Friday
Apr022021
Lenten Challenge Success Stories
Friday, April 2, 2021 at 8:56 Anyone who wishes to claim that they successfully kept to the same system throughout Lent please record your experiences in the Comments section below.
If you did not succeed in the Challenge then I’m going to open a separate Comment section for your experiences, comments and conclusions.
For once I’ve actually managed to keep to one system (GIRKIR) myself, though I admit to having experimented with different forms of it - so it wasn’t exactly the same system throughout. Pretty close though. I will write about my conclusions in a separate blog post.
Thanks to everyone who took part in this.
Reader Comments (10)
Pg 1: 25/25
Pg 2: 25/25
Pg 3: 25/25
Pg 4: 25/25
Pg 5: 24/25 (1 dismissed)
Pg 6: 23/25 (2 dismissed)
Pg 7: 24/25 (1 dismissed)
Pg 8: 24/25 (1 dismissed)
Pg 9: 23/25 (2 dismissed)
Pg 10: 25/25
Pg 11: 19/25
Pg 12: 23/25
Pg 13: 23/25
Pg 14: 8/25 (this page is work-specific tasks, so can't always action on them)
Pg 15: 17/25
Pg 16: 5/10
Overall happy with the fact I was able to stick with one system. It definitely helped me to just take action, no matter how small.
Also appreciated that this system makes sure tasks entered first don't get stale. I experienced resistance, but overwhelmingly decided to just start on a task instead of jump ship.
1. Entry-by-doing
2. Using the question "What am I resisting not doing now?" as I did the simple scanning
Wins:
- Consistently made progress on important tasks that weren't 'noisy'. This meant I kept ahead of the curve on many recurring tasks or things with due dates.
- Routines naturally tended to form and it was conducive to creating mental or literal check-lists for recurring things.
- Worked in accord with my energy level so that I did the mentally taxing things early in the morning, and physically taxing things in the afternoon, which matched what energy was available at each time.
Losses:
- Lots of resistance to adding additional tasks when I got about two dozen things going on it. Which was okay, but prevented me from making little-and-often progress on things like taxes.
- Using the standing out method with a question is sometimes pretty hard! I sometimes had a bit of mental conflict or difficulty remembering everything on the list.
Observations and Learnings:
- Using "Am I resisting not doing X now?" as the question seemed to be simpler than scanning everything with the question in mind and tended to give very good results.
- I need a method for task entry that isn't always 'doing' in order to get started on the most difficult tasks.
For the next 6 weeks, I'm going to try to do FVP with the "resisting not doing" question, along with a short-term future/present reality to see how that works.
I did adjust some of my subroutines -- for example, the way I process my calendar and tasks in Outlook for work, and the way I process my Gmail account for personal things. These changes were reminiscent of DIT in some ways, and AF4's closed list in other ways, but they lived inside the overall framework of Serial No-List, which is well-suited for lots of open-list exploration. These changes gave me some ideas how to improve Serial No-List overall. So I am starting an experiment based on AF4 and some ideas from Theory of Constraints.
I like the premise it's based on, getting and keeping things right, but in practice I found it hard to achieve that. What I found most challenging was only being able to add a new task by working through to the end of the list, as opposed to adding it as soon as it came to mind. My way round that was to keep a separate list for capturing absolutely everything, and one of my recurring tasks was "Check capture list".
I also found it difficult to decide whether to add routine/non-negotiable tasks, for completeness, and whether or not to use side-lists/check-lists outside the main list. To be fair, I struggle with those questions in any system, not just GIRKIR.
It was only when reading other people's posts since the challenge finished, that I realised I'd totally forgotten to apply the New Question - I think that happened about half-way through. After that I was just using standing out.
I must admit, as the six weeks were drawing to a close, I felt a sense of relief that I'd soon be able to choose a different system to work with, but it has definitely make me enthusiastic about sticking to one system for a decent period of time.
Mark, maybe when you've read through my deviations from GIRKIR above, you'll judge that I haven't actually succeeded at the Lenten Challenge after all!
WeekMap (map, not route) each week, look at it each day with pen in hand. Done. It only took 15 minutes.
Semi-Weekly journal, 15 minutes before meditation. This was part of preparing for meditation. It clears a layer or three of random thoughts, so I can explore deeper levels when meditating.
Often ask a) Is there anything that absolutely needs to be done now? b) What are some very useful things I'm willing and able to do right now?
Those questions were incredible! A) is obvious, and more powerful than usual because my WeekMap was right there. Things that needed to be done to keep on track were obvious. B) Willing and Able. If A) found something urgent and important, I was usually willing and able to do it. If it didn't, looking for useful things I was willing and able to do kept me reasonably focused.
