Discussion Forum > All-consuming tasks
AndreasE:
So you can't stop working on the subject which brings you all your money, fame, satisfaction, etc?
If I were you, I'd hire someone else to do all the other stuff!
So you can't stop working on the subject which brings you all your money, fame, satisfaction, etc?
If I were you, I'd hire someone else to do all the other stuff!
March 13, 2015 at 12:57 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
If only money was included in that equation, the problem would be solved. Suppose it's a task that gets no money but plenty of fame, satisfaction and etc.?
March 13, 2015 at 19:02 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
For me, it is timebox (set time limit in advance) what works. It is what you (Andreas) described as "old school", but what else than external control would you want when your internal state (mood) is not what could control you reliably.
Another advantage is that by using timebox you often finish not when you are tired but when you still feel that you could work forever. You remember this good feeling and next time, thanks to it you start more easily... It works even for difficult task. So my advice is: stop when you feel good (not bad). Timebox is often helpful for it...
Another advantage is that by using timebox you often finish not when you are tired but when you still feel that you could work forever. You remember this good feeling and next time, thanks to it you start more easily... It works even for difficult task. So my advice is: stop when you feel good (not bad). Timebox is often helpful for it...
March 13, 2015 at 20:31 |
Daneb
Daneb
I've been using more "natural" breaks to divide the day between
(1) Current initiative
(2) "Business of the day" / meetings / task diary
(3) Wrap up
(4) Evening / family
It works like this:
----- COMMUTE ------
(1) Current initiative, until first meeting(s) of the day
----- FIRST MEETING(S) ------
(2) "Business of the day" / meetings / task diary -- intersperse meetings and task diary for the middle of the day
----- LAST MEETING OF THE DAY -----
(3) Wrap-up / clear emails / clear notes and white board / etc.
----- COMMUTE -----
(4) Evening / family
I do block out some time in my Outlook calendar at beginning of day for current initiative, but don't follow the time block strictly -- it's mainly there to prevent people from scheduling a meeting on my calendar before I've had any time to work on the current initiative.
I also block out some time at the end of the day for wrap-up, but I don't follow it strictly either, for the same reasons.
If I don't have any afternoon meetings, I can schedule 30 minutes for a walk around the campus -- that serves as a nice transition from "business of the day" to "wrap up".
These transitions work really well for me -- they provide a distinct natural, mental and physical transition from one "phase" of the day to the next.
And within each block of time, it's easy to keep in "the flow". For my current initiative, there is almost always a little bit of pain / resistance getting started, but I know from experience that it goes away in about 5 minutes, so I just work through it and try to get engaged with the work. Pretty soon I am absorbed and the time flies by and I get lots done.
Then the first meeting reminder pops up. Maybe I'll take a break and get a glass of water or a cup of coffee or something, and sit back down in time to call into the meeting. Then it's pretty much a chaotic race through the day, dealing with the meetings, and I work my DIT task diary in between the meetings, or deal with whatever urgent things have come up during the day, interruptions etc.. The task diary has a motivation of its own -- it's a closed list, and I really like completing it every day.
Pretty soon it's mid-afternoon or late-afternoon, and my meetings are finally finishing up. After the last meeting, I'll usually take another break, go for a short walk, maybe a longer walk, just try to get away from the desk for 15 minutes, maybe a little more. When I come back, I try to wrap things up: clear my emails, clear my notes, clear my desk, look over my calendar for the coming days, look over my task diary for the coming days, etc. I have a checklist, which makes it into a closed list, which I really like to complete.
Anyway, this has been working great for me for the last couple of months.
Even if your day doesn't have that middle section full of meetings and chaos, maybe there are other natural transitions that you already have and can exploit, or maybe you can invent some based on new habits you want to develop, like exercise or family time or whatever. That's how I developed my own natural breaks. This actually arose out of my experiments to combine DIT and AF1. The best approach I had found was to use DIT till I had finished the list, then transition to AF1. But it didn't work, unless there was a natural break of some kind between them. If it was just an arbitrary thing like "DIT till 2pm then AF1 afterwards", it never worked. "DIT during the day and AF1 in the evening" worked better, and I realized it was because of the commute (natural break) in between them. It facilitated the mental shift. So I started focusing on how to exploit those natural breaks (and establish the kinds of natural breaks I wanted to encourage in my own habits). That led to what I have now, based essentially on DIT -- but with better results than I've ever had with DIT before, which I had previously implemented as one long "will do" list without these natural breaks and categories between them.
