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Your answers are very helpful. Thank you. Your answers are also very kind. I especially thank you for that.
Almost all my life I got teased or criticized because I'm too methodical and excessively conscious of order and cleanliness. I was taught that everything must be almost perfectly clean and ordered once a week so that training never left my mind. My feelings get hurt when people say my house makes them feel uncomfortable. I think they are exaggerating, though. I have a huge furry German Shepherd who's always shedding and dribbling her slobber onto the floors. That's proof that my house isn't too clean for relaxation. Thank you for saying that the deadlines in my head are sometimes even more important than other deadlines. I suppose all of us have ideas in our head of how to maintain our lifestyle. I'm especially grateful that you called the deadline REAL. Again, thank you for you kind opinions.
Oh, my God! I almost got frightened when I visualized an entire week of forgotten email hitting the inbox at once! I have unattended to emails FAR LONGER than a week old! LOL! In fact, I have to force a fake deadline to even check my email ONCE a week. That doesn't necessarily mean addressing each of them. I only care about deadlines and money matters for email. LOL! You are far more disciplined than I am about email. If it's not critical, it's HIGHLY likely that I'll ignore it. LOL!
Did you say that your calendar, addresses and notes are A6 and your spiral notes are A5? Do you have two X47 books? If so, you well deserve the extravagance! LOL! My life and my few responsibilities can justify it. LOL!
Your backed up emails are the "weekBox". Mine are Monthly or....SeasonalBox. LOL!
" My life and my few responsibilities can justify it. LOL!" CAN'T was the intended word. I could drive an proof editor to an early grave! LOL! Years ago I ghosted a book and I later found out that the proof editor got paid more than I did! LOL! I hardly recognized it for all the changes!
5 loads of laundry in a day? YIKES! You're a far better person than me. Just reading about it made me skip a breath. LOL! Because I live alone, I only have 3 loads a week unless I'm changing out clothes and linens for a new season. Even then, I'd only do one load a day starting it early. I pull out the clothes and linens before they are totally dry and hang them. That way there's less wrinkles and less wear and tear on the stuff washed. My motives are pure laziness. It's easier to keep clothes and linens in good condition than having to force myself to shop for more. I don't know why I hate shopping so much. I hate getting out the door to grocery shop but once I'm there, I'm usually OK. Cooking and eating are the only benefits of errands shopping. LOL! Are your children too young to help you? 5 loads in one day? Geez! I'm still shaking my head in admiration for you to be willing to do such a chore! I hope your family appreciates you!
Both my kids can do laundry. My son's desk is in the basement, so if I'm doing it on a weekend he does most of it.
I don't bother folding clothes for the kids, since they don't care. I just throw them in the right basket and let them carry it up. (My daughter prefers to run down to the basement every morning.)
I try to put them on the line, but that's one of the first things to go when things get busy. I have no excuse other than time.
>>Did you say that your calendar, addresses and notes are A6 and your spiral notes are A5? Do you have two X47 books?<<
No, If have only one X47 (calender and task list and adresses etc.).
My notebook is a rather common one. Cheap, because otherwise I would think "is it worth to jot that down?", and THAT would be a total show-stopper!
My heart goes out to you.....especially since I'm in the same position as you! My surgery, unfortunately is not routine. My biggest worry is the bone grafting. Last time they took a chunk out of my hip. My hip is now ugly but why's going to see it? LOL! My greater worry is that they want to use harvested bone. I'd rather use my own bone but .....oh, well. Talk about emotional, I'll probably have silly dreams about that "strange bone" growing in my body like it's an implanted alien who's going to take over my existence like......a pod person. LOL! I'm joking but the seed of the worry is there. What if my body doesn't welcome it? They seem very relaxed that everything is going to be OK.....What if they make a mistake and my pain and nerves are worse. I keep playing the gratitude game that they aren't doing brain surgery to fix my brain. LOL! I'd rather stay stupid than taking a chance with that. LOL!
