Get Everything Done

Mark, hoping you have a lovely time with your daughter! Thank you for the term "lay-about." That makes me giggle. :-)

Great discussion. Because I use a digital approach, my calendar is integrated with my AF list. If I add a deadline to a task, it's automatically added to my Google calendar. I do not keep a separate project list. The more separated things are for me, the worse they are. I have a task called "Work on GWN." I do have a GWN file that I can refer to when I am ready to work on this task. If that's what is meant by a separate list, I concur with that approach, but I put all projects into the AF list.

As far as time blocking is concerned...nearly every time I time block, I rebel against it. Of course, if other people depend on me to attend a meeting, I am there! But if I say, "Tomorrow from 10am to 12pm I am going to write," I will resist that like crazy. I think because I feel obligated to do it. Yesterday I finished a writing project that is due today. I had in mind to work on it yesterday but I never gave myself a time. That general kind of "time blocking" is much more effective for me.

Yesterday I spent no time with my list at all, but I was super productive. I really went non-stop. I think what is working for me is I don't allow myself to feel guilty about that. I don't have to use AF "perfectly." Just as though the list were a task on a larger life AF list, I use it when it feels ready to be used.

David, I wonder if my approach might be helpful to you? Or what if you used DIT during the week and AF on weekends? There are quite a few options and I think what works at one time in our lives may not work in another. KWIM? For example, I can see having to take a day off the list just to plan out every minute of an exceptionally busy day. I can't keep that up indefinitely and would return to my list asap.

Great conversation, all, and David I hope you can get some time to rejuvenate.

I work in a Dean's office at a fairly large university, there are about 10,000 students enrolled just in our faculty alone. I'm quite struck by our Dean's time management methods. He delegates ALOT - asks for updates on these items - we keep it succinct, schedules regular time blocks of "Thinking Time", goes for a 2 hour run/lunch in the middle of the day every day. When he goes on holiday for 2 weeks at a time, he takes no method of communication with the office. Nothing really gets delayed in his absence as we are all well prepared to deal with what will come up when he's gone. And his office is always open if you have a question about anything. He is also highly efficient and greatly respected.

Department Heads in our faculty range from very driven and overworked to very laid back and waiting to retire. It's interesting to note how many different work styles there can be in much the same job and some will burn themselves out and some will not and sometimes the results of their individual efforts are not so very different.

David,

I would just say ... try one way of doing things and see how it works.

There is a certain amount of intuitive decision making to this ... as to if there are duplicates on two lists or the level of detail and all of that. Don't sweat it. Don't try to figure out the best way to do it ... or discover how to do it perfectly. Just pick a strategy and try it out for a month or more and see if it works for you.

Hi David
I'm sure you have already heard of the 17 hour crunch. You have 2 1/2hour meals and 4 15minute breaks however you want to lace them into the 17 hours...so you're only actually crunching for 15 hours. Then you go strictly by the 17hour rosters that you pre-planned and just crunch them out. When you're in this mode, you actually get FAR MORE done because you don't have to re-energize your determination to complete the roster and you don't have to worry about losing mental energy with unnecessary switching around and reorienting your cognitive sets because you already planned that in the 17 hour roster you set up. Of course, this method is PRIME for an occasional weekend because for it to work supremely, there can't be any interruptions to make you change your cognitive mode. Maybe you can have your secretary set up a day once in awhile for this. It's challenging and exhausting but the trade-off is completing FAR MORE work in that mode than you would with having to be interupted. To get the maximum bang for the buck, set up your roster with your deadlines/goals progress in mind YET ordered to get maximum cognitive efficiency. Have the tasks benefit by flow time yet have tasks logged in that intentionally rest the brain from certain cognitive patterns yet will be a good launch pad for the next roster item. Even set up your office and supplies to augment and complement the ease of working the roster you created. This will certainly work for both crunching deadline work out yet......*blush* it's also a great strategy to free up a future targeted day(s). The magic is in creating the roster to benefit your cognitive sets to flow at peak effeciency with strategic breaks which are actually other tasks that provide relief to your brain without wasting productivity. I was also known to use this method for my own greedy ends such as making huge money to pick up other people's slack or desperation....or to create time for a mini-vacation! LOL! When I'd get the thought to start flagging, I'd just visualize the carrot! LOL!
Of course, this isn't an everyday solution....but it's a wonderful tool. I'm sure you've already heard about it if you're in medical reasearch or perhaps all research teams dread the number 17! LOL!
learning as I go

