Discussion Forum > Dismissed Tasks
Jacqui:
Glad you like the sound of the new system. I hope it works for you. I encourage you to put everything you can think of into it, and trust the system to sort it all out for you.
In answer to your queries:
1) Dismissing items. When you go to a page you keep going round and round it until no items stand out for you on a complete pass. You then move on to the next page WITHOUT dismissing any items and do the same. You only dismiss items when you come back to a page and no items stand out on the FIRST complete pass through the page. By that stage there will probably be only one or two items left on the page, as you will probably have visited it numerous times. You then dismiss ALL the tasks left on the page by highlighting them, and close the page with a cross in the top outside corner. You don't dismiss items under any other conditions (unless of course you realise that an item is no longer applicable in which case you can just cross it out).
2) It's difficult to lay down the law here because it depends very much on personality. High productivity authors - those who churn out book after book for years on end - usually work to a strict schedule. Simenon for instance wrote a set number of words every morning, had lunch with his mistress, and then forgot about writing for the rest of the day. I wrote my books without such a rigid schedule (or the mistress!) and never missed a deadline. My recommendation therefore is to try it both ways and see what works best for you.
Glad you like the sound of the new system. I hope it works for you. I encourage you to put everything you can think of into it, and trust the system to sort it all out for you.
In answer to your queries:
1) Dismissing items. When you go to a page you keep going round and round it until no items stand out for you on a complete pass. You then move on to the next page WITHOUT dismissing any items and do the same. You only dismiss items when you come back to a page and no items stand out on the FIRST complete pass through the page. By that stage there will probably be only one or two items left on the page, as you will probably have visited it numerous times. You then dismiss ALL the tasks left on the page by highlighting them, and close the page with a cross in the top outside corner. You don't dismiss items under any other conditions (unless of course you realise that an item is no longer applicable in which case you can just cross it out).
2) It's difficult to lay down the law here because it depends very much on personality. High productivity authors - those who churn out book after book for years on end - usually work to a strict schedule. Simenon for instance wrote a set number of words every morning, had lunch with his mistress, and then forgot about writing for the rest of the day. I wrote my books without such a rigid schedule (or the mistress!) and never missed a deadline. My recommendation therefore is to try it both ways and see what works best for you.
January 5, 2009 at 11:38 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Thanks very much for clarifying Mark. That is extremely useful and I look forward to trying this out. My hunch is to schedule the writing in the calendar appointment but to do everything else using your system, though as you say, I may try it the other way too. That's much clearer now about the dismissing. Great.
January 5, 2009 at 11:50 |
Jacqui Lofthouse
Jacqui Lofthouse
Hi Mark
The new system sounds great! I haven't yet tried it (although I am back at work today) I must admit I am rather aprehensive about it!
Quote - above - "When you go to a page you keep going round and round it until no items stand out for you on a complete pass"
I am not quite sure what this means - does this mean literally until everything is done or only the things that you need/want to do have been done?
Also - what happens if you have put something down which is quite important but is on page 2 - with this system this would mean it wouldn't get actioned until all/most of items on page one have been done? or do you just go through all of them and do the urgent ones first? - thanks
The new system sounds great! I haven't yet tried it (although I am back at work today) I must admit I am rather aprehensive about it!
Quote - above - "When you go to a page you keep going round and round it until no items stand out for you on a complete pass"
I am not quite sure what this means - does this mean literally until everything is done or only the things that you need/want to do have been done?
Also - what happens if you have put something down which is quite important but is on page 2 - with this system this would mean it wouldn't get actioned until all/most of items on page one have been done? or do you just go through all of them and do the urgent ones first? - thanks
January 5, 2009 at 12:12 |
Nick
Nick
Nick:
Have you read the instructions in full? They give a description of what "stand out" means.
That will answer your second point too.
Have you read the instructions in full? They give a description of what "stand out" means.
That will answer your second point too.
January 5, 2009 at 13:06 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Thanks Mark
Apologies - I went back and read it - so 'stand out' means the items that you feel you need to do at that moment.
I guess it would mean that I would do what is especially urgent and then focusing on what 'stands out' for the rest. I could re-enter an item on the last page - or as you say - rename it to something more meaningful or perhaps break it down further as you suggest. I will give it a go. many thanks for your clarifications, I am impressed with this method it sounds good.
Apologies - I went back and read it - so 'stand out' means the items that you feel you need to do at that moment.
I guess it would mean that I would do what is especially urgent and then focusing on what 'stands out' for the rest. I could re-enter an item on the last page - or as you say - rename it to something more meaningful or perhaps break it down further as you suggest. I will give it a go. many thanks for your clarifications, I am impressed with this method it sounds good.
