Discussion Forum > Finishing
Applying this to SuperFocus:
When SuperFocus was first released, it was proposed that Any task you pick up should be precisely defined as to when you are finished. Until then it sticks in C2 and you work on it every turn of the page. Later trial versions have amended this to make it easier to take off the Unfinished column. I've come to believe now the ideal rule is the original one but: define Finished as I did above.
Therefore if I'm reading Warren Piece, and decide that's enough for a day or two, I first bookmark my page, put the book in the Current Reading spot, then demote the task to C1.
In implementing this principle, I find it's okay to have several unfinished or urgent items in C2. No need to put things away when you switch off to an emergency postbox run. Rather it works like this: I'm out mowing the lawn, and come in for a drink of water. Lawn goes Unfinished to next page. A do a few other things and realize due to time I can't finish the lawn today (it wasn't urgent, so no big deal.). When I come to the next page, Lawn is staring at me. It's Unfinished, so I Finish it for today: put the mower away, gather sticks, sweep sidewalk. Only after these can I demote Lawn to C1.
When SuperFocus was first released, it was proposed that Any task you pick up should be precisely defined as to when you are finished. Until then it sticks in C2 and you work on it every turn of the page. Later trial versions have amended this to make it easier to take off the Unfinished column. I've come to believe now the ideal rule is the original one but: define Finished as I did above.
Therefore if I'm reading Warren Piece, and decide that's enough for a day or two, I first bookmark my page, put the book in the Current Reading spot, then demote the task to C1.
In implementing this principle, I find it's okay to have several unfinished or urgent items in C2. No need to put things away when you switch off to an emergency postbox run. Rather it works like this: I'm out mowing the lawn, and come in for a drink of water. Lawn goes Unfinished to next page. A do a few other things and realize due to time I can't finish the lawn today (it wasn't urgent, so no big deal.). When I come to the next page, Lawn is staring at me. It's Unfinished, so I Finish it for today: put the mower away, gather sticks, sweep sidewalk. Only after these can I demote Lawn to C1.
May 8, 2011 at 0:05 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
This is a bit like DIT and something I have always favored: keep yourself out of "time debt" by avoiding backlogs. Even if you can't complete a project in its entirety right now, at least get it out of your way so it does not cost you "interest" by eating away at your time and space. DIT aims to do this by doing a day's work each day, thus keeping current and not incurring "time debt."
The trouble comes when you are forced to put a rather big project on hold ... and then it just doesn't feel that urgent anymore. That is where all my time debt has come from, and I have accumulated a lot of it. By putting the project away (out of sight, out of mind!) and not having a good TM system, I created time debt despite best intentions.
The trouble comes when you are forced to put a rather big project on hold ... and then it just doesn't feel that urgent anymore. That is where all my time debt has come from, and I have accumulated a lot of it. By putting the project away (out of sight, out of mind!) and not having a good TM system, I created time debt despite best intentions.
May 9, 2011 at 5:58 |
Bernie
Bernie
A good system to remind you to resume your project is essential. I think SF does 90% of such a system. I also think being goal-oriented should help tremendously in that. The above approach to SF differs from DIT in that it eschews (ignores) planning, in favour of SF spontanaity. It's similar in that it tends to regularly reduce the unfinished items to 0 by day's end, though it is acceptable to leave one or two if your plan is to immediately resume in the morning.
May 9, 2011 at 12:56 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Hi Alan Many thanks for Your thread I enjoyed very much.
I totally agree with you Finishing is as important than plan. I may add review is as important than finishing and plan.
Methods like GTD preconize to decide on the next action. Sometime it goes very far away.
For myself as you know I use taskpaper as a SF list. I noticed that at the end of each page I decides about each item what I have to do. Some are erased, others are reported in C1 or C2 some projects are completed and task added and of course projects are dismissed.
The system force me to decides about my stuff, do things or to quit it, dismiss the all tasks of a page if nothing stand at me which means I dont know.
It's also force me to plan my projects on Omnifocus and put there my someday tasks or simply non actionable. It also force me to make a journal about my project which contains nothing but ideas about them. I do it with plaintext and it is sync with my ipad, my mac and my iphone.
At the end, the system force me to put my big rocks on my diary ie project I ought to work on. Sometime I know when to do it so there are planned like an appointment, sometime they I don't so they are on the top of ical from 1 am to 7 am and I will pick them and plan them when I can.
Anyway the most important thing that brought me SF is the "finishing" of my project. I am anxious to close it and decide about it whatever can be my decision.
definitively finishing is a major point of SF and a major point about time management. If we don't things will never end.
I totally agree with you Finishing is as important than plan. I may add review is as important than finishing and plan.
Methods like GTD preconize to decide on the next action. Sometime it goes very far away.