p.s.
David,
Since your usual day is 12 hours, perhaps you could piggyback the last hours of a day that has no scheduled meetings in the later part of your day and tack on a couple of hours and do a mini crunch session. You could create a mini roster to follow. Aim for top efficiency and speed with your determination set to HIGH and HARD! LOL! You'd be surprised how your output will be exponentially increased because of your pre-planned roster working with your cognitive skills flowing instead of willy nilly transitioning. People don't realize how much cognitive energy one loses with transistioning different cognitive processes and having to change to different parts of your knowledge base. This method increases output quite a bit.....sort of like taking the freeway instead of an urban street with lots of stop lights, having to be mindful of turns, traffic, etc... Then you'll have more time to enjoy your autofocus list for the more the type of thinking and doing that you actually enjoy such as reading, writing, reflecting, peer contact, etc...
Good luck!
learning as I go

Hi David
Upon coming back to this....I realize that I used jargon that might confuse you. What we called "the roster" was actually a work log. We had the Doctor's names and their departments or Institution (if different than NMRI) and the name and due date of the publication, symposium, etc as well as the project name itself. We called it the roster because the researchers and doctors would often trickle in their work or a research team would trickle in their work. We would submit it back as a whole according to the person and/or department rather than trickle it back to them! LOL! That's why we called it a roster....sorry....I wasn't thinking...
learning as I go

Hi Mark
I love the kindness of the term layabout. We use far harsher words here in the states...shirker, slacker, do not, lazy bum, waste of life, etc......I think I'm going to train myself to use layabout instead. Yes, there are plenty on these folks on this side of the pond! LOL! There were TWO of these sorts in my family alone! LOL! Whenever anybody used those terms, they were used with the same condemnation as liar, thief or cheat! LOL! Yet, I've known (and had to live with) folks who actually took a sort of perverse pride in being like that! LOL! I'm not discussing an occasional lazy streak. I'm talking about a dedicated lifestyle! LOL!
No, the British Isles doesn't corner the market with layabouts. I tend to believe that they are dispersed fairly evenly all over the globe! LOL!
learning as I go

Hi David,

You asked about offloading projects to a separate list or folder, and how that could lead to maintaining "two systems".

It doesn't really work that way for me. Basically here's how I do a typical project.

(1) I get an email. It includes a task related to Project A. I can't do (or don't want to do) the task right this minute. So I flag it with a red flag (in Outlook), and put it in the folder for Project A.

(2) Project A is already an important project for me, and I deal with it several times a day (based on AF prompting), so I know I'll get to it sometime soon.

(3) If the task is especially important, I might do a double entry in AF: "Be sure to do XXX for Project A".

(4) As I work my AF list, I come across "Work on Project A". If I just worked on it a short time ago, and the flagged items in that folder are pretty fresh in my mind, and I know it can wait a bit longer, then all that comes into play in the "standing out" process. Basically, if that's the state of the project, it just won't stand out, or I'll skip right through it, saying to myself, "That can wait".

(5) But if I haven't processed that Project A folder for a while, and I'm losing track of it; or maybe I have a suspicious nagging feeling that there's something important I should do there -- then, it stands out. And I go take a look and see what flagged items are there.

(6) That alone counts as taking action, so maybe that's the only thing I'll do -- basically refresh my mind on what's in there.

(7) But usually I'll spend some time clearing the flagged items, taking action, delegating as needed, writing email responses, etc. When I clear an item, I just click on the flag, changing it from "Red' to "Complete". That way the email is still there if I ever need it -- but it's hidden, since I have a filter for my project folders that shows only the flagged emails.