January 5, 2009 at 13:22 |
Nick
Nick
Mark - I see what you mean with regards to your reply to Jacqui above
Quote "You then move on to the next page WITHOUT dismissing any items and do the same. " so that means you can move onto the next page when you feel you have done what you feel you need to do for the moment on that page.
Quote "You then move on to the next page WITHOUT dismissing any items and do the same. " so that means you can move onto the next page when you feel you have done what you feel you need to do for the moment on that page.
January 5, 2009 at 13:26 |
Nick
Nick
Nick:
Basically I think you've got it, but I do want to caution about making purely rational judgements about what is especially urgent. The idea of letting something "stand out" is that it enables your mind to make judgements that are both rational and intuitive, or left brain and right brain if you prefer to put it that way.
Basically I think you've got it, but I do want to caution about making purely rational judgements about what is especially urgent. The idea of letting something "stand out" is that it enables your mind to make judgements that are both rational and intuitive, or left brain and right brain if you prefer to put it that way.
January 5, 2009 at 13:38 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Glad the dismissing issue has been clarified. I did a dump of my to do list from my organiser, which was sorted in date and priority order and then added a lot of extra things that came to me along the way and then split some of the bigger tasks into more manageable ones and as a result have 6 pages in my work notebook and 4 in my home notebook already. I was starting to worry that I couldn't move on to the other pages, even though I knew there were important things that needed done on the subsequent pages of each book, without "dismissing" everything on the first page which contained non-urgent-for-the-moment things but nevertheless important things that I know will needed tackled at some point. ( sorry - long sentence!). I also then had some urgent things come in that need doing very soon but are currently at the end of the list and was worried I would have to do loads of other tasks before I was "allowed" to get to it - which made me feel a bit overwhelmed and so I did a fair bit of faffing and distraction activities such as catching up with colleagues after the holiday. I think it will work better for me tomorrow as I will have relaxed a bit.
January 5, 2009 at 22:12 |
Carole
Carole
Carole wrote:
I was starting to worry that I couldn't move on to the other pages, even though I knew there were important things that needed done on the subsequent pages of each book, without "dismissing" everything on the first page which contained non-urgent-for-the-moment things but nevertheless important things that I know will needed tackled at some point. ( sorry - long sentence!). I also then had some urgent things come in that need doing very soon but are currently at the end of the list and was worried I would have to do loads of other tasks before I was "allowed" to get to it - which made me feel a bit overwhelmed and so I did a fair bit of faffing and distraction activities such as catching up with colleagues after the holiday. I think it will work better for me tomorrow as I will have relaxed a bit.
Carole,
My experience was a lot like yours. But my interpretation was different. I knew that there were some urgent things to be done so I wrote them at the end of my list and did them, even though there were lots of incomplete tasks on page 1. Likewise, I realized that I had better get moving quickly on some page 2 task, even though there were still many open items on page 1. But I did not dismiss page 1. There were still items on page 1 that still had emotional charge and I know that I will get to them tomorrow or the next day.
I even felt strongly at the end of the day that I needed a break. I wrote that at the end of the list and then took my break. There were still open page 1 items.
I really don't know if I am understanding AF properly, but if I am, it was constructed precisely for the kind of day you and I had today. We're allowed to jump ahead when our minds are screaming at us to do so. Skipping page 1 does not mean we need to dismiss it. It's only after we've reflected on page 1 many times and find that nothing stands out that we dismiss it.
This really is not DIT. It's very loosey-goosey. In DIT we're supposed to feel bad when we do an Immediate or Same Day item. With AF, if I understand it correctly, we just roll with whatever gets thrown at us.
I hope I am right.
I was starting to worry that I couldn't move on to the other pages, even though I knew there were important things that needed done on the subsequent pages of each book, without "dismissing" everything on the first page which contained non-urgent-for-the-moment things but nevertheless important things that I know will needed tackled at some point. ( sorry - long sentence!). I also then had some urgent things come in that need doing very soon but are currently at the end of the list and was worried I would have to do loads of other tasks before I was "allowed" to get to it - which made me feel a bit overwhelmed and so I did a fair bit of faffing and distraction activities such as catching up with colleagues after the holiday. I think it will work better for me tomorrow as I will have relaxed a bit.
Carole,
My experience was a lot like yours. But my interpretation was different. I knew that there were some urgent things to be done so I wrote them at the end of my list and did them, even though there were lots of incomplete tasks on page 1. Likewise, I realized that I had better get moving quickly on some page 2 task, even though there were still many open items on page 1. But I did not dismiss page 1. There were still items on page 1 that still had emotional charge and I know that I will get to them tomorrow or the next day.