I truly hope that your mind comes to a more peaceful state and that you have a SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME! Please don't be supermom. Let the family do for you until the doc says it's OK to resume your life's activities. Recovery is critical! After my first surgery, I got antsy and bored. I'm naturally curious and boredom prone so I played a trick on myself. When I wanted to dust, sweep or vacuum, I said, NO! I'm on a vacation! LOL! Before the surgery, I cleaned like a crazed demon and got the business stuff as ahead as I could. I bought crosswords, a pretty journal so I could occupy myself without the pain of actually sitting too long. And I made sure that every day I ate like a queen....like I was on vacation. LOL!
Best of luck, Cricket. I'm sending good wishes you way for a successful surgery and a speedy and not too painful recovery.
LOL about your kids dressing out of the laundry basket in the basement. The visual is funny! You're a liberal mom. We weren't allowed to leave our clothes out. It might be a fun game to see what you could pull out of a laundry basket without seeing your selection like a closet showing everything. I even hang my tee shirts so I can see what my options are! LOL! The only clothes I don't hang are under things and pj's. LOL! I also keep a chart because I can't even remember what I'm currently wearing unless I take the time to look! LOL!
re: Your son helping you on the weekends. I'd front load the laundry duties for the weekend. LOL! That would make you a week ahead also!
You have the patience of Job answering my silly questions. I suppose that I'm a bit extra concerned about keeping things current so my ears are wide open in case I can grab an extra tip. It's just silly worry. My system is fine enough. It's my constant attitude fine-tuning that causes most of the effort. LOL!
LOL! I write copious amounts of notes and I also think about that. My handwriting is shamefully bad and I have a quirk where I can't write what I'm thinking and use totally wrong words plus my stupid brain has me writing the letters in the wrong order. I hear the correct words and spelling in my brain but something gets crossed and I have more cross outs than properly spelled words. It looks more like a Rorschach blot than a series of words. LOL! My grocery list may have the same items SEVERAL times repeated. LOL! Even so, that's better than my brain having me speak. LOL! Bottom line, I'm likely to ruin whatever I write on. Re-writing it doesn't help because my brain stays the same. LOL!
I've tried to shame my brain to do better with expensive notebooks, high quality paper and pens hoping that focus and effort helps. Unfortunately it's just a damaged brain and a damaged spinal cord. Yet, it still annoys me. LOL!
Also, I write a lot of silly stuff that sounds clever or important at the time. When I review it, it sounds like the thoughts of a drunk monkey. LOL! That's why I prefer the computer. I'm STILL awful with typing, but at least most of it is readable. LOL!
Years ago, a poster started a thread asking people to be more careful with spellings and typos. I KNOW that he was politely hiding the fact that he was annoyed with my posts. LOL. I'm the only one on the forum who can't write decent posts. LOL!
Since you're so intelligent and creative, your notes must make for some highly interesting reading. Luckily for the world, you're willing to share some of your imagination and thoughts in your novels.
I almost forgot, my largest worry stems from the specialist insisting on my other doctor sign a form saying that it's OK to operate on me considering the metal already in my body. Somehow the metal makes the risk of infection higher which puts me at greater risk. I looked online and people have died from it....rare....but it's now in my brain. LOL! Between the metal, the "alien bone", the higher risk for infection AND the fact that the doctor, being human, could make errors.....YIKES I shouldn't be concerned because my regular doc did clear me to have the surgery, but....still.....LOL
Don't worry about me not taking time for myself. I'm good at that, when it comes to pain and physical healing. Emotional, not so good, and a day after the anesthetic I probably shouldn't have been marking music theory (but the kids didn't notice).
Instead of expensive notebooks to pressure yourself to be neat, how about inexpensive ones that it's okay to be messy in, and then a second, neater copy if appropriate, and even a third. Less stress up front might help, and using different parts of your brain for each stage (creation, editing, clean copy) might help. It's worth experimenting. On the other hand, if your digital system "ain't broke", then "don't fix it."
Your surgeon's lawyer probably had him do that form. My old doctor lost a patient because the info (lawyer-approved) that came with the routine antibiotic scared her into not taking it. Every time I've had surgery, they wanted me to sign "doctor-in-training might practise on you." I focus on "under appropriate supervision," remember that my kids will need experienced surgeons, and cross my fingers!
Surgery is routine for surgeons and hospitals. It's not routine for us patients.
