Free Q&A Session

There will be a FREE Q&A Session about the Final Version by teleconference call on Monday April 16th at 8 pm (UK Time). Numbers limited to 20. Pre-registration will be required. Details soon.

Comments

[Kate Davus]

That sounds really interesting Mark. Unfortunately evenings can be interesting for me as I get two small children to bed. Do you intend to record the call or provide a written transcript?

[Mark Forster]

Yes, I'll probably record the call and make it available on line. The session is very much a trial run to make sure the ordering mechanism, the conference call and the recording work. Hopefully it'll be a very useful session for the people taking part too!

[Will]

Nose pressed to window, awaiting delivery of details...

[ubi]

I'm interested, but don't have any convenient way to make a toll telephone call at that time (13:00 PDT California, USA), since I'll be at work. Wish it were a Wednesday when I work at home, so I could use my Vonage phone.

Or will this be Internet-based (e.g. WebEx)?

[LYDIA]

I would like to sign up. How do I do that. I LOVE the new FV. It allows for getting tasks done, working through the list and those I have been procrastinating (this is by always putting a dot on the first item on the list.)
AND getting things done I have more passion about.
Lydia

[michael]

LYDIA: subscribe to the newsletter - top right of this page, under Mark's photo

[Ray | free donation websites]

Good data, a streaming link?

[Mark Forster]

Lydia:

Booking isn't open yet. I'll announce it on both the blog and the newsletter. This first one is to help iron out any bugs. There will hopefully be plenty more to come.

[Frances]

FV is like magic for me. Sometimes I find myself trying to outwit the system, but I suspect that you predicted.and accounted for such behavior.

Thank you!

[Mike Jones]

I have used each of the versions and this is the most pleasant to use because of working backwards - so I can deal with the urgent now! while being forceful in gradually dealing with my tasks that I have yet to start which crop up one at a time at the beginning.

I am much more likely to use it daily than any of the other systems though it can be depressing for two reasons: firstly it is changing the way I work and forcing me to deal with more things earlier which is a good thing, but initially pretty hard on me. Secondly, I am having to come to terms with procrastinated tasks. At this initial stage, because of procrastinated tasks, I found I had to change the question for it to work.
I changed "what do I want to do before I do X" to "what do I want to do this time round before X" Why? For a couple of reasons.
Firstly my my list is very long (because of the nature of my job which has an inordinate number of tasks and responsibilities). Secondly, my procrastinated tasks tend to end up at the top of my list. The net effect of this combination is that because I have been resisting procrastinated tasks, I want to do everything before doing the top one! If I ask the original question I colluded with my inner procrastinator and dotted more early things which meant that I could not reach the end of a cycle before I had to do the urgent things. Thus bingo! I did not have to deal with the most procrastinated task at the top of the list.
By changing the question, I dot fewer things which means I get the work done that has to be done in the time I have for the cycle and also do something on my most procrastinated task.

I can see that after using the system for a while, both questions will work equally well but at the initial stages ( a few weeks of using it) the other question helped.

A second adaptation is that I have continued to use the highlighting of tasks that I have felt are not important enough now.

Overall its the best system that I have used, and the first one that I have ever adopted completely .

Mike

[Spike]

Mike

The "What do i want to do before x" is asked after each task that you select ie: "x" become the next task you have selected from which to make the next choice. I'm thinking you don't have to change the question to get the result you need if you do this. It says it in the rules.
You'll find that the chain/ladder is quite small because as the tasks you pick get easier than the previous one the choice of what you want to do before "x" becomes limited. Hope I've explained it ok. Its subtle but it works!

[Cricket]

Mike, your question "What do I want to do this time round before X?" sounds like you're leaving the first unactioned task in place for many rounds. In FV, when you work on it, even just getting the folder out, you copy it to the end of the list. The next task on the first page is now the "first unactioned task". The old one is now no longer special (other than maybe being the end rung of the next ladder).