(1) Current initiative
(2) "Business of the day" / meetings / task diary
(3) Wrap up
(4) Evening / family
It works like this:
----- COMMUTE ------
(1) Current initiative, until first meeting(s) of the day
----- FIRST MEETING(S) ------
(2) "Business of the day" / meetings / task diary -- intersperse meetings and task diary for the middle of the day
----- LAST MEETING OF THE DAY -----
(3) Wrap-up / clear emails / clear notes and white board / etc.
----- COMMUTE -----
(4) Evening / family
I do block out some time in my Outlook calendar at beginning of day for current initiative, but don't follow the time block strictly -- it's mainly there to prevent people from scheduling a meeting on my calendar before I've had any time to work on the current initiative.
I also block out some time at the end of the day for wrap-up, but I don't follow it strictly either, for the same reasons.
If I don't have any afternoon meetings, I can schedule 30 minutes for a walk around the campus -- that serves as a nice transition from "business of the day" to "wrap up".
These transitions work really well for me -- they provide a distinct natural, mental and physical transition from one "phase" of the day to the next.
And within each block of time, it's easy to keep in "the flow". For my current initiative, there is almost always a little bit of pain / resistance getting started, but I know from experience that it goes away in about 5 minutes, so I just work through it and try to get engaged with the work. Pretty soon I am absorbed and the time flies by and I get lots done.
Then the first meeting reminder pops up. Maybe I'll take a break and get a glass of water or a cup of coffee or something, and sit back down in time to call into the meeting. Then it's pretty much a chaotic race through the day, dealing with the meetings, and I work my DIT task diary in between the meetings, or deal with whatever urgent things have come up during the day, interruptions etc.. The task diary has a motivation of its own -- it's a closed list, and I really like completing it every day.
Pretty soon it's mid-afternoon or late-afternoon, and my meetings are finally finishing up. After the last meeting, I'll usually take another break, go for a short walk, maybe a longer walk, just try to get away from the desk for 15 minutes, maybe a little more. When I come back, I try to wrap things up: clear my emails, clear my notes, clear my desk, look over my calendar for the coming days, look over my task diary for the coming days, etc. I have a checklist, which makes it into a closed list, which I really like to complete.
Anyway, this has been working great for me for the last couple of months.
Even if your day doesn't have that middle section full of meetings and chaos, maybe there are other natural transitions that you already have and can exploit, or maybe you can invent some based on new habits you want to develop, like exercise or family time or whatever. That's how I developed my own natural breaks. This actually arose out of my experiments to combine DIT and AF1. The best approach I had found was to use DIT till I had finished the list, then transition to AF1. But it didn't work, unless there was a natural break of some kind between them. If it was just an arbitrary thing like "DIT till 2pm then AF1 afterwards", it never worked. "DIT during the day and AF1 in the evening" worked better, and I realized it was because of the commute (natural break) in between them. It facilitated the mental shift. So I started focusing on how to exploit those natural breaks (and establish the kinds of natural breaks I wanted to encourage in my own habits). That led to what I have now, based essentially on DIT -- but with better results than I've ever had with DIT before, which I had previously implemented as one long "will do" list without these natural breaks and categories between them.
March 13, 2015 at 23:37 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
@Mark:
Well ... not a bad idea. But hiring someone isn't THAT easy and likely to create more problems than it solves … (and something I could need a how-to-book for).
@Daneb:
Strangely enough, calling it "timeboxing" creates a better feeling than calling it "old school".
I went back to "the morning belongs the novel", but now I add "write novel" as a task for the afternoon, to be processed as usual. I'll see how that will work out.
Well ... not a bad idea. But hiring someone isn't THAT easy and likely to create more problems than it solves … (and something I could need a how-to-book for).
@Daneb:
Strangely enough, calling it "timeboxing" creates a better feeling than calling it "old school".
I went back to "the morning belongs the novel", but now I add "write novel" as a task for the afternoon, to be processed as usual. I'll see how that will work out.