When my daughter was in the children's hospital, they had a Child Life Specialist talk with her before everything. Pictures of the strange rooms and machines. Discussion of why she needed the IV. Just enough that she didn't get scared at the last minute, but not enough to freak her out. Doll to decorate and give pretend needle to. Lots of games and crafts to distract. She even got an anesthetic patch for the IV. Much nicer than the way they deal with us adults!
Andreas,
I couldn't have a "deal with by this time or else the robot dumps it" category for anything. "Or else you have to admit it's not a priority" is manageable, barely. "Or it won't get done in time or at all" works very well.
I have a few reading lists just for fun that work like that, and I read them instead of doing more important work. That's fine on light weeks, but not busy weeks. I don't want to think about what would happen with things that are actually addressed to me!
Thanks for the reassurances. You probably marked the papers because your brain was hungry for stimulation. LOL! Better to mark papers than decide to start a project that required you to fire up the power saw! LOL!
re: writing. I've run the gamut about writing. I'm finally realizing that applied effort doesn't influence actual brain damage and spinal cord damage. I discovered that rewriting doesn't help because I'm using the same brain and hand that created the original copy. LOL! Eh, it's annoying but I'm fairly resigned to this fact. I had to resign myself to a lot of deficits. Nobody wants to be disabled physically or cognitively. I'm better with it now overall but I get enraged all the time. LOL! At least I'm past the crying stage about living in this faulty carcass. I think the frustration and futility short circuits my patience. I'd rather yell than cry. LOL!
I still don't understand it how the metal is more prone to create infection. Oh, well. My regular doctor signed it. I guess that's sort of encouraging.....but....bone grafting and infection aren't a good cocktail! LOL! I suppose they don't want to use my bone again because that would make two sites of surgery.
You had to sign a form agreeing to "doctor-in-training might practise on you".....ARE YOU SERIOUS? You're a braver person than me! Certainly not neurosurgery! Having a top notch doc greatly increases the chance for a successful surgery. If they handed me a form like that, I'd spit between their eyes! LOL! I even have a special reserve fund in case I need the cash. Mostly, I'm saving it for the hope that in the future stem cell research will let them fix my spinal cord and peripheral nerve damage. If it doesn't happen, my estate will be worth that much more. LOL!
Years ago, Dad was in awful shape. The EXCELLENT policy wouldn't cover his surgery until after he stayed alive after a year. The cardiac surgeon wouldn't touch him without advance payment. How many people have an extra $50K to hand a surgeon. If he relied on the insurance, he'd be dead now. That was in the 1980's. Even though the odds given to him were 90% instant death, 5% coma or paralysis and 5% success.....he got the 5% success. He lived an extra ten years because of it. I have lots more than that tucked away to take care of inflation or needing the surgery overseas. The USA is SLOW to approve procedures and insurance is even slower! LOL! That money is separated from all my other money and investments. Either I eventually get an operation and I get a new chance on life, or I stay a stupid gimp and my family gets it. LOL! Either way, I'm hedging my bets on medical science advancing quickly enough for me. I'm in the last season of my life span. They'd better hurry up! LOL!
It's lovely that the staff was so kind and thoughtful with your daughter. I hope she's OK now. I had a brother who lost over a year out of his life and practically lived a Children's hospital. God bless the dedicated staff. My heart was in agony over my brother's suffering and they have to see that in multiples every day of work. I had trouble seeing the research experimental animals. It caused my AGONY to see it. I'd totally go mental if I had to see kids suffering as part of my job description. God bless that their kindness is wrapped in courage. Helplessly witnessing suffering makes me shamefully weak especially the kids that are terminal.
Good luck with your surgery. If possible, don't allow them to practice on you. Do your research and insist on a specialist with an excellent reputation. You only have one body and one lifespan. Let them choose somebody else. LOL! I wouldn't even allow a green dentist to touch my mouth let alone a surgeon to cut me up! Insist on the best for yourself!
