A Franklin Covey planner is very similar. You list your upcoming tasks in your date planner, and then give them an A, B, C priority.
You strike those that are complete, and then transfer those undone tasks to the next day. Very similar to what you're doing now, but compact (maybe to small for you) and easily stored.
The system works well for me, because I have found that limiting the number of tasks that I assign myself for a day brings discipline to my time management.
This may be the most boring subject I have ever discussed in my life, but hopefully it helps.
Actually, a lot of people (esspecialy the "GTD: Getting Things Done" crowd) find it kind of conceptually interesting, just helping people brainstorm about what the best system might be for them.
GTD is all about organizing things by where you need to be when you do them, which doesn't so much apply when I'm talking just work stuff: but the idea of trying to offload all tasks onto paper does.
For a while last semester, I was using the Google Desktop Todo plugin (see http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/todo.html) to keep track of weekly tasks.
PROS: It was on my desktop so I never forgot things I had to do; I could easily prioritize and add and remove things as I needed to. I also generally enjoy checkboxes.
CONS: This isn't so good for people who don't like a clunky desktop sidebar and have no other reason to use one. Also, the plugin could use a nice 'archived tasks' section or something.
I've since uninstalled Google desktop, and I'm currently without a personal task management system... but I do like the graph paper idea, and stickies/spindle system is tempting to use, with the impaling and all.
whoops, that URL should be http://desktop.google.com/plugins/i/todo.html
Or... you could just not be so worried about planning ahead...
The amount of time you spend planning how you plan on recording what you want to plan is a waste. Just do it.
(This is not affiliated with Nike in any way... I swear.)
One of the "GTD" principles is "if it's going to take you 2 minutes or less, do it right now".
But usually I have 2 or 3 biggish things I'm wrestiling with, so a system helps me fake multitasking.
Yeah. . .why so intense on figuring out the perfect "To Do" list, anyway?
If it's because you're stressed out by all the stuff, why not just drop some of the stuff? =D
I work on "perfecting" TODOs because it makes my life better and is kind of interesting to me in and of itself.
As for the second question, Err, because I like to be seen as doing a good job at work?
Ahhhhh. . .who needs work? =b