About CAARDS

CAARDS is an acronym that stands for: – Conscious – Intentional coordination. – Analog – Tangible tasks, at-a-glance. – Agenda – Priorities, at-a-glance – Real-time – Living in the moment. – Dashboard – Flexible, to fit your needs.
– System – Sorted by date, and type. CAARDS is the core that slots inside of any Papr Companion. They are 3x5in “blank index cards.”

Setup

If you already have your PC made, continue reading. If not, please do start with Papr Companion first.

It is possible to continue without having a PC, however I strongly suggest you give PC a try.

This guide works regardless if you bought index cards, or made/cut your own. Blank is preferred, however the back of common lined index cards are often blank in the back. I'll be using blank for this guide.

We will start with roughly 30 cards, or whatever set amount is for the month you'd like to begin with. Each of these cards is your “daily card” that you will use each day.

Daily Cards

Only 365 cards, one card for each day of the year. Or roughly 30 for the starting month.

If you are familiar with the 2min rule of GTD by David Allen, this is what I would suggest starting with. Only instead of “just doing it” I would suggest recording that action/task you just performed or are about to perform.

Starting with small records, that you slowly build overtime. I often found so many other systems to help aid our daily lives very stressful to start and even more stressful to continue or go back and fill in missed days.

This helps get things going without the stress.

Did you brush your teeth this morning? Write it down! Do you have anything planned this week, or even later today? Give it a try, schedule something easy to start with such as making your bed, or doing the dishes. Call a friend, check-in see how they are doing.

Overtime you will build habits, and begin to jot down tasks and events that develop naturally.

As of version 3.1: I have now included the “Daily Dashboard” system by Ryder Carrol (author of the Bullet Journal”) as I find the idea of it absolutely helpful to not simply view lists like this as a sort of “supercharged to-do list” as now this is intentional. See credits at the bottom for additional details.

Next Cards

David Allen suggests anything that requires an additional action or a “waiting” phase, would ideally be considered “next tasks” a follow-up.

Eventually Cards

Not everyone will need an eventually card. I like them as I like to set a lot of loose plans with no set dates, and pull from that list (similar to Chris Kyle's Strikethru method) and I can add them to my Daily Cards when I need.

Eventually plans are actions that you might want to do one day. Someday. These sit here and if you think you might make something here actionable, feel free to migrate it onto your Daily Card, or Next Card and schedule it.

Examples: – Go on vacation – Start a new project – Visit family – Buy birthday gift for friend

Credits

Papr Companion and all of it's related components (like CAARDS) take heavy inspiration from other authors like;

1. Ryder Carol, “The Bullet Journal Method”
2. David Allen, “Getting Things Done”
3. Chris Kyle, “The Strikethu Method”
4. James Clear, “Atomic Habits”
5. Matt Ragland, “The GAP Method”

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