Reading back my post about Dad is very garbled. My recollection put my orientation like I'm in the 1980's right now. LOL. Of course, Dad's dead but what I meant was that he took a huge gamble and got an extra 10 years added to his lifespan. Those bean counters employed by the insurance companies are heartless. Dad was lucky enough to be in a position to help himself. I had to hire a lawyer to force the insurance to pay my bills.....plus damages! LOL! That's what they get for being money-grubbing, heartless **cktards! How many people are unnecessarily suffering or even dead because of naive trust in insurance policies or doctors accepting their plan? I'd probably be a quadriplegic if I relied on them deciding my fate. PLEASE don't take it on faith that they have your best interests in mind. Ultimately, they're bean counters. INSIST on good medical care. You're not a cadaver in medical school. You're a live human being who has people who love you and respect you. Let them practice on people who don't give a damn about themselves. You're too valuable to many people. Let them use an old, disabled single person who doesn't currently contribute to anybody's quality of life, who's also a bit more naive than I am! LOL! I'm absolutely FLUMMOXED that they dared to ask you to sign that piece of paper. At the very least, you are a mother to young children. They are deplorable to even suggest it to you. My dog will benefit from my ire over this because it will take me longer to walk it off. LOL!
Sorry...I didn't know that you were talking about a typical OB/GYN procedure. Since you were discussing transplants and bone grafting, I assumed that it was either cardiology or neurosurgery or obstetrics or another specialty that involves a high level of knowledge and skill beyond the "regular" or more "routine" surgeries. Almost my entire family is in the medical field. I even vetted the anesthesiologist. A large percentage of surgery "errors" are related to the anesthesiologist. I still respect that you are having a routine procedure. I'd make damn sure that the anesthesiologist is NOT in training. LOL! Or if he/she too is in training, make sure that the an experienced doc is reading the stats! LOL!
I hope is goes well for you. I'm sure it will.
oh, geez. Not obstetrics, orthopedics. sorry.
>>I couldn't have a "deal with by this time or else the robot dumps it" category for anything. "Or else you have to admit it's not a priority" is manageable, barely. "Or it won't get done in time or at all" works very well.<<
Well, not every trick works for everybody. One has to try a lot and keep those that do.
I added this rule to my FV flow, and it works like a charm ! unimportant and too earlyto be taken care of tasks fall out in a dismissed may be / one day list. Weekly dismissal is just the right pace for me.
but most of all, my list length constantly stays between 3 and 6 pages, which is short enough to keep motivation up !
Thanks for the tip.
Alex
I have tested DSAF and it is incredible as it works with me since the last 2 weeks.
Combined with GTD it has a huge impact on my activity. I feel really much comfortable and I am able to follow all my projects and tasks at glance.
So, many thanks indeed. I will explain may be if you ask how I did since now in my own way keeping the basic of GTD ans DSAF
This system let me time for thinking about my projects when I do my daily or weekly review. I can think about each and plan when to do them on my diary with no stress.
During the day I noticed that what ever happen, phone calls, people rushing in my office (even I crossed the door !) crises of any kind all that stuff can be collected in my spiral note book and treated asap. At night I can see at a glance what I did.
Anyway I was blocked in my system because I did not use the Leon dismissal. I was treating my list as an open list. It never ended so I felt at a time discouraged.
When I started the habit of putting today's date and on wednesday evening started to double cross my page and put the next week ie Week 43- Monday 21th to Saturday 27 th
then write all my project and what I intend to do about each of them the next week I suddenly got the control of my activities. Not only I could free my mind collecting everything which happened in my my but I could also plan the future and follow the past controling what I have done. Leon's DSAF put the last stone of my system. He gots me rid of of the items I did not really know what to do with.
SO with AF and DSAF and GTD, James westman system (the spiral note book see here http://www.inc.com/magazine/19960901/1807.html) and my own trick I have found "my system" it is simple, it is on paper, I can trust it, and I d'ont loose time.
I wanted to share it with you this was the less I could do. :-)
and one other trick I plan my day each day taking in my list the most important tasks and project and alouding them time to finish them (that's a Mac cormack trick : getting results for dummies"
this is done on my daily review each day. It helps me to stay focus and help me to dismiss and eliminate little by little some non relevant tasks or notes or ideas.
For example, looking at my list from the last time I used AF1 I see that I had 91 tasks on my list on August 9th, but by August 12th there were only 13 of those tasks left unactioned (none dismissed).
So it doesn't seem to me that DSAF would have any advantage for me. But it does raise the question of why other people have a different experience. Why do those who find DSAF useful have a large number of tasks still outstanding at the two week point when I don't?
