More about "No List" Systems
“Any system that lets you wallow in the fantasy that one day you’ll get it all done isn’t just useless but dangerous, lulling you into frittering away your time.” (Oliver Burkeman)
As those who’ve read my book Secrets of Productive People will know, I advise people to throw away their to-do lists and rely on a “No List” system. There are two main reasons why I come down on the side of the “No List” system, one positive and one negative.
- The negative reason is that to do lists have an irresistible tendency to expand. This destroys real focus. I have taken “catch all” systems about as far as I can with AF and FV systems, but I’ve still never really succeeded in solving this problem with them.
- The positive reason is that a “No List” system has a remarkable effect on one’s mind, creativity and motivation.
A “catch all” to do list typically gets longer and longer, and even if it does level off it will still contain considerably more work than can be done in a day. The person using the list will typically lack focus and will not be progressing anything like as fast or as consistently as they would wish. This type of list may produce an illusion of work being done because a large number of tasks get actioned, but frequently all that’s really happening is that a lot of trivia is getting processed . As I say in the book, the ever-expanding list “refers to a never-never land where you magically get time to do all this work”
By contrast, the person working a “no list” system will quickly find that they quickly get into a routine. This routine can be consciously altered so that it works better and better, thus getting the routine work out of the way quickly. This then leaves more time for the important work. The “no list” user finds it easier to concentrate on a few key projects at a time, rather than diffuse their effort across multiple projects of varying importance.
So in the one case the result is haphazard working coupled with diffuse focus and intermittent effort. In the other case the result is stable work routines coupled with concentrated effort on the key priorities. Which to go for?
Facebook Page
50 Likes already on my new Facebook page for this website.
Does anyone know how to turn off the feature which shows a short extract when you post a link? Instead of extracting the main text, it’s showing the right margin!
[Update: Problem now solved. Thanks!]
Themes from "Secrets of Productive People": Questioning
Sue writes:
I purchased your book recently and although only a short way through, have been able to make some extremely good changes to my way of working. Thank you!
Where I feel I have stalled so far is understanding exactly what the intelligent questions might be to ask myself when starting out on a new project. I appreciate that this is something you feel people should work out for themselves and I can understand that; everyone is different, works in a different way, has different needs, etc. And we need to think for ourselves!
However, I feel it might help me to start if you could explore this area a little more, possibly give the odd example (I have already read the appropriate chapters.) My ‘work’ is now my old hobby, as I am retired; I am working as a textile artist. Any insights you have would be most welcome.
Questioning is at the heart of everything in the book so it’s important to get it right. Obviously as Sue says everyone is different, but neverthless the simpler one makes this process the more effectively it is going to flow into one’s work in a productive way.
Remember that the purpose of questioning is not so much to produce a list of good ideas, but to motivate and engage your brain in the work. The good ideas will certainly come, but they will come as a result of your greater engagement.
So let’s have a look at how this might work. I’ll give an example of how being appointed Marketing Officer for the local chapter of a national social and networking organisation might work. Although I shall fictionalize the details that is exactly what has just happened to me in real life!
I use Evernote for this exercise (though anything will do), and I have a Notebook in it called “Questioning”. What sort of questions do I need to ask myself about Marketing?
I shortcut that whole discussion by just opening a note with the heading “Marketing?”
Then I used my favourite questioning method, which is to list the five best ideas I can think of off the top of my head. My first day’s list went as follows (I’ve expanded the entries so they make sense to other people):
It was this stage that the ideas started generating some action, particulary about the national magazine. This is exactly what should be happening. You are not making a list of actions to tick off. Writing the lists should generate the desire to take action on the ideas that catch your fancy.
So I now put it away for another 24 hours and repeat the process. I do this every day for as long as I feel I’m getting benefit from it.
After a week or so I might read back over the lists to see whether there are any ideas which could be taken further, but it’s important not to keep looking back at old lists. If you become reliant on the lists, your creativity will nosedive.
You may of course find that your question raises issues which need a question of their own. In that case just start a note with the subject plus a question mark, e.g. “National Magazine?”
If you’d like your question about “Secrets of Productive People” answered, please sent it to me using the “Contact” tab in the Top Menu.
Facebook Page
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Secrets of Productive People
I want to run a series exploring some of the themes from my latest book Secrets of Productive People: 50 Techniques To Get Things Done (Teach Yourself) . If you would like me to write further about any particular subject covered in the book, then please contact me using the Contact tab on the top menu.
"Articles" Category
I’ve just gone back over several years’ worth of blog entries to bring the “Articles” category up to date. There are now 174 articles marked up in this category.
The idea is that by clicking on the “Articles” button in the top menu you can get just the main articles in the blog without having to read all the less important stuff in between them.
It’s encouraged me to read back through the articles and I even amazed myself at the number of hidden treasures I’d forgotten all about.
