How To Do The Same Old Thing (Again)

In the comments on the previous post there have been a few mentions of ten task systems. This reminded me of a very effective long-list system which I’ve mentioned before but never made a big thing of. I think it deserves another outing.

How to Do The Same Old Thing - Blog - Get Everything Done (squarespace.com)

I was using it yesterday and had a very satisfactory day. As I’ve said more than once, first days can be deceptive. So I’m looking forward with interest to how it goes today.

The characteristics of the system are that it is quite fast and is good for both difficult and urgent tasks. It makes excellent use of the principle of Structured Procrastination.

Comments

[Margaret1]

Hi Mark - I love reading your old blog posts, especially as I seem to have missed this one first time round.

I gave 10-Tasks a go for a couple of days, and loved the novelty of it, and the way it encouraged me to make a start on tasks I'd otherwise have glossed over.

However, at this time of year the projects I'm resisting most are Christmas shopping (mostly online this year), writing Christmas cards and packing for going away at Christmas. Before trying out 10-Tasks, I was using a long list on which each of these appeared, along with other must-do tasks which I wasn't resisting. To provide a kickstart to the big three, I used an incremental timed system you'd developed whereby I worked on those three big tasks in turn, starting with 1 minute each, then 3 minutes each, then 5,10 and 15. Once I'd completed this sequence the resistance was much less. Whenever the resistance returned, I'd go back to a shorter version of the incremental time bursts and that was usually enough to get me back on track again.

In the New Year, when things have calmed down a bit (hopefully) and I have fewer close-deadline projects, I'll give 10-Tasks another go, as I did find it enjoyable.

Best wishes to all.

[Mark Forster]

Margaret1:

The incremental timed system is powerful and I'd like to suggest a couple of variants (neither of which were developed by me) which are even more powerful. They are best used one task at a time without breaks. Either set yourself a target, or go as high as you can and then stop.

The method you are currently using gives you 34 minutes work on each task.

You can up this without increasing resistance by using increments of one minute, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. If you go up to 15 minutes this gives you 2 hours work.

Even more powerful is the pyramid method, by which you increase by one minute increments and then count back down again, i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. If you go up to 15 minutes and back that gives you 3 hours and 45 minutes work.

[Margaret1]

Thanks for those suggestions Mark.

When I started using the incremental method on the projects I was stubbornly resisting (Christmas presents, Christmas cards and packing), the only way I could get going was to start at 1 minute and add very small increments. What I found was that once the resistance started to lessen, I found the smaller increments annoying, whereas at first they were absolutely essential to make me start work. Now I usually start at 15 minutes, increasing by 5 minutes at a time. (I'm only using the incremental method on the big three tasks at the moment).

I see from Brent's post on the General Forum that he's finding micro-increments useful, and that sounds like a very interesting system he's using.

[Richard]

Hi Margaret,

Thanks for this reminder of this system / idea. I too was struggling with one big task (doing my online math course) which I really hate to do. I almost always put it off and feel guilty about it when a day passes with no progress on it. The funny thing is that when I tried to fight against the resistance, resistance lessens and I make progress, Need to remind myself constantly to just push through on my high-resistance items.

Richard

[Richard]

To add to earlier post (and as Mark said in the Timeboxing post) this did remind me of his "Get Everything Done" system (do X minutes on each task in increasing/decreasing increments.) So I'll re-read that a bit too.

[Mark Forster]

Richard:

<< The funny thing is that when I tried to fight against the resistance, resistance lessens and I make progress, >>

Gettng started is always the most difficult part. I've often recommended the phrase "I'm not going to do [scary project] now, but I'll just get the file out."

[Mark Forster]

Margaret:

<< What I found was that once the resistance started to lessen, I found the smaller increments annoying, whereas at first they were absolutely essential to make me start work. >>

It's not just getting oneself started that the smaller increments are helpful for, but they also in my experience enable one to work much faster.