(8) If I start getting a huge collection of flagged emails, and I am feeling overwhelmed by it, I'll add a new task to AF: "Deal with Project A, it's getting behind" or something like that. I might resist it for a while, since it's a pain to deal with at that point, but eventually I've had enough of fighting the resistance, and go clear 50 emails all at once. Usually only takes a few minutes by that point. :-)


So, I suppose you could call my system of processing emails, flagging them, putting them in project folders, etc., a "separate system". But it doesn't feel that way at all. It just fits right into the overall AF framework.

That's another reason I like AF so much. I've handled emails and projects using this system of flags, for years. And AF just lets me do whatever already works for me -- just helps me do it better, and gives me a single central "control center" to manage everything.

Hope that helps!

Thanks to Mark, learning as I go, and Seraphim for great advice!! I have created electronic folders in Outlook for major projects and I am doing things per what Seraphim suggested. I also will schedule major time blocks for dedicated work if it becomes necessary.

Thanks again!

-David

Hi David
Isn't it curious how the brain works? LOL! If you'll read your first post, it pretty much aligns with your final decision. I think you only needed to beef up your surety a bit with a bit of brainstorming to see what shook out. It really does make a huge difference in how successfully you implement your decision(s)...especially the meta choices of systems procedures and it's subsets of operational "tools".........It sounds as though you've finally got this one in the bag! LOL!
Even when you have to work under the gun , it always goes much better when you feel confident with your methodology...... and not second guessing your operational means!

I'll part with an Einstein quote I saw hanging over the Haz Mat warning sign in the microbiology lab down the hall from our office......

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it

learning as I go

Hi David

I've been out of the forum for a couple of days and wow - there have been so many entries on this post! I've already sent you some info on project management and OneNote which I hope will be of help to you, and see that there has been a lot of good advice flowing to you through this thread.

The only other thing I would say is to remember that we do not all work in the same way. One thing I know is that, whilst I can be incredibly productive in time blocks, I need the flexibilty of deciding spontaneously when those time blocks are. Building them into a schedule creates immediate resistance for me. However I sense that you work well with structured time blocks and AF works in those those time blocks just as well, whether they are predetermined or spontaneous. Don't feel you have to do things a certain way because that works for me, or for Seraphim, or for Mark but find the way in which it works for you. Yes there are fixed rules which need to be followed but within those rules is an incredible amount of flexibility and I think it is easy to lose sight of that.

I've certainly found that I will suddenly have a moment of panic when I think I should be doing something else, and I deviate from the system and just fall flat on my face. Going back to AF as it is written - but in the way that it works for me - is always such a relief. Given the immediate impact for me of AF from day one of beta - I sometimes feel incredibly stupid that I allow myself to get sidetracked - but we all do it :-) At least I think we do - or perhaps it is just that I am incredibly stupid ....hmmm...

Timeblocks or individual tasks, that is a matter of choice - as has been said AF works with discretionery time but sometimes we have more of that than we realise. If in a day of say 10 hours when you have meetings for 4 and work on projects for 4 you could consider yourself to have only 2 hours of discretionery time ......... or you could consider yourself to have 6 hours of discretionery time and use AF on your projects for 4 out of the 6 hours. It's all in the way you "do AF".

Hope the OneNote info was of help - let me know if anything needs further clarification. Good luck!

ps A few "away from the office" tasks in AF, like hiking in the mountains or walking on the beach are a good idea to keep us focused on the fact that too much work is not good :-)

Hi learning as I go

I have to say when I first read your post about the 17 hour crunch it filled me with horror! I wanted to run for the hills! My intense dislike of being told when to do something yelled "noooo!" Then I remembered a few times when I was a departmental manager and we had a backlog build up. Periodically we would do an "all-nighter" - we would work all day, continue into the evening and all through the night. About 9:00 pm we would call out for pizza; there was a real party atmosphere, and there was something exhiliarating about still being there when the rest of the office turned up for work the next day. We usually worked through 'til the afternoon and left around 3 or 4 but as it was a team effort we really had fun - and got a lot done!

