Lenten Challenge 2020

LESS THAN A DAY TO GO!

Challenge ends 11.59 pm 9 April. Don’t fall out within sight of the finish!

But please let us know if you do fall out (Comment Section on this thread is no longer closed)

——————————————————————————— 

We intend to run our traditional Lenten Challenge this year.

The idea is to commit yourself to using the same time management method every day for the whole of Lent without changing to a different method. 

This year Lent runs from Wednesday 26 February to Thursday 9 April (both inclusive). 

If you wish, you may leave out non-working days if you do not normally use a time management method at home. You should be consistent about this though.

This is not intended to imply any religious affiliation or purpose whatsoever.

Last year a good proportion of people completed the challenge. Let’s make it 100% this year. I myself intend to use Reverse AF2, which is basically the same as Simple Scanning except that you scan from the beginning of the list each time. 

You can sign in for the Challenge any time before the start of Lent (your local time) in the comments to this post (or email me). All you need to give is your screen name and the system you intend to use. You can use your own system if you like. You can change the system you’re going to use right up to the start of the Challenge. If you change it after the start of the Challenge you’ve failed!

ADDITIONAL NOTE:

The whole point of the Challenge is that it is an exercise in consistency, i.e. sticking to the same thing for a set period of time. So to play fairly you should get your system in as good shape as possible before the start of the Challenge, but then keep further modifications until the Challenge is over (or you’ve pulled out, whichever is first).

ENTRIES SO FAR:

1. vegheadjones - sorted list with 3T timeboxing

2. avrum - own system

3. Mike Brown - Simple Scanning

4. foleymeister - Simple Scanning

5. Taran - FFVP (modified)

6. Athaban - 5T

7. Ian - Simple Scanning

8. Seraphim - DIT with TOC Thinking Processes

9. MrDone - Real Autofocus

10. Myself - No system (which means I lose if I use any TM system at all)

11. Will - Simple Scanning

12. tomcal - Serial No-List with MS To Do

13. Ville - Reverse AF2 + Simple Scanning

14. Colin - DIT

15. Sathya - Dreams/ Self dialogue in the morning; Trello - for task management

16. Jens - ‘Entry by Doing’ No-List

17. Laby - Reverse AF2 (last 3 pages only)

18. Brenda - AF4

19. diweon - GTD + AF + 2T (with timer)

20. Alan Baljeu - Own system (Well Structured Day)

21. Nia - ASEM

22. Sitkeys - Ultimate Time Management System

23. darth pinata - Own system (LL-WL-DL)

24. Lauren - Simple Scanning

25. Cricket - Own system

26. Caibre65 - FV

27. Lisa F - ASEM

28. Shamil - Halving and AF2

29. Cameron - Simple Scanning + SWEETs

30. Tesshu - DIT + Dreams

31. Fintan - DIT

32. Adam T - Simple Scanning

33. Erin - Spinning Plates

34. Carmen - UTMS

35. Ian O - One-day FVP

36. Christopher - Simple Scanning (digital)

37. Eugenia - Simple Scanning

Comments

[Jens]

I'd like to change to the "Entry by Doing" no-list.

[Caibre65]

Please change my entry to Simple Scanning.

[Adam T]

Count me in!

I'll be doing Simple Scanning

[Erin]

I'm going with Spinning Plates. I have several large projects and the spinning plates seems to handle them well with time boxing if the scope of the project is really big. I'm using 4 x 6 index cards.

[Carmen]

I'm in.

I'll work with the Ultimate Time Management System.
Tomorrow will be the first day with this method and I'm already excited!

Thanks for hosting this challenge!

[Ian O]

I'm going to try using One Day FVP

[Caibre65]

My final choice is FV.

[Christopher]

Simple Scanning, digital

[Eugenia]

I´m in for the Lenten Challenge.

I´ll be doing Simple Scanning.

Best regards!

[Colin]

I seem to be on twice - 14 + 41, my fault for using this post to write about how the preparation was going!

[Mark Forster]

Colin:

So which one is correct?

[Colin]

Mark: 41 is correct, ie DIT.
(that's plenty to be getting on with, and not taking such a systematic approach at home)

[Christopher]

there seems to be an odd formating for the first entry in the list of participants. the "1." is a bit off.

[Seraphim]

Mark Forster -

<< Myself - No system (which means I lose if I use any TM system at all) >>

Could you say more about this?

I'm trying to understand how it's even possible. :-) It's always seemed to me that everyone does follow some system, even if only implicitly, and even if it's a dysfunctional system such as "react to the crisis of the moment, otherwise surf aimlessly".

