The Final Version Perfected (FVP) Instructions - Reposted

Somehow the instructions for FVP seem to have vanished from this blog, so I am reposting them here.

The Final Version Perfected (FVP)

 Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 11:58

This is an amended version of the instructions for the Final Version (FV) time management system. It contains an improved algorithm and a new question.

 

Introduction

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Here are the long-awaited instructions for the Final Version Perfected (FVP) time management system. I don’t know if it’s the best time management system ever devised. What I do know is that it is the best time management system that I have ever used myself. It’s shown itself to be even more resilient, responsive and quick than the Final Version.

FV and now FVP are based on my earlier time management systems, particularly the extensive range of AutoFocus and SuperFocus systems developed over the last five years. These were unique in that they were constantly developing with the assistance of a large band of commenters on my web-site. Anyone who has tried one or more of these systems will recognize the strong family resemblance that they have with FV and FVP. The most striking resemblance is that they are all based on one long list (either paper or electronic) which can be used to capture just about every possible action that springs into one’s mind. There is a minimum of special markings or annotations.Such a list depends on an effective algorithm to process it. There are three main requirements which have to be kept in balance. These are urgency, importance and psychological readiness. Traditional time management systems have tended to concentrate on the first two of these. The neglect of psychological readiness is probably the reason that most people don’t find time management systems particularly effective or congenial.The most distinctive feature of FVP is the way that its algorithm is primarily based on psychological readiness - this then opens the way to keeping urgency and importance in the best achievable balance.

The FVP  Algorithm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The FVP algorithm uses the question “What do I want to do more than x?” to preselect a chain of tasks from the list. What exactly is meant by “want” in this context is deliberately left undefined. There may be a whole variety of reasons why you might want to do one thing more than another thing and all of them are valid.The chain always starts with the first unactioned task on the list. Mark this task with a dot to show that it’s now been preselected. Don’t take any action on the task at this stage.This task then becomes the benchmark from which the next task is selected. For example, if the first task on the list is “Write Report”, the question becomes “What do I want to do more than write the report?” You move through the list in order until you come to a task which you want to do more than write the report. This task is now selected by marking it with a dot and it becomes the benchmark for the next task. If the first task you come to which you want to do before writing the report is “Check Email”, then that becomes the benchmark. The question therefore changes to “What do I want to do more than check email?”As you continue through the list you might come to “Tidy Desk” and decide you want to do that more than checking email. Select this in the same way by marking it with a dot, and change the question to “What do I want to do more than tidying my desk?”. The answer to this is probably “nothing”, so you have now finished your preselection.The preselected tasks in the example are: Write report Check email Tidy desk  At this point “Tidy Desk” represents the task you most want to do at the moment. Do it. Note that as in all my systems, you don’t have to finish the task - only do some work on it. Of course if you do finish the task that’s great, but if you don’t then all you have to do is re-enter the task at the end of the list. Now what are you going to do next? “Check email” is the previous task you selected, but that isn’t necessarily the task you most want to do. What you can say though is that it was the task you most wanted to do up until you selected “Tidy Desk”. This means that you only need to check the tasks that come after “Tidy Desk” in the list. So what you do next is to ask yourself “What do I want to do more than check email?” again, but you check only the tasks which come after the task you have just done (Tidy Desk). Once you have worked your way back to the first task on the list and done it (this may never happen!), you take the next unactioned task as your root task.That’s it! You’re now ready to go. Everything else is further examples and explanation.

