Get Everything Done

The solstice has dampened forum activity so here's a new topic. Has this been discussed on the forum before?

Making the calendar your task list is a technique that's been around for a while. The idea being that your time is limited, so prioritize that time in advance by booking time with your most important tasks. There are elements of Neil Fiore's unschedule here, I think, plus perhaps priming your subconscious that x amount of time has been blocked out on this project for tomorrow so start the ideas cooking.

David Sparks writes about his version of this practice that he calls "hyperscheduling" here: http://www.macsparky.com/blog/2018/2/hyper-scheduling-mechanics . Here's a link to all of his hyperscheduling posts (there are several): http://www.macsparky.com/blog/tag/hyper-scheduling#show-archive

There is something attractive about the idea but when I've tried it, it has usually failed. The planner part of my brain likes the rationality of it, but the don't-tell-me-what-to-do part of my brain rebels at what past-me wants present-me to do.

Mike

I think scheduling minutiae for your entire workday is very difficult to maintain, unless you work independently with few outside interruptions or inflows.

There's value in blocking off 1-4 hours of your day for various themes or collections of tasks (e.g., house chores, writing book, exercise, working on XYZ report). But drilling down into excruciating detail can be counterproductive, as well as viewing the calendar as the strict task-master of your life. You'll miss out on a lot of spontaneous opportunities in life if you turn down impromptu invitations because your calendar has ordered you to be cleaning your desk from 3:15 pm to 3:25 pm.

Visiting that link, I honestly expected something overly complex and detailed, but that blog post is a very reasonable one. He says that only appointments with others are seen as immovable. His calendar has direction and flow, but doesn't make me feel stressed out.

Blocking off time on your calendar not only helps you focus on important tasks and gives you some idea of how much time you are actually spending on something, but also prevents you from WASTING to much time on superficial tasks, like email or web browsing.

I had the same experience. The firsts days all was incredible, but the third day the schedule felt appart. I tried several times the following weeks, and always the same... and that was when I returned to the long list methods.

I use my calendar as a to-do list. I have a "Daily" calendar coloured red. I enter things I want to get done that week as all-day events and tend to stack them up on Monday. Then as the week progresses I drag the ones I want to do that day to the current day, either as all-day events or slotting them in at a certain time, as needed. It means nothing slips through the cracks and it's nice and flexible with no over-scheduling. I can drag stuff along from day to day if needed.

I used to use a text based calendar (talked about that previously); now I use Apple's calendar app as it's simpler to use and syncs across devices without drama.

It's also handy for tracking "Waiting For". I have another calendar for that, different colour, and create an all-day event whenever I'm waiting for someone, eg "WF reply from C2 re HM". Later on I can see the date I started waiting, and can find them all by searching for WF or turning off all the other calendars. Works a treat. If I chase for an update I just drag the event to the current day.

I do something similar with my calendar in an app called Calengoo. Syncs with Google Calendar and Google Tasks. The most useful feature allows you to convert a task to a calendar event, so you can assign a time, duration, subtasks, and notes. The process works in reverse as well. I use the task list as a catch all, then convert items into my calendar as I plan my day. Easy to drop and drag between days, too.

I’ve dabbled with various forms of David Sparks’s hyperscheduling - I’ve finally returned to it, and I like my current workflow...so far (been doing this for about three weeks now). The trick for me was to make the minimum time block 30 min, regardless of how small the task actually is. I then plow through the day’s tasks in my calendar without paying any real attention to the start time listed in the calendar. This has provided me with what I view as the benefits of DIT (closed list) and given me a buffer after going through the day’s tasks to then work on urgent/important tasks of my choosing. With this approach, I feel that I have been on top of multiple projects, been more proactive with projects I might have procrastinated on, and done a good job overall with applying Mark’s “little and often” principle. To put this in context, I am a professor at a research university and have some or full responsibility of many ongoing efforts (20+), and I run a lab with typically 15-25 direct reports. I typically feel overwhelmed, especially when I throw teaching into the mix, but this approach so far has helped me maintain my sanity and a sense of accomplishment with completing each day’s tasks and also moving the needle on larger projects.

I think the idea of calendar-based scheduling got my attention from an episode of the Cool Tools podcast where the guest talked about an iOS app called Sorted^3, which blends calendar events and tasks into a sequenced list.

Sorted^3: https://staysorted.com/
Cool Tools Podcast show notes page for the episode mentioned above: https://kk.org/cooltools/david-moldawer-writer/ (there is a paragraph on the page of the guest talking about how he uses the app)

The best such thing "calendar as to-do list" was invented by Mark Forster of No List fame.

It is called DWM and is the only such system that uses the predominant weakness of the calendar and flips it upside down by turning it into a strength.

Namely, having to look back into the past to make sure "nothing felt trough the cracks", reviewing the appointments of last week, to make sure everything is dealt with appropriately. At least with the current crop of digital calendars it is mostly not possible to turn "events" into "check-offable" things. You have to do it by foot, so to speak.

On the other side, with DWM you don't look back on purpose and if something didn't get actioned on and felt through - well, it's a feature, not a bug!

The bigger point here, aside the specifics of DWM, is of course that a "calendar as to-do list"-system should work with the features of the calendar, not against it.

With Covey's classic "Compass" the question remains: why not just have a list of weekly goals?