Discussion Forum > Everything every day
Christopher:
All the most efficient workers I have known in my life have worked on the basic principle of "Do Everything As Soon As You Can". All the most inefficient workers I've known (sadly including myself at times) have worked on the basic principle of "Do Everything At The Last Minute".
Apart from anything else "Do Everything As Soon As You Can" will make it much easier to identify when you have too much work.
Yes, I do think that as far as possible (important proviso) one should aim to work on everything every day. The reason is that "little and often" is the most efficient, effective and stress-free way of working. In fact with many tasks, it's most efficient to work on them more than once a day. This is the way to keep to "in-box zero".
To take a literal in-box, your email, compare the extremes. What would happen if you visit your in-box multiple times a day and ensure that each time your email is cleared? What would happen if you let your email accumulate for a week, and then have to clear it all in one session?
All the most efficient workers I have known in my life have worked on the basic principle of "Do Everything As Soon As You Can". All the most inefficient workers I've known (sadly including myself at times) have worked on the basic principle of "Do Everything At The Last Minute".
Apart from anything else "Do Everything As Soon As You Can" will make it much easier to identify when you have too much work.
Yes, I do think that as far as possible (important proviso) one should aim to work on everything every day. The reason is that "little and often" is the most efficient, effective and stress-free way of working. In fact with many tasks, it's most efficient to work on them more than once a day. This is the way to keep to "in-box zero".
To take a literal in-box, your email, compare the extremes. What would happen if you visit your in-box multiple times a day and ensure that each time your email is cleared? What would happen if you let your email accumulate for a week, and then have to clear it all in one session?
November 10, 2020 at 9:54 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
I do have tasks, like mopping the floor and doing the groceries, that I want to do as less as possible. I don't want to mop the floor every day. Also, once I cleaned, when is the next occasion for doing it again? For me as late as I can get away with.
With a long list system I usually do them to finally be able to close a page, meta-neatness so to speak. With No List systems I'd do them because the mess starts to bother me. With other systems like GTD I'd never do them until I am embarrassed of myself and have a big panic cleaning day.
The long list methods I tried are usually good at pressing the issue fast enough so that I can enjoy the cleanliness I do like.
But still, I want to do that as seldom as possible. What's the best way to calibrate this?
With a long list system I usually do them to finally be able to close a page, meta-neatness so to speak. With No List systems I'd do them because the mess starts to bother me. With other systems like GTD I'd never do them until I am embarrassed of myself and have a big panic cleaning day.
The long list methods I tried are usually good at pressing the issue fast enough so that I can enjoy the cleanliness I do like.
But still, I want to do that as seldom as possible. What's the best way to calibrate this?
November 11, 2020 at 20:32 |
Christopher
Christopher
Christopher:
<< I do have tasks, like mopping the floor and doing the groceries, that I want to do as less as possible. >>
The ideal point to do this type of job is when the cost of doing it balances the cost of not doing it. I'm talking about "cost" in the widest sense, not just money.
So, to take groceries as an example, to stock up on groceries involves travel, car parking, walking round the aisles, queueing at the cash desk, and so on. You can reduce these costs by reducing the number of grocery shopping expeditions you do.
On the other hand, if you only shop occasionally you may run out of storage space, and you may have to do supplementary visits to the shops to buy some items which run out. Plus when you do get round to shopping, the extra effort involved may result in you putting it off.
<< I do have tasks, like mopping the floor and doing the groceries, that I want to do as less as possible. >>
The ideal point to do this type of job is when the cost of doing it balances the cost of not doing it. I'm talking about "cost" in the widest sense, not just money.
So, to take groceries as an example, to stock up on groceries involves travel, car parking, walking round the aisles, queueing at the cash desk, and so on. You can reduce these costs by reducing the number of grocery shopping expeditions you do.
On the other hand, if you only shop occasionally you may run out of storage space, and you may have to do supplementary visits to the shops to buy some items which run out. Plus when you do get round to shopping, the extra effort involved may result in you putting it off.
November 12, 2020 at 15:50 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
I think I am most effective when I work on everything every day. But let me clarify what I mean by "everything".
I put things like "mopping" into a recurring tasks list in Outlook. It would be set up to recur automatically one week after it was last completed, for example. Other tasks might recur every other day, or every month, every quarter, etc.
The one recurring task I actually do try to complete every day is to clear the Outlook task list. If I stay on top of that, then I am getting "everything" done and staying on top of my work.
I put things like "mopping" into a recurring tasks list in Outlook. It would be set up to recur automatically one week after it was last completed, for example. Other tasks might recur every other day, or every month, every quarter, etc.
The one recurring task I actually do try to complete every day is to clear the Outlook task list. If I stay on top of that, then I am getting "everything" done and staying on top of my work.
November 13, 2020 at 2:43 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Thanks, Mark & Seraphim for your help!
