Discussion Forum > When it worked very well - what was it?
One journalling technique that encourages that when reviewing the day would be: What went well today? What was I doing/being that allowed that to happen?
December 16, 2011 at 9:10 |
michael
michael
What worked before MarkForster.Net:
(1) A separate Agenda with NO tasks or wish lists unless they were hard deadlines, appointments or key events.
(2) A simple daily notebook with the current tasks only. (Anytime the Day or Week Plan got too complex, it worked against me.)
(3) An (pretty-much) all-in-one-place recording of events, phone notes, project notes, etc.
(4) The tasks that needed to be done "soon" (plus the project-planning mind dumps) were located elsewhere.
(5) Periods where I kept the Inbox and other clutter properly managed.
Where it all went wrong:
(1) Getting into Gtd.
(2) My system became like a dirty, Pandora's Box that I didn't want to touch. It was not fun anymore.
(3) Using a steep-learning-curve task management program for Windows and Palm, then continuing on with even more-complex systems available today with the iPhone and iPad.
(4) Letting clutter build up.
Post-MarkForster.Net (and Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.Org):
(1) Figured out how to deal with the perpetual high-resistance, continually-rewritten tasks (that would otherwise stay on the lists forever or fall through the cracks).
(2) How to "just open the file", how to feel good about doing what feels right and little-and-often.
(3) Free-Form.
(4) How to get all that stuff out of the way to concentrate on what is important (i.e., using Dismissal in lieu of Someday/Never).
(5) How to create backlogs for virtually everything.
(6) How to 'think' more clearly (and more often).
(7) How to keep the digital solutions short and simple. This included dropping Google Calendar, Toodledo and PocketInformant, and just using iCal with it's popular (but simple) helper-companions (like BusyCal and the "Fantastical" pop-up list). (Also, reducing the number of Calendars in iCal.)
(8) Not avoiding, but minimising, contextual lists and other side lists.
(9) Realising that learning and simplifying "the system" is a continual process.
(I know, only the first part is in response to your question, and a lot of the stuff above has been repeated on this forum a lot lately, but I wanted to contribute since the summary of "before and after" (as it applies to me) has been fresh in my mind lately.)
Lastly, your <<(3) I reviewed all tasks very often>>, was another 'biggie' that worked well when I actually did it.
(1) A separate Agenda with NO tasks or wish lists unless they were hard deadlines, appointments or key events.
(2) A simple daily notebook with the current tasks only. (Anytime the Day or Week Plan got too complex, it worked against me.)
(3) An (pretty-much) all-in-one-place recording of events, phone notes, project notes, etc.
(4) The tasks that needed to be done "soon" (plus the project-planning mind dumps) were located elsewhere.
(5) Periods where I kept the Inbox and other clutter properly managed.
Where it all went wrong:
(1) Getting into Gtd.
(2) My system became like a dirty, Pandora's Box that I didn't want to touch. It was not fun anymore.
(3) Using a steep-learning-curve task management program for Windows and Palm, then continuing on with even more-complex systems available today with the iPhone and iPad.
(4) Letting clutter build up.
Post-MarkForster.Net (and Leo Babauta of ZenHabits.Org):
(1) Figured out how to deal with the perpetual high-resistance, continually-rewritten tasks (that would otherwise stay on the lists forever or fall through the cracks).
(2) How to "just open the file", how to feel good about doing what feels right and little-and-often.
(3) Free-Form.
(4) How to get all that stuff out of the way to concentrate on what is important (i.e., using Dismissal in lieu of Someday/Never).
(5) How to create backlogs for virtually everything.
(6) How to 'think' more clearly (and more often).
(7) How to keep the digital solutions short and simple. This included dropping Google Calendar, Toodledo and PocketInformant, and just using iCal with it's popular (but simple) helper-companions (like BusyCal and the "Fantastical" pop-up list). (Also, reducing the number of Calendars in iCal.)
(8) Not avoiding, but minimising, contextual lists and other side lists.
(9) Realising that learning and simplifying "the system" is a continual process.
