Get Everything Done

Thanks for clarifying your instructions, Mark -- it now makes perfect sense which page the initial list of 10-20 tasks should go onto.

I must admit, though, that I'm a bit nervous about one aspect of this new system: because there's no dismissal of unfinished tasks, I can see myself getting into the situation where I make some progress on a task, but the task then languishes on the unfinished list and I never make any further progress on it.

Since I always seem to have more to do than time available, wouldn't this new system result in working on the "new" page to avoid items being dismissed, and then working a bit on the easy/interesting/rewarding "unfinished" tasks, without ever getting to those more difficult, less interesting, or unrewarding tasks because there's always something else you could work on instead? Since there's always going to be more to do than time available, wouldn't the unfinished task list keep growing (at least for tasks that can't be finished in one go) and eventually this list would get stale?

I'm also not convinced that I'd have such a large proportion of recurring tasks. Looking at my current DWM2 list, I can see my tasks would be grouped like this:

New/Old: 31 tasks.
Unfinished: 7 tasks.
Recurring: 3 tasks.

In other words, the vast majority of the work I'm doing is various one-off projects (home, hobby or work related), some of which I've started, others are still waiting and I haven't made any progress on yet (and some of these will no doubt get dismissed). But I only have 3 (out of a total of 41) tasks which could be considered to be recurring: replying to emails, folding washing, and tidying the kitchen. Everything else on my list is a one-off task or project.

Maybe I'm mis-understanding what you mean by a recurring task -- or maybe my life is just different from your's...

One of the things that really appeals to me with your DWM system (and your simply brilliant DWM2 variation where everything is on a single list) is that every item is sitting on the "conveyor belt of doom" -- there's a limited amount of time in which to do an item, and if I don't make any progress on it in that time, the item gets dismissed. End of story -- there's no finessing the system or possibility of cheating. And things would definitely never languish on the list because there's no dismissal of unfinished tasks...

Or maybe I'm just mis-understanding how your new system works! I really should try it, though I must confess that I'm a bit leery of doing so because DWM2 is working so incredibly well for me. If it ain't broke...

Hi Alan:

<<Not so.
a) Stuff only gets dismissed from the Old list, not the New list.
b) You only need to work one item from the Old list.
c) There's no penalty in the system for working lots and lots on any of the four lists.
d) You naturally want to get the Unfinished list empty, so you will naturally limit time spent on the Old/New, and maximize time spent on Unfinished, so as to clear things out.

The only question is whether you need a clock to push you along regularly.>>

Thanks for this. Unfortunately, I don't think you've quite understood what I was getting at. In response to your point (a), yes, stuff does get dismissed from the old list, but with this system the old and new items are both on a single page (or series of pages), and dismissal happens from that page. That's what I meant by the "new" page -- sorry, I should have said "new/old" page.

More generally, though, I do see never getting to some tasks as a serious problem. The thing is that items are constantly moving around on the lists -- new items get added, existing items get worked on, sometimes finished and sometimes re-entered. With this constant flow of work, I can see it being very easy indeed for items on the "unfinished" list to just sit there and never get done.

For example, I have a number of unfinished projects which I'm working on "little and often":

* Tidying my office.
* Working through my paperwork backlog.
* Working through my email backlog.
* Typing up a bunch of notes from a workshop I attended a month ago.
* Reading a book.
* Removing nails from a stack of timber currently sitting in my garage.
* Building a new garden wall.

With Mark's new system, these would all end up on the "unfinished" page. But at any one moment, that page would almost certainly include a number of high-priority tasks which need to get worked on as well -- for example, preparing for a meeting, or working towards a major work deadline. When working on the "unfinished" page, these higher priority / more urgent tasks would generally end up trumping the lower priority and less urgent tasks such as those I listed above. And since there's always going to be at least one task that's yelling out to be done, I can see many of the above tasks simply sitting there and never getting attended to.

That's what DWM does -- it applies an (admitted artificial) urgency to tasks that wouldn't otherwise stand out. This forces you to face up and either work on a task to move it forward, or else to dismiss the task and admit that it isn't going to get done. With DWM, I know that I'll be able to keep all these "little and often" projects moving forward, even though there's no inherent urgency in any of them. With Mark's new version of AF4, I can't see that happening.

Or maybe I've mis-understood the way in which Mark's new system is supposed to work...

Mark:

<<Exactly. There's no compulsion on anyone to try out any of my (or anyone else's) new systems.>>

I understand that, of course...though I am keen to try out your new systems when you've had so much success with them. I'm just surprised that you (and others) haven't found that tasks tend to get neglected once they're on the unfinished list if they can just sit on that list forever. Also, I'm surprised as the sheer number of recurring tasks you reported, when I have almost none.

Vegheadjones:

<<If it is a project with many different steps, * Building a new garden wall, for example, I have been puttin gthat in the unfinished list. But if it is an ongoing project where every step is the same, Tidying my office. * Working through my paperwork backlog.* Working through my email backlog, e.g..s I treat those as recurring tasks. Personally on those tasks (and I have variants for each on my own list) they are recurring chores and not projects that evolve and get completed. (Though I know we will be done with our back logs one day!)>>

Personally, I'd find putting backlog-processing onto a "recurring" list would be incredibly demoralising, as that suggests that the backlog would never be finished. But I do see your point...having fewer items in the unfinished list would make it easier to get through them all.

Alan:

<< I agree then Erik. I would apply a dismissal rule and closed lists to the Unfinished column. Mark didn't think it would be needed though.>>

Yes, that would work...applying AF4 dismissal rules to the unfinished page. Interesting idea -- thanks!