The System I'm Going to be Using for This Experiment

Wednesday, June 1, 2016 at 10:36
Mark Forster

I don’t think it actually matters which no-list system I will use for this experiment since they are all very effective. But I’ve had to settle on one because I want consistency - and naturally I’ve settled on one I know I can trust.

I haven’t, as far as I can remember, described exactly this system before. But it’s very similar to several I have described so there’s nothing super-specially new about it.

Here’s how it works:

1. The list is valid for one day only. The next day a new list is started from scratch.
2. Tasks can only be entered on the list by being done.
3. Tasks are re-entered at the end of the list if they are going to be needed again the same day (i.e. if there is still work to be done on them or they will recur again that day).
4. When you have entered as many new tasks as you want to, you scan the list from the beginning and work on any tasks that you want to.
5. When you reach the end of the list you can add new tasks again as in 2 above. When you have added as many as you want you start scanning again from the beginning of the list.
6. You should not feed the list from a larger list. Reminders of things that you intend to do at a specific time or date are fine.

Example:

You decide to work on email. Write it as the first item on your list and start working on it. When you’ve finished cross it out and, since it’s recurrent, re-enter it.

Email
Email

Next you decide to work on tidying your office. Again it’s recurrent, so when you’ve finished working on it cross it out and re-enter it as before.

Email
Email
Tidy Office
Tidy Office

You add some more tasks in the same way.

Email
Email
Tidy Office
Tidy Office
Phone Julie
Draft Project X Report
Draft Project X Report

Note that “Phone Julie” is not a recurrent task and so is not re-entered.

At this stage you decide to revisit some of the tasks on the list, so you scan through the list from the beginning and work on any tasks you want to. In this case you check your email again and also do some more drafting of the report.

Email
Email
Tidy Office
Tidy Office
Phone Julie
Draft Project X Report
Draft Project X Report
Email
Draft Project X Report

As you’ve now reached the end of the list you can now enter any new tasks that you want to work on.

Article originally appeared on Get Everything Done (http://markforster.squarespace.com/).