A Longer Example ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In this example for ease of understanding no new tasks are added while working on the list. This of course is unlikely in real life. Your initial list of tasks: Email  In-Tray Voicemail Project X Report Tidy Desk Call Dissatisfied Customer Make Dental Appointment File Invoices Discuss Project Y with Bob Back Up     Put a dot in front of the first task:     • Email    In-Tray   Voicemail   Project X Report   Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer   Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices   Discuss Project Y with Bob   Back Up   Now ask yourself ” What do I want to do more than Email?”   You work down the list and come to Voicemail. You decide you want to do Voicemail more than Email. Put a dot in front of it.     • Email    In-Tray • Voicemail   Project X Report   Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer   Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices   Discuss Project Y with Bob   Back Up     Now ask yourself ” What do I want to do more than Voicemail?” You decide you want to tidy your desk.     • Email    In-Tray • Voicemail   Project X Report • Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer   Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices   Discuss Project Y with Bob   Back Up     There are no tasks you want to do more than tidying your desk, so you have the following dotted tasks:   Email Voicemail Tidy Desk    Do the Tidy Desk task.   Your list will now look like this:   • Email    In-Tray • Voicemail   Project X Report • Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer   Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices   Discuss Project Y with Bob   Back Up    Now start again from Tidy Desk (i.e. the last task you did). and ask yourself “What do I want to do more than Voicemail?”  The only task you want to do more than Voicemail is Back Up. Do it.   The list now reads:    • Email    In-Tray • Voicemail   Project X Report • Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer   Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices   Discuss Project Y with Bob  • Back Up   There are no further tasks beyond Back Up, so there is no need to check whether you want to do any tasks more than you want to do Voicemail. You just do it. The list now reads: • Email    In-Tray • Voicemail   Project X Report • Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer   Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices   Discuss Project Y with Bob • Back Up    There is only one dotted task left on the list and that is Email. You now need to check whether you want to do any of the tasks more than Email. So ask the question “What do I want to do more than Email?” You already know that you want to do Email more than In-tray, so you start scanning from the first task after the task you have just done (Voicemail).   You decide you want to do Make Dental Appointment more than Email, so you dot it and change the question to “What do I want to do more than Make Dental Appointment”. The answer is “Discuss Project Y”. As this is the last task on the list you do it immediately, and then do Make Dental Appointment immediately too. There’s no need to scan because you already know that you want to make the dental appoinment more than you want to file invoices.   The list now reads:   • Email    In-Tray • Voicemail   Project X Report • Tidy Desk   Call Dissatisfied Customer • Make Dental Appointment   File Invoices • Discuss Project Y with Bob • Back Up    So the tasks on the original list have been done in the following order so far:   Tidy Desk Back Up Voicemail Discuss Project Y with Bob Make Dental Appointment   These tasks have been done in the exact order of what you want to do most at the time. There may be a huge number of factors affecting what you want to do most, but you can allow your brain to sort them out for you below the level of consciousness simply by asking the question “What do I want to do more than x?” and applying it in the way shown above.    If you are having trouble following the example above, then I suggest you write the list out on paper and work through it by hand.

Additional Tips  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The best way to sink any time management system is to overload it right at the beginning. FVP is pretty resilient, but at this stage you aren’t. So build up the list gradually. My advice is to start off with the tasks and projects that are of immediate concern to you right now, and then add more as they come up in the natural course of things.Tasks can be added at any level, e.g. Project X, Plan Restructuring, Call Pete, Tidy Desk. If at any stage you find that a task on the list is no longer relevant, then delete it. If you find that your preselected list is no longer relevant (e.g. if you have had a long break away from the list or some new factor has come into play), then scrap the preselection and reselect from the beginning. If one or more very urgent things come up, just write them at the end of the list and the algorithm will automatically select them next (assuming you do actually want to do them of course). Similarly if something already on the list becomes very urgent, then just cross it out and move it to the end of the list.Remember that the aim of any time management system is to help you to get your work done, not get in the way of doing your work. So don’t be afraid to adjust priorities as and when you need to. However don’t overdo this - stick to the rules when possible as they will ensure you deal with your work in a systematic way.

 Why It Works

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At the beginning of this article I said there were three factors which every time management system needs to address: urgency, importance and psychological readiness. Let’s see how FV deals with each of these.

Urgency. Because of the nature of the preselection process, urgent tasks tend to get selected because generally speaking the human brain wants to do things that it knows are urgent. If things come up that are particularly urgent they can be added to the preselected list at any time.Importance. Generally speaking the human brain is a bit less keen on doing important stuff than it is on doing urgent stuff. This is particularly the case when the important stuff is difficult. However the FVP preselection process ensures that the entire list is kept under continuous review and your brain will start to flag up that it wants you to get on with stuff it thinks you might be neglecting. If this doesn’t happen, then it’s likely to be because you would be better off getting rid of it altogether.Psychological Readiness. This is where FVP really enters new dimensions. By using a pre-selection process, the brain is softened up towards the selected tasks. But this isn’t all. The selection process is based on what you want to do. This colours the whole preselected list so that even tasks which seem like chores get affected. 

Predicting Your Day

Yesterday I started to revisit a very successful system from 2008, which I left after about a week to follow other ideas. Although it worked brilliantly and never let me down once, for some reason I’ve never come back to it.

The system in question is Predicting Your Day. You can read the instructions for yourself, plus the two follow-ups (which are clearly linked). But in summary, the idea is that at the beginning of the day you write down a list of what you predict that you will do that day. You then work for the rest of the day without reference to the list. The result the first time I tried it was astonishing, and it continued to work well for the whole time I used it.

Late yesterday afternoon I came across it while searching for something else and decided to have another crack at it. The results were just as astonishing as before. I put twenty-three tasks on the list, and had done all but two or three by mid-evening without once referring to the list. I then had a quick look at the list and finished the remaining tasks in no time at all without looking at the list again.

This morning I started first thing with 64 tasks on the list and at 08.45 I have already done 15 and am working on the 16th (this blog post). 

