Get Everything Done

There has been some discussion on here recently on the tendency of systems to result in more planning and less doing if one is not careful. In light of that, I'll share a blog post that I thought put it in a very simple and helpful way.

http://www.gradhacker.com/2009/12/11/make-lists-not-too-much-mostly-do/

One of the things that separates Mark's systems from others is that they tend to follow this philosophy very well. Take the Final Version, for instance. It is just a single list plus a simple heuristic for quickly deciding what to do. That's it. It is enough list-making to avoid forgetting things, but very low-maintenance and mostly doing.

The problem is that a lot of us are prone to changing and tweaking systems, and the result is that the balance is thrown off and we end up making lists "too much" and not "mostly doing." Picking one of Mark's systems (I personally prefer FV or DIT) and sticking with that system results in very little system maintenance and mostly action.

I'd also recommend limiting the size of your list as well. I personally like DIT, and my various tweaks (such as DIT-SMEMA, and now UTMS-DIT) have been seeking to capture DIT's focus. I believe in Cal Newport's advice: do little, but make what you do high-quality, with the most long-term benefits. Right now, I've actually split my list because only two projects, or one project and minor task batching, to achieve this effect and churn projects better.

Many things demand our time. The more you say no, the easier it gets to manage.

"I'd also recommend limiting the size of your list as well."

It's interesting that you should mention this. Right now I'm experimenting with making my FV list much smaller by entering projects at the project level and keeping separate project lists instead of entering them at the task level. Mark has always said you can do either depending on the project, but my natural tendency has been to list out all the tasks of a project on the FV list. This has proved a bit counterproductive, so I'm trying it this way instead. We'll see how it goes.