I don't know enough about other people's experience to be able to answer this. I certainly don't think it's because I have any superpowers other people don't. My only suggestion is that I take he "little and often" principle very seriously.
Just a guess: those "large number of tasks outstanding" didn't stand out because they weren't ready.
As I understand it, you are saying that people will need a review at the end of two weeks if they have put lots of stuff on their list which doesn't need doing.
The obvious question then is "Why put lots of stuff which doesn't need doing on the list in the first place?"
Personally I intend to do everything I put on the list. Certainly circumstances may change or I may change my mind about some tasks or projects, but the proportion of tasks I cancel or dismiss is quite small. The focus should come from taking action, not from postponing it.
So I'm going to try it. Since I'm starting on Saturday, having Friday evening as the end of week seems appropriate.
I've started with a consolidated list of 203 items, of which I've actioned 63 today.
Then what does this mean in the AF1 instructions?
"I recommend that you enter everything that comes to mind without trying to evaluate. The system itself will do the evaluation."
Is everything limited to things intended rather than all things considered? I will agree. Still, there are myriad things which should be done but not all should be done within the next two weeks. In general, any of them could possibly be selected but only a few should lest the bigger items not get their due share of time.
There's no end to the little things. So what happens is the big stuff gets some action and move to the end, and some little things go as well, but the old pages have a myriad little things that could be worked on but collectively don't merit as much attention as the system puts on them.
With a short list, the balance between big and small is better.
<< Still, there are myriad things which should be done but not all should be done within the next two weeks.>>
The trouble with this is that in two weeks time you will have another set of important things. So do you put the less important stuff off for another two weeks? Oh no, you can't because you've got another set of less important stuff as well. When exactly are you going to have no important stuff to do so you can clear the backlog of less important stuff?
So why not just do both the important and the non-important stuff straight away? There doesn't seem to be any advantage in delaying the non-important stuff for over two weeks.
<< With a short list, the balance between big and small is better. >>
I'm not sure I agree with that. What actually happens with a short list I find is that the small stuff gets neglected with the result that it builds up backlogs which then distract from the big stuff. For instance, looking at my list is "Wash the dishes" small stuff or big stuff? If I leave it for two weeks, it'll be big stuff. The same with tidying my office, doing the filing, doing estimate and invoices, cutting the hedge, watering the plants, etc, etc, etc.
For ease of calculation assume that you have 50% big stuff and 50% small stuff, all of which needs to be done.
It would make sense to put the small stuff off for two weeks if no other tasks were going to present themselves during the period. But unfortunately that's not the case. New tasks will be arriving all the time.
So what happens is that you enjoy a honeymoon of two weeks in which you work only on the big stuff, but after two weeks you have another set of big stuff to do, plus a two week backlog of small stuff. Fairly quickly you will find yourself back spending 50% of your time on big stuff and 50% of your time on small stuff - only the small stuff will be two weeks late.
If you'd worked on all the tasks, big and small, from the beginning you would be in exactly the same position except that the small stuff would be up to date instead of being permanently two weeks behind.
The proverb is that work expands to fill the time available and so if you do more of the less important things you simply find more such things to do.
"Wash the dishes" isn't remotely big stuff on my scale. Big stuff is projects that take weeks at many hours per week. Washing even if neglected for two weeks is just hours.
Your answer puzzles me. If I have stuff which I only want to do once every two weeks or once a month, then I don't put it on my list, I schedule it.
Projects that take weeks at many hours a week are composed of small steps. If you have five large projects, then you can enter them as five tasks or as 500. Both approaches are equally valid. Neither as far as I can see is facilitated by deliberately failing to action them.
What can make sense is completing Project A before starting Project B and so on, but in that case why would you put the actions for Project B on your list before you are ready to action them?
Anyway I don't want to be too dogmatic in my reservations about DSAF. I have only completed one day of the trial. The real question is what the effect of the twe week review will be for me and I won't know that for a while yet. One always finds things out in a trial which weren't immediately obvious from just reading the rules.
----------------
Btw "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." is not a proverb. It's Parkinson's Law, which comes from a famous essay written by a British civil servant in the 50s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
There's also Parkinson's Law of Triviality (same Parkinson) which is slightly less known but in my experience just as useful to remember:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_Law_of_Triviality
Unfortunately what Parkinson wrote very presciently back in the 50s has itself been subject to Cassandra's Law "The truer the prediction the more likely it is to be ignored".