The most notable thing about this is the speed at which this all gets done. I find myself going from one task to another without any resistance or time spent deciding what to do.

Right, that’s done. It’s 08.52. What’s next?

Using a timer

One of the most useful tools for managing your time is, strangely enough, a timer. Most SmartPhones come with excellent timers, but any old timer will do. Note that I’m not referring to an alarm, though these can be useful time management tools too.

My very first book “Get Everything Done” was about the use of a timer to work on tasks for increasing intervals. The intervals I used in the book were increasing intervals of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes and so on up to a maximum of 40 minutes. if you work on a task in increasing intervals right up to a 40 minute interval, you will have worked on it for three hours.

Guess what? Twenty-one years later the system still works. 

However there are many other ways of using timed intervals, and the only limit is your imagination. And one of the great advantages is that you can use timed intervals in conjunction with almost any other system.

So for instance I am writing this blog post using intervals of one minute increasing by one minute each time. There’s no gap between the intervals. The intervals are just there to keep my concentration going - and they are very effective at that.

Currently I’ve just started a six minute interval, which means that so far I’ve been continuously writing the blog post for 1+2+3+4+5=15 minutes.

This blog post is actually the third item on a list of five items, which I am working through one task at a time. I’m timing each item individually but an alternative (and equally effective) way of doing it would be to time the whole group of five as one.

Another way I’m currently using a timer is for reading books. Though I love reading, it’s very easy to get distracted. Using timed intervals makes it much easier to maintain concentration. I use a slightly different technique for this. This time I count down as well as up. So I aim to read up to ten minutes and then count back down to one. If you want to read for a shorter period or longer period you can use more or fewer intervals, e.g. up to five minutes and back, or fifteen minutes and back. 

How much concentrated reading time does going up to ten minutes and back down to one give you? If you’re not a mathematician you may be surprised at the answer. It’s one hour and forty minutes. That’s a powerfully long session of concentrated reading. 

I find increasing the intervals upwards only is best for tasks when you don’t know exactly how long they’ll take. But increasing the intervals upward and then downward is for something like reading which you want to do for a set time.

My current seven minute interval is coming to an end, and I’m just about at the end of writing this post. So it will have taken me 1+2+3+4+5+6+7=28 minutes.

Why not give it a try? There are many more possible variations. You can experiment to see which suits you best.

A New Random Method - Follow Up #1

At the beginning of Day 4 of testing I have 82 undone tasks in the system (including writing this post). I have the following page stats (I’m using three columns on a page of 33 lines):

Page 1 Completed 99 Remaining 0

Page 2 Completed 99 Remaining 0

Page 3 Completed 66 Remaining 33

Page 4 Completed  3  Remaining 50

Total  Completed 267 Remaining 83

267 tasks completed in three days equals an average of 89 tasks a day.

This means that I’ve got about a day’s worth of undone tasks in the system. This is about the limit that a random method can take without undue delays. 

A New Random Method

One of the favourite systems on this blog is the Random Method which is noted for the way in which it removes resistance to your tasks.

The reason for this reduction of resistance is something which I first experienced in the Army - that it’s much easier to obey orders than to give orders. In other words stress comes from responsibility rather than from the work itself.

Using a random time management system is a bit like deciding what you want to do and then constructing a robot which tells you exactly how to do it, step by step. Easy, huh?

Not so easy.

The bad news about random numbers is precisely the fact that they are random - which means that they are completely indifferent to your wishes, goals, time constraints, and energy levels. The good news is that they are also indifferent to your fears, laziness, resistance, procrastination and wishful thinking.

If you were just to have a long list and circulate around it using a random number generator to select which task to do next, you would have no control at all over what order you do your work. Some unimportant projects would get done in record time, and some really important ones would languish for ages.

Maybe that doesn’t sound much different from your normal work pattern?

So how can we use random numbers to produce better rather than worse results than normal?

Well, here’s a way. It’s slightly more difficult to use than the existing Random Method because you have to keep adjusting the Max setting on the random number generator. But I’ve found the results to be much better.

1. Write out your task list (you can keep adding to it).

2. Set the Max on your random number generator to the number of tasks on the list.

3. Generate a number.

4. Count through the list until you reach that number task and work on it. Delete and re-enter as necessary.

5. Your list is now divided into two unequal halves with the deleted task as the dividing line. Repeat the process using the first half only, and then the second half.

6. Carry on sub-dividing the list in this way.

Some of you may think this is Another Simple and Effective Method used with a random number generator. You’re right - it is. So far I’ve found it fast and efficient, and actually much more so than when the method is used with only my brain in charge. Bear in mind though that I’m only on Day 3 of testing, and new systems always work well to start off with.

P.S. I recommend you to use the Randomizer app as your random number generator. I’ve been using it for years for all sorts of purposes and it’s really excellent.

