My 4"x6" Planning Cards as of Mid-2026

I use a set of 4x6 cards to manage my schedule, projects, checklists, and handy everyday info. I wrote about this a while ago

Now that it’s June of 2026, what has changed?

Daily Card

Daily schedule card. Yes, the lighting was terrible!

The most important card is the one with my daily schedule and list of things to do or work on. The daily schedule is mostly the same as before. One line per day. I make these on Monday mornings, or maybe the Friday or Saturday before. Lines are marked with “MTWΘFAU” for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (using Greek Θ for Th), Friday, sAturday and sUnday. How did the letter Θ come to disappear and be replaced by the weird combination “th”? That’s another topic.

If anything important is scheduled for some day, I make a brief scribble. Details can go elsewhere, like my paper-and-ink notebook or another card. Or maybe I can squeeze in enough essential info on that one line.

The upper right part has my phone and/or address, just to fix it firmly in my mind. Also, in case the card is lost, someone has a way to tell me. After living where I’ve been for over two and a half years, I don’t need to do that every time, but often still do anyway. I list my main creative and career interests, to keep awareness of those top of mind.

The lower right is for dates more than two weeks in the future. Concerts, art show receptions, dental appointments, birthdays. Just kidding about that last one! When ever in my life have I remembered anyone’s birthday?

An older checklist card, since the current one is on the other side of the daily schedule shown earlier.

The other side of the daily card is like before, a checklist of specific things to do, or as one artist I know like to call it, “Coming Attractions” with small practical things like meetings, things to fix or buy, fixes to my resume, and only the most important projects to focus on. For ADHD me, every project I can think of is important, so I end up filling in all the space of that side of the card. The only difference these days is I make a section in the upper right for the “publications” I claim to be writing articles for. Under that is mostly writing projects, and on the left I try to put wordly practical things, and quick easy to-do items, at the top, and bigger creative projects the rest of the way down.

Once in a while, I actually check one of those checkboxes. Rarely, two boxes!

Every two weeks, usually on a Monday but sometimes a day or two before, I make a new Daily Card. I copy the checklist, trying to copy only the most important items but I end up copying all of them. I like re-writing this list, though it would be quicker to just keep one card around for a long time. The time it takes to write again those items is a test: if I don’t have half a minute to rewrite an item and a checkbox, whenever will I have time to actually do that task or project?

Weekly Card

Weekly Pattern to pretend to follow

Another card holds my weekly pattern. Although I never follow it fully, it gives some sort of guide to organize things on most days, or at least a way to get started for the day. In general, I take care of business, check the emails, checking for projects on the freelance sites, check the bank (I hate negative numbers), catch up on news in the world and some favorite industries. Then, MWF, I exercise at a gym. I start working on stuff until early afternoon for lunch or a chocolate break, a change of scenery, followed by guitar practice and reading out loud practice.

The rest of the day, mid-afternoon usually, is (supposed to be) uninterrupted concentrated work on projects. On extremely rare occasions I may waste a few minutes watching junk on YouTube. Believe me, that’s very rare. Also, the Earth is flat and water is dry. That aside, my peak productivity seems to be from mid-afternoon to midnight or a bit after, when my mind is clearest and I write, tinker with electronics, 3D printing or creating software, and then the day is over. I flop onto bed with no ceremony or transition.

Mondays: the focus is on making 2D graphic art for print-on-demand or other uses, or simpler 3D stock images or models to sell.

Tuesdays I may do anything, but with the main end result being an article on Medium or Linkedin or some other place. Usually I write about some past project or adventure.

Wednesday is writing an article for any of the publications I started but mostly which have little to show so far. Wednesdays is for building that content! I have long lists of topics I could cover for each publication. Usually I end up watching YouTube or trying zany experiments in Blender instead of writing. From now on, I make it a goal to write something every Tuesday for a publication.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday are as much as possible devoted to project work, like experimenting in electronics, making 3D animations, writing software tools for science or 3D graphics or math research. Maybe I write a bit about it, maybe not. On Thursday or Friday I do a load or two of laundry.

Sunday, depending, I play handbells at a nearby church. The rest of the day is Arbitrary Anything Art Day. Usually. I fiddle around in Blender, make something, doodle, whatever, with no prior plan or relation to any lists of projects or goals. Just create some kind of art! If there’s a chance that non-me people might find it worth looking at, I’ll post it on Facebook or Bluesky or someplace suitable.

I have made a big wall chart of my weekly routine, since seeing it effortlessly helps me keep on track, even when I’m off-track.

Wall version of weekly pattern, harder to ignore!

Questions Card

Questions and Tidbits of Wisdom

This card lists some general philosophical and productivity questions, and tidbits of wisdom. Here are a few:

• Am I letting myself dream big?
• What is the cost of indecision?
• Am I making the best use of my time right now? (Alan Lakein’s question in his popular time management book from the 1970s)
• Instead of “I hafta do this” think “Alright! I get to do this!”
• You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.
• What would a great outcome for this look like?

Dafuqiz Card

Topics and things to read up on sometime in the near future

On this card I write down terms, acronyms, concepts that I want to read up on later. Not terms I want to know what they mean right now. For those, I just look it up now. But those things that come up several times over a few weeks, “hmm, maybe I should find out what this is all about.” In some cases, it’s software that might work better than what I’m using. Most of the items I write down on this card, I never get around to looking up.

Project List & Misc Cards

Several cards list the projects I’m most eager to do, the ones that would be the most pleasing to see get done, or might lead to good income somehow as demos or showpieces or for online sales.

Shown is the card listing some 2D illustration and animation projects I’ll do “someday”. I worked on “hot air balloons” a bit about a year ago, but had to put it aside for something else more important then. Most of these are projects I’ll never do except when I have a few days empty of everything else.

Other cards list software projects, typically interactive 3D graphics or 2D image processing tools. I have a separate card just for web apps, again typically interactive 2D or 3D graphics with scientific or engineering applications.

One card lists my favorite programming languages and most important libraries and tools, for no particular reason. I’ve used so many languages, compilers, toolkits, build systems and so on, I need to cut down to just my dozen favorites. If something isn’t listed on this card, I’ll pretend I don’t know it and not take any freelance projects involving that. Life is simpler!

Small cards, 3x5 or 4x6, are too small for capturing designs, idea generation, figuring out details of complex systems, or just doodling. So I have always with me a spiral notebook, or art sketchbook, with full size pages 8.5x11 or 9x12, but that’s another topic to cover. Maybe in my next article.