Ready to level-up your note taking and task management? Emoji-coding is a fun little technique to help you manage your checklists. It's designed to help document and tackle tasks more efficiently, regardless of the digital note taking medium.
Why Checklists?
Before you get started with emoji-coding, you should understand why we're talking about checklists in the first place. As a React consultant, I'm constantly taking notes as I work, and checklists are one of my favorite note taking tools I use for two main reasons:
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Checklists offload remembering - In so many words, you can never forget to do something you wrote down in a checklist—just as long as you remember to check your checklist.
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Checklists front-load thinking - When you structure your checklists around the intended sequence of your tasks, you'll be able to remember what you are (or were) working on, and what should come next. This is especially helpful for people who context-switch or projects that get paused for any length of time.
What is Emoji-Coding?
As the name implies, emoji-coding is the process of using emojis to codify and sort information. It can be done anywhere emojis can be applied, but I've found it particularly useful when taking notes and making checklists.
Let's look at two examples.
Examples
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Here we see a bare-bones, but effective, color-coding demo for task prioritization, all using emojis.
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You can also use emojis to code notes by category rather than just priority.
Why Bother?
By leveraging the power of checklists, you can record tasks in a way that communicates their intended sequence. When you combine checklists with emoji-coding, you can use your checklists (and your notes in general!) to communicate priority and category. Not to mention they'll become much easier to skim, thanks to how the emojis will jump out at you from a page of notes.
Recommended Apps
- Emoji keyboard app - As a Mac user, I know that macOS comes with a built-in emoji keyboard, but I've always found it a little clunky. That's why I use a great little app called Rocket for a smooth, Slack-like emoji keyboard.
- Note taking app - At the end of the day, the right note taking app for you is the one that you like best. But if you're looking for a recommendation, I love Typora. It's a fantastic, markdown-based text editor that updates the UI as you type. It’s what I used to create the gifs in this post!
Craving Optimization?
From React to Angular to DevOps, Bitovi engineers are more than just code machines. We strive to continually level-up ourselves, our co-workers, and the companies we work with. If you are looking for a partner to help optimize your process, contact us today.
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