When I was very young, back in the early fifties, before the advent of domestic central heating, I lost count of the number of times I put my homework off for hour after hour until I ended up having to wake myself up to do it at 6 a.m. on a freezing cold morning.
I think the memory of those cold mornings, and the knowledge that it was entirely my own fault that I got myself into that mess, sparked a life-time interest in time management. But it wasn’t until nearly seventy years later that I finally realised WHY I kept getting myself into this easily avoidable situation.
The completely obvious reason, which had eluded me for so long, was that I was paying more attention to my resistance to starting my homework than to my resistance to doing my homework in a freezing unheated bedroom at 6 o’clock in the morning.
In other words I was paying more attention to how I felt about doing it than to how I felt about the consequences of not doing it.
Or to put it yet another way I was resisting doing it, rather than resisting not doing it.
I was ignoring the negative consequences.
I realised that there are two types of motivator - 1) the positive motivator of succeeding at what you have set out to do, and 2) the negative motivator of having to live with the consequences of not succeeding in doing it.
And then I realised something else. In spite of what every self-motivation book tells you, negative motivation is far more effective than positive motivation.
My problem with getting my homework done was that the positive motivation of getting it finished was far too weak to overcome the negative motivation of having to stop playing with my toys or listening to the radio (we didn’t get television until 1953). But what if I had concentrated instead on the negative consequences of not doing it?
Ten years later I found myself in the Army. The Army is renowned for negative motivation. But it certainly produces results. Have a look at this parade from 1962 - I’m somewhere in the back rank of the company receiving the Colour. Negative motivation it may be, but 59 years later being a part of that parade is one of the proudest memories in my life.
Anyway what all this is leading up to is that I’ve been puzzling recently why I’ve never felt entirely happy that I have found the right question for FVP, Simple Scanning and the other methods which use a question.
So looking at the most popular questions:
1. No Question and Standing Out. These come down to identifying what one feels needs doing, based on the premise that our minds are capable of subconsciously identifying the most important factors. This is well and good but I realised that they identify the positive consequences of doing the task, rather than the negative consequences of not doing it.
2. The same applies to such questions as What is the most important thing that I could do now? Something may not seem to be that important to do, but be very important to avoid failing to do.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
This sounds just like me, for want of doing my homework and missing Muffin the Mule, having to get up at 6 a.m. and work in the freezing cold in an unheated bedroom.
So the new question I have come up with focuses on the negative consequences of not doing the task, rather than the positive consequences of doing it:
What am I resisting NOT doing? (Note that the question is not What am I resisting, not doing? The comma would change the meaning completely)
This question is the reverse of What am I resisting doing? as it measures my resistance to the negative consequences of failing to do the task, rather than the negative feelings associated with doing the task. And once I’ve experienced how much I am resisting those negative consequences, I will want to do the task rather than avoid it.
So to go back to the little tale about the nail and the horseshoe, the farrier might say to himself “What am I resisting not doing? I’m resisting not getting hold of one more nail because I know that having badly shoed horses can be fatal in a battle and this is going to be a very important battle indeed.” Only he wouldn’t need to say it because the feeling of resistance would say it for him.
There are several additional forms this question can take:
What am I most resisting NOT doing?
This is the form I use as a stand-alone question (i.e. without any list) or with Simple Scanning, The Bounce and suchlike methods.
What am I resisting NOT doing now?
This is similar to the previous question but with an increased emphasis on immediacy.
With FV, FVP and other similar comparison methods, the question is:
What am I resisting NOT doing more than x?
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How well does the new question work?
Amazingly well in my experience so far. For one thing it is very time sensitive. Another thing I’ve found is that it gives a very strong “hit”, which means that I can scan very fast if I’m using a list.
In the short time I’ve been using it, it has immensely improved the quality of my life by ensuring that negatives are removed. If you think of all the negatives caused in your life by “not yet getting round to sorting [problem/mess/disorder] out”, you can see what this means. It also has meant that I prepare earlier and better for meetings and such like.
Your mileage may of course vary. But I would be very pleased to have your comments after you’ve tried it out with your favourite system.