Discussion Forum > Managing my stuff with Goals instead of List
I think it is an excellent tale Jupiter. I never had a dream like that before. I suspect there is a large element of truth for your situation. Perhaps you are bound too tight to your lists and would do better with less details and more goal items.
July 2, 2011 at 22:50 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Wow, what a story. I think I really feel what you are trying to say, except the part where you say that you never drink (and you live in France with all that good wine).
Even if you are determined to NOT let your life turn into a myriad of lists, there are still certain times your mind is going to go down a certain path concerning a goal or project and come up with “steps” or checklist items or whatever you want to call them.
I have to admit, once you and I were sharing ideas about OmniFocus in quite detail, it made me remember that anytime I got fancy or got it configured 'exactly' the way I like to process stuff (and got so excited at the mere achievement), the momentum didn't last.
I like to remember the reasons I got pulled to MF systems and way of thinking in the first place.
One could argue that OmniFocus is the best, or at least the most technologically-advanced, piece of task management software available. But is this a good thing or a bad thing? I guess for a lot of people it is a good thing. I mean, they wrote a book about how to use it, and some people say on the OF blog that they dedicated a lot of time to learn how to use it properly, and are extremely happy it. For me, however (except for the unbelievable syncing capabilities it features), I can't say I need it over Toodledo or any other good way to capture and retrieve things from my ‘side lists’.
Hopefully, by the time in the day you leave AF/SF to go over and fish a new item out of your simple list, your mental power is not all used up with some complicated system, and this is when your intuition can kick in without the bother to come up with more steps because you already went through that exercise; a time to apply the double-reading and stand-out principles you like so much.
Even if you are determined to NOT let your life turn into a myriad of lists, there are still certain times your mind is going to go down a certain path concerning a goal or project and come up with “steps” or checklist items or whatever you want to call them.
I have to admit, once you and I were sharing ideas about OmniFocus in quite detail, it made me remember that anytime I got fancy or got it configured 'exactly' the way I like to process stuff (and got so excited at the mere achievement), the momentum didn't last.
I like to remember the reasons I got pulled to MF systems and way of thinking in the first place.
One could argue that OmniFocus is the best, or at least the most technologically-advanced, piece of task management software available. But is this a good thing or a bad thing? I guess for a lot of people it is a good thing. I mean, they wrote a book about how to use it, and some people say on the OF blog that they dedicated a lot of time to learn how to use it properly, and are extremely happy it. For me, however (except for the unbelievable syncing capabilities it features), I can't say I need it over Toodledo or any other good way to capture and retrieve things from my ‘side lists’.
Hopefully, by the time in the day you leave AF/SF to go over and fish a new item out of your simple list, your mental power is not all used up with some complicated system, and this is when your intuition can kick in without the bother to come up with more steps because you already went through that exercise; a time to apply the double-reading and stand-out principles you like so much.
July 3, 2011 at 6:58 |
BKK
BKK
Jupiter, that reminds me of my early experience with OmniFocus. It's so good at sorting and filtering and grouping "tasks," that I got tunnel vision and spent a lot of time over-planning my projects. Quickly, all those details became obsolete, and I forced myself to revise them on and on ... until I felt too much resistance to OmniFocus in general.
Mark has a brilliant quote about this in "Dreams":
"With a clear overall vision there is often little need to set short-term goals. The problem with short- term goals is that they are often too prescriptive of how you are going to get to your vision. As soon as you start setting time targets and working out actions that need to be done by them you are committing yourself to a specific way of getting to where you want to be. You have ceased to allow your mind to be creative about achieving the goal."
One way to apply that to OmniFocus is to ask yourself, "Is this task just *one* way to reach my goal, or is it inherently part of the goal?" The "inherent" items will not shift or become obsolete unless something really big changes. Perhaps you could enter other (non-inherent) tasks as options/ideas by storing them in a special Context or sub-project? You'll know that those are just options and are subject to change, vs. the inherent stuff that you can rely on.
Mark has a brilliant quote about this in "Dreams":
"With a clear overall vision there is often little need to set short-term goals. The problem with short- term goals is that they are often too prescriptive of how you are going to get to your vision. As soon as you start setting time targets and working out actions that need to be done by them you are committing yourself to a specific way of getting to where you want to be. You have ceased to allow your mind to be creative about achieving the goal."
One way to apply that to OmniFocus is to ask yourself, "Is this task just *one* way to reach my goal, or is it inherently part of the goal?" The "inherent" items will not shift or become obsolete unless something really big changes. Perhaps you could enter other (non-inherent) tasks as options/ideas by storing them in a special Context or sub-project? You'll know that those are just options and are subject to change, vs. the inherent stuff that you can rely on.
July 3, 2011 at 22:41 |
Bernie
Bernie
i solve the problem with an af list including goals and a gtd list of project. it is not perfect but it works.
July 7, 2011 at 4:16 |
FocusGuy.
FocusGuy.
Yes, I've been following your progress in that thread, and it sounds like you are having a much better time now. Congratulations!
July 7, 2011 at 7:03 |
Bernie
Bernie
I had a dream yesterday after I spent about the all day organizing, sorting, choosing starting dates on omnifocus I wana submit to you.
In fact I was on my desk and overwhelmed with list. My brain was blocked and I all that list were raining on me and I was completely overwhelmed by details. I was stressed and breathless so I found this dream so hard that I awaque just after having a vision.
My vision was that someone told me (I could not see him or her but I clearly heard his or her voice) that I had to get rid of list because I new perfectly my job and I will be drow by details INSTEAD I could use just goals.
In fact instead of thinking of all the details of the project. Sorting it, managing start dates and see all the componant of the project I could just make a list of the project and just in front write a sentence which could be my aim at short term and long term.
During the dat I could just write what happen on my paper note book and write the tasks very shortly without really caring about them for not forgetting them and do them asap only If I absolutely must.
Then I could just do thing as I feel and put on my diary only the deadlines about was is indeed non avoidable.
I did not read MF dream except a little summary that I did not catch at all.
I must precise that I never drink and did not take any drug.
The dream was indeed strong and hard and I cant get it of my mind since yesterday night.
What do you think about it ?
Does it make any sense to you and to you Mark ?
Have you tried such a method like this ?.