Discussion Forum > Lent is over. Post results
Stuck to the Bounce the entire time. Like the flow it gives and the balance between older and newer tasks. Everything really does get actioned (or deleted) at about the right time.
Don't like how anarchic my day feels, I think I am intentional in the moment, but am not planning ahead of time.
I intend to balance the Bounce with project planning and scheduling, continuing to write tasks and act on them using the Bounce rules, but only for part of the day, using the rest of the day for project work.
Don't like how anarchic my day feels, I think I am intentional in the moment, but am not planning ahead of time.
I intend to balance the Bounce with project planning and scheduling, continuing to write tasks and act on them using the Bounce rules, but only for part of the day, using the rest of the day for project work.
April 22, 2019 at 15:35 |
vegheadjones
vegheadjones
vegheadjones - How does The Bounce do with your long lists? Or do you find that you don't generate such long lists? (asking since you are one of the few who tends to generate super long lists like I do, at least when using long-list systems).
April 22, 2019 at 18:36 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Hi Seraphim,
Oh I still generate long lists, but the Bounce worked really well with them. I completed pages faster, completely glossed over items that I had no interest in and got to both the beginning of the list often enough, with most work still being done on the end of the list where new or in progress actions resided.
If you are going to use a long flat list, the Bounce works best. I want to try a week or so though with a more project-oriented approach.
Oh I still generate long lists, but the Bounce worked really well with them. I completed pages faster, completely glossed over items that I had no interest in and got to both the beginning of the list often enough, with most work still being done on the end of the list where new or in progress actions resided.
If you are going to use a long flat list, the Bounce works best. I want to try a week or so though with a more project-oriented approach.
April 22, 2019 at 18:54 |
vegheadjones
vegheadjones
I stuck with Serial No-List for the whole challenge. It was really something of a non-event. It never occurred to me to change to anything else, or to tweak the system. That's a first for me, I think.
I started using the same notebook for general note-taking, in addition to the no-lists, and that worked out really well. The notes and the lists provide useful context for each other.
Three questions I am pondering:
(1) How to get more of a sense of flow and engagement, like AF1. Serial No-List gives me some of that, but it's not as powerful as AF1.
(2) How to get more of a sense of completion and closure, like DIT. It seems to help simply to ask myself at the beginning of the day, before I start writing my list, "What do I want to get done today? What will make this day feel complete?" or something along those lines.
(3) Is there a better way to deal with lingering pages and tasks? This still feels like a shortcoming of the system, though it has been much less of a problem than I had originally feared.
So I want to experiment a bit to see how to improve along these lines, but at the same time, I don't want to change the basic freedom of the system -- I don't want to introduce any new "rules". We'll see how it goes.
I started using the same notebook for general note-taking, in addition to the no-lists, and that worked out really well. The notes and the lists provide useful context for each other.
Three questions I am pondering:
(1) How to get more of a sense of flow and engagement, like AF1. Serial No-List gives me some of that, but it's not as powerful as AF1.
(2) How to get more of a sense of completion and closure, like DIT. It seems to help simply to ask myself at the beginning of the day, before I start writing my list, "What do I want to get done today? What will make this day feel complete?" or something along those lines.
(3) Is there a better way to deal with lingering pages and tasks? This still feels like a shortcoming of the system, though it has been much less of a problem than I had originally feared.
So I want to experiment a bit to see how to improve along these lines, but at the same time, I don't want to change the basic freedom of the system -- I don't want to introduce any new "rules". We'll see how it goes.
April 22, 2019 at 18:57 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
vegheadjones - Great! Thanks for the explanation! I'm trying to make sense of the dynamics, of how this works for you. I can't make heads or tails of it, as an outside observer. I suppose I would have to try it for myself, but I really don't want to stop using Serial No-List, it has been so easy to use.
April 22, 2019 at 19:00 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Haven’t heard from Mark in a while. Hope he’s ok.
April 22, 2019 at 19:07 |
avrum
avrum
@Avrum: Me too! Happy Easter Mark!
@Seraphim: There is no way to understand the power of the Bounce without trying it. I certainly dismissed it until I used it for this challenge. Don't quit anything if it is working for you, but I bet you can try the bounce on your older pages for Serial no-list and get a sense of its effect...
@Seraphim: There is no way to understand the power of the Bounce without trying it. I certainly dismissed it until I used it for this challenge. Don't quit anything if it is working for you, but I bet you can try the bounce on your older pages for Serial no-list and get a sense of its effect...
