The Perfect Time Management System
Friday, May 8, 2015 at 12:11 For millenia the best minds in the world have been searching for the perfect time management system. Finally, after twenty years of thinking about little else (or at least that’s how it felt), I have at last managed to invent it.
I hope this will be an incalculable boon to humankind. Imagine, no more frustration at not being able to trust yourself to achieve what you want. Imagine, always being able to decide to do something and know that you will do it. Imagine, being able to unfailingly steer the optimum path through all the clashing priorities of daily life.
The system is very simple. Once you know it you will be hard pressed to think why it would take one person five minutes to think up, let alone twenty years. Yet, as far as I know no one else has ever thought of it before.
Here are a few characteristics of the system:
- It’s a “universal capture” system, i.e. you can enter any task or project without any pre-editing or prioritizing.
- It’s equally suitable for pen and paper or electronic means.
- It can deal with any size list, from the smallest to the largest.
- No matter what order the tasks are written in, it will always give you the optimum path through them.
- It has no problem with urgent tasks.
- It encourages “little and often”.
- You can attend meetings and write down tasks and queries straight into the list.
- Resistance becomes a thing of the past.
- You can enter provisional tasks, i.e. ones you haven’t decided definitely whether to do them or not.
- You can brainstorm straight onto the list
- It requires no randomizers or other equipment.
- and so on.
I’ll be writing more about this in a week or so’s time.
Reader Comments (77)
I cannot recall a grammar mistake like this, in any of his previous writing.
My greater fear is that Mark's website was hacked shortly after he released his book Do it Tomorrow in 2006. For all we know, the person creating the systems to date has been an imposter bent on programming our minds with layers of algorithms designed to produce the ultimate sleeper agents. At some point, he will activate us all and send us to do his bidding.
Actually, I think was Mark's plan too. So, either way we're toast, and we should definitely not be looking forward to the final layer!
Hmmm....Murder On The Time Management Express :-) The plot thickens.
What I can tell you now is that the system is a development of the FV system. Although the change is not that large, it makes a huge difference to the effectiveness of FV - at least for me.
Like all of us, Mark is entitled to go on holiday and to do anything he likes and how he likes it, as long as it's on his current list.
May I make a request? If it's not burdensome, could you send a tweet when you're going to be away from the site, letting us know when you expect to be back?
That way, the productivity of this productivity community might not collapse, with everyone checking the site three times a day.
But perhaps you've abandoned Twitter.
Best,
<< If it's not burdensome, could you send a tweet when you're going to be away from the site, letting us know when you expect to be back? >>
It's my policy not to mention holidays - and other trips - until I'm back from them. A security thing - skulduggery on the internet and in the world in general is very real.
Usually I can take part to a limited extent in the Forum while I'm away, so you don't even notice I've gone. But this time I had unforeseen connectivity problems.
hope your holiday was amazing.
You released FV when I was in my final year of graduate school. It was my easiest year by a mile. My classes were not any easier, but FV allowed me to stay on top of everything like I had never experienced before. So it holds a special place in my heart. :)
FV has worked for me longer than anything else I have tried, and although I have to use an approach for refreshing/ weeding the FV list each week, it in essence works brilliantly.
I do also make use of little tag symbols for resistant tasks and short/quick ones and each day (if the fancy takes me) I will do a resistance pass or a 'quickie' pass to start the day and get me motivated.
I can therefore see that FV lends itself to different 'perspectives' and am very interested to see what Mark has awaiting for us in the wings! ...Hopefully not Ant. and Dec.!
Now, where is that F5 button?
I'm spending a small amount of time here each day looking to see if the perfect system has been described yet. Would it not have been kinder to say nothing at all and then just...pop...release it. Especially since I'm assuming its free.
I'm very very keen to see this latest offering, impatient even, I have ADD (or SCT) whatever label fits and finding a system that works is the holy grail for someone whose executive function is a slow burner.
Just my 2p
<< Would it not have been kinder to say nothing at all and then just...pop...release it. >>
Kinder perhaps. More effective, no.
My experience is that a "cliffhanger" like this is the best way of getting a new method noticed if I think it's a really important one (which I do). If it's just released without prior notice it sinks without trace.
<< Especially since I'm assuming its free. >>
Actually I haven't made up my mind about that. It's the main reason I haven't released it yet.
"Roger, without wanting to sound equally rude, there's a somewhat unhealthy level of neurosis being displayed over Mark's announcement of an improved process."
I have to agree. There is nothing wrong with being excited about a new approach and it may well be an excellent approach, but I can't believe a person is truly serious about becoming more productive if he is hitting F5 on a blog multiple times a day when the promised update - not system release, mind you, just "more on this" - was said to come "in a week or so." Does such a person truly want to become productive and effective with a new tool to help remember things and decide in what order to proceed in a simple way, or does is a magic pill what he is looking for?
What interests me more than the new system itself (though I am patiently curious about that) is how your thoughts have changed since you were expressing these kind of ideas:
"What I have been doing is testing out various systems (including SMEMA) which don't use a continuing to do list or someday/maybe list. They've all proved sufficiently effective for me to doubt the necessity or even the desirability of the said lists."
You said that in regards to SMEMA and the system described in your new book. Do you still agree with this, and if so, why is the new system better?
How would discussion of the new system work? Whether on this forum or others, people talking about/getting help with a system generally reveals its workings after a short while.
*starts throwing cash bills at the computer screen*
Of a sufficient vintage now to be relaxed about the new 'perfect' system's unveiling, I am still intrigued about what it might be.
Whether the 'perfect' system is revealed tomorrow, this weekend, next week, month etc, I have still got a shedload of stuff on my current list to plough through.
Please note that there are at least two Roger participants, I am Roger J, aka The Jolly Roger on other sites
I'm a huge fan of Mark's. I think the guy is a legend.
Thank you Mark for your reply - it made total sense. And yes I would pay to see the new system and have the book on pre-order.
I think I will reserve any future comments I might make to questions about the system(s) and general gratitude for Mark's hard work.
Good luck with the system, Mark!
I suppose its the age we live in. Maybe I am a bit too security-conscious at times myself, but I do work "In Strange Places (with) Questionable People" , to paraphrase the BBC's John Simpson. At present, some elements in the expat community where I am are buzzing with Al Shabab rumours; such rumours are a cost-effective way to spread unease.
It makes shopping excursions interesting.
Back on topic: I too would be willing to pay for a system as simple and powerful as Mark has described. I just hope those on this site will get a discount!
A luta continua,
Roger J