I still think I would struggle with a preset timeblock on my own - but that is my personality, not that it is not a good tool. However, if there were a group of us I think it would be totally different - the Myers Briggs E factor kicking in I suspect!

Thanks, learning, for making me think ...... :-)

Hi Christine
Sometimes I'm a bit inarticulate or i unintentionally leave out details. I wasn't discussing a backlog at all......quite the opposite!!!!! These 17hour crunches were to meet deadlines. In a deadline driven business, getting behind means getting fired! LOL! We'd do this as a department when there were many submittals for the same symposium, convention or the researchers were trickling and refining up until publication deadline all of their work and then had to bridge it into one body of work. They consulted us on these matters as we made our living doing this....their expertise was medicine and research.
I only WISH we EVER had the luxury of creating any backlog at all! LOL! Medical research is highly exacting and competetive....and medical illustrators need to be willing to maintain exacting standards and be willing to work in sometimes almost impossible circumstances with far less pay than the MDs but far more pay than most of the PhDs (if you're talented and driven to excel). That might be why some MDs started out studying medical illustration but decided to add one more year of schooling to get the big bucks! (plus internship and residency)training) Also, there are only a few schools and the selection process is HARD and getting employed at an institution is even harderLOL! You have to LOVE it to even want it . I learned to love it because it mixed science with art.I enjoyed the challenges yet I'm glad to be done with it now! *blush* (I was labeled an adrenaline junkie by an MD when he looked at my MRI's and saw all of my sports injuries. Yet, I found my profession to call on me MUCH HARDER than ariel skiing, hang gliding, cliff diving, scubs diving under ice, in wrecks, etc.....These were relaxing breaks compared to the pressure cooker invironment I worked in. ....just ask David Drake....I'm sure he experiences much of the same pressure! LOL!
Now it's hard for me to live in this body and brain....yet parts of me have never changed...I feel like I've been jailed for doing no crime! I can't act on my normal personality and drives.....yet, I'm slowly resenting it a little bit less.... *blush*
learning as I go

p.s.
Most of the time I put this on myself......many of the other artists just made do with their 8am to 4:30pm x 5 days a week timeframes. Yet, luckily for me, my supervisor had a similar drive as me. We wanted to get CHALLENGING and EXCITING work so we intentionally proved ourselves to be exacting and willing to go the extra mile. Why? two main reasons....1. when we picked up the other artist's slack, we could command FAR great compensation.....we were OFF the clock and would charge by the piece! LOL!
Secondly, as our reputation grew and our work appeared in important journals, seen at symposiums or in books, the docs started spreading the word how last minute deadline crunches didn't affect the quality of our work. The added benefit was.......the other artists got more of the scutwork jobs and we got more of the fun and challenging jobs! LOL! Heck, I'm glad to avoid as much scutwork coming my way as possible as a hidden bonus! LOL! (scutwork is important yet dull work that must be done but doesn't require your expertise.....i.e. boring yet exacting crap like schematics, electrical drawings, data graphs and charts, etc! LOL!)
learning as I go

Mark posted on choice above and I thought this was relevant.

Nathaniel Branden (the self esteem guy) came out with a great book about 10 years ago called "Taking Responsibility". He has a small but powerful section where he addresses time management specifically. He uses a system called sentence completion (I think I've seen Mark do this in one of his books as well) to get to the root of issues - because you have the answers in you.

The sentence stem is "If I take responsibility for how I prioritize my time - ".

Then you just write 6-10 endings for this every day for a week or so. You'll probably end up with somewhat different answers every day. You may end up naturally making changes from what you discover or you may have to consciously make some changes based on what you've discovered.