So get reading - you’re in for a treat!
And if you’re too lazy to press the link in the top menu, here it is right here!
Types of Lists IX - An Effective "No List" System?
I put a question mark in the title of this post because I admit that I have not as yet succeeded in designing a system which fills all of the requirements I set myself.
How far have I got? Here’s my assessment of my new system so far.
Re-entering tasks. I’ve solved the problem of multiple re-entered tasks.
Simple to work. Yes.
Urgent stuff. Not as good as I’d like. This is the main failing, though I don’t want to give the impression that it makes the system unworkable - far from it.
Keeping the list short. The list is always kept short and relevant throughout the day.
Getting tasks done. All unfinished tasks get worked on multiple times during the day.
Remembering tasks. I’ve solved the problem of multiple task entry.
Not deceiving yourself. Absolutely ideal for monitoring exactly how much you have succeeded in doing during a day.
Once I’ve improved how it handles urgent tasks this system will be amazing. It’s pretty amazing already!
This is the last in my series on Types of List.
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My Book Challenge - Update
I’m getting on well with Andrew Roberts’ Napoleon the Great, but maybe I would have done better to have chosen a book for demonstration purposes which wasn’t half the length of War and Peace!
I hadn’t quite realised how many words there would be in a 1½-inch thick paperback on thin paper with very small print.
However it’s very interesting - Napoleon’s life puts any novel in the shade. And I am now on page 97 of 820, which is about 35,000 words read - about the equivalent of C.S. Lewis’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I’m sure I got through that a lot faster when I read it thirty years ago, but I wasn’t looking up every person and place in Wikipedia as I was going along!
Types of Lists VIII - The Dynamic List
The Dynamic List is similar to the Open Daily List except that it refers to one project only. It is a way of ensuring that your action on a project is up to date with your latest thinking on the subject.
The technique is simplicity itself:
1. List some of the things you need to do for the project
2. Start working on them in any order.
3. Add new things as you think of them.
The list is valid for one day only. You should construct a new list the following day.
If you need to refer to notes, reminders, etc, then that should itself become a task on the list (e.g. Check Project Notes).
Dynamic lists are extremely effective, but unfortunately I have not yet succeeded in constructing a whole time management system out of them. They lose effectiveness when not constrained by the limits of a single project.
Tomorrow:
An effective “No List” system?
Types of List VII - What do we need in a "No List" system?
In the previous articles in this series, my conclusion was that the “No List” list is the way of the future. But a list on its own is no use. We need a decent system to operate it.
Let’s have a look at what we would like to see from our “no list” time management system:
Re-entering tasks. A lot of the “no list” systems so far developed don’t include provision for re-entering tasks immediately. I think this is essential because the most effective way of dealing with a major task is with frequent bite-sized chunks. It’s how I’m writing this blog post for instance.
Simple to work. It needs to be simple to work. This is by and large a characteristic of “no list” systems so shouldn’t be a problem.
Urgent stuff. It should be possible to deal with an urgent task without leaving the system. This can be difficult to reconcile with the first requirement “Re-entering tasks”.
Keeping the list short. The whole point of a “no list” system is to stop the list growing long and irrelevant.
Getting tasks done. Once a task is on the list it gets done quickly. There should be no compromise about this.
Remembering tasks. A “no-list” system encourages you to think frequently about what needs to be done. However they are not good at processing more than two or three at a time. They are somewhat rigid about how you can enter tasks. I’d like to see some way of improving this.
Not deceiving yourself. “No list” systems make it virtually impossible to deceive yourself about how much you are actually doing. Any system which gets in the way of this should not be allowed.
Writing this blog post has made me realize that I have left out one contender from the Types of List - the Dynamic List. So tomorrow we will have a look at that.
Tomorrow:
The Dynamic List
Types of List VI - So which is best?
So which type of list is best? The answer to this question will be different from person to person because different people have different temperaments, circumstances and requirements.
But if we look at it from the point of view of which type of list is going to dominate in the evolutionary struggle of list versus list, then we may be able to come to an answer. For a long time now the “catch all” system has dominated when it comes to time management advice.
However useful “catch all” may have been in the past I think it’s days are numbered. The reason for this is the changing nature of work and leisure.
To go back a few hundred years, for the vast majority of the population their to-do list, if they’d written one, would have gone something like this:
Get up
Plough fields all day
Go to bed
or
Get up
Make shoes all day
Go to bed
or
Get Up
Do housework all day
Go to bed
Nowadays thankfully life is far more varied than that. But it comes at a price. At least in the developed world the amount of choice we have both in our work and in our leisure increases day by day and the means of communication are multiplying too. We will soon have people entering the workforce who have never known what it is to live without a Smartphone.