Halving with 5-4-3-2-1 Follow Up #2

At the end of the day the stats are:

Page 1: 33 done, 0 remaining

Page 2: 33 done, 0 remaining

Page 3: 22 done, 11 remaining

Page 4: 13 done, 20 remaining

Page 5: 5 done, 28 remaining

Page 6: 4 done, 23 remaining

———————————————

Total: 110 done, 82 remaining

=================

That’s in a bit less than two days. It seems to be progressing satisfactorily. I’m particularly pleased that the number of tasks remaining seems to be static, and also that the 5-4-3-2-1 method has not once failed me.

I’ve been thinking up some other ways of using 5-4-3-2-1 which I want to try out. So I’m going to leave the Halving system for the time being and do some more experimenting.

Halving with 5-4-3-2-1 Follow Up

I’ve been going for less than a day with this and already the results are very encouraging.

At the moment I’ve got five pages of 33 lines each and the stats are:

Page 1: 33 done, 0 remaining

Page 2: 26 done, 7 remaining

Page 3: 5 done, 28 remaining

Page 4: 2 done, 31 remaining

Page 5: 0 done, 15 remaining

—————————————————

Total:   66 done, 81 remaining

===================

As you can see it is a characteristic of this system that it is weighted towards the beginning of the list.

Perhaps the most important thing to report is that the 5-4-3-2-1 method didn’t let me down once.

Those who want to have a go at this for themselves please note that I introduced a new rule:

If you come to a single task which can’t be done at the precise time that you come to it (e.g. time of day, weather, etc), it should be left in place for a subsequent pass. 

Halving with 5-4-3-2-1

Recently my attention was drawn to Mel Robbin’s Countdown Method of getting going with tasks and projects which you’re resisting. It’s a bit like a method I used as a child of getting out of bed in the morning (in pre-central heating days). I used to count down 3-2-1. It was sometimes successful and sometimes not.

Space flight didn’t exist in those days so I didn’t have the example of a space rocket launch to add a couple more digits and a lot more excitement. I wish I had because so far I’ve found the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown to be very effective (why do you think i’m writing my first blog post for over a month?)

I haven’t yet gone much further into the ways Mel Robbins recommends this should be used, but it struck me immediately that it would go very weil with one of my methods which I call “Halving” to myself, but was originally published under the title Another Simple and Effective Method

This method has remained one of my “go back to” systems. The main problem with it is that eventually all the easy tasks in the early part of the list have been done and the result can be considerable resistance to the more difficult tasks which remain. So an infallible method of overcoming resistance would be just the thing.

If 5-4-3-2-1 can be used to remove the resistance to individual tasks, “Halving” would make an excellent system to go with it. Because of the way it’s designed, easy or urgent tasks get dealt with quickly but the more difficult or less urgent tasks nevertheless inevitably get dealt with without lingering.

I’m trying it out at the moment. So far very successful, but it’s still Day 1. I’ll report back soon.

Progress Report AF New Rules - #3

I’ve just realised that I never gave a final progress report on the proposed new rules for Autofocus 1.

In spite of the fact that I got a considerable amount of work done in the few days I ran the trial, I came to the conclusion that the new rules didn’t in fact contribute much. I came across much the same benefits and problems as I normally do with Autofocus, which are that the list tends to expand excessively with the result that eventually the size of the list becomes oppressive and it’s difficult to deal with urgent or time-sensitive matters within the system.

I’ve now decided to go back to the Simple New System  which I described nearly two months ago. I’ve never really given it a proper trial, but it seems promising.

Progress Report AF New Rules - #2

Page 1 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 2 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 3 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 4 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 5 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 6 29 tasks completed, 2 remaining

Page 7 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 8, 23 tasks completed, 8 remaining

Page 9, 31 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 10, 21 tasks completed, 10 remaining

Page 11, 30 tasks completed, 1 remaining

Page 12, 15 tasks completed, 16 remaining

Page 13, 26 tasks completed, 5 remaining

Page 14, 7 tasks completed, 24 remaining

Page 15, 1 task completed, 17 remaining

Total 369 tasks completed, 83 remaining

11 tasks were yellow highlighted, 2 of these have since been completed.

This means that in two and a half days I have done an average of 148 tasks a day.

Progress Report AF New Rules - #1

Page 1 32 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 2 33 tesks completed, 0 remaining

Page 3 32 tasks completed, 1 remaining

Page 4 28 tasks completed, 5 remaining

Page 5 33 tasks completed, 0 remaining

Page 6 30 tasks completed, 3 remaining

Page 7 30 tasks completed, 3 remaining

Page 8, 19 tasks completed, 14 remaining

Page 9, 31 tasks completed, 2 remaining

Page 10, 8 tasks completed, 23 remaining

Page 11, 15 tasks completed, 16 remaining

Page 12, 1 task completed, 17 remaining

Total 292 tasks completed, 84 remaining

2 tasks were yellow highlighted, 1 of these has since been completed.