For myself as you know I use taskpaper as a SF list. I noticed that at the end of each page I decides about each item what I have to do. Some are erased, others are reported in C1 or C2 some projects are completed and task added and of course projects are dismissed.
The system force me to decides about my stuff, do things or to quit it, dismiss the all tasks of a page if nothing stand at me which means I dont know.
It's also force me to plan my projects on Omnifocus and put there my someday tasks or simply non actionable. It also force me to make a journal about my project which contains nothing but ideas about them. I do it with plaintext and it is sync with my ipad, my mac and my iphone.
At the end, the system force me to put my big rocks on my diary ie project I ought to work on. Sometime I know when to do it so there are planned like an appointment, sometime they I don't so they are on the top of ical from 1 am to 7 am and I will pick them and plan them when I can.
Anyway the most important thing that brought me SF is the "finishing" of my project. I am anxious to close it and decide about it whatever can be my decision.
definitively finishing is a major point of SF and a major point about time management. If we don't things will never end.
May 9, 2011 at 13:33 |
FocusGuy.
FocusGuy.
Thanks Jupiter. I'm not sure you precisely understood me. I know I had difficulty writing clearly, and I don't think I fully succeeded. I'm still struggling now to express this properly. I think I need a different word than Finishing.
I'm saying there's a certain way to stop an activity, by properly wrap things up so you can easily resume at another time. And I'm saying this practice has tremendous value to keep life under control, especially because it can be really *easy*, and doesn't need to suffer from the "resistance" problem. The thing is, Finishing Properly seems to make life both *easier* and *better*.
I think you are talking about something different: Completing a task so that it is all wrapped up, nothing more to do, mission accomplished. That also is probably a very valuable practice, but it's not an easy thing.
You also mention Review being extremely valuable. Maybe this is true, but I don't know for myself.
I'm saying there's a certain way to stop an activity, by properly wrap things up so you can easily resume at another time. And I'm saying this practice has tremendous value to keep life under control, especially because it can be really *easy*, and doesn't need to suffer from the "resistance" problem. The thing is, Finishing Properly seems to make life both *easier* and *better*.
I think you are talking about something different: Completing a task so that it is all wrapped up, nothing more to do, mission accomplished. That also is probably a very valuable practice, but it's not an easy thing.
You also mention Review being extremely valuable. Maybe this is true, but I don't know for myself.
May 9, 2011 at 16:49 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
+JMJ+
Alan,
This post of yours, for some odd reason, reminds me of your "Micro Goals" one: http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/1302019
God bless.
Alan,
This post of yours, for some odd reason, reminds me of your "Micro Goals" one: http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/1302019
God bless.
May 9, 2011 at 17:20 |
nuntym
nuntym
Good post, Alan. Leo Babauta has written about something similar which you may find interesting:
http://mnmlist.com/wash-your-bowl/
http://mnmlist.com/wash-your-bowl/
May 9, 2011 at 17:55 |
Sabrina
Sabrina
Hi Alan Sorry about the misunderstood. I guess I caught it now. Sabrina and Leo are right. There is indeed a great lose about not doing the right things at the right time.
For my self I like completing immediately my project till I did something valuable. Only what reason it's hot in my mind. I also have many projects and tasks so it's impossible to report my stuff later.
With SF I noticed one thing. I do what I must about project. I also have many check list to remember all the different tasks I must do about some bigs goals.
I also noticed that the best to do is to dive into action and forget thinking. Of course sometime it is wrong but most of the time with me it's valuable. So Wash your bowl and then you won't think about it.
For my self I like completing immediately my project till I did something valuable. Only what reason it's hot in my mind. I also have many projects and tasks so it's impossible to report my stuff later.
With SF I noticed one thing. I do what I must about project. I also have many check list to remember all the different tasks I must do about some bigs goals.
I also noticed that the best to do is to dive into action and forget thinking. Of course sometime it is wrong but most of the time with me it's valuable. So Wash your bowl and then you won't think about it.
May 9, 2011 at 18:07 |
FocusGuy.
FocusGuy.
Hi Alan,
I've been calling this "Bookmarking".
Personally, I've found bookmarking to be a procrastination technique more often than not, if it takes more than a few seconds.
Mark has written extensively about "just stopping" -- for example, if you block out 60 minutes for writing time, when the alarm sounds, you should JUST STOP -- even if mid-sentence.
Leaving things hanging like that tends to make your mind want to get closure, and while you are away doing something else, your subconscious is still thinking about getting closure on that task that you just left hanging.
When you come back to the task, (1) your mind is already primed to tackle it again, and (2) it's easy to pick back up again because you just need to close up what's in front of you. That small amount of work pulls you back into the task and gets you moving quickly. It can be more difficult to get going again, if you had previously reached a "stopping point" and now must figure out what to do next.
