Get Everything Done

As the system I was testing didn’t work out the way I was hoping, I’ve changed to Fast FVP which is proving to be everything I’ve been looking for. A bit of loosening up of the rules has made it much more flexible and seems to have overcome most of the problems I have found with it before and with such systems as Simple Scanning and FVP.

Basically what I’ve done is to stick to what I said in the first paragraph of the Fast FVP article without adding the further complications in that article.

“Whenever a task is dotted which I am ready to do right now I stop scanning and do it. That’s all there is to it - it’s as simple as that, but the effect on the speed of the system is enormous.”

However that’s not going to make much sense to anyone who reads this without being already acquainted with FVP and FV. So here’s a complete set of rules. As always, I’ve written the rules for paper and pen, but it’s easy to implement them electronically if you so wish:

Fast FVP is intended to be used with a “catch-all” list, i.e. a full list of everything you have to do.
It is better to start off with a few tasks and build the list up gradually rather than attempt to write everything out to begin with. That way the list will build up naturally and you will be more aware of what is on it.
Dot the first task on the list. You can do it straight away if you want to, but if you don’t want to you carry on scanning through the list dotting tasks that you intend to do.
At any stage you can either work on the task you have just dotted or carry on down the list dotting further tasks.
When you have worked on a task you cross it out and re-enter it at the end of the list if further work is needed on it.
You then can either work on the previous dotted task or carrying on dotting further tasks.
That’s basically it, but there are two rules dealing with the beginning and end of the list:
1. Whenever you delete the first task on the list the new first task must be dotted
2. Whenever you reach the end of the list you must work on the last dotted task on the list.

To sum up, except where rules 7.1 and 7.2 apply you always have a choice of:

Working on the last dotted task on the list OR
Adding further dots after the task you have just done.

Update on Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 23:07 by

Mark Forster

Afternote:

Fast FVP acts like a mixture of FV, FVP and Simple Scanning. In fact you can simulate FV and FVP within the rules of Fast FVP, and you can also simulate Simple Scanning with the one change that you have to do the first task on the list on each pass. You can also switch between them at any stage.

I’m not suggesting that you should consciously think about this while doing Fast FVP. I’m just pointing out how very flexible the system is.