This amount of choice poses a huge problem. The tendency is to try to follow up every opportunity that presents itself, regardless of the fact that it’s actually impossible to do so.
What we need is a time management method that a) encourages us to focus on a few things that are really important to us, and b) discourages us from doing other things that get in the way of the important stuff.
In this day and age time management needs to be at least as much about stopping yourself from doing things as about doing things.
The perpetual busyness and sense of overwhelm which afflict so many people is an illusion. All of us fill 24 hours a day with something - no more and no less. Our effectiveness will not come from succeeding in working 36 hours a day however hard we try to.
The secret is focus. We must each decide what our priorities are and ruthlessly weed out everything that doesn’t support those priorities.
It is the list that supports focus that will win the evolutionary stakes.
Let’s arrange the types of lists in the order in which they produce and support focus (least to most):
- Daily Open List. Lacks the focus of the daily and weekly lists. Can also result in only trivia being processed.
- “Catch all”. Positively encourages lack of focus. Also highly unmotivating due to the weight of undone stuff.
- Daily and Weekly Lists. Encourage a greater degree of focus. But still a tendency to leave a lot of work undone, often the most challenging.
- No list at all. Done properly this relies on well-thought out systems and routines. If these have been optimized, using no list at all can provide a good degree of focus.
- “No list” List. Facilitates the provision of systems and routines. Keeps focus firmly on what can be done during a day. Provides record of what has been done to base future days on.
My verdict:
“No list” Lists are challenging but the most focused. I am convinced that the future of time management lies with them.
Tomorrow:
What do we need in a “No list” list system?
Types of List V - Using no list at all
It’s always worth reminding ourselves that the great majority of people use no time management system at all. They will probably be following quite a large number of routines during their day, but they will have fallen into these and many of them may be very sub-optimal. Yet most people survive perfectly well - sometimes better than the time managers.
Others don’t use a master list of any kind, but have taken the trouble to work out good routines and systems. People like this usually use ad hoc lists for specific projects. My wife is an example of one of these people and she is a very good organizer.
Another way of not using a list is to use a question instead. When you finish one thing and are ready for another, you ask yourself “What is the most important thing I could do now?”, “What would I really like to do now?”, “What is the most loving thing I could do now?” or any other question which helps you focus.
My favourite question is “What am I resisting?” This is short for “What am I most resisting doing at this precise moment of time?”
I still use this on occasions, particularly when I am in an unfamiliar situation.
My verdict:
Using no list has been, when you come to think of it, the most popular time management method throughout the ages. But that doesn’t mean it’s the most effective. To work well it has to be backed up by sound systems and routines and a clear sense of what you are trying to achieve.
Tomorrow:
So which is best?
Types of Lists IV - "No List" Lists
A “no list” list may sound like a contradiction in terms, but what it means is that you work at tasks with no list other than a short buffer list of about one to five items. You keep the buffer topped up by adding new tasks to replace the tasks you have finished working on.
The essential characteristic of a “no list” list is that you do not work off any form of master list. You decide what needs working on next in accordance with your knowledge of what needs to be done.
The shortest form of “no list” is just to write down the next thing you are going to do, immediately before you do it.
Whatever form of “no list” you use, you are continually forced throughout the day to ask yourself the question “What am I going to do next?”. At the end of the day you have a list of what you have actually done. By examining this you can get a better idea of exactly how much you can do in a day, what important things you are neglecting and what inessentials you are wasting time on.
An example of a “no list” system is the Productivity system found in my book “Secrets of Productive People”.
Although it may seem frightening at first to work with a “no list” system, they are very effective at quickly consolidating good low-level routines and systems into your work. These in their turn free you to concentrate on the high-level work.
My verdict:
Of the types of lists I have looked at so far in this series, a “no list” list used properly is the most likely to be the winner in the evolutionary stakes. But we’ve still got one comparison yet to make.
Tomorrow:
Using no list at all
Types of Lists III - The Daily Open List
The Daily Open List (or maybe I mean the Open Daily List)
This is a variation of the Daily List, but instead of making complete llst of everything you want to do during the day you list a short selection of tasks at the start of the day. Then you add further tasks as the day progresses.
The idea is to keep the list short enough for you to be reasonably confident of finishing by the end of the day.
The problem with this type of list is that there is a grave temptation to keep adding trivial tasks in order to avoid dealing with the more difficult and challenging tasks. The result is that one often ends the day with the most important things still undone.
My verdict:
The Daily Open List can become a way of avoiding doing the real work. It’s not going to win in the evolution stakes against any method which gets the real work done.
Tomorrow:
“No List” lists
My Book Challenge
One of the challenges I set myself (and my new time management system) two days ago was to read only one book at a time. I would allow myself to read no other book until I’d either finished the designated one - or decided that I didn’t want to read it any more.