Since these "do not want" tasks are just a few, I just scheduled them out akin to what Seraphim describes. The "philosophical stance" is of course provided by what Mark wrote above.
The rest gets cleared daily. The feeling is just too good. I worked on things with at times hilariously menial amounts per day, but the priority is the daily clearance. So far, so good.
Since these "do not want" tasks are just a few, I just scheduled them out akin to what Seraphim describes. The "philosophical stance" is of course provided by what Mark wrote above.
The rest gets cleared daily. The feeling is just too good. I worked on things with at times hilariously menial amounts per day, but the priority is the daily clearance. So far, so good.
November 22, 2020 at 9:49 |
Christopher
Christopher
Mark, you said "Apart from anything else "Do Everything As Soon As You Can" will make it much easier to identify when you have too much work." I guess the solution to this then is to either make more time for yourself (pretty limited on that option), or to swiftly delete tasks that just aren't moving along. Is this true? Unfortunately my long list is still a little bit of a someday/maybe combined with current things, but I'm just not getting to many of them. Thanks.
November 22, 2020 at 21:30 |
Cameron
Cameron
Cameron:
<< to swiftly delete tasks that just aren't moving along. >>
Yes and no. It's certainly important to delete stuff that's going nowhere. But it's also important to ask yourself why you have stuff on your list in the first place which is going nowhere. If you can afford for it to go nowhere, why did you take it on? And if you can't afford for it to go nowhere, then why aren't you adequately staffed to deal with it?
<< to swiftly delete tasks that just aren't moving along. >>
Yes and no. It's certainly important to delete stuff that's going nowhere. But it's also important to ask yourself why you have stuff on your list in the first place which is going nowhere. If you can afford for it to go nowhere, why did you take it on? And if you can't afford for it to go nowhere, then why aren't you adequately staffed to deal with it?
November 23, 2020 at 1:33 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
To force myself to work on everything everyday has proven to be an eye opener!
I thought I was quite slim with my workload and guarding my commitments inventory well. Not so. It showed that improvement was possible and necessary.
Prune your commitments! Is one chapter in the "Secrets" book and oh boy is this going on over here.
It even affected my work directly, in some ways for instance people acted stubborn towards each other, which created work for me! I never realized that before. Well, we are in a process of renegotiation…
In terms of technique I naturally started DITing as much as possible, but once again the FVP algorythm has shown itself to be the best thing regardless of when sliced bread was invented.
I do use it in conjunction with a dateline to ensure I am working on everything everyday. I re-introduced the CI from DIT and also the list of future CI. This serves as a way to ease the load on the FVP list and also to show me quite well how stupid my ideas are.
I thought I was quite slim with my workload and guarding my commitments inventory well. Not so. It showed that improvement was possible and necessary.
Prune your commitments! Is one chapter in the "Secrets" book and oh boy is this going on over here.
It even affected my work directly, in some ways for instance people acted stubborn towards each other, which created work for me! I never realized that before. Well, we are in a process of renegotiation…
In terms of technique I naturally started DITing as much as possible, but once again the FVP algorythm has shown itself to be the best thing regardless of when sliced bread was invented.
I do use it in conjunction with a dateline to ensure I am working on everything everyday. I re-introduced the CI from DIT and also the list of future CI. This serves as a way to ease the load on the FVP list and also to show me quite well how stupid my ideas are.
November 27, 2020 at 7:31 |
Christopher
Christopher
This is apparent with DIT, where principally every task in your system gets actioned on today (or tomorrow, which is the trick.)
But even before DIT, articles such this one…
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2006/9/9/three-types-of-urgent.html
…and related topics he wrote about, seem to steer the worker towards that approach. Make sure what you have to do and work on it every day.
I do find this fundamental thought right in principle and from a systems perspective elegant, but also not really realistic.
If I take a look at all the cool stuff I am doing, I can't work on all of them every day. If for no other reasons than that switching mentally between roles is too taxing to be efficient.
I am not familiar with the whole reasoning of Covey for having a weekly based system, but fact is, he gives you a whole week to get to everything.
The week as a unit seems to play no big role in Forster's thinking.
Here are some specifics of my own life:
In my work as self-employed I already do have at least two major modes of work. Outreach to acquire new work and doing that technical work. I am able to think in both modes during the day.
But then, I also follow non-commercial pursuits that could be classified as work. Two technical blogs, only one of them is related to my field. If I have to write for the other one, my head is needed and I never managed to work on that blog AND fulfil both professional roles on the same day.
Then there are a few other things that should be done 'per week' but not every day. Gardening and the "fun" of physical exercises.
Also, I am regularly engaged in activities that let me pretend to have a social life.
I just can't fit all of this into one day. Even with a little help from my friends little and often.
How is a weekly plan best squared with Mark's fundamental principles?