Some Suggested Improvements to NQ-FVP

The two main problems with NQ-FVP are 1) it tends to be rather inflexible, and 2) it concentrates too much on the end of the list where the new and re-entered tasks congregate, to the exclusion of the beginning of the list where the older and unstarted tasks congregate.

I am experimenting with a couple of small changes to the rules which improve both these aspects. These are:

1) When you’ve done a task (and re-entered it if necessary) you can go directly to the previous dotted task if you wish, without having to scan to the end of the list.

2) You are limited to two dotted tasks per scan. This does not include the root task at the beginning of the list. Note that this is two dotted tasks per scan, not two dotted tasks on the list. You can do a scan with two dots, do one of the tasks and then do another two-dot scan, and so on.

My three or four hours’ experience so far is that this gets rid of the lengthy scanning process and removes most of the frustration of being stuck at one end of the list with a whole load of tasks between you and the work you know you should be doing.

If anyone wants to try this out at the same time as me, I’d welcome your experiences and comments.

Some Aspects of NQ-FVP (Part 3)

In Part 2 I said that I would deal with how NQ-FVP can be used as a long list, a short list and a no-list system, all at the same time.

In fact this is very simple because the system naturally suits itself to isolating a group of tasks at the end of the list where they can be dotted and re-dotted as much as is required.

To do this, decide which tasks on your NQ-FVP list you want to be in your short list or no-list, dot them and move them to the end of the NQ-FVP list by the usual method of doing and re-entering them.

Alternatively you can move them by reprioritising your list. This is done by deleting the relevant tasks and re-entering them at the end of the list. Either way you have moved the tasks to the end of the list where you can action them as many times as required. This is very flexible because you can include other tasks on the NQ-FVP list as much or as little as you like.

You can use the same technique with Simple Scanning though it is less flexible.