Willing and able was important. Trying to force myself to do something I'm not both willing and able to do leads to distracting myself with less useful things. This loophole let me set aside things I wasn't going to do, and still do something useful with my time. It's a variation on the question from ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). What is the most useful thing I'm able to do right now. Just "able" lets me choose things I wasn't willing to do, leading to unproductive procrastination.
The system fizzled a bit after the challenge. I kept up the WeekPlan. I still journal before meditation, but don't leave a whole 15 minutes for it. I'm sliding on the daily check. That 5 minutes a day made a huge difference. If I look at it once mid-morning, either I don't need to look at it again because I remember what needs to be done, or I keep coming back to it for more tasks.
Fortunately, it's easy to reboot.
As I am Eastern orthodox I am continuing on to May the 2nd as our Easter is particularly later this year.
I am going to grade actions and outcomes out of 5.
5/5 I have kept to the process on a daily basis.
2/5 Have a Future vision but amend it infrequently I have reviewed the current self, again infrequently, both have changed during the period; the current state has “moved on” and become more positive.
5/5 Self-coaching daily: I have completed a self-coaching slot every day, with only one exception. I have adjusted the question to: “What has gotten better and what have you be drawn to?” My future self remains really insightful.
3/5 I am also using a “Mind Dump,” usually in the morning, where I just write down whatever comes to mind.
5/5 Ketogenic Diet Weight Loss: I have currently lost 34.5 pounds in 87 days (I started this at the end of January and integrated it into my vision and challenge). I often write an audit of the changes it has meant for my body.
5/5 Song writing. From nowhere 21 songs have manifested, often starting in the Brain Dump. It came out of the blue and was very welcome. I am surrounded by guitars but am yet to be drawn to pick one up and start working on tunes or arrangements…
5/5 Unconscious retrieval – it’s still amazing what my future self comes up with!
3/5 Dreams the book: I started rereading the book but this stopped after a while, although I was drawn to read the end of the book today, and felt inspired to write this.
5/5 Alcohol break: I’ve continued on the wagon - today is the 99th day - and will step off after Orthodox Easter on May 2nd
4/5 Bed early: this has been essential and whilst my sleeping has been variable getting to bed between 9-10pm has been important as has getting up earlier, ideally 6:15am.
4/5 I have cleaned the bathroom, the stairs, the kitchen, and am chipping away at my office, and did a major day in the garden getting on top of the various out of control tasks.
3/5 Writing - using halving and Grammarly worked well but my lap top conked out and I need to load Grammarly onto my new one.
3/5 Productivity: part of Dreams is to be pulled not pushed towards completing tasks. I took the approach into my job and works colleagues and the executive, I even shared the section of Dreams that discussed this approach. I have been motivated to see if we can use pull strategically.
What areas are/were a struggle?
Sometimes there is some resistance to self-coaching - which my future self-points out. It usually is a prelude to an insight but my resistance is usually when I am not thinking positively.
I have noticed I've become more assertive at work. Perhaps more accurately have become slightly less outcome dependent.
I started reading a lot more and was “drawn” to Bryan Magee’s “Wagner and Philosophy” and could not put it down.
I think I could improve my reviewing of the vision and current state.
I need to find a way of capturing the learning simply on one page rather than across daily journal entries.
Only recently has my walking increased and it still should be more frequent. (Two short walks a day would be ideal). But that’s the wonder of pull it will increase when it increases!
5/5 Signed up for Mark Forster’s Lenten challenge which was a good incentive as I had all sorts of chatter in my head about Mark and his approaches. There has been positive change in all these different areas. It has been very enjoyable.
I am curious what your thoughts are regarding “ I need to find a way of capturing the learning simply on one page rather than across daily journal entries. ”. Do you mean to have one page that is your current vision of Future Brandon, or something else?
I’m also curious about Mark Forster and Dreams. It seems from here that Pull Mode was a successful phase employed a long time ago , but these days Mark is content with operating in push mode with push mode systems. Is this accurate? [ although, simple scanning with Standing out is very minimal pushing, one might almost call it free flow mode as distinct from hard planning Push and Visionary pull. ]
My Goal Achievement Process seems to me kind of a blend of push and pull. Thinking of Future motivates me and thinking of Today pushes me to get specific things accomplished.
Back to Brandon: Congratulations on a season well executed! I take it you intend to continue with this? Any change?
<< these days Mark is content with operating in push mode with push mode systems. Is this accurate? >>
I think it would be more accurate to say that I'm trying to see how to get the advantages of both push mode and pull mode in one system. Sort of like a train climbing a steep gradient with one locomotive at the front and one at the back. As you say, Simple Scanning is pretty close to being both.
But to keep the simile going, Simple Scanning is more like a train going down a gradient. It tends to run away too fast. "A Simple System to Try Out" was an attempt to stop it running away. I'm working on an amended version of that at the moment.