1. Something very obvious which nevertheless I managed to miss - the review is going to contain some tasks which are two weeks old and some which are only one week old (and many in between of course). That's quite a time span, and means that tasks are going to be treated very differently depending on what stage of the week they are put on the list.
2. Since most people have a tendency to do the easy stuff first, the tasks which become subject to review will be largely made up of the more difficult ones. So the review process is not actually going to help weed out the trivia. I'd be interested to know whether that has in fact been people's experience.
3. If one is using DSAF in conjunction with AF1 (as I am), the review process is going to come at just the moment when AF1 is putting on real pressure to get the difficult tasks done. But instead of getting done, it appears that these tasks will be carried forward to the end of the list where there is little or no pressure.
------------------------
End of Day 2: 263 tasks of which 117 done, leaving 146 to do.
In response to Mark's 9:31 post:
Scheduling tasks for the future is a good notion, but I resist fixing dates arbitrarily. How many here do schedule such?
I have never intended to fail to act on a big project. Rather the issue was having too many little things clutter out the big things that demanded more frequent action. The issue isn't adding project B before it's ready. The issue is accumulating ideas for things that could be done faster than I clear them out.
My solution, which is nothing to do with DSAF, is to aggressively prune the old stuff by organizing into goal-oriented or subject-oriented projects. And even though there's no binding relationship between tasks in some of these, the volume is reduced in the AF such that the more complex projects (which do have a logical progression) stand out more and get their due attention.
Entering 5 (or 500) tasks of a big project into AF is something I've veered away from. Now I enter 1 and keep the rest elsewhere. They are all related and shouldnt be considered independently. If I did otherwise, most wouldn't be ready for action. Bur if multiple independent tasks are possible soon, I could enter more than 1.
Yes, I think we've been talking slightly at cross purposes. I was replying to you thinking you were advocating DSAF, and thanks for clarifying that you were not. I think the difference between the way you treat tasks and the way I do is really a matter of personal preference. Your methods are perfectly valid - for you. I am quite convinced they wouldn't work for me!
However the misunderstanding did help to clarify in my own mind the reasons why I was hesitating about DSAF. I hope my trial of it will make it clear whether my reservations are right or wrong (for me that is - I have no desire to discourage anyone else from using it).
End of Day 3: 328 tasks of which 173 have been actioned, leaving 155 to do.
End of Day 4: 433 tasks of which 253 have been actioned, leaving 180 to do.
This is why I like working with a WILL DO list. They will be done. It doesn't matter how I do it. I happen to prefer a flexible weekly list from which to choose my Daily WILL DO focus list. Some people mark their WILL DO's from a master list. It doesn't matter how one decides how they present the tasks so long as they get them done. I switch off difficult with easy tasks or out and out breaks to prevent overwhelm....but they get done no matter how circuitous the route! The DIT principles didn't make my work any easier to do but the principles applied make sure I do it. Even with my many modifications, it still works beautifully. I, on the other hand, am not so graceful getting the stuff done. I'm always relieved and relaxed once those MITs are off my plate and the week's work is progressing. A few big bombs blowing up my life has put me behind temporarily but I ultimately know that things will be OK overall using my trusty WILL DO lists and my reviews...if I don't survive the surgery, my family won't be stuck sorting a big mess. Fingers crossed.
You once proposed that if one has to make a decision, one should simply write all the options down on the AF list and let the "standing out" decide. (At least as I understood it.) IMO, this has a lot to do with how AF works: It helps me to get things done, but the even more important part is that it PREVENTS me from doing things! It's a decision process: Where do I put my time and energy?
This was the big insight when, after working with AF1 for a while, I looked on the dismissed pages and the items I did NOT attack because they never "stood out": In hindsight, I was glad I didn't in most cases, because they wouldn't have been worth it. This was when I really started to "trust the system". The AF process weeded them out, and I prefer it this way. Weeding out tasks CONSCIOUSLY is a lot like setting priorities, isn't it?
