Final Version FAQs > Basic System > How do I handle multi-tasking?
To take a very simple example of multi-tasking, let’s look at how you might deal with the following task:
Make pot of tea
This task involves several stages (boil kettle, brew tea) which each take several minutes but don’t require your active participation until the stage is ended. Once the kettle has boiled, you make the tea. Once the tea has brewed, you pour it into the cups. But during the boiling and the brewing, it’s perfectly possible to be doing something else.
The way to do this in FV is that as soon as you have set the kettle to boil you go on to the next task in your pre-select list . For the sake of example let’s say it is Answer Emails. You answer emails until you hear the kettle has boiled, then interrupt the answering of emails to make the tea. Once you’ve done that, go back to answering emails until the time needed to brew the tea is up (I usually use a count-down timer for this). Pour the tea, and go back to answering emails.
You can easily adapt this to a greater number of tasks or more complicated tasks. For example Austin writes:
“I just wanted to share a tip that others may find useful, albeit perhaps obvious. I have used the same process since FV came out to do laundry. If I do laundry on Saturday, then I put “laundry” on my list on Friday. On Saturday, it gets selected, and when I reach it, I start the laundry and set a timer. Then I cross “laundry” off my list and continue working. When the timer goes off, I add “laundry” to the end of my list, dot it, and go do the next step. Then I set a timer, cross the task off, and continue working. This continues until the laundry is done.”
Last updated on May 14, 2014 at 9:19 by Mark Forster