Update on Autofocus Dismissal Rules Trial - Day 2

At the end of the day, I have 9 Full Pages of which two have been completed.

That represents 297 tasks, of which 207 tasks have been done and 90 are undone.

Two tasks have been highlighted yellow under the new rules,

I’m amazed at how much work I’ve got done in a day and a half.

It’s too early to say how much effect the new rules are having, but my impression so far is that the system feels much easier and relaxed than the original AF. I’m sailing through the work.

Autofocus 1 New Dismissal Rule Trial

I’ve started a trial today of Autofocus 1 with a revised dismissal rule.

The new rule is that if you scan a page and no tasks stand out for action, then you go through each task remaining on the page and EITHER delete it OR cross it out and re-enter it at the end of the list.

This is intended to be: 

• simpler
• easier
• less harsh
• just as effective (or possibly even more effective)

I will identify tasks which have been relegated to the end of the list in this way with yellow highlighting. If they get relegated twice in a row then the highlighting changes to orange. That will make it very obvious which tasks are stuck, so that remedial action can be taken.

Anyone who wants to try this along with me is very welcome. You can discuss your experiences with it in the Comments.

Update on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 15:47 by Mark Forster

After a bit less than 24 hours, how am I getting on?

Very well on the whole.

The real question is whether the new rules for dismissal have made any difference. Since I haven’t dismissed anything yet, it’s a bit early to say. But I do have one page with only one task remaining, and it’s one I’m unlikely to find time to do today.

Under the old rules I’d either have to force myself to do this task when I don’t really have time, or else take it out of circulation for a while.

With the proposed new rules, I don’t feel any tension about it. If it gets done, it gets done. And if it doesn’t get done, then it will be moved to the end of the list and highlighted in yellow so I am reminded that it needs special attention.

So far I have seven full pages, which total 231 tasks of which 77 remain undone. 

Dealing with Addictive Distractions

There’s a question on the Forum about how to deal with addictive tasks in time management systems which, like most of mine, rely on “standing out” and “little and often”.

What the writer of the question was querying was whether “standing out” is capable of dealing with a task which has an addictive quality built into it. Playing computer games is a good example, since they are specifically designed to be addictive. But there are plenty of others. Basically it boils down to “Would you rather be playing Minecraft than writing that difficult report?” Wouldn’t “Play Minecraft” always stand out rather than “Write Extremely Difficult Report”?

And, even worse, once you’d chosen “Play Minecraft” wouldn’t “little and often” turn into “a lot and most of the time”?

This is an extreme example of course, but there are plenty of minor tasks which can be distractions from the real work. On the face of it using methods relying on what you “feel like” doing are bound to fail when faced with tasks like these.

So what is the answer?

Years ago, long before I started this blog, my standard answer to the question “What can I do about distractions?” was “Put them on your list”. So if you are distracted because you are worrying about an upcoming exam, put “Prepare for Exam” on your list. If you are distracted because you are trying to write a report but worried about what you need to do for a meeting the next day, put “Prepare Tomorrow’s Meeting” on your list. If you’re distracted because you’re longing for a nice cold beer, put “Beer” on your list.

The key point here is that distractions are essentially mindless. Once you have made them matters of conscious choice you have gained control over them.

It’s a bit like pain. No one wants to feel pain, but the secret of dealing with pain, whether it’s physical or mental, is to put one’s full attention on it. You then to some extent become an observer of the pain rather than a victim of it.

It’s the same with distractions. If you are using “little and often” and “standing out”, you are less likely to be distracted by them, not more, because you have gained control of them with your mind.

That’s it. Can I get back to that game of Minecraft now?

AFTERNOTE:

I omitted to mention that most of my time management systems are designed to be addictive in themselves. That’s why I encourage people to use pen and paper, leave deleted tasks on the page and join contiguous done tasks with a short line. There’s a strong addictiveness in seeing those tasks being “mown down” and seeing the gaps between them get shorter and shorter. 

Plus, keeping stats in terms of task done, rather than time spent, also encourages little and often. One gigantic four-hour session of Minecraft counts as one point. Sixteen quarter-hour sessions count as sixteen points, and you will have done at least another sixteen tasks in between. So 32 points!

Essentially you can look on a time management system like NQ-FVP as a computer game with a real life (yours) as its subject.

Latest on Autofocus Revisit

I’ve just completed my second day of Autofocus using my current list which I started early yesterday.

I’m having difficulty believing that it’s only been two days - I’ve done so much.