[Mark Forster]

Seraphim:

<< It's always seemed to me that everyone does follow some system, even if only implicitly, and even if it's a dysfunctional system such as "react to the crisis of the moment, otherwise surf aimlessly". >>

That reminds me of the passage in "Brideshead Revisited":

“Suppose the pope says that it’s going to rain tomorrow. Does that mean it will rain?”
“Oh yes Father.”
“But supposing it doesn’t rain, what then?”
“Well … Uh … I guess it would be, ah, spiritually raining. Only … We were too sinful to see it!”

I guess I must be spiritually using a system, even if I'm so sinful that I think I'm just surfing aimlessly.

Back to the surfing.

[Mark Forster]

Christopher:

<< there seems to be an odd formating for the first entry in the list of participants. the "1." is a bit off. >>

Thanks for pointing this out. An extra space had crept in. Corrected.

[Seraphim]

Mark Forster:

<< That reminds me of the passage in "Brideshead Revisited" >>

LOL!!

OK, then I suppose by "system" you mean something more like a defined set of rules or methods -- not just the emergent system implicit in your habits and behaviors.

So as long as you don't use any specific rules or methods for your overall time management, you are good? But I guess you can still use rules and methods for things like email?

It sounds like a fun experiment, but I doubt I could keep it up for 40 days! :-)

[Alan Baljeu]

I find Seraphim's definition of "system" odd. If there's no rules or procedures or regularity, it isn't a system. I guess No System is a change from the blog post which said Reverse AF2 Whatever.

[Gadgets]

Mark, what happened to no’s 23 to 31?

[Mark Forster]

Gadgets:

<< Mark, what happened to no’s 23 to 31? >>

Aliens!

[Mark Forster]

I'm going to close this thread now as it's becoming too unwieldy. If you want to comment further on the Challenge, please open a thread on the Forum.

[Colin]

Not sure if I can respond on this thread, but I need to drop out - I have been furloughed, so will not be working after today. DIT has been superhelpful; I haven't usually completed my day list, but I have done the main tasks of the day, so it has been great for ensuring focus on the key areas and keeping on top of incoming work. But now I'm doing home and family things, I'm just going to use a Simple Scanning list to keep track of ideas and projects.
Thanks again Mark!

[avrum]

Since Corona... my interest in levelling up, productivity, etc. fell off a cliff. And I'm just fine with that.

Haven't worked my system in weeks. I'm out.

[Sitkeys]

I got a lot done - without using my system, so I'm out unfortunately. Still, I'm using the last days to try to come back strong! Hope you are all well.

[Erin]

Still hanging on to the Spinning Plates. So tempted to try the list of 10 but not yet.

It's turned out that the projects I choose to focus on are well suited to being home.
What has made work for me is using a timer and not adding any more plates, just a list of "littles" that I need to attend to.

Thanks all for being here.

[tomcal]

I'm out. I made the mistake of reading your "Ten Tasks" blog post yesterday and felt like I needed a little push so I tried it. Liked it so I'm out. Thank you for the great post, though. I'm looking forward to using it all week. Well, I made it to Palm Sunday...

[Adam T]

I'm afraid I'm out (sigh)

[Jens]

I'm out, I'm afraid. Back to DIT.

[Mike Brown]

Still doing simple scanning. Though it has been helped along lately by me working on some big projects, such that I can keep them in my head and they take up most of my day. So the SiSc notebook mainly collects droplets of things that need to be captured for later.

Hard to believe that when we started this challenge, I was driving in to an office every day. Now, I've been working from home for about 3 weeks.

[Sathya]

I think I completely missed the wagon.
I shifted to Simple Scanning, starting from March 8.
I just started my 22nd page with list of to-dos, with last 3 active pages.
So, officially I am out of Lenten challenge as per my committment.
But I have been using SS, in tandem with a morning round of future visioning & self-dialogue as per Dreams book. Not sure if this counts.

Thinking about this could be longest streak ever in a productivity system.

In the meantime, found this wonderful article
https://www.nateliason.com/blog/procrustean-bed-productivity

Importantly, I liked almost all aphorisms by Nassim in his book 'Bed of Procrustean' - many relates to productivity, and following a more intuitive way of living... Didn't realize that there is so much similarity :)

[Alan Baljeu]

Sathya, there's no judge but yourself in this. Did you stick to a system and not experiment or quit? Even if you didn't quite manage, it sounds like you achieved a full month, so way to go!

[Nia]

Please cross me off. I got sidetracked within a week.

[Caibre65]

Mark

I didn't last the course. But it certainly made me think about what I want from a time management method.

[Erin]

I held the course. Major progress on two big projects. Excited to keep working on them and maybe make a few tweaks. There is much to be learned by sticking to a system.

[Cricket]

Nope, failed fairly soon, even with built-in leeway.