Still, some kind of bookmarking is needed so you don't completely lose your place. In the writing example, I still need some way to put away that work, so I have room on my desktop for the next task. If it's a file, I can just Save and Minimize and I'm done. If it's a notebook, I can just place my "continue here" bookmark, close the notebook, and put it on the shelf so it's out of the way.
If the bookmarks are quick like this -- literally a few seconds or less -- then they work great. It's worth the effort for any long-term project to figure out some quick and easy ways to bookmark that project.
The problem is when you need to go through a 5- or 15-minute process to do the bookmarking. "Let me just keep going till I get to a good stopping point..." can allow things to drag on for hours.
Learning from Mark how to stop immediately has been a huge aid to my own productivity, as well as my ability to change focus quickly and effectively.
I've been calling this "Bookmarking".
Personally, I've found bookmarking to be a procrastination technique more often than not, if it takes more than a few seconds.
Mark has written extensively about "just stopping" -- for example, if you block out 60 minutes for writing time, when the alarm sounds, you should JUST STOP -- even if mid-sentence.
Leaving things hanging like that tends to make your mind want to get closure, and while you are away doing something else, your subconscious is still thinking about getting closure on that task that you just left hanging.
When you come back to the task, (1) your mind is already primed to tackle it again, and (2) it's easy to pick back up again because you just need to close up what's in front of you. That small amount of work pulls you back into the task and gets you moving quickly. It can be more difficult to get going again, if you had previously reached a "stopping point" and now must figure out what to do next.
Still, some kind of bookmarking is needed so you don't completely lose your place. In the writing example, I still need some way to put away that work, so I have room on my desktop for the next task. If it's a file, I can just Save and Minimize and I'm done. If it's a notebook, I can just place my "continue here" bookmark, close the notebook, and put it on the shelf so it's out of the way.
If the bookmarks are quick like this -- literally a few seconds or less -- then they work great. It's worth the effort for any long-term project to figure out some quick and easy ways to bookmark that project.
The problem is when you need to go through a 5- or 15-minute process to do the bookmarking. "Let me just keep going till I get to a good stopping point..." can allow things to drag on for hours.
Learning from Mark how to stop immediately has been a huge aid to my own productivity, as well as my ability to change focus quickly and effectively.
May 9, 2011 at 20:40 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Yes you can a break for lunch or coffee or a phone call or just to do some other SF things for a bit - stop quickly and leave it, no problem. That's very different from stopping because you're tired, weary, got a wedding to attend, leaving for work, or just decided you don't want to do any more writing today.
In the second case, by the time you get back to the task, your mind is "not primed to tackle it again", and before then (the extended period when you won't be doing that task), you don't want to be distracted by having all that undone stuff cluttering your life.
I daresay "bookmarking" is very important in that situation, whether it takes 5 seconds or 2 minutes. If it takes 20 minutes you're right that a better easier bookmarking system is needed - if only because that level of exertion when you've tired is likely not to be done. Julie Morgenstern and others have the concept well established that a good system will be extremely easy both to get out and to put away.
In the second case, by the time you get back to the task, your mind is "not primed to tackle it again", and before then (the extended period when you won't be doing that task), you don't want to be distracted by having all that undone stuff cluttering your life.
I daresay "bookmarking" is very important in that situation, whether it takes 5 seconds or 2 minutes. If it takes 20 minutes you're right that a better easier bookmarking system is needed - if only because that level of exertion when you've tired is likely not to be done. Julie Morgenstern and others have the concept well established that a good system will be extremely easy both to get out and to put away.
May 9, 2011 at 22:27 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Yes, it is all about bookmarking—how to do it and when to do it.
Lack of effective bookmarking is why so many computer programmers prefer to work in long, uninterrupted sessions on a single project. That is not a critique, just a fact: when it is hard to put down a project's intricate trains of thought and pick them back up again, that is the same as saying that there's no appealing method of bookmarking.
Lack of effective bookmarking is why so many computer programmers prefer to work in long, uninterrupted sessions on a single project. That is not a critique, just a fact: when it is hard to put down a project's intricate trains of thought and pick them back up again, that is the same as saying that there's no appealing method of bookmarking.
May 10, 2011 at 2:54 |
Bernie
Bernie
To get back to the original concept of "finishing", here are two more illustrations.
The first is something I read some time ago. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was a phrase to the effect of "Lunch isn't over until the kitchen is cleaned up".
The second is a negative illustration. The difference between being able to work in a "clean desk" environment (as I have to do at work) and having a desk buried under a chaos of papers (as I currently have at home) is simply in the habit of putting your papers away when you stop working on something, before getting the material out to tackle the next subject.
