visual feedback that I am really doing what I need to do.

I feel like digital does a far better job for me since I am able to organize more quickly and be able to see my tasks everywhere I go. The 'Add Task' shortcut on mobile is phenomenal and the with the natural language processing just makes it very convenient.

In my paper notes, I write "AI" in the margin to denote an Action Item and during my review I add those to Todoist.

It’s still a work in progress. Though I use a field note as my small notebook. Trying to get myself to write down journaling/thoughts as well as tasks. Many years of just trying to be productive like a machine.

I agree that a combination of paper and digital works really well and I love using my fountain pens with beautiful notebooks too. The one thing I've found is that I will sometimes make a note of a new task in my Todoist Inbox and sometimes the note will be in my pocket notebook (or desk notebook) or Post-It Note. That shows I haven't quite bought into a consistent workflow and the implication is I waste time trying to find whereabouts I made the note I need to find right now. The out-takes are wonderful. Will there be an end-of-year compilation? ☺

I use a pocket sized travelers notebook so that one side of a two page spread is an inbox and the other side of the two page spread is acting like the sticky. Master list of tasks, notes, and calendar are digital so frequent reviews are needed.

I'm an artist. I'm using a sketch book and I usually attach my sketches to Todoist's comment of my projects. So, whenever I need them, I know exactly where they are and what projects they belong to.

I use ONE Notebook for all my handwriten notes. Specialy in meetings i use handwriting as i hade laptops in meetings. All notes are scanned to my notes app. On my dayli or weekly routines i reviev all the scanns, Transcript important thoughts so i can search for the item, create events in my calendar or ToDo's and sort scanns i the appropriate folder. In my notebook i cross out the notes treated so that i immediatly see that the not is in the appropriate app (Notes, Todoist, calendar). A yes i carry my notebook with me everytime i leave the office.

I like being able to snap a picture of my handwritten notes and turning them into PDF that I can attach to my To Do list entry. Or I just upload them to Google Drive and add a link to the To Do entry.

Moved to Obsidian + Todoist (with the "ultimate" integration

I am always tweaking my system but notes, thoughts and ideas go on paper and my tasks are digital

Did you pick the winner?

The sad fact is you are at some point going to lose your notebook or accidentally leave it behind somewhere just when you need it. Also you will eventually spill coffee on it or get it wet and sticky. The solution? A tablet with a stylus. I use OneNote and highly recommend it. Plus the handwriting recognition means you can search by key word. Cross platform so works on my iPad, Samsung ecosystem and windows / Mac. Spill coffee? Wipe it off.

save tree) only digital way))

digital is better for me :)

Personally I am a paper guy looking for a simple yet elegant task manager….

This is an incredibly complicated way to manage notes. It wouldn’t actually work in the real world.