I’ve now got to a stage which I remember from when I originally developed the system. It’s where the easy and routine tasks have been brought under control, and one is now ready to tackle the more difficult and challenging (but also more worthwhile) tasks and projects. And probably do some dismissing in the process.

I’ve now got nine full pages and a tenth with only one task on it. That’s 280 in all.

Of these I’ve done 178 tasks and 102 are yet to be done - 42 from Day 1 and 60 from Day 2.

That means I’ve averaged 89 tasks a day, and there’s 1.1 days’ worth of tasks on the list if I keep up the present rate.

I doubt though if I’ll manage so many tasks tomorrow as I’m taken advantage of the relaxation of the Covid rules to have a long lunch in a local pub with friends.

Autofocus Revisit Continued

After getting distracted for over a week, I’m back on my review of Autofocus.

I started with a fresh list this morning with twelve tasks which I’ve been adding to thoughout the day. I now have nearly five pages of tasks in a 31-lines-to-the-page notebook. In total that is 152 tasks. Nothing like starting small!

The good news is that I’ve done all but one of the original twelve together with 52 other tasks, leaving a mere 89 undone. That is definitely progress.

In fact this is progressing exactly as I remember it progressing when I first started using Autofocus. One starts off with the easy routine tasks. That’s not a problem, because it gets all the routines up and running again if they’ve been allowed to lapse (which they have). 

Once the routines are sorted, the next stage is to start tackling some projects. As with the routines Autofocus starts with the easier ones and gets them up and running before starting on the more difficult ones. This is the right order because it’s clearing the way for the more difficult ones.

I’m talking as if it’s the system itself which is making the decisions rather than me myself. And this is exactly what it feels like. The system is imposing order and consistency on me. I could no doubt have written out a detailed plan to get everything in my life sorted out, but writing the plan would probably have taken all day and it would immediately collapse with the arrival of some new circumstances.

Autofocus handles all this for you - if you’ll let it. All you have to do is scan the list according to the rules, get prompted by “standing out” to work on a task for as long as you like, and then continue following the rules. 

For instance, I had no intention of writing a blog post today, but here it is. Autofocus prompted me, and it’s done!

Afternote:

At the end of the first day I have just short of six pages, consisting of 184 tasks, of which I have done 94. 

Revisiting "Predicting Your Day"

I’ve been distracted from my revisit of Autofocus after one very productive day working it. The reason for my distraction is that my attention got drawn back to a post I made in 2008 about Predicting Your Day, which I’d entirely forgotten about. There were two follow-up posts to it, in which I described how using the method I had not missed a single task for a period of eight days.

And then the follow-ups stopped.

So did they stop because Predicting Your Day had spectacularly crashed, or because I’d got distracted onto something else? Trying to remember back thirteen years is difficult, but knowing myself as I do I think that getting distracted is the more likely. Besides I usually own up to spectacular crashes!

What this means is that Predicting Your Day is a system which has never been tested to the full. And wouldn’t it be great if it did work consistently in the long term? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a system in which you just write down a list of what you think you’ll actually do that day, put it in a drawer, and at the end of the day find that you have magically done everything on the list?

Yes, it would. 

So would you like me to tell you how it’s done? I already have. It’s as easy as what I’ve just written. But notice the wording. You write down a list of “what you think you will actually do that day”. Not “what you want to do that day” or “what you ought to do that day”, but what you predict you will actually do that day.

Anyway, read the article and the comments from readers who tried it, and if you are as intrigued as I am have a go at it.

That’s it. I’ve just completed the “Write Blog Post” task I predicted I would do!

12.30pm Update. Work on my list for today started at 10,36 with the writing of this blog post. The list contained 37 tasks and I’ve completed 17 of them - nearly half - in a couple of hours. So very successful so far.

4 pm Update. Only 12 tasks to go. The eight I’ve done this afternoon were bigger tasks than the ones this morning. The remaining ones are smaller again, so I will have no excuse for not finishing.

Revisiting Autofocus

I’ve decided to revisit the original Autofocus system (or Autofocus 1 as it was later called). It’s always been one of my favourite systems, and I want to see what it’s capable of. As the name suggests it’s not just a way of getting lots of work done, but also a way of focusing that work so that it sifts your to-do list to accelerate what is going someplace and gets rid of stuff which is going nowhere. I’m not sure that that this aspect has been explored enough by me, so my intention is to give it a good long run to see how much it succeeds in emphasing the positive and removing the negative.

This means that the tests will be concentrating on quality of work rather than quantity.

So let’s get going.

My first observation is that Autofocus feels quite unlike any other system. There’s an immediate sense of calm and control.