To make this "clean desk" work however, you need a system that makes it easy and painless to actually put stuff away and find it back again when you need it. At work, this is my set of hanging files. This, combined with my AF/SF list that tells me when it's time to get stuff out again, is a powerful tool to stay in control. At home, my filing system and space need work: so it's not (yet) simple to put things away and thus clutter follows. Which is a source of frustration, inefficiency and lost time.
The first is something I read some time ago. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was a phrase to the effect of "Lunch isn't over until the kitchen is cleaned up".
The second is a negative illustration. The difference between being able to work in a "clean desk" environment (as I have to do at work) and having a desk buried under a chaos of papers (as I currently have at home) is simply in the habit of putting your papers away when you stop working on something, before getting the material out to tackle the next subject.
To make this "clean desk" work however, you need a system that makes it easy and painless to actually put stuff away and find it back again when you need it. At work, this is my set of hanging files. This, combined with my AF/SF list that tells me when it's time to get stuff out again, is a powerful tool to stay in control. At home, my filing system and space need work: so it's not (yet) simple to put things away and thus clutter follows. Which is a source of frustration, inefficiency and lost time.
May 10, 2011 at 8:21 |
Marc (from Brussels)
Marc (from Brussels)
Marc:
From the same guy who gave us "structured procrastination":
http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization.php
From the same guy who gave us "structured procrastination":
http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization.php
May 10, 2011 at 22:59 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Good link, Mark.
1) I despise those desks with the right-side arm. I was fortunate that my entire academic career only led me to three classes that used them.
2) I'm also horizontally oriented. I like that 15' lazy susan proposal. Seriously, my best-ever productivity environment was an L shaped desk with an extra return on it and backed by another table. When sorting, I like to take the entire floorspace and move stuff to appropriate piles. Trouble is, piling up the result is extremely dissatisfying, but leaving everything in the numerous piles is unhappy as well. I hope to find a cure someday.
1) I despise those desks with the right-side arm. I was fortunate that my entire academic career only led me to three classes that used them.
2) I'm also horizontally oriented. I like that 15' lazy susan proposal. Seriously, my best-ever productivity environment was an L shaped desk with an extra return on it and backed by another table. When sorting, I like to take the entire floorspace and move stuff to appropriate piles. Trouble is, piling up the result is extremely dissatisfying, but leaving everything in the numerous piles is unhappy as well. I hope to find a cure someday.
May 11, 2011 at 15:09 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
<< From the same guy who gave us "structured procrastination":
http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization.php >>
What a wonderful site! I put it to use at once. Reading the entire essay page proved to be highly effective for avoiding several important tasks. I am pretty sure that guy taught one of my freshman classes, but unfortunately he did not share with us any of these useful concepts.
As a fellow horizontal organizer, I once had a brilliant idea: convert the shelves of a large armoire, formerly used for storing supplies, to become "desktops." Since the shelves were adjustable and removable—and about 2 by 4 feet—I spread out my active papers on all five of them, giving each its own project. I would select one, swap it into position at a comfortable working height, and get things done. Then I would swap it for a different desktop on another project.
It did not last long. One shelf soon became the "real" desktop, collecting all of my active papers, while the others sat neglected and ever so slightly out of view.
http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/light/organization.php >>
What a wonderful site! I put it to use at once. Reading the entire essay page proved to be highly effective for avoiding several important tasks. I am pretty sure that guy taught one of my freshman classes, but unfortunately he did not share with us any of these useful concepts.
As a fellow horizontal organizer, I once had a brilliant idea: convert the shelves of a large armoire, formerly used for storing supplies, to become "desktops." Since the shelves were adjustable and removable—and about 2 by 4 feet—I spread out my active papers on all five of them, giving each its own project. I would select one, swap it into position at a comfortable working height, and get things done. Then I would swap it for a different desktop on another project.
It did not last long. One shelf soon became the "real" desktop, collecting all of my active papers, while the others sat neglected and ever so slightly out of view.
May 12, 2011 at 7:39 |
Bernie
Bernie
Now obviously when you undertake a project it's a good idea to complete it, but that's not exactly what I have in mind.
I'm thinking rather of task-level self-discipline. If a tasking is accomplished, before you leave that task, clean up, put away, prepare for the next. If however you work on a task and you want to stop for a while, this is okay and doesn't relate to Finishing as discussed here. But: when you stop, Finish your work session: wrap up a segment, note where you left off, clean up, put where it belongs, and now you are Finished.
Eat supper, but wash dishes or at least put them by the sink. Watch movies, but put the discs back and pick up the spilled Doritos. By making a habit of this, messes don't accumulate, backlogs don't start, the SF list stays simple, and your mind is put at ease.
Second big principle: Finishing only takes seconds or minutes. Plan not to be in a rush so you can do it right.