From what you showed how you work yourself, I've got the impression that you approach things different from how I do it. I never managed to circle even modest AF1 lists several times a day, for example, and "little but often" has its limits for a lot of things I do. (Writing a novel requires to get in a special state of mind where you don't get in minutes. Or: "You can't cross a chasm in small steps.") So, maybe DSAF won't work for you as it works for me.
Nevertheless, I'd like to suggest to try the FV-mechanism in combination with it. I do so sometimes. When I feel like doing so ;-)
First, let me say that I'm not trying to attack DSAF or discourage anyone from using it. The reason I've been trying it out is that an impressive number of people seem to have found it works for them, but I've always had doubts about whether it would work for me. But since it's very difficult to tell how something works just from reading about it I am at last trying it out.
There's also another aspect. I'm interested in *why* it works for others when it doesn't work for me (assuming it doesn't). That could have a lot of ramifications for the future evolution of systems.
<< You once proposed that if one has to make a decision, one should simply write all the options down on the AF list and let the "standing out" decide. (At least as I understood it.) >>
Yes, that's correct, though I think I said it was a possible way of making a decision, rather than something one should do.
<< IMO, this has a lot to do with how AF works: It helps me to get things done, but the even more important part is that it PREVENTS me from doing things! It's a decision process: Where do I put my time and energy?
<< This was the big insight when, after working with AF1 for a while, I looked on the dismissed pages and the items I did NOT attack because they never "stood out": In hindsight, I was glad I didn't in most cases, because they wouldn't have been worth it. This was when I really started to "trust the system". The AF process weeded them out, and I prefer it this way. Weeding out tasks CONSCIOUSLY is a lot like setting priorities, isn't it? >>
Again this is correct. I probably went a bit far in answering Alan Baljeu when I said that I only put things on my list which I intend to do. But it would be true to say that I don't put things on my list which I have no real intention of doing. And the result of many years of working with AF in its various versions is that I tend to know what type of task the system is going to reject.
<< From what you showed how you work yourself, I've got the impression that you approach things different from how I do it. I never managed to circle even modest AF1 lists several times a day, for example, and "little but often" has its limits for a lot of things I do. (Writing a novel requires to get in a special state of mind where you don't get in minutes. Or: "You can't cross a chasm in small steps.") So, maybe DSAF won't work for you as it works for me. >>
I think it's important to realize that the "little" in "little and often" is a relative term. It's the opposite of "putting it off for ages and doing it all in one huge session at the last minute". So for a concert pianist "little and often" might be four hours of practice a day. Writing a novel "little and often" means working on it methodically every day, rather than having to burn the midnight oil as the publisher's deadline looms ever closer.
<< Nevertheless, I'd like to suggest to try the FV-mechanism in combination with it. I do so sometimes. When I feel like doing so ;-) >>
You said in your description of the system that it didn't prescribe how to choose the tasks. So I'm using it with AF1 as that allows me a direct comparison with AF1's "dismissal" procedure. To be honest, most of the systems I've developed since AF1 have been in response to *other* people's problems with AF1. I've always found it works very well for me, and left on my own I would probably have stuck with it. This test gives me an opportunity to find out a bit more about why other people have problems with AF1.
However, as a primary system, it fails for me.
Take a page with 20 random tasks and 1 project, especially one like studying. Assume they're all equally important. (Dangerous assumption.)
I can hit the page 20 times before doing the big project, and once that's done I write it on the next open page -- several pages away. Some of the AF modifications attempted to deal with that.
Short things often feel more important and urgent than they are, because we know we can get them done and feel great about it.
Session 1 of 20 rarely feels important. I can probably do ok with only 19.
Long projects are often stressful. There's more riding on them.
<< Take a page with 20 random tasks and 1 project, especially one like studying. Assume they're all equally important. (Dangerous assumption.) I can hit the page 20 times before doing the big project >>
Theoretically that's possible, but it would only be true if you had filled the page with twenty tasks so difficult that you were only prepared to do one at a time. In real life your page will have a wide variety of tasks and several tasks will get done at each pass.
<< and once that's done I write it on the next open page -- several pages away. Some of the AF modifications attempted to deal with that.>>
At present I'm working with a modification of AF1 in which any task which has not been completed gets marked so that it has to be actioned every time it is scanned. This has pretty well solved the problem.
