Get Everything Done

From my study of the literature over the years, I have cobbled together a theory that one's time is best spent on three things - habits, routines and projects. The better quality you choose of these three, the better life becomes. By habit I would mean things that you do just about every day without much thought, brushing your teeth at bedtime for instance. Routines would include things done at regular intervals or in response to certain stimula, but take a little planning or thought, remembering to get a haircut every six weeks or so for instance. Projects would be everything else that you are wanting to do. The more things that can be moved from project to routine to habit, then the more conscious will and discipline in reserve that can be applied to your remaining projects. My experience with AF has shown it to be very effective in moving my projects forward. Does anyone have any tips about its application to routines and habits?

Alan,

I could not agree with you more. AF is not a "theory of everything". ;-) It does one thing well. It helps you manage your discretionary time.

Habits don't need a system to manage them ... the "system" is your subconscious mind. You have subconscious programs that kick in when needed ... like brush teeth, tie shoes, etc.

Routines are in an area between habits and tasks. A routine performed often becomes a habit, IMO. To manage routines I use lists and I trigger them with a calendar entry, most often, but possible an item in AF. I don't use AF itself to manage the doing of the routine, only to remind me to do it. The routine itself is managed by lists which are NOT AF. AF is its own thing.

Aren't most routines time specific? I have a routine for email which is first thing in the morning, right before lunch and before I leave work. I don't put this on the AF list because the scheduled time works the best for me.

My own feeling is that AF can be used for everything, whether habit, routine or project. As a general rule habits will "just get done" and would not continually stay on the list, however AF can help to identify perhaps a better time to do the, or help us to develop a habit such as exercise.

Routines also - I would definitely advocate including routines. AF has a way of identifying whether they (a) genuinely need to be done, (b) the frequency at which they need to be done and (c) when they need to be done. By including routines on my lists my doing of them has changed considerably. By doing them at set times, or by "will do" type lists, I had resistance to them. Doing them within AF removed that resistance, enabled me to analyse the whether, how and when, and now most of them do "just get done", some still within AF and some just at the appropriate time.

Jacqueline,

Routines are simply tasks (but more usually sequences of tasks) which we do "when called for". In this case, "when" means either time or some other trigger. You may have a time triggered routine such as "close out cash register at the end of the day", or an event triggered routine such as "take customer order when they walk up to the counter".

As to AF handling them, my point is that AF can trigger those that are not triggered by a specific time, but I would not want to put all of the steps of the routine into AF. For example:

Routine: "Clean Air Filter in the Spring" <On AF list>
Steps:
- Open Furnace Cabinet
- Unscrew door clips
- Take out filters
- Take outside
- Hose them off
- Set them in the sun to dry completely

None of the individual steps would be on the AF list ... they would be on a separate list for that routine entitled: "Clean Air Filter twice a year", for example.

Note that this example is quasi time triggered. IOW, I do it in the Spring but it does not matter exactly when. So I could put it on my calendar, but I don't because I don't know exactly where to put it and I don't like chasing things across my calendar as I decide that I can't do it when I planned to and have to do it next week. So the trigger goes on AF where I'll be nagged to do it. (Actually, in my case I don't put it on the AF list at all. It goes 1n my 43 folders system (except they are not folders at all in this case, but 3x5 cards a la "The Sidetracked Sisters")).

Allan,

Thank you for the most amazing post. Your "theory of three things" really made me stop and think. You're right: routines and habits are vitally important, and I realise that I've tended to ignore them in favour of just dumping everything into my AF list and then wondering why my list keeps getting longer and longer.

For those of us with a lot of discretionary time, the lack of structure can sometimes work against us. I was finding, for example, that I had a lot of tasks to do for a voluntary organisation that I'm part of. I wasn't getting any of those tasks done, because they never stood out when I was scanning my lists. So I've started getting up an hour earlier in the mornings just to work on this organisation's tasks. I'm now finally on top of my responsibilities in this area, thanks to having set up a new habit.

I've always been one to see routines and habits as taking the fun out of life, but your "three things" theory is spot-on. I did a bit of digging, and found (among other things) a paper published in the Scandanavian Journal of Psychology (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119840613/abstract) that suggested that what you did last week is far more likely to influence what you do next week than any intentions or plans you may make.

Habits...routines...projects. That's brilliant.

I find AF is helping me with certain routine things that I want to become habits. These aren't really major or urgent things that need to be done on a set schedule. But doing them semi-regularly makes life somewhat easier.

For example, I'm a "digital packrat." I've saved countless files (both personal and work related) to my hard drive. And, since my system for organizing it all wasn't the greatest, it became a mess real fast. And just the thought of organizing it all was so overwhelming that I avoided even thinking about it, let alone doing it.

A lot of the "get organized" sites suggested scheduling a set time every day to clean out and organize my files. Which sounded great. But, somehow, telling myself that, every day at a specific time, I was going to spend 15 minutes on that task never got it done.

So I put it in my AF notebook, and have already spent more time cleaning out my files than I remember doing all of last year. And, while I still have a ways to go, I can actually find some things again with some massive search effort.

But cleaning out those files meets all three criteria. It's a project because I'll have to work on it over a period of time to get it done. It's a routine because, in order to make headway, I'll have to work on it somewhat regularly. (Which having it in my notebook is helping me to do.) And it needs to be a habit because, once those files are cleaned out, I'll have to stay on top of things in order to keep them from getting out of control again. So having it in my AF notebook will act as a nice reminder.

I've found that Projects (a group of tasks) are easily listed and kept in the back of the notebook (working back to front with numbered pages 1 being the last page of the notebook, 2 being the penultimate page and so on). The same holds true for any meeting notes and other jottings which are pertinent to my AF tasks and which I need immediate access to.

In the example above of "Clean Air Filter in the Spring", it is a simple matter to create a list of sub tasks into the back of the notepad under the header of say, "Clean Air Filter", and then enter "Clean Air Filter in the Spring" into the AF system along with the page number on which the Project tasks sit ("Clean Air Filter in the Spring - Pg 3").

This way, I can keep the project "alive" in the AF system and refer to any related tasks/notes in the back of my book.

Might not work for everyone, but works for me!

Sounds like a good system Andrew - the best method of project management is whatever works for the individual. Just be careful not to lose your notebook - an AF list can generally be reconstructed - your project management system may not be so easy :-)