Discussion Forum > Not reached the end of my list once this week
Interesting post
Response times for emails depends I think on the other persons expectations. Unless your dealing with certain companies I think most people expect replies within 48 hours. If the response times vary I would set up an automatic reply stating an estimate. If it's a week, let them know it'll be about a week. I've seen plenty of people (especially those that work by Tim Ferris' principles) send out automatic replies saying they only check and reply to emails on certain days.
I think AF works really well if you work through the pages multiple times a day. I think the rule 'what stands out' is going to vary among people and the nature of people's tasks. If you don't get through pages with regularity then my best guess would be to work on less tasks per page. Maybe by making what stands out for you a little more strict criteria. That way you still can do as many tasks, by merit of working on more pages and you get round to picking out the urgent tasks.
Especially if one works for 2 hours on a single task (which probably is the most effective way to get a task of that nature done), it may be wise to go to the next page after that.
Have you noticed what type of tasks are getting done faster/easier than usual with AF? Any trends?
Response times for emails depends I think on the other persons expectations. Unless your dealing with certain companies I think most people expect replies within 48 hours. If the response times vary I would set up an automatic reply stating an estimate. If it's a week, let them know it'll be about a week. I've seen plenty of people (especially those that work by Tim Ferris' principles) send out automatic replies saying they only check and reply to emails on certain days.
I think AF works really well if you work through the pages multiple times a day. I think the rule 'what stands out' is going to vary among people and the nature of people's tasks. If you don't get through pages with regularity then my best guess would be to work on less tasks per page. Maybe by making what stands out for you a little more strict criteria. That way you still can do as many tasks, by merit of working on more pages and you get round to picking out the urgent tasks.
Especially if one works for 2 hours on a single task (which probably is the most effective way to get a task of that nature done), it may be wise to go to the next page after that.
Have you noticed what type of tasks are getting done faster/easier than usual with AF? Any trends?
January 25, 2009 at 2:58 |
Peter
Peter
Taragh:
As I understand what you have written, the problem is not that you are not getting stuff done (you said you'd had a very productive week), but that urgent items are getting stuck at the far end of the list.
I think part of the problem may be that you have a backlog of actions and that will tend to clear in the future. In the meantime I suggest you ease off slightly with the number of items you do on a page and with how long you spend on each item. Try to get more into the "little and often" mindset.
As I understand what you have written, the problem is not that you are not getting stuff done (you said you'd had a very productive week), but that urgent items are getting stuck at the far end of the list.
I think part of the problem may be that you have a backlog of actions and that will tend to clear in the future. In the meantime I suggest you ease off slightly with the number of items you do on a page and with how long you spend on each item. Try to get more into the "little and often" mindset.
January 25, 2009 at 15:47 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
I agree with Mark. I try to think in terms of doing 1-2 items per page per pass. HTH.
January 25, 2009 at 19:08 |
Mel
Mel
Thanks Mark, Peter and Mel
I will have a go with just doing less tasks on each page, and for a shorter time so I can move through the list faster to get to those deadline items in time.
Peter - I have done some things that previously were low priority on my old list (before AF). A good result as sometimes the low priority things took months to get to, if I got to them at all. This has been as the cost of some deadlines on other things. So perhaps I am doing too much overall. I will start AF dismissing now.
I will have a go with just doing less tasks on each page, and for a shorter time so I can move through the list faster to get to those deadline items in time.
Peter - I have done some things that previously were low priority on my old list (before AF). A good result as sometimes the low priority things took months to get to, if I got to them at all. This has been as the cost of some deadlines on other things. So perhaps I am doing too much overall. I will start AF dismissing now.
January 26, 2009 at 1:28 |
TaraghB
TaraghB
Good luck with that Taragh. It can take a while to get the balance right at first. The amount of time I have available varies enormously from day to day and that has a knock on effect as to how far I get through my pages. As a result I now have check email on every page which helps but the little and often approach and also reading through the lists in total at the end of each day helps also.
January 26, 2009 at 2:20 |
Christine B
Christine B
I decided to follow Mark's quick start instructions exactly. I don't think I had stuck to them exactly before.
I read through my first active page. Reread the list and started each task that stood out and did each for as long as I wanted. Some tasks I spent more than two hours doing. For a handful of tasks (mostly client work) I used the urgent approach and did them same day. I have had a VERY productive week and crossed off plenty of tasks - a great success!
Concern - 5 days later and I have only moved through 3 pages and have total of 6 active pages. Some tasks towards the end of the list, are now urgent. Now I am having to break the AF structure and skip through the whole list to find and complete these items before deadline.
It's leaving me feeling uncomfortable with my response time to some tasks.
Is it ok to take a week to reply to an email?
How do I deal with deadlines/promises/others' expectations?
Is it ok to spend more than 2 hours on a task - I feel good about crossing it out and feel I will be less efficient if I break it down into smaller time chunks.
Any feedback for me. Apologies if this has been answered somewhere before in the huge number of discussions going on.