<< Short things often feel more important and urgent than they are, because we know we can get them done and feel great about it. Session 1 of 20 rarely feels important. I can probably do ok with only 19. >>
This is true but currently I am closing off pages which are less than a week old. That means that *all* tasks should be actioned within a week or so.
<< Long projects are often stressful. There's more riding on them. >>
Which is probably a good reason for breaking them down into smaller steps.
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End of Day 5: 502 tasks of which 328 have been actioned, leaving 174 to do. This is the first day I've had less tasks at the end of the day than at the beginning.
< At present I'm working with a modification of AF1 in which any task which has not been completed gets marked so that it has to be actioned every time it is scanned. This has pretty well solved the problem.>
I like the sound of this! Care to share?
<< I like the sound of this! Care to share? >>
Well, that's basically it. There's nothing more to share.
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End of Day 5: 540 tasks of which 365 have been actioned, leaving 175 to do.
Sorry, maybe I needed to be more specific. What 'mark' is used and where does it go? What happens if the task doesn't get actioned when it gets scanned? Does it get deleted, dismissed, moved to the end of the list?
What would I like to avoid today, and why?
This is a question that focuses you on all those tasks you fear. it takes you away from the over-achieving go-getter who likes to be seen as being busy (ie important) and in control of events to the freedom lover who has dropped pretensions and enjoys the simple pleasures of existence. In my best interest today is leaving all my lists behind to free myself of any sense of duty, responsibility, obligation. My state of being becomes my preferred choice today. A holy-day. A vacation, vacating and leaving my normal modes of operation.
Is this procrastination?
Sometimes tasks need putting off, postponing and delaying - maybe we want ease and freedom, maybe our unconscious needs time to incubate things, maybe our state of being allows our perspective to re-evaluate what doesn't need doing anyhow. This is not a failure of willpower. You haven't failed as a human being (I remind myself).
But there are activities which I am anxious or fearful about doing. These are the ones that people typically get annoyed with themselves about; they recognise their own fears and feel defeated by them. Often people crtiticise themselves for lacking willpower.
Being a procrastinator can be good, being a frustrated or anxious task avoider is bad.
Am I doing X to avoid doing Y?
No. I've decided my preferred state of being is what matters.
What would I like to avoid today, and why?
This is a question that focuses you on all those tasks you fear. it takes you away from the over-achieving go-getter who likes to be seen as being busy (ie important) and in control of events to the freedom lover who has dropped pretensions and enjoys the simple pleasures of existence. In my best interest today is leaving all my lists behind to free myself of any sense of duty, responsibility, obligation. My state of being becomes my preferred choice today. A holy-day. A vacation, vacating and leaving my normal modes of operation.
Is this procrastination?
Sometimes tasks need putting off, postponing and delaying - maybe we want ease and freedom, maybe our unconscious needs time to incubate things, maybe our state of being allows our perspective to re-evaluate what doesn't need doing anyhow. This is not a failure of willpower. You haven't failed as a human being (I remind myself).
But there are activities which I am anxious or fearful about doing. These are the ones that people typically get annoyed with themselves about; they recognise their own fears and feel defeated by them. Often people crtiticise themselves for lacking willpower.
Being a procrastinator can be good, being a frustrated or anxious task avoider is bad.
Am I doing X to avoid doing Y?
No. I've decided my preferred state of being is what matters.
You surely intended to create a new thread, because what you wrote has not much relation to the current discussion.
I'm afraid all I could write as a follow up report is:
"A year later I still work with DSAF as described, have no complaints whatsoever and no plans to change it. The only difference is that I draw the weekly line on friday evenings instead of sunday evenings, but this is for personal reasons only."
I have reported only 5 tasks from 2 weeks ago. and there is about 12 which are high lined (dismissed)
I am beginning week 44 I will see what will become with tasks of last week (week 41)
Anyway I still kept the right page of my spiral note book for quick notes. I also keep extensive notes with goes into my paper folder projects when there is one and in my binder if there is no paper folder. I also kept a kind of project list where I put my week's objectives. It was on my spiral note book it is now on my computer because I can see the evolution of each of them. It is a kind of short term list, a guideline of my most important aims. It is updated little by little.