(I know, only the first part is in response to your question, and a lot of the stuff above has been repeated on this forum a lot lately, but I wanted to contribute since the summary of "before and after" (as it applies to me) has been fresh in my mind lately.)
Lastly, your <<(3) I reviewed all tasks very often>>, was another 'biggie' that worked well when I actually did it.
December 16, 2011 at 11:53 |
BKK
BKK
I took an habit : e.g. writing a journal about technics which were successful with me.
This habit helped me a lot giving me altitude about my stuff and correcting the way when it was necessary.
In the tumultuous time I was indeed efficient using one principle. Act instead of think.
Gtd helped me a lot. It gave me a structure and a method to organize my company.
Butt instead of context close list were better i.e. AF1 or AF4 list were perfect for acting on focus projects one by one.
The worst was to treat a project and then do a task on another and go back to the first and so on. On my commercial activities it made me loose a lot of time. Then I have realized that I needed to do the most I could on a specific project and then when I was not able to go further go to another one.
The second principle was to separate projects from tasks and take time to work on project with a project list. Even if it made a double beam or a double work the best was to act first watever was on the project
The Third principle is to see people. In my commercial activities computer is bad and calling or seeing people is much better.
About tools
Collecting my stuff with omnifocus was and is the most efficient
extracting tasks at night for DIT on a close list was a real success
Acting with context was the worst thing I could do I lost and made a lot of mistakes because of that. Using a paper agenda for commercial was the best habit. Using mails for everything and reading them as they arrived were the worst.
Taking altitude with GTD principle was and is a great success. It made my life and many of my success were involved because and by GTD.
In fact, for me all about GTD is perfect EXCEPT "contexts". I kept MF principle of double reading and lists (AF4 most of the time) and it is a success. Except that when something is indeed important as a project I do all with a batch and go as further as I can.
I hate GTD Contexts and I have never been able to deal with them.
Of course it is indeed heavy and boring. But it works with me.
Hope that's help.
This habit helped me a lot giving me altitude about my stuff and correcting the way when it was necessary.
In the tumultuous time I was indeed efficient using one principle. Act instead of think.
Gtd helped me a lot. It gave me a structure and a method to organize my company.
Butt instead of context close list were better i.e. AF1 or AF4 list were perfect for acting on focus projects one by one.
The worst was to treat a project and then do a task on another and go back to the first and so on. On my commercial activities it made me loose a lot of time. Then I have realized that I needed to do the most I could on a specific project and then when I was not able to go further go to another one.
The second principle was to separate projects from tasks and take time to work on project with a project list. Even if it made a double beam or a double work the best was to act first watever was on the project
The Third principle is to see people. In my commercial activities computer is bad and calling or seeing people is much better.
About tools
Collecting my stuff with omnifocus was and is the most efficient
extracting tasks at night for DIT on a close list was a real success
Acting with context was the worst thing I could do I lost and made a lot of mistakes because of that. Using a paper agenda for commercial was the best habit. Using mails for everything and reading them as they arrived were the worst.
Taking altitude with GTD principle was and is a great success. It made my life and many of my success were involved because and by GTD.
In fact, for me all about GTD is perfect EXCEPT "contexts". I kept MF principle of double reading and lists (AF4 most of the time) and it is a success. Except that when something is indeed important as a project I do all with a batch and go as further as I can.
I hate GTD Contexts and I have never been able to deal with them.
Of course it is indeed heavy and boring. But it works with me.
Hope that's help.
December 16, 2011 at 16:45 |
FocusGuy.
FocusGuy.
It could give us some clues to what to do better even in other "periods".
My experience: In such times, my time/task management was (1) very simple as for number of tasks (not many tasks, only most important - maybe paradoxically) and structure (just various simple lists), (2) flexible (ad-hoc lists which seemed most efficient at the moment - sometimes contextually based, sometimes project based, sometimes I needed to focus only on several important tasks... (3) I reviewed all tasks very often (4) basic project management - setting phases with main objectives for each and most important tasks (5) preparing "today list" and "week list" for most important tasks, sometimes with more elaborated "schedule". (6) focusing on most important (not on perfect) and including other people when possible (delegation, discussion, cooperation).
What experiences do you have?