I’ve been working on it now for two or three hours and have accumulated two pages worth of tasks - thirty-one lines to the page, one task per line. From memory it can handle a lot more than that. I’ve done nothing spectacular so far, just the usual routine jobs like email, paper, Facebook, messages, and so on. And of course writing this blog post. This conforms to my recollections of doing it in the past - it always seems to home in on getting the routine stuff right first - getting things to inbox zero.

I’m talking as if the system has a mind of its own, and sometimes it does seem like that. But in reality of course the system is just a vehicle for my mind to operate. The system itself should be as unobtrusive as possible.

Update tomorrow.

Guest Post: How to Pursue All Your Goals

This is a guest post by Alan Baljeu long-term contributer to the Comments and Forum sections of this blog:

I will describe my process below, but after two months experience working and adjusting, I am convinced that what matters is not the precise process, but the mindset the system supports: Think regularly about your goals, why you want them, and how you will get there. By doing this, you increase the motivation to work on things you care about, and clarity so that your work is more effective.

This idea came to me about two months ago and has proven to be a gift to me from God. I say this because it came to me suddenly in a moment of despair. Prior to this, I had been somewhat successful in sticking to a process of writing tasks and doing tasks, I did not feel I was really making progress on things that mattered. And when I tried to push myself harder to really work on those things, I became overwhelmed and ended up doing less.

At the beginning, I recorded some of my thoughts. (Jordan Peterson’s Self Authoring program surely inspired me here.)

• Overweight, low energy, persistent inflammation issues. I hope to resolve this by eating better.
• Finances are a mess. Get these in order and improve my outlook.
• Software development for business prospects is advancing too slowly. Get back on track and make concrete advancements.
• Social engagement since COVID has been awful. Expand and improve how well and how much I engage with others.
• I had been growing in my faith, but I want to put that into action.
• My general mood has been low, and so I engaged in lots of trivial entertainment but felt things weren’t going forward. On Mark’s “How good do you feel?” question score would vary between 2 and 6.

Each of these statements describes a situation in an area of my life (a Life Area) I wanted to address.  So I developed and followed the system to address all of them at once.  Following the system has been an unqualified success. While life still has ups and downs, days when I execute poorly, I find overall I am more motivated, work harder, I am making progress on all the above, and as a metric my “How good do I feel?” score now averages about 8.

Tracking a Life Area

I tried writing instructions for this process, but every time I did, it got complicated, when it is really simple, as I illustrate here. Basically, it is freeform, whatever I find helpful. I write goals and notes and organize and highlight as will help motivate me to achieving the work.

(the line numbers are merely for discussion)

1 Lose weight and increase health via #food
2 + !(2021-02-25) Overweight, low energy, persistent inflammation issues. Not eating that well, though I have cut some foods. Now setting on a course to become healthy again, like when I was younger.
3 + !(2021-03-01) `goal` lost weight - 1 pant size
4 + `food log`
5 + !(2021-03-30) - !(2021-04-12) Committed to rule: ~~Has wheat? Can’t eat~~.
6 + !(2021-04-13) - !(2021-04-20) Continue healthier diet. Think what else might improve it.
7 * !(2021-04-19) Prepared salad, sandwiches, ribs
(aside: the sandwiches are made without wheat)
8 * !(2021-04-20) Buy fresh vegetables.

Explanation

This is an outline, with a header and the second level items shown.  A leading + indicates there’s more detail hidden at deeper levels.  A * indicates nothing else is below.  Dates are when I started [ or plan to start ] working towards an objective.  A second date is when I accomplished [ or hope to achieve ] the stated outcome.

Line 1, the header, shows an aspect of life I want to improve, with an evocative title.
Line 2, records how things were at the outset, and what I wanted to change.
Line 3 is a goal, with no end date because it’s still being worked on and I haven’t set a target.
The food log is just that; it contains a record of what I ate each day
5 and 6 are a couple subgoals which I tried and completed, as indicated by the start and end dates.
7 and 8 are what I plan to do [eat] today and tomorrow.  When these are done, I will file them away under line 6.

I try to write these goals as outcome based usually (but not always). When I achieve it I will write the end date. Because it was written as an outcome, what I wrote initially stands sensible without having to rewrite. Under this I have archived what I worked on towards achieving it, details I don’t need to see now.

Everything you see here functions as a dashboard to remind me of what I’m trying to achieve.  Everything not presently useful for that is filed away.

Processing a Life Area

Processing the outline is very simple. I simply look at it, remind myself what I want to achieve and what I need to do next. If now is a good time I do that next step. After, I plan a subsequent step. I may choose to plan ahead. I may think about the bigger picture and note those things.

If a goal is achieved, I note the success. If a goal changes, I note the new goal, but also for the record I will note how it changed and when. If a date slipped, I must record it as a way of keeping myself honest and not committing without taking the commitment seriously.

