For this episode, I went out and pursued hard so I can chat with Sketchnote creator, Mike Rohde. Mike is a sketchnoter, designer, illustrator, self-professed techy, author and speaker who is fond of simple yet impactful design solutions. A sample of such is the Daily Plan Bar which he created to make task management more manageable.
Our discussion involves the origins of the Daily Plan Bar, how he came up with it and the other systems he uses to manage his work tasks and his home life.
Specific points we’ve chatted about are:
- How his intention to get the most of his day, avoid distractions and just get away from the computer prompted him to maximize analog tools and create the Daily Plan bar.
- Whose systems influenced and were integrated to create Mike’s Daily Plan Bar.
- How he incorporates digital with analog, with his outlook calendar playing the master role from which he extracts the details of his daily plan bar.
- Dealing with too many tasks, prioritizing which ones to do in the day, how Mike reminds himself of what needs to be done or focus on.
- How to make a Weekly Plan Bar that integrated with the Daily Plan Bar, and how this allowed him to prioritize his tasks and see the week at a glance.
- Situations when a weekly plan may not be as helpful nor practical to maintain.
- How Bruce Lee’s principles based on martial arts may be applied to productivity and life.
- The length of testing Mike has done before he released the Daily Plan Bar for public consumption.
- What products Mike uses and how he recommends to do and utilize the Daily Plan Bar effectively.
- Mike’s simpler task-management and journaling practices for home and personal purposes.
- His stand on the analog-digital debate, the apps he uses, and how he prefers to do his task management.
- The World Sketchnote Day and how to be a part of it.
Relevant Links
- The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde | Amazon
- The Sketchnote Workbook by Mike Rohde | Amazon
- Everyday Sketchnoting with Mike Rohde | The Mikes on Mic
- The Daily Plan Bar by Rohdesign | Medium
- Planner Hack
- The Dash/Plus System | Patrick Rhone
- The Best Kind of Paper Pushing | The Productivityist Podcast
- The Staying Power of Sketchnotes with Deborah LeFrank |The Productivityist Podcast
- Weekly Plan Bars | Matthew Lang
- Tools for Thinkers | Baron Fig
- Hobonichi Techo 2017
- Mike Rohde’s Books on Sketchnoting | Designer Mike Rohde
- Mike Rohde (@rohdesign) | Twitter
- Mike Rohde (@rohdesign) | Instagram
- A Showcase of Sketchnotes | Sketchnote Army
Thanks for tuning in! Until next time, remember to stop guessing…and start going.
