I’ve been spending some time experimenting with the best system to use the new question with. The question itself is not giving me any problems, but the context in which to get the best results from it is proving difficult to find.
I’m beginning to come to the conclusion that the best way to use it - for me anyway - is on its own without any list, not even a short one like 5/2 or other “no list” systems. In fact I’m not at the moment even bothering to get an answer to the question. I ask fairly frequently (but not obsessively) “What am I resisting not doing?” and then just act. It might be any type of action, such as continuing to do what I’m already doing, or starting something different, or even abandoning work altogether and doing something quite unexpected. But the important thing is that I don’t feel that I have to vocalise the answer to myself.
This changes the emphasis quite a lot. When I’ve been working with the question up to now, whether with a list or not, I have generally waited until I’ve finished the task I’ve been doing, and then I’ve asked the question with the purpose of identifying the next task.
But I find now that I’m more often asking the question at any stage of a task - and that either confirms what I’m doing, or makes some adjustments, or sends me off on an entirely different tack. So it’s more like being at the steering wheel of a ship - making minor adjustments to prevent the ship going off course, rather than making the big adjustment needed to actually change course. Of course when you are at the helm of a ship you have to do both, and so it is with asking the question.
So I’m still exploring exactly what the capabilities of this question are, and I don’t think I’ve got anywhere near to exhausing them yet. You may want to conduct your own experiments with it and you may get different results from me.
I’ll keep reporting back - and so can you in the comments.