I even felt strongly at the end of the day that I needed a break. I wrote that at the end of the list and then took my break. There were still open page 1 items.
I really don't know if I am understanding AF properly, but if I am, it was constructed precisely for the kind of day you and I had today. We're allowed to jump ahead when our minds are screaming at us to do so. Skipping page 1 does not mean we need to dismiss it. It's only after we've reflected on page 1 many times and find that nothing stands out that we dismiss it.
This really is not DIT. It's very loosey-goosey. In DIT we're supposed to feel bad when we do an Immediate or Same Day item. With AF, if I understand it correctly, we just roll with whatever gets thrown at us.
I hope I am right.
January 6, 2009 at 0:55 |
moises
moises
This was my experience as well, but I resisted the temptation to look ahead. I know Mark said you cycle through the pages a couple times a day, but I never got off page 1! I don't know if that's because I'm new to the system or because I worked on big time-consuming projects to completion. I understood that I was supposed to work as long as I wanted and that's what I did. But I honestly think I would have been better served to take a break and rewrite them to the end of the list so the laundry got done. ;-) Maybe my mind will help me avoid that problem tomorrow. I also had an uncomfortable moment of not being able to locate a task on the list. I didn't take the time to find it and just figured I will cross it off when I get to it. Hopefully I can hit page 2 and beyond tomorrow!
I'm not sure yet what I think of the system. I'm definitely motivated to get things done, but I've been in motivated mode for a while now. From a psychologist's standpoint, I noted that Mark has really eliminated the obligation-based procrastination I blogged about a few months ago. You can do what you want to do on each page and you can do it for as long as you wish. I suspect this aspect of the system is what makes it (as well as GTD) work. However, unlike GTD, there is a sense of completion using the pages approach.
One question for Mark:
If there is a task I'd like to do that isn't on the page I'm working from currently, do I resist doing it until I get to that page if it isn't urgent? That's the approach I took (which seems similar to DIT).
I'm not sure yet what I think of the system. I'm definitely motivated to get things done, but I've been in motivated mode for a while now. From a psychologist's standpoint, I noted that Mark has really eliminated the obligation-based procrastination I blogged about a few months ago. You can do what you want to do on each page and you can do it for as long as you wish. I suspect this aspect of the system is what makes it (as well as GTD) work. However, unlike GTD, there is a sense of completion using the pages approach.
One question for Mark:
If there is a task I'd like to do that isn't on the page I'm working from currently, do I resist doing it until I get to that page if it isn't urgent? That's the approach I took (which seems similar to DIT).
January 6, 2009 at 2:30 |
Mel
Mel
Mel:
Basically it sounds as if you are doing it right. I spent most of yesterday on a couple of pages (mainly recycling Comments and Email!) but I did manage a quick pass through the whole list as well, in which I did no more than one small item per page. That was exactly how I would have wanted the system to behave on an exceptional day, and it did.
As you get more used to the system, you will probably find that your mind gets more used to it and you get more comfortable. I keep saying "trust the system" but obviously that takes a while!
As for jumping ahead, my advice is resist the temptation - and trust the system!
Basically it sounds as if you are doing it right. I spent most of yesterday on a couple of pages (mainly recycling Comments and Email!) but I did manage a quick pass through the whole list as well, in which I did no more than one small item per page. That was exactly how I would have wanted the system to behave on an exceptional day, and it did.
As you get more used to the system, you will probably find that your mind gets more used to it and you get more comfortable. I keep saying "trust the system" but obviously that takes a while!
As for jumping ahead, my advice is resist the temptation - and trust the system!
January 6, 2009 at 8:20 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Many thanks for this great system! It looks like a lot of fun and I look forward very much to trying it out tomorrow when the children return to school (though doubtless I shall begin penning my list today as I'm excited about this and doubtless I will begin in a small way this evening once we return from our day's outing!)
I think the system looks exciting in it's simplicity and the 'fun' aspect - that one really is trusting one's instincts as well as having some order in place. It will be good for a techie person like me to try pen and paper for a while too - I'm looking forward to that.
I have two questions. One is around the dismissed tasks. One thing which I'm not quite clear about is at what point one dismisses a task? On my reading, it suggests that tasks are only dismissed when one can go over an entire page and not do any items on that page, is that the case? And in that case, is EVERY item on the page automatically dismissed? At what point does one dismiss items from other pages?
My second question is around major projects such as writing a book? For example, I am on a deadline to complete a novel for my literary agent. Does that come in the category of 'music practice' you mention, e.g. one simply puts in a time for it every day? My concern is that when important items go on the end of the list then they might not get done soon enough? But perhaps I need to try this out before commenting?
Thanks for the system Mark! I look forward to participating.
Jacqui