Surprisingly this is new territory for me. I read a lot, but I have shelves full of partially read books. It’s not that I never finish a book, but I finish a heck of a lot less than I want to. Most of my unfinished books are unfinished not because I made a definite decision not to finish them, but because I got distracted by another book, and then another, and so on. I don’t think I’m alone in this.
Anyway, I have just finished the first book under these new rules. It is “The Evolution of Everything” by Matt Ridley. Now to choose the next book. Where do I start?
I think I’m going to re-read an old favourite, “The Valley of Bones” by Anthony Powell. Re-reading (in this case for the third time) is one of the great pleasures of life.
Well, that’s “The Valley of Bones” finished. What next? I think Andrew Roberts’s “Napoleon the Great”.
Types of Lists II - Daily and Weekly Lists
Opposed to the concept of the “Catch All” list are daily and weekly lists. The idea is simple enough. Instead of writing a comprehensive list of everything you can think of, you write a selective list of only what you intend to do during the course of the current week. From this list you extract tasks to go on the daily lists.
The process of producing these lists is intended to give you a clear plan for the week and a clear plan for each day. At least that’s the theory. What almost inevitably happens is that when they write the weekly list people grossly overstimate what they are capable of doing in the week and also grossly underestimate the number of unforeseen emergencies and distractions that will arise during that week. And then they do the same with the daily lists. The result is that tasks get carried over from day to day - and by the end of the week a large number needs to be carried over to the next week.
My verdict:
After a few weeks of this, the focus promised by the weekly and daily lists has vanished and what you are left with is virtually the same as the “Catch All” list - with all its disadvantages but without its chief advantage, completeness.
Tomorrow:
The Daily Open List
Types of Lists I - The "Catch All" List
Following on from my posting yesterday about the evolution of time management systems, what type of system do you think would win the evolutionary stakes? We’re looking at one that will emerge from the evolutionary shadows and supersede every system so far developed. Is that likely to happen? - almost certainly in the fullness of time.
Let’s do a bit of speculating.
First of all, what sort of list would it use? Existing time management systems are based on differing lengths of list, ranging from a “Catch All” list to no list at all.
Over the next few days I’ll deal with each of the main lengths of list. Today I start with the “Catch All” list.
Examples of “Catch All” lists include David Allen’s in “Getting Things Done”, my own Autofocus and Final Version series, the traditional prioritized list and a whole multitude of others.
As the name implies you list everything that you need or want to get done, sometimes even including things which you are not sure about. You can add more tasks and projects as you think of them. There are many different ways of then processing the tasks on the list, but the basic similarity is that you are aiming for completeness. Everything is out of your head and onto paper.
Following David Allen, many people also use a “Someday/Maybe” list. This means that you are not only writing down what you need or want to get done now, but also the things which you would like to do in the future. Again the idea is to get everything out of your head onto paper.
In the evolutionary stakes, what are the advantages of the “Catch All” list? The biggest advantage is completeness, but this is only achieved at the price of losing focus - or at the very least having to do a lot of work on keeping your focus.
My verdict
A system based on a “Catch All” list is very vulnerable to being overtaken in the evolutionary stakes by a system which produces a greater degree of focus.
What do you think?
Tomorrow:
Daily and Weekly Lists
The Evolution of Time Management Systems
There’s a well-know quote about the evolution of fishing boats:
Every boat is copied from another boat… Let’s reason as follows in the manner of Darwin. It is clear that a very badly made boat will end up at the bottom after one or two voyages, and thus never be copied… One could then say, with complete rigor, that it is the sea herself who fashions the boats, choosing those which function and destroying the others.
-
Alain (Emile Chartier), 1908
It occurred to me that exactly the same could be said about time management systems or methods. The best will naturally rise to the top because the people promoting them will have better time management than those who don’t use them.
“One could then say, with complete rigor, that it is time herself who fashions the methods, choosing those which function and destroying the others
If you want to know what the best time management system is then look at the most successful ones for the authors themselves. Using that criterion I think Getting Things Done (GTD) would still win the prize.
Let’s see if I can topple that with my new, so far unreleased method!
New Challenge
I’m setting myself a challenge of writing a blog post every day.
Why do that?
There are several reasons. The chief one is that I just feel like setting myself a challenge!
Lesser reasons include the fact that writing blog posts keeps one’s mind sharp. New thought comes out of engagement.
Then I want to explore a bit further some of the themes in my book “Secrets of Productive People”.
I also want to have a vehicle to report progress on some of the other challenges I’ve set myself recently.
And not quite finally, I’m beginning to get ideas for another book - and want to be able to write out some of my early thoughts.
And finally finally, I’m using a new time management method which I want to test out. It’s designed to provide the consistent, regular, focused attention which is the key to success in any field of activity. More about this in subsequent posts.