Get Everything Done

The concept of "commitments" as the source of tasks and projects, and the need to process and prioritize your commitments, not your tasks. I took an hour or so this morning to write all the things that I could think were my commitments out. Not what I think my commitments SHOULD be, but what they actually are, by reverse engineering how I typical use my week, how I make my decisions and how I react to situations. It was quite sobering. I also listed things that I obviously was NOT committed to, even though I thought I really should be committed to them, but my actions prove that they are not actually commitments, just wishes.

Also the idea of the "closed list" v "open list" was new to me. Obviously I have had closed and open lists in my life, I just haven't recognized them as being closed or open. And the consequences of working in closed or open lists...the fact that a closed list doesn't need to be prioritized, but an open list does, and how you prioritize open lists has an enormous long-term effect on the topography of my life.

The concept of the "current initiative" is a very helpful way of processing a part of my life that I hadn't quite wrapped my head around before reading how the book laid it out.

The structure of "backlogging a closed list" to create a clean slate, and then isolating that backlog.

The important understanding that a closed list can only get smaller, while an open list only gets larger typically. The structural understanding this gives rise to is enormously helpful.

The conceptual difference between a "time management problem" and and "organizational problem" is a helpful sorting mechanic.

The topography of the concept of getting our goals to pull us toward them, and structuring our personal management around that idea.

The fact that we don't have a "shortage of time"...that this conception is fallacious...time isn't referenced against out to do list (how can it be? it is simply a static resource)..our to do lists must be referenced against time.

The deeply penetrating understanding that if I had 48 hours a day, that still wouldn't be enough, because of how I organize my life.

The mechanic of writing a Not Going To Do list...not as a wishful thinking "new years resolution" style "decision" but as a strategic analysis of how to optimize tomorrow specifically.

The question "What if you were actually successful in your endeavors...would that actually mean anything?" was sobering.

The strategic processing of a someday/maybe list by asking "what would be necessary to accomplish that, and what would need to be sacrificed in order to accomplish that? and am I willing to commit to that?"

The clarity of defining whether unplanned work is emergency, today or tomorrow once you have a closed list.

The concept of the daily incoming work...identifying all the work that was added to my backlog, or projects, or tasks on a given day...all coming from conscious or unconscious commitments. And that commitments themselves come from other commitments.

The importance of creating a buffer between incoming information and your decision making process...and that our immediate response to interruptions or requests for action should be to create a buffer when possible...and the fact that the simple act of creating a buffer and writing out this buffer is an automatic triggering of the "planner" part of our brain, disconnecting the "reactive" part of the brain from the decision making process.

The understanding that I tend to operate either in "emergency" reaction or "later" (meaning probably never) is very important!

The fact that a closed list can be added to as long as it never expands the scope of work, only clarifies it.

I have used GTD since 2006, and integrated it with Scrum in 2015. I have been using that system for many years, and recently integrated it with a calendar-centric approach to weekly planning. The information in this book is a large next step forward in how I manage myself. As a husband, father of 4 and business owner, anything that can make me more effective is a win!

@Mark Forster

You should. It is a good one! :)

Today, the first item on my Will Do List (I literally changed the name of my list in WorkFlowy to that) is

"@flo::outline and install "Do It Tomorrow" methodology into my systems #c #f #SP-21 #spr #inp"

So I am over here, refreshing my memory of what I posted on this comment, and will be rereading my highlights/outline/notes that I wrote yesterday here

https://workflowy.com/s/do-it-tomorrow-highl/1TQvUFyVXjsKGCC1

I haven't encountered your work before, but when I wrote a review and recommendation for your book over at a WorkFlowy User Slack group I am a part of, people there said,

"Andy Thacker 12:42 AM
Aha! I see it's written by Mark Forster. He's come up with a number of productivity systems. I've successfully used his Autofocus and Final Version time management systems, but he's got lots more."

and

"JR 5:12 AM
I’ve used Mark Forster’s systems for over a decade. Nearly all of them can be implemented well in WorkFlowy"

and

"bob 10:50 PM
Nice summary. Nice reminder. I think @frank.dg has written about DIT."

Here is the comment I posted on the Slack Group

"Café655:☕ 6:38 PM
Only 2 other times in my life have I dropped everything in order to read a book, outline it, understand it and incorporate the ideas into my systems....once in 2006 when I first read GTD, and again in 2015 when I first read Scrum.
Today was another one of those watershed days in my life. I stopped everything in my life and read the book "Do It Tomorrow" at the recommendation of @Ksenia and I am glad I did. Such interesting concepts and methods in the book that moved my comprehension of personal management systems forward a few large steps. The methodology will merge itself into my current calendar-centric management systems (discussed AT LENGTH over on the #fractalproductivity channel) that already incorporate GTD and Scrum.
I won't go on and on about the book, which is short and practical, but here are just a few highlights:
"In fact this is how we generally judge the difficulty of a proposed action – by how much we are resisting it rather than by how much skill or technical expertise it will take."
"Your vision should bring your efforts sharply into focus, not envelop everything in a soft-focus fuzz."
"Our creativity expresses itself best when it is working in the confines of very closely defined limits."
-The concept of a "closed list" and an "open list" and the ramifications of each was a HUGE step forward in my understanding, and helped me understand more deeply why flywheels and workflows are so effective for me, when other types of lists are detrimental.
-Probably the most important advance was in the understanding of the layer of personal management represented by "commitments"...and in the schema of the closed list, the place to prioritize is not at the horizon of tasks or projects, but at the horizon of commitments. This idea was simply staggering in it's importance to me.
-Removing the categories of "emergency response" and "later" from the personal management arena, and replacing them with the appropriate amount of margin at just the right place.
The book comes in a small package, and isn't glossy like many of the best sellers in the genre, but was more helpful than almost any of them for me at this point in my development.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"

It looks like several people on the board have gone and purchased the book from the link I posted on the Slack group...so your thoughts have invaded the WorkFlowy community 😊

I appreciate your work, and look forward to engaging with more of your systems, but not today...I have a closed list :)

David

Sure thing...here it is.

https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Chain-Eliyahu-M-Goldratt/dp/0884271536/ref=sr_1_2?crid=RP3V45UY5945&dchild=1&keywords=critical+chain+goldratt&qid=1620858955&sprefix=critical+chain%2Caps%2C161&sr=8-2

Also, "The Goal" by the same author is GOLD! Changed my life at multiple levels. I would read that first, then Critical Chain...radically revised my understanding of how things works, and I have embedded the concepts of throughput, bottlenecks, constraints in the system, and especially margin in the system into every aspect of my life...but it is pure money in the bank when it comes to comprehending project development and management.