Discussion Forum > You all have so many tasks!
Everyone does differently. It depends on the detail you make of a task of course. Me, I’ve consolidated so I currently have a list of under 20 items., many of which I’ll touch a couple times in a day. Most of these 20 are non elementary, such as House Cleaning. If have details defined within that one item, but soemone else might have 20 tasks in place of that one.
“ Work on your projects that matter the most, and ignore the rest until that is done for the day.”
That is almost good plan. The one catch is this can need to neglecting things that matter a lot but maybe not “the most”. How do you ensure they get their due? I know for myself I have made a mess of some parts of my life when I hyper focused on a big project.
“ Work on your projects that matter the most, and ignore the rest until that is done for the day.”
That is almost good plan. The one catch is this can need to neglecting things that matter a lot but maybe not “the most”. How do you ensure they get their due? I know for myself I have made a mess of some parts of my life when I hyper focused on a big project.
April 13, 2021 at 3:30 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Aaron:
My principle when working on anything is always "little and often", which could be phrased as "it's much easier to keep something up-to-date, than to catch up once I've fallen behind".
However, both the word "little" and the word "often" vary enormously according to the nature of the project.
If I'm writing a book, "little" will be several hours' work, and "often" once a day.
If I'm clearing email, "little" will be "until my inbox is empty" and "often" every hour or so.
I once asked a distinguished classical clarinet player how long he practised for and his reply was "well, all the time really.". He still took his meals on time, worked on his house and garden, socialized with their friends, and was on speaking terms with his wife!
There's also the question of how much you break a project down. You say "Work on your projects that matter the most, and ignore the rest until that is done for the day." Whereas what I'm counting in the stats is not projects but tasks. Every project is made up of tasks at various levels of detail.
For instance the project that matters most to me at the moment is that I'm about to become president of the local branch of an international association. That's one project, so it might count as one thing on your list. So Project X.
Project X is made up of a lot of sub-projects. Such as Getting Back to Normal After COVID, Recruitment of new members, Meeting dates, Function dates, etc, etc.
Each of those is made up of many tasks:
For instance:
"Getting Back to Normal" involves contacting the old Venue, finding out when and whether they are re-opening, investigating other venues, deciding on date of first non-Zoom meeting, getting members approval, etc. etc.
Just one project could easily involve several hundred tasks. How do I keep track of those tasks? By putting them on a list, taking action, and adding the next stages as they arise which will involve yet more tasks.
Now I don't imagine your projects are any easier or less complicated than mine. The only difference is that you put "Project X" on your list and I put "Call Venue C", "Discuss dates with G", "Decide visiting program", and so on. A whole series of next steps in fact.
The question is not whether my method is better than yours. It's which method works best for us as individuals.
My principle when working on anything is always "little and often", which could be phrased as "it's much easier to keep something up-to-date, than to catch up once I've fallen behind".
However, both the word "little" and the word "often" vary enormously according to the nature of the project.
If I'm writing a book, "little" will be several hours' work, and "often" once a day.
If I'm clearing email, "little" will be "until my inbox is empty" and "often" every hour or so.
I once asked a distinguished classical clarinet player how long he practised for and his reply was "well, all the time really.". He still took his meals on time, worked on his house and garden, socialized with their friends, and was on speaking terms with his wife!
There's also the question of how much you break a project down. You say "Work on your projects that matter the most, and ignore the rest until that is done for the day." Whereas what I'm counting in the stats is not projects but tasks. Every project is made up of tasks at various levels of detail.
For instance the project that matters most to me at the moment is that I'm about to become president of the local branch of an international association. That's one project, so it might count as one thing on your list. So Project X.
Project X is made up of a lot of sub-projects. Such as Getting Back to Normal After COVID, Recruitment of new members, Meeting dates, Function dates, etc, etc.
Each of those is made up of many tasks:
For instance:
"Getting Back to Normal" involves contacting the old Venue, finding out when and whether they are re-opening, investigating other venues, deciding on date of first non-Zoom meeting, getting members approval, etc. etc.
Just one project could easily involve several hundred tasks. How do I keep track of those tasks? By putting them on a list, taking action, and adding the next stages as they arise which will involve yet more tasks.
Now I don't imagine your projects are any easier or less complicated than mine. The only difference is that you put "Project X" on your list and I put "Call Venue C", "Discuss dates with G", "Decide visiting program", and so on. A whole series of next steps in fact.
The question is not whether my method is better than yours. It's which method works best for us as individuals.