April 22, 2019 at 22:51 |
vegheadjones
vegheadjones
This was the first time I tried the challenge, and I stuck to 4x2. It was not hard, because I usually stick to systems way past their usefulness. :)
4x2 was great because I get really overwhelmed with long lists, so my systems have to rely on slices of lists I can focus on. However, it was not really great for taking breaks or leaving work, since it needs to be constant replenished with 4 more taks. At the end of the day I would just look at my unfinished 4x2 list, call it a day, and scrape it out.
Not sure if I will stick to 4x2 when I come back to normal work (I have been traveling for the past few days).
One thing I started doing, which was really helpful, was to write down `wait' (to make pauses for a few seconds), and having tasks to remind me to take a bird's eye view of the day/week. After all these years I have also started doing little and often better, and trusting that I would come back to the important tasks I was littling and oftening.
Happy Easter to Mark and you all!
4x2 was great because I get really overwhelmed with long lists, so my systems have to rely on slices of lists I can focus on. However, it was not really great for taking breaks or leaving work, since it needs to be constant replenished with 4 more taks. At the end of the day I would just look at my unfinished 4x2 list, call it a day, and scrape it out.
Not sure if I will stick to 4x2 when I come back to normal work (I have been traveling for the past few days).
One thing I started doing, which was really helpful, was to write down `wait' (to make pauses for a few seconds), and having tasks to remind me to take a bird's eye view of the day/week. After all these years I have also started doing little and often better, and trusting that I would come back to the important tasks I was littling and oftening.
Happy Easter to Mark and you all!
April 23, 2019 at 9:51 |
Natalia
Natalia
Glad I joined the challenge and stuck with RAF. The Do, Defer, Delete process on the “Day before Yesterday” list keeps things relevant. Adding things to the inbox then moving through “today”, “Yesterday” and “day before yesterday” lists gives me the space to work out the best time to do things.
I added a weekly review, like Avrum’s. That helps me appreciate how much I actually accomplish through the ups and downs of the week.
It is nice to hear how the challenge played out for other players.
Thank you Mark.
I added a weekly review, like Avrum’s. That helps me appreciate how much I actually accomplish through the ups and downs of the week.
It is nice to hear how the challenge played out for other players.
Thank you Mark.
April 23, 2019 at 15:58 |
Erin
Erin
I dropped out within days. I was going to review the status of each project every other day and let that drive my actions. As usual for me, the format got too complicated. I started doing something similar two weeks ago in another group, and this time it's holding. Time will tell.
April 25, 2019 at 1:54 |
Cricket
Cricket
About midway through i moved from writing the tasks down in my logbook to my Evernote daily notes. As I think of something, I format it as a to-do. At work this helps me when I have to write up my weekly report on my activities. I can also add personal stuff to the list and see the synced note that evening. So still doing serial no-list, but in Evernote. (Undone tasks for the week are usually dismissed or put on a calendar or added to a project's task list.)
April 25, 2019 at 14:00 |
Mike Brown
Mike Brown
I failed. I did not work by DIT all the way through. In fact I would say what carried me through was my momentum from the prior system I used, which was SiSc with pen & paper.
My project was to switch to digital and to get a system running on my laptop computer. I learned some apps and since the system was DIT I also learned something about the dynamics of scheduling one's work.
I also used NL-FVP briefly, that system worked surprisingly well on the computer.
I also experimented with DWM and it's derivatives and I think I have to disagree with Mark on one account. He once wrote that The Next Hour is his only system that workes better on digital, but I think this is wrong. DWM is another of his systems that works better on digital.
My project was to switch to digital and to get a system running on my laptop computer. I learned some apps and since the system was DIT I also learned something about the dynamics of scheduling one's work.
I also used NL-FVP briefly, that system worked surprisingly well on the computer.
I also experimented with DWM and it's derivatives and I think I have to disagree with Mark on one account. He once wrote that The Next Hour is his only system that workes better on digital, but I think this is wrong. DWM is another of his systems that works better on digital.
May 25, 2019 at 11:28 |
Christopher
Christopher
I agree, DWM works great on digital. I had it set up with Outlook Tasks, and it worked pretty well. I used it for several months.
May 27, 2019 at 5:24 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Stuck with my daily/weekly narrative throughout Lenten Challenge 2019.
What did not work:
Other than hard appts on my calendar, I did not make the best use of my leisure or work "open" time.
Changes:
Returning to Covey/Merrill's Weekly Planning suggestions. Mission --> Long Term Goals --> Roles --> Weekly plan --> Daily Plan. Even purchased my first 7 Habits Classic Planner. All this information gets photographed and imported into DayOne app.
How'd everybody else do?