Book du jour

It started with a coincidence - seeing the "writing book" by Aisha Khalid at the V&A on the way to the cafe, and then over coffee discussing the finer points list-making. When you realise you've done something that isn't on the list, do you add it to the end of the list and then cross it out as done?

In a deeply psychological way that's not a good idea. Why are you negating your accomplishment?

Thus, in addition to the To Do list, we now have the Done list in which things are proudly added, rather than crossed off. They rub shoulders in a little book -

To Do consists of three lines only - to keep the daily burden manageable. These tasks can be crossed off - or ticked. (Perhaps in Version 2.0 I'll provide a little circle to fill in, according to how much of the task actually got done.) For Done, there are rather more lines - for recording all those distractions and creative procrastinations that are part of doing the work of the world.

This little stitched booklet is the Finite Version - a dozen double-sided pages; an arbitrary number. Of course it could be a monthly thing - 32 pages isn't much thicker than 24. But I've forgotten to have a place for the date ... another refinement to implement in Version 2.0.

The cover consists of a strip of paper folded in half vertically, so the back is double but the front has an extra page. Perhaps that should be the other way round?

And the colour of the sewing thread ... ah, so many decisions!

I also plan an Eternal Version, with replacement pages within a hard cover.