Discussion Forum > Item 4000 just entered in my AF/SF list
Wow, I'm impressed you can number your items that precisely! I'm surprised that your pages stay open so long... how many times do you make it through your list per day? Because our active lists are roughly the same length (my pages are 35 lines, also using SF but for both urgent & unfinished tasks; 5 pages open at the moment but I'll be opening a 6th sometime in the next... probably 20 minutes or so) and I usually close pages in about a week to 10 days (I just started tracking dates on this again because I got curious... my oldest open page was started on 15/10/11 and will close or be dismissed either today or tomorrow).
October 24, 2011 at 13:15 |
Sarah
Sarah
Most impressive, Marc.
October 24, 2011 at 16:26 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Wow - amazing. I guess this is a great advert for just getting on with it! I wish I didn't procrastinate so much!
October 24, 2011 at 17:58 |
Alison Reeves
Alison Reeves
That's wonderful, Marc!
What do you like about the small "C2," versus writing urgent things on a temporary piece of paper? When you fill up those 5 lines, do you force a page dismissal just like a full C2 in SFv3?
Just curious about the system that has been working so well for you.
What do you like about the small "C2," versus writing urgent things on a temporary piece of paper? When you fill up those 5 lines, do you force a page dismissal just like a full C2 in SFv3?
Just curious about the system that has been working so well for you.
October 25, 2011 at 2:29 |
Bernie
Bernie
Bernie:
I've been using the reduced C2 at the bottom of a page for 11 pages now. On one of those I've had four items in C2, for all the others it's between two and zero. So I've never been faced with a full C2 yet. I guess that in that case, as per the original SF rules, I'd simply add the item to the C2 section of the next active page.
As I said, I don't use C2 for unfinished tasks (except if it's urgent to progress on them). This works well as long as I circulate around the open pages frequently enough (at least once every one or two days). this seems to work for me at the moment.
I've been using the reduced C2 at the bottom of a page for 11 pages now. On one of those I've had four items in C2, for all the others it's between two and zero. So I've never been faced with a full C2 yet. I guess that in that case, as per the original SF rules, I'd simply add the item to the C2 section of the next active page.
As I said, I don't use C2 for unfinished tasks (except if it's urgent to progress on them). This works well as long as I circulate around the open pages frequently enough (at least once every one or two days). this seems to work for me at the moment.
October 25, 2011 at 13:23 |
Marc (from Brussels)
Marc (from Brussels)
Great post Marc! Your peseverence and level of detail is most impressive.
Some questions: Do you use seperate notebooks for home and work?
How do you define urgent? Do you define urgent as 'same page urgent'?
Scenario: I enter what I think is an urgent item in column 2. Before leaving that page I change my mind and realise that it isn't. Is the item deleted and re-entered into column 1?
Thanks!
Some questions: Do you use seperate notebooks for home and work?
How do you define urgent? Do you define urgent as 'same page urgent'?
Scenario: I enter what I think is an urgent item in column 2. Before leaving that page I change my mind and realise that it isn't. Is the item deleted and re-entered into column 1?
Thanks!
October 25, 2011 at 21:04 |
leon
leon
Marc:
<< I don't use C2 for unfinished tasks (except if it's urgent to progress on them). This works well as long as I circulate around the open pages frequently enough (at least once every one or two days).>>
My own experience is that speed in getting unfinished tasks done is very important for real achievement. What is your (and others') experience about this?
<< I don't use C2 for unfinished tasks (except if it's urgent to progress on them). This works well as long as I circulate around the open pages frequently enough (at least once every one or two days).>>
My own experience is that speed in getting unfinished tasks done is very important for real achievement. What is your (and others') experience about this?
October 26, 2011 at 1:30 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
I think much of this is personality based. I need external pressure to get me to move forward on things that are less-than-fun but necessary. An example for me are things like grading and transcribing interviews. This is why DWM and SF have worked so well for me. If I can put an interview I'm working on transcribing back at the end of my list, I can get away with touching it only about once a week. If I'm putting it in C2, I have to deal with it potentially as much as several times a day. And it gets done much faster.
October 26, 2011 at 3:30 |
Sarah
Sarah
The past two weeks threw an amazing number of critical tasks at me. Being both urgent and very important led to getting a lot of valuable work accomplished. I find that it seems to work well to focus on about two major items with a definite objective in sight. And concurrently to dabble in a dozen other things.
But I'm just starting to swing lately so I'm not assured of the ideal mode of operating.
But I'm just starting to swing lately so I'm not assured of the ideal mode of operating.
October 26, 2011 at 4:13 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Last Friday, just under 3 months after the initial post of this thread, I reached 4500 items. I'm still using the same "augmented AF1" approach I described at that time.