March 16, 2015 at 17:27 |
AndreasE
AndreasE
Andreas, regarding your original question, I could imagine that the fluidity you are asking for can be created by scheduling even more tasks.
So a lot of tasks you encounter on your Autofocus list, the *doing* will merely be the scheduling. The "all-consuming" tasks are already scheduled and when you finish them on a day, you will re-schedule them for when you want to continue working on them. (Which usually would be sometime the next day?)
This way you have tow types of tasks: those that are scheduled always and those that are not. You can make sure the most urgent things are scheduled and therefore there will never be a "required minimum amount of daily AF work" required to make sure nothing falls through.
You could also make the AF list a scheduled task. So basically a AF + calendar type of system.
So a lot of tasks you encounter on your Autofocus list, the *doing* will merely be the scheduling. The "all-consuming" tasks are already scheduled and when you finish them on a day, you will re-schedule them for when you want to continue working on them. (Which usually would be sometime the next day?)
This way you have tow types of tasks: those that are scheduled always and those that are not. You can make sure the most urgent things are scheduled and therefore there will never be a "required minimum amount of daily AF work" required to make sure nothing falls through.
You could also make the AF list a scheduled task. So basically a AF + calendar type of system.
March 17, 2015 at 14:13 |
Christopher
Christopher
Hi AndreasE
I totally sympathize with you on that. What I do is assume that I'll get into a flow state....just in case. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. To protect myself, I'll write down ONLY what I MUST do, An example might be to show up at an appointment that can't or shouldn't be cancelled. Or maybe it's an important phone call or making sure that you have quick, easy food to eat so that you're concentration isn't damaged. LOL! I don't write down ANYTHING on that special list that can wait! LOL! If that's truly the case, that my will do list won't have anything on it!
Another important help to me is to set a couple of alarms FAR ENOUGH away and OBNOXIOUS enough that I can't ignore it. If the alarm is far enough away, I have the physical movement and few seconds to realign my thinking away from my project vs just slapping the snooze button.
I think that you'll find that very little really has to be done that day other than relieving yourself! LOL!
Sometimes, I work and the flow doesn't happen. I use those times as an opportunity to get other stuff done enough so that when the "spark of divinity" strikes, the coast is clear (other than truly unavoidable appointments or calls.)
People might think that this flies in the face of a good, regular system. It does not. The true purpose of meeting your responsibilities is to provide the backdrop for living the life that you really want. There's very little in my life that I cherish more than inspired, passionate work.
Enjoy!
I totally sympathize with you on that. What I do is assume that I'll get into a flow state....just in case. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. To protect myself, I'll write down ONLY what I MUST do, An example might be to show up at an appointment that can't or shouldn't be cancelled. Or maybe it's an important phone call or making sure that you have quick, easy food to eat so that you're concentration isn't damaged. LOL! I don't write down ANYTHING on that special list that can wait! LOL! If that's truly the case, that my will do list won't have anything on it!
Another important help to me is to set a couple of alarms FAR ENOUGH away and OBNOXIOUS enough that I can't ignore it. If the alarm is far enough away, I have the physical movement and few seconds to realign my thinking away from my project vs just slapping the snooze button.
I think that you'll find that very little really has to be done that day other than relieving yourself! LOL!
Sometimes, I work and the flow doesn't happen. I use those times as an opportunity to get other stuff done enough so that when the "spark of divinity" strikes, the coast is clear (other than truly unavoidable appointments or calls.)
People might think that this flies in the face of a good, regular system. It does not. The true purpose of meeting your responsibilities is to provide the backdrop for living the life that you really want. There's very little in my life that I cherish more than inspired, passionate work.
Enjoy!
March 18, 2015 at 13:19 |
Learning as I go
Learning as I go
For me it's writing. When I'm on a new novel and put "Write novel" on my task list (I tried that the last few weeks) and dot it and start on it … I very much likely won't stop by myself for the rest of the day. No chance for all the other tasks, be it urgent or not-so-urgent-tasks.
My "classic" solution was to section the work day: for example, the morning hours belong to the novel-in-progress, the afternoon belongs to the AF list. This works - but I wonder whether there are better solutions. Allocating time segments to tasks feels so "old school" and does not give that "fluid" feeling and intuitive approach that is the landmark of the AF-systems.
So, question: Has anyone similar experiences? How do you handle it?