The Lineup is tool-agnostic — paper, index cards, Notion, Obsidian, Things 3, Asana, a shoebox, a bar napkin at 3am. The tool isn't the point. The shape is. So instead of writing "how to use The Lineup in Notion," here's what the three pieces actually look like. Copy them into whatever tool you already open first thing in the morning.
One project, two sides. Front is the commitment — why this, why now, what done looks like. Back is one thing — the first move. You don't move the card forward until that one thing is shipped and replaced by the next first move.
select a flawless pattern, the Sentinel-2 datasets, raster_band_math, and anything else necessary — specific AOIs and tasks for the demo.
When this is done, the next stage of feedback replaces it on the back of your next card. This card doesn't move forward until the task list is proven and operable.
The Back is your gate, lock and key. If you can't name the first move specifically, the next concrete action: you don't have a project, you have an idea.
Ideas go on the Shelf and wait. Most overwhelm isn't from doing too much real work. It's from carrying around twenty unmade decisions.
The Roster is the long stuff. Ongoing, indefinite, no finish line. Five items is plenty to start. Below are three rosters from three different lives, and yours will be different, but it's a starting point.
You'll notice none of these have side projects or creative work or habits on them. Those aren't Roster items, those are projects, and projects live on the Lineup Cards.
The Roster is the stuff that exists whether or not you wrote a card this week. Your closest relationships don't end because you didn't show up Monday. Your health doesn't pause because you skipped the gym.
A good reality check is "would this still exist if I missed a beat?" That's a Roster item.
Some Roster items never leave. Home, your peoples, family, education of life. They just are. Others retire when life moves on. When that degree wraps, a side gig ends, the kid moves out. Every few months, sit with the list for an hour and ask each item: is this still real? If yes, keep it. If no? DELETE.
You're not failing by removing it. You're noticing that your life moved.
The Shelf is where everything you're interested in goes. Any articles, papers, links and screenshots, the half-formed thoughts, the stuff your friends sent you.
This milk don't go sour: No expiration.
Pile it as high as you want. Below are three shelves shaped to three different lives. The categories don't matter much at all. Having one place to put things does.The Shelf is where the system actually breathes. Without it, every interesting article, every podcast someone recommended, every random idea lands on the Lineup as a vague commitment — and accumulates as that low-grade background dread you're already familiar with. With a Shelf, you can put the thought down without promising to do anything about it. That's the whole trick.
A Shelf item gets called up to the Lineup the same way anything else does: you can fill out a Front, and you can name the first move. Can't? It stays on the Shelf. The Shelf is patient. A good shelf has years of stuff on it. Some of it feeds real projects. Some of it just sits there. Both are fine.
That's the shape. Three buckets — one daily card with two sides, one ongoing list, one big bin of stuff. Whatever tool you reach for first when a thought lands, that's your tool. Don't overthink it.
Paper, index cards. Literal cards in a small box. A whole system fits on a kitchen counter — that's the appeal.
Notion, Obsidian. Three pages: Lineup, Roster, Shelf. The Lineup page is a list of cards, one note per card. Front and Back are just two sections inside the note. That's it.
Things 3, Todoist, Reminders. The Roster maps to your project list, the Lineup is the "today / this week" view, the Shelf is whichever inbox or someday list the app already has. Don't fight the app. Use the buckets it gives you.
Plain text. Three .md files:
roster.md, lineup.md, shelf.md.
Sync them however you sync anything else. There's a charm to this.
Also: it can't break.
The shape is the point. The tool is whichever one you'll actually open tomorrow morning.