April 13, 2021 at 11:00 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Mark, are all of those tasks actually "actionable" simultaneously? That is, with my projects, i just don't allow that many simultaneous projects to occur at the same time, and for the projects that are occurring simultaneously, they each usually have only a single task that is available for doing at any given time. Once that task is done, then there will be another, but I rarely have 3 or 4 tasks that could be done all on my "active list" at the same time. For large projects, I have lots of things that should be done at some point in the future, and I have a large tracker containing all of the future items to do in a system full of hundreds of such items, but most of them are completely invisible to me at the moment because they are not active, and they won't be active any time soon. The frequency with which I might pull tasks off of that list might be once a week or if I'm really booking it, maybe once a day.
Any faster than that, and I'm wondering how you deal with the costs of task switching. Doesn't it exhaust you constantly going from one task in one domain to a completely different task in a completely different domain? Maybe it's just a difference in the nature of the tasks, but I'm not sure I could mentally handle switching tasks and domains that quickly! I'm usually thinking about one thing for at least 15 - 120 minutes.
Any faster than that, and I'm wondering how you deal with the costs of task switching. Doesn't it exhaust you constantly going from one task in one domain to a completely different task in a completely different domain? Maybe it's just a difference in the nature of the tasks, but I'm not sure I could mentally handle switching tasks and domains that quickly! I'm usually thinking about one thing for at least 15 - 120 minutes.
April 14, 2021 at 3:09 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
Alan: Once I make sure that I have made the progress I want to make on the important task/thing that matters the most, I have my list of commitments and ideas that I can review at my leisure to make sure that I'm up to date on everything else and see whether I'm lagging on any given thing or not. If I am, then I can make some scheduling adjustments and prioritize that thing over other things the next day, which becomes my "most important thing" for that day, and I make sure I get that done before I get to anything else.
Generally, I find that the problem for me is much more ensuring that I am spending enough time on my main value-generating work. I can easily look at my list of commitments after that and make sure that everything else is staying up to date, without requiring anything more than a list of my current commitments/roles and maybe a freeform notebook that contains anything I might write down to inspire me to action or think about things in one way or another, but I don't consider this a to do list or anything like that because I'm not actually working off of it. I'm just using it as a means of reviewing how I'm working every so often, but I'm not actually using it to decide what to do next. A periodic, maybe daily review of that is sufficient to keep me from neglecting any specific area of my life.
Generally, I find that the problem for me is much more ensuring that I am spending enough time on my main value-generating work. I can easily look at my list of commitments after that and make sure that everything else is staying up to date, without requiring anything more than a list of my current commitments/roles and maybe a freeform notebook that contains anything I might write down to inspire me to action or think about things in one way or another, but I don't consider this a to do list or anything like that because I'm not actually working off of it. I'm just using it as a means of reviewing how I'm working every so often, but I'm not actually using it to decide what to do next. A periodic, maybe daily review of that is sufficient to keep me from neglecting any specific area of my life.
April 14, 2021 at 3:13 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu:
First, a proviso. You've asked me some questions about how I work and I'm answering them to the best of my ability. I am not saying that my way is better than your way, or that you would be better off doing things the way I am doing them.
<< are all of those tasks actually "actionable" simultaneously? >>
I assume that you mean could I choose any task on the list at any time. To which the answer is that I don't allow anything to be on my list which I don't intend to take some action on within the next couple of days. If it's further off than that, it will be in my diary to be brought forward for future action. There may be reasons why I couldn't do a specific task right now this minute, such as something else has to be done first, or it's dependent on the weather or the time of day, but in principle the answer to your question is "Yes".
<< i just don't allow that many simultaneous projects to occur at the same time. >>
I only have one project at the moment, which is equal to or less than the number of projects you have. And that is "Project X" which I described above.
But of course I have lots of activities which are ongoing, which I imagine you have too. Such as Paying the Bills, Keeping Track of my Finances, Monitoring my Investments, Keeping Fit, Maintaining the Garden, Learning, Think about Y, Plan Z, Reading, Maintaining our Cars, Keeping Track of the Latest COVID regulations, Keeping My Office Sorted, Meals, Writing Comments on this Blog, Keeping in Touch with Children. Grandchildren, Friends, etc, etc. etc. These all have to be fitted in, and many of them have to be done every day (or at least it's desirable for them to be done every day). I personally make no distinction between work and personal tasks as far as managing them goes.
<< I'm wondering how you deal with the costs of task switching. Doesn't it exhaust you constantly going from one task in one domain to a completely different task in a completely different domain? >>
No, it doesn't. And it puzzles me as to why it should.
Yes, there are some tasks which require undivided concentration for an extended period of time. Writing a book is one example; computer programming is another. And yes, I hate being interrupted while I'm involved in something. I leave the ringer off on my phone, unless I'm expecting an urgent call.