Current Stats:
* 10 open pages
* Number of open items remains between 60 and 70
* Page length 28 lines (+5 lines for "C2")
* I visit a page about 7-8 times on average before closing it (but can be up to 13 visits)
* Oldest page is now open since 57 calendar days (only 1 item remaining, so will be done or dismissed on next pass). The "open time" of the pages has increased, but the two weeks end of year holiday period accounts for some of that.
Now heading for item #5000 ;)
Current Stats:
* 10 open pages
* Number of open items remains between 60 and 70
* Page length 28 lines (+5 lines for "C2")
* I visit a page about 7-8 times on average before closing it (but can be up to 13 visits)
* Oldest page is now open since 57 calendar days (only 1 item remaining, so will be done or dismissed on next pass). The "open time" of the pages has increased, but the two weeks end of year holiday period accounts for some of that.
Now heading for item #5000 ;)
January 24, 2012 at 9:35 |
Marc (from Brussels)
Marc (from Brussels)
How many dismissed items are there, pending review? How many pages?
January 24, 2012 at 12:45 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
In the system (currently at page 137), 71 pages have been dismissed. With between 1 and 8 dismidded items per page, this accounts for a total of 181 items.(or about 4% of the total number of items).
Most dismissed items have since been reviewed and taken care of, by either:
- dropping them altogether
- putting them in a tickler system to reactivate at a set date
- re-activating them
I don't have a count for the dismissed items still pending a decision. Indeed, when I review the dismissed items, I may decide on what to do with some of them, while leaving others for a next review cycle. I now have about 14 dismissed pages that still contain 1 or more items that await decision.
Most dismissed items have since been reviewed and taken care of, by either:
- dropping them altogether
- putting them in a tickler system to reactivate at a set date
- re-activating them
I don't have a count for the dismissed items still pending a decision. Indeed, when I review the dismissed items, I may decide on what to do with some of them, while leaving others for a next review cycle. I now have about 14 dismissed pages that still contain 1 or more items that await decision.
January 24, 2012 at 13:39 |
Marc (from Brussels)
Marc (from Brussels)
Marc:
Well done, and congratulations on your consistency (far greater than my own!)
What would you say were your main achievements in your life as a result of using the system?
Well done, and congratulations on your consistency (far greater than my own!)
What would you say were your main achievements in your life as a result of using the system?
January 24, 2012 at 18:36 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Marc is more consistent than me, too. I've used OneNote since September 2009, but the system has changed often, several times and wasn't always followed.
From the beginning I attempted to keep track of what work I did, logging by date. The records show a remarkable variation in consistency, where some months I'm faithfully logging day by day, some have a smattering of days, and some months are entirely absent! Most of the absence is due to inconsistency in the logging process.
Nevertheless, the past year I have been more consistently recording and it's clear January 2012 is my best month ever. 320 distinct tasks in 21 days (not counting routine chores) and strangely I feel I'm getting more in-depth and important work done at the same time.
From the beginning I attempted to keep track of what work I did, logging by date. The records show a remarkable variation in consistency, where some months I'm faithfully logging day by day, some have a smattering of days, and some months are entirely absent! Most of the absence is due to inconsistency in the logging process.
Nevertheless, the past year I have been more consistently recording and it's clear January 2012 is my best month ever. 320 distinct tasks in 21 days (not counting routine chores) and strangely I feel I'm getting more in-depth and important work done at the same time.
January 25, 2012 at 22:29 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Marc - do you have separate lists for home and work or combine them?
January 25, 2012 at 23:39 |
Alison Reeves
Alison Reeves
First a short history. I started using AF (as AF1 was known then) from day 1 on January 5, 2009, after a dew years of DIT. In summary, I did approximatively:
* 10 months of AF1 (with a brief AF3 intermezzo, AF2 skipped)
* 8 months of AF4
* back to AF1 for 2.5 months
* reverted to DIT for 2 months
* and back to AF1 again for 4 months
* finally switching to SF since 8 months
This means 16.5 months of AF1 before switching to SF. Also, my SF use has come to resemble AF1 versy closely, as I explained in a previous post (C2 only used for urgent tasks).
So I have to say that this SF/AF1 hybrid suits me very well and is a superb system (for me!) to stay on top of my work (at work). So, until Mark's final Version comes out, I intend to remain a happy user of this system (and maybe even afterwards)!
For fun, some statistics:
* I have about 6 - 8 open pages at any time
* Number of open items is generally between 60 and 70
* Page length used to be 33 lines, now 28 + 5 lines for C2
* I visit a page about 9 times on average before closing it
* A page stays active around 25 calendar days on average