For another kind of goal I might have more hierachy and planning to the subgoals.  In that case, I will show the first step (or two) at each level of the plan, but the format is the same.  When something is complete that I don’t need to see any more, I archive it under the higher goal it belongs to.

There is no rewriting in this process.  Every entry is specific for the detail you worked on each day.  When you are ready to plan the next step, write what you want to accomplish next.

And that’s all!  Processing all of this (not counting actual work such as food preparation) amounts to no more than 5 minutes per day.  The actions described above can be done at any time; you don’t have to do all at once. This is because merely looking at the document makes it obvious what you need to do.

The benefit is, whenever I look at my “Lose Weight and Increase Health via #food” goal, I see why I want to do this, what steps I am taking, and what I am to do next. Because I look at this every day, I remember my purpose, my plan, and the next step. I always know what to do and why.  The tangible effect of this is I keep motivated to move things forward. I also have a total record, so it functions as an ongoing journal of my life by subject which I can review and see what went well.

Building up to a Complete System

The above is a goal achievement process for one area of my life (#food). To make a complete system, I simply replicated this for a dozen separate life areas, covering my whole life. The first week of executing this process was a resounding success. HOWEVER: It was overwhelming in the second week, and I needed to back off a bit. Therefore, I suggest anyone else trying this to start with about three or four goals and build from there after you get those under control.

Start by thinking about basic life areas, such as Food, Fitness, Family, Work, Business, Learning, God, Finance, House Maintenance. Start particularly with what you most want to change.  Currently I have 13 items. I don’t think anyone would have as many as 20, and more than 10 takes effort to manage. I don’t get to all of them every day, but I do get to all of them at least every three days.

To implement this physically, I use an outliner which I find ideal. My outline is simply what I showed above, with one branch for each life area.  If you use any non-outlining note taker, I suggest keeping a document for each life area. At the top of each document, I would keep the dashboard information of what matters now [ e.g., the content you see in my #food example], and then below this keep and organize any the detailed notes.

For paper, I haven’t tried this, but I propose writing in a notebook, not too small. Put each life area on a separate page. Write your evocative title at the top, then the information below. Because you can’t edit your notes, just keep everything as a journal/diary in chronological order within the page.  Use your favorite highlighting techniques to have the important information stand out. Mark off when things are complete.  When the page is full, start a new page and carry forward just the title and the larger active goals - stuff you want to see regularly to that new page - and mark off the old page as complete.

Particular Life Areas of Note:

• Miscellaneous – a place to throw all those tasks that don’t have a defined goal.  At the outset, this will BE your previous task list. For myself, this list has shrunk to almost zero. Everything else has been subsumed by my life area goals.
• Chores - things that need to be maintained regularly. Dishes. Email.
• Process – where I review how well the system is functioning and to adjust; not only the system above, but all systems in my life, rules, and how I apply them.
• Better Life – where I review the balance of all my Life Areas, and how I feel about it all. Make sure there’s enough fun and meaning in life, and that my goals are serving me. If something feels off, I plan how I might improve it.
• Calendar - exclusively for appointments. It’s in here to be reviewed regularly, as I review all areas regularly.  There are no goals.  My goals have dates but aren’t operated by the calendar.

Processing the Complete System

If you are using a notebook, just flip through the pages until you hit on a life area you want to address - and address it.  Then flip some more.  What could be simpler?

But with a digital approach, I prefer to treat it like one of Mark Forster’s systems with a constantly reorganizing list.  In my case, simply collapse the complete outline and treat my 13 life areas as a short list of 13 “tasks”.  In that context, I found the following algorithm works beautifully:

• Simply scan the list of life areas for one that stands out
• Work on that life area as described in Processing        
• When you set a life area aside (it’s never finished, of course), move it to the end of the list      
• Resume scanning from where you were, upwards or downwards at your whim.
  • Down tends to revisit things you’ve been working on.
  • Up tends to survey things you haven’t been working on.

You don’t need to act on all life areas in a single day, but it is likely you will cover all of them over the course of a few days.

This Morning's Stats

I started a new list today for A Simple New System to Try Out as described in my previous post.

This is the situation as at midday:

0-1: 6 tasks, all done.

1-2: 12 tasks, 11 done, 1 remaining

2-3: 9 tasks, 8 done, 1 remaining

3-4: 7 tasks, 5 done, 2 remaining

5-6: 17 tasks, 11 done, 6 remaining

6-7: 23 tasks, 2 done, 21 remaining

7- ; 1 task

Total Tasks: 75

Done: 43

Remaining: 32

(The numbers (0-1 etc) refer to the lines drawn across the list each time you go back to the beginning. Only the last one (7 in this case) still plays any part in working the system.)

By 7 p.m. the totals were:

Total tasks: 122

Done: 80

Remaining: 42