Hi Christine
I missed part of your post. I'm INFP according to the last test.....although it changes! LOL!
learning as I go

Hi Jacqueling
I journal almost every day and sometimes I'll free associate from questioning much like you've mentioned. BTW, I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead more than once! It was part of the usual metaphysics stage most young folks go through! LOL! *blush*
I don't know why my progress is so slow.....I'm sure it's because I'm resisting accepting the hard fact that I need to alter more of my mental landscape than I want to! *blush* I've always been hard worker with a Bohemian attitude! LOL! I always got what I want to be, do or get with naked determination. Alas, that same determination doesn't do squat because I'm trying to fight against my circumstances more than trying to find my grace within them.....easier said than done....but I'm still trying....
Thanks for reminding me of Brandon's works....(although I think he can be a pendantic tyrant, he does offer much to ponder about.......I might try composing a few questions as I would guess he would......thanks again for expanding my reaches ( I forget FAR more than I can retain..............GEEEZ, this is what I hate! LOL!)
learning as I go

learning, I retain far more than I forget - trust me, it's not always a blessing!

Why is it I retain all sorts of useless stuff and forget the important? :-)

"Self-esteem guy" ROTF ;-) Fascinating the things people get tagged with. But yeah, right out of his association with Any Rand.

"Pedantic tyrant." ROTFLMAO ;-) Yeah, he is just a bit rigid. But consider his pedigree ... he was a colleague of Ayn Rand and she was just a tad inflexible in her view of the world ... to say the least. That said, there is a lot of common sense in Branden's writings.

As to "stems" that is a very old concept and used in many contexts ... not at all unique to Branden. It is a very good way of uncovering what is going on subconsciously. Another that Branden has written (or talked) about is the simple process of repeatedly asking questions and demanding answers. One really open ended one is "What do I really want?" Try saying that a few hundred times a day for a month and see what shakes out ;-)

Hi Mike
Yes, indeed! LOL! I was much relieved when my journey led me to books such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Dancing Wu Li Masters, The Tao of Physics, Cosmos, A Brief History of Time, Schrodinger's Cat, etc........oooohhhhh eeeee...do you feel that blast into the past? ROTFL! I won't even recal Maslow, Erikson, Jung, Rollo May, etc.....oooohhhh eeeeee....I'm young and curious again! LOL!
Thanks for that wonderful blast into the past....it was a joyous ride!
learning as I go

Hi Mark
Yes....it's similar to peeling an onion.....I learned it from actual therapy. It's much harder when a relative stranger is trying to trick you into reliving stuff that you worked hard to hide away in an impenetrable vault! *blush* I much prefer free associating with questions and subject matter of my own choosing! *blush*
learning as I go

Hi, again, Mike
My kaleidescopic mind focused more on the guru's works than her boink boy protege's. I've read some of his stuff but it didn't really click as a system of thought that could act as any sort of usable template for my established principles nor my quests......I did get some good nuggets from him but, alas......they were mostly replaced by other nuggets more relavent to me.......but I do remember his questioning methods to discover/better define one's governing principles and values system and the experiences that helped/hindered to shape them. I would guess that Autofocus works quite similarly in a different context. hmmmmm.....me thinks Autofocus might serve quite well for this sort of thing........THANK YOU, Mike.....I've got a new experiment.....this might really be effective! Mark might be able to market or elicit research into Autofocus as an effective prescribed short-term dynamic psychotherapy! He might make a fortune from the HMO's I may be joking a bit but there might also be a grain of promise....
learning as I go

I had a recipe box full of Branden's cards and about 4 stems on each that I did every day for about a year first thing in the morning. I had excellent results and highly recommend the practice. Mark, if you think of any that you would think would work well with Autofocus specifically, could you please pass them on?

Hi Jacqueline
My favorite question that I put on my daily list (not every day...but often).....is his "What's better?" You know that it's on your list, so you set out to make something better or experience some event/person that makes that day better (and possibly more!) The better can be any sort of improvement! It's a wonderful focusing and motivational tool. It's also a WONDERFUL mood changer. If I'm suffering enough or just plain flagging, that's my cue to write it on the list and go about changing both my attitude and the landscape of the day at least enough to be able to create a good response! Sometimes it also spurs on more lasting kinds of improvements projects from any category of life....not only productivity!
My very favorite tool is his Current Initiative. I love both and both continue to add to the quality of my life. His backlogs buster is pure gold also! THANK YOU, Mark!
learning as I go