Discussion Forum > Back to Simple Scanning
Oddly enough I do precisely the opposite. I break tasks down as small as possible. But there's no right way or wrong way of doing it. Find the way that suits one's own style the best.
June 26, 2018 at 23:48 |
Mark Forster
As small as possible, so they will frequently be fully completed. I could try that some time.
June 28, 2018 at 19:08 |
Alan Baljeu
From my experience, "Items only as specific as they need to be" seems to solve a lot of problems I had with Simple Scanning.
First, as I said, it makes my list more manageable. As of now it only has 19 items but I don't seem to have any significant backlogs nor anything that I have forgotten since I started.
Second, it produces momentum: there are no "old unactioned items" that linger for days/weeks at a time because of how general the tasks are. Picking up anything from the floor, inspecting the lights, putting books and magazines away are some of the things that "Clean home" reminds me to do.
Third, this same vagueness of the items and momentum reduces resistance since easy or hard tasks fall under the same task item; the success of doing many easy tasks of one item encourages me to do harder tasks of the same and even other items.
First, as I said, it makes my list more manageable. As of now it only has 19 items but I don't seem to have any significant backlogs nor anything that I have forgotten since I started.
Second, it produces momentum: there are no "old unactioned items" that linger for days/weeks at a time because of how general the tasks are. Picking up anything from the floor, inspecting the lights, putting books and magazines away are some of the things that "Clean home" reminds me to do.
Third, this same vagueness of the items and momentum reduces resistance since easy or hard tasks fall under the same task item; the success of doing many easy tasks of one item encourages me to do harder tasks of the same and even other items.
June 28, 2018 at 22:33 |
nuntym
I also find that one way to make Simple Scanning more effective is to make the items listed as simple as possible too. What I mean is I make each task written so that they as specific as they need to be and not more. For example (and to note I use this only at home, the things I do at work are too structured and specific for any TM system to be of use) instead of listing "clean bathroom", "clean bedroom", "clean living room" etc. I only have "clean home". Not only does this make the list more manageable, but it also somehow reduces resistance and promotes "little and often". I think this is because the more vague items makes me more creative in doing them.