Discussion Forum > Different TM systems for work and home
I remember shifting from 1 page per day to 2 pages per week shortly into my first adult job. I'd changed systems twice before, but this time really shocked me. How could the system that worked so well in school not be suitable for normal life?
In my case, it was because the boundaries changed. In school, most of my "work" tasks happened at home, and several "home" tasks could happen during "business" hours on campus. It made no sense to separate them. While employed, though, work tasks only happened at work, and home tasks very rarely happened at work. It made sense to separate the two books.
My systems have always have, at the core, an Everything Book. Beyond that, it varies. I've worked one system in the morning and one in the afternoon. It all depends on what type of work I need to accomplish and how much I need to catch and defer (or deal with).
In my case, it was because the boundaries changed. In school, most of my "work" tasks happened at home, and several "home" tasks could happen during "business" hours on campus. It made no sense to separate them. While employed, though, work tasks only happened at work, and home tasks very rarely happened at work. It made sense to separate the two books.
My systems have always have, at the core, an Everything Book. Beyond that, it varies. I've worked one system in the morning and one in the afternoon. It all depends on what type of work I need to accomplish and how much I need to catch and defer (or deal with).
April 9, 2013 at 19:36 |
Cricket
Cricket
However, my home implementations of the same system never worked well. That is why I tried different methods incl. Mark`s ones - from Dreams, SF, AF, to FV with today tasks. And to be honest, I am still looking for ideal combination.
Today, I realized why such differences - because there are big differences in task characteristics:
In work:
80% of tasks is required at some time and usually expected by another person, external expectation, appointment etc. (and I can only decide when is best time to do it, what form to choose, how to implement it, whether more detailed work or just quick fix can be done etc.)
20% are rather "pull" tasks, which I can specifically choose as I want (and I have only general goal in mind) (e.g. my goal is to be more effective with filling records: I can experiment with different softwares, I can read an article with ideas for better filling, I can take my colleague for a coffee and ask him about his methods etc.)
At home:
the proportion of tasks is exactly opposite: 80% "pull" tasks and 20% externally expected or necessary to do at exact time. My usual home-task problem is not "when to do it" or "what is greater priority from two important tasks now" but "whether to do it at all", "what to choose among 10 books on the subject, what to choose among 100 someday/maybe tasks and ideas which all seem relevant enough to stay in the list etc." So I realized, that maybe I need different system based on such characteristics. (What I want to do now is experiment again with some variants of FV, as it was best system using right mix of pull and push.)
What are your experiences/thoughts about using different systems/methods (not only separated lists) for work/home or generally for two different contexts? Thanks!