I also like concentrating on one thing at a time. For instance I never have the radio on when I'm driving my car. Nor would I dream of listening to music on headphones while walking.
So I'm capable of turning my undivided attention to something different without any problem or hang-over from one thing to another. That was a necessary skill when I was at school, and was an absolutely essential skill in the Army. Maybe the less structured approach to education and work these days doesn't develop these skills so much. I don't know.
First, a proviso. You've asked me some questions about how I work and I'm answering them to the best of my ability. I am not saying that my way is better than your way, or that you would be better off doing things the way I am doing them.
<< are all of those tasks actually "actionable" simultaneously? >>
I assume that you mean could I choose any task on the list at any time. To which the answer is that I don't allow anything to be on my list which I don't intend to take some action on within the next couple of days. If it's further off than that, it will be in my diary to be brought forward for future action. There may be reasons why I couldn't do a specific task right now this minute, such as something else has to be done first, or it's dependent on the weather or the time of day, but in principle the answer to your question is "Yes".
<< i just don't allow that many simultaneous projects to occur at the same time. >>
I only have one project at the moment, which is equal to or less than the number of projects you have. And that is "Project X" which I described above.
But of course I have lots of activities which are ongoing, which I imagine you have too. Such as Paying the Bills, Keeping Track of my Finances, Monitoring my Investments, Keeping Fit, Maintaining the Garden, Learning, Think about Y, Plan Z, Reading, Maintaining our Cars, Keeping Track of the Latest COVID regulations, Keeping My Office Sorted, Meals, Writing Comments on this Blog, Keeping in Touch with Children. Grandchildren, Friends, etc, etc. etc. These all have to be fitted in, and many of them have to be done every day (or at least it's desirable for them to be done every day). I personally make no distinction between work and personal tasks as far as managing them goes.
<< I'm wondering how you deal with the costs of task switching. Doesn't it exhaust you constantly going from one task in one domain to a completely different task in a completely different domain? >>
No, it doesn't. And it puzzles me as to why it should.
Yes, there are some tasks which require undivided concentration for an extended period of time. Writing a book is one example; computer programming is another. And yes, I hate being interrupted while I'm involved in something. I leave the ringer off on my phone, unless I'm expecting an urgent call.
I also like concentrating on one thing at a time. For instance I never have the radio on when I'm driving my car. Nor would I dream of listening to music on headphones while walking.
So I'm capable of turning my undivided attention to something different without any problem or hang-over from one thing to another. That was a necessary skill when I was at school, and was an absolutely essential skill in the Army. Maybe the less structured approach to education and work these days doesn't develop these skills so much. I don't know.
April 14, 2021 at 10:32 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Mark:
Thanks for your replies! It's a fascinating description of your work and I think that your answers help to clarify a lot of why your systems are the way that they are and how that fits in with your overall approach to things and what works for you. Really interesting.
Thanks for your replies! It's a fascinating description of your work and I think that your answers help to clarify a lot of why your systems are the way that they are and how that fits in with your overall approach to things and what works for you. Really interesting.
April 15, 2021 at 3:46 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
I'm beginning to think that one of the issues that I have with these systems is just that I don't have enough tasks to make it worthwhile! I've played around with various things, but at the end of the day, it seems like everything really comes down to, "Work on your projects that matter the most, and ignore the rest until that is done for the day." There's no list needed for that, because work on those tasks is just...well, working on them. They're linear projects that I just take the next step forward on. Writing down the next step as a task for those projects is just overhead that I don't need. After that, it's easy enough to just do a little bit of the processing of my email and a few other things and I'm done. In fact, the more I work on those projects, and the less I do other stuff, the better off I probably am.
So, it seems like I've created an "anti-list" world for myself, where doing things on a list of tasks is probably a sign I'm not working on the most important stuff, and if I do work on the most important stuff, then my list is probably going to not move at all, because I'll have worked on maybe three items for the entirety of the day, and maybe a couple of minor, trivial things that are upkeep that I wouldn't need to have bothered writing on a list in the first place.
My mind kind of boggles at what could possibly be 122 tasks on a list for a day! I don't think I can task switch that fast! I simply don't think i have 30, much less 100, tasks that I do in the day that completely would result in a fundamentally valuable contribution to my life. It's more like I have a few areas/commitments that need to be given a little bit of attention in the day, and that is mostly routinized by now, and the bigger issue with my productivity is ensuring that I spend significant amounts of time on my big projects.
I'm wondering how you all manage to get that many tasks to do! Either you're insanely more productive than I am or I've managed to somehow create a life in which I've completely stripped out any of the sources of excessive task growth. I don't know which it is, or maybe a bit of both?