Discussion Forum > Fit, durn it, fit!
Trust the system!
March 18, 2009 at 15:37 |
David Barnes
David Barnes
Lynn, this is a great opportunity for you to do an analysis of your commitments.
I've posted before about what I'm doing in a similar situation - in a nutshell:
- went through and did a time estimate on everything - then went through every outstanding task on the list and dismissed if I wasn't committed to doing it in the next month
- I'm chasing the front of my book to close off lingering tasks
- because the tasks above are "finishers / non-recurring" things, they don't result in new tasks being added in the back so the list won't grow because I'm doing them, unlike how little and often projects grow the list
- I started to get more selective about what I'm putting on the list and how often - paring down to the basics of housekeeping - no spring cleaning initiative at this time! And no need to sweep the floor every day - so no automatic reentering of tasks *just because* they're recurring types of items.
I still add items to the list, but I now deliberate for a moment before putting it on the list to ensure I'm not dumping or taking too much on. My task addition rate has slowed tremendously and I'm finishing off more than I'm adding.
Have a look through the items you have completed and crossed off and ask yourself if any of them are things you think now were a waste of your time. Surprisingly, none of mine are. But you may find commitments on there that aren't that important to you, in which case you know what to do.
So that means you either a) you need more AF time or b) you need to speed your work pace up a bit - or both, and possibly lower your standards where you can. I've chosen to do all of the above.
Believe me, there's a picture of me beside the word "overcommitted" in the dictionary - I'm a single parent of two kids, renovating a 5 bedroom house and working one full time and one part time job - some things do just have to be put on hold for awhile.
I've posted before about what I'm doing in a similar situation - in a nutshell:
- went through and did a time estimate on everything - then went through every outstanding task on the list and dismissed if I wasn't committed to doing it in the next month
- I'm chasing the front of my book to close off lingering tasks
- because the tasks above are "finishers / non-recurring" things, they don't result in new tasks being added in the back so the list won't grow because I'm doing them, unlike how little and often projects grow the list
- I started to get more selective about what I'm putting on the list and how often - paring down to the basics of housekeeping - no spring cleaning initiative at this time! And no need to sweep the floor every day - so no automatic reentering of tasks *just because* they're recurring types of items.
I still add items to the list, but I now deliberate for a moment before putting it on the list to ensure I'm not dumping or taking too much on. My task addition rate has slowed tremendously and I'm finishing off more than I'm adding.
Have a look through the items you have completed and crossed off and ask yourself if any of them are things you think now were a waste of your time. Surprisingly, none of mine are. But you may find commitments on there that aren't that important to you, in which case you know what to do.
So that means you either a) you need more AF time or b) you need to speed your work pace up a bit - or both, and possibly lower your standards where you can. I've chosen to do all of the above.
Believe me, there's a picture of me beside the word "overcommitted" in the dictionary - I'm a single parent of two kids, renovating a 5 bedroom house and working one full time and one part time job - some things do just have to be put on hold for awhile.
March 18, 2009 at 16:08 |
Jacqueline
Jacqueline
Hi Lynn
Do take a realistic look at your time commitments and how much discretionery time you actually have. If you genuinely have to do all of the stuff on the lists AF is still far and away the best system I have found to deal with overwhelm.
What I also found helpful was to isolate tasks that were specifically project related so that I could get a handle of exactly what I was committing my time to. I already had a list of projects set up within OneNote and for each project I then created an AF list. As I worked through my lists I would action many of the project related tasks merely by adding them to the appropriate list. That enabled me to identify what belonged where, and in many cases I just added back "project x" to my AF lists rather than all of the constituent parts. If "project x" stood out when I passed it on the list, then I had a clearly defined set of actions required to progress the project. In some cases it was more appropriate to add back the individual tasks but by using this method I was able to (a) get my lists under control and (b) create a more structured project system which works perfectly with AF.
Do take a realistic look at your time commitments and how much discretionery time you actually have. If you genuinely have to do all of the stuff on the lists AF is still far and away the best system I have found to deal with overwhelm.
What I also found helpful was to isolate tasks that were specifically project related so that I could get a handle of exactly what I was committing my time to. I already had a list of projects set up within OneNote and for each project I then created an AF list. As I worked through my lists I would action many of the project related tasks merely by adding them to the appropriate list. That enabled me to identify what belonged where, and in many cases I just added back "project x" to my AF lists rather than all of the constituent parts. If "project x" stood out when I passed it on the list, then I had a clearly defined set of actions required to progress the project. In some cases it was more appropriate to add back the individual tasks but by using this method I was able to (a) get my lists under control and (b) create a more structured project system which works perfectly with AF.
March 18, 2009 at 17:49 |
Christine B
Christine B
Lynn, are you in the position to discuss with a boss / manager what you've found and that you don't have the time to do your job properly? Do you get slow periods where you can play catch up? Can you work at systematizing something?
I wonder if someone could actually become more overworked and overwhelmed using AF if, prior to using it, they may have forgotten requests, tasks, etc. and only responded when someone nagged them again and then went to someone else or did things themselves or it just didn't get done period. Now that there's a capturing system, we'll do the work because it's on the list and maybe it was always okay to let it slide?
I wonder if someone could actually become more overworked and overwhelmed using AF if, prior to using it, they may have forgotten requests, tasks, etc. and only responded when someone nagged them again and then went to someone else or did things themselves or it just didn't get done period. Now that there's a capturing system, we'll do the work because it's on the list and maybe it was always okay to let it slide?
March 18, 2009 at 18:01 |
Jacqueline
Jacqueline
Um, I've been chasing the end of my work autofocus notebook since 3/9. I can't reach the end! The tasks and pages just keep growing...
So - the analysis - I've got too much work for the time allotted!