Get Everything Done

The post “REVERSE AUTOFOCUS - MY 3 AMENDMENTS” is very interesting.

It seems to me that the heart of the problem can be stated as follow:

a) If the production rate of new items is equal (at least on the average) to the processing rate of written down items, than: No problem at all, AF works fine. The reverse strategy can be useful to be sure to activate urgent tasks. In this scenario, the “2nd and 3rd AMENDMENTS” are not necessary: in the average, the oldest page one day or another is reached and processed.

b) If the production rate of new items is systematically greater than the processing rate of written down items, than AF can stop working properly, and some tasks risk not to be activated on time or risk not to be activated at all.

To address the problem described in b) many interesting ideas as been developed, including the "MY 3 AMENDMENTS".

I am using a simple adaptive strategy that apparently no one have described so far.

In its simplest formulation, it works like this:

“Every new day start from the oldest active page. Than go to the last (more recent) active page and process the pages backward.”

In this way:

- Even in the b) scenario, no item risks to remain inactivated forever (sooner or later, every item ends up in the last page and gets its opportunity to be activated or dismissed with the all page).

- The more recent items, written in the last pages, if urgent will be activated and will have the opportunity to "float" on the last pages by means of the “little and often” + “if not complete, write it down at the end” approach.

A typical daily schema should be:
Day 1: Pages 11, 23, 22, 21
Day 2: Pages 11 (dismissed), 25, 24
Day 3: Pages 12, 26, 25 (dismissed), 24
Day 4: Pages 13, 27, 26, 24
Etc…

The work on the first page of the day (the oldest) must be conducted with a “time box” approach: no more than a certain amount of time. It is obvious that if one spends a great part of the day on the oldest page, the procedure doesn’t work.

Could this work also for someone else?

Hi Nick

This is quite similar to the "tweak" that I have done and which has worked very well.

Makes lot of sense Nick and I'll be trying it out immediately. THX 4 sharing!

Yessss. I like that idea. It seems a tad more elegant, I guess I'd say. You start at the oldest, to clear out those pages more quickly. After working on that page, you are naturally taken to the last page to rewrite a task. Once there, you can stay there and start working backward. I also like that approach because it does not add more new rules than necessary to and it gets the oldest and the newest done first. Very nice.

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Mark Forster wrote:

Sounds interesting, but I think my new method works even better - and is even simpler!
April 30, 2009 at 12:13

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Help! I haven't checked the forum for a while - what new method, Mark? I desperately need to know! ('Cos I'm in DIT-v.-AF hell!)

Chris,

Mark is holding back on the description until he has tested and validated. I'm sure you don't want to get "whipsawed" more than necessary. Hell, we are all coming up with enough new tweaks without Mark suggesting things he has not validated. I'm happy to let him shake it out in peace ;-)

Nick, I like the concept because it would mean that your average time for closure of a page would probably be around 15 days or so (assuming you worked on the list daily), which is much faster than the rate that I'm closing pages. This gives enough time to create some distance from the task but allows it to be done in a reasonable time frame. When you've tested it, what has your average rate of closing time been on a page ?

Nick this was the same thing I was accomplishing by using standard AF a few days then switching to always starting at the last page before carrying on in standard fashion. I like your approach better however. It figures Mark would come up with a great new approach just when I was delighted with my digital solution. LOL Actually I don't mind because playing with productivity apps is a hobby of mine.

I was just thinking that Nick's tweak is a lot like DIT--work the oldest page first us like working the current initiative (backlog) first and then work the last page which is like working yesterday's tasks plus tasks below the line. But it's low pressure and no guilt.

Mel, I was/am doing something similar where I would work backwards on the list from Monday to Friday and then work on the beginning active pages primarily on the weekends (in the 'at home' book).

I am thinking of doing something similar in my 'at work' book since I'm pretty high energy in the morning and not so much in the afternoon. As my list is slowly growing there, I need some kind of method to curb my constant impulses to "do it now".

Hi Jacqueline, I don't understand which are the statistics you are interested in, when you say: "what has your average rate of closing time been on a page?"

Please could you refrase the question?

Sorry Nick, maybe you don't keep track of this kind of thing, but I do because I have a certain kind of flexible deadlines for my home reno projects (eg. if I start renovating the bathroom, I want to have it done within a month). So I write down the day that I first worked on a page - that's my start date. The day that I finish / dismiss the last task on that open page is the end date. If you don't track this, do you have a basic feel for how long from open to close given that it looks like you have about 12-14 active pages?

Jacqueline, that's a very good idea, too! I've only given Nick's idea a try one day and I'm really messing things up by using the page-a-day approach, too. So far I like both approaches, but I'm noticing that I'm having a tendency to spend a lot of time on those most recent pages. It's almost like I'm trying to clear them which is nothing like what I was doing before. In a strange way I'm more excited to clear older pages though too. When I thought of the pages just as pages (rather than as days), I didn't really think about a time frame for closing them. Now I am. I am wondering though if this approach will have me taking too long to get to the middle pages. I'm not worried about deadlines as I can see those separately any time I wish. Sorry! Just thinking online. :-) Let us know how things go for you.

Mel, I think it's key to adapt these things to your personal life rhythym. I'm probably more *typical* than Mark - or Christine - or even you - in that I work away from home, have a lot of discretionary time on weekends, and very little during the week at home. I know from years of experience that I get a surge of motivation to work on my home tasks on Saturday morningss particularly and AF has extended that enthusiasm to later on Saturday afternoons and on to Sunday mornings. So I'm just trying to adapt the system to working according to how my life plays out. This may not hold true for someone who works from home, can basically do what they want whenever they want. I don't have that luxury - yet. ;-).

I think that in using Nick's approach that the middle would take care of itself. Typically when I kind of have a page as "backlog" (first active), there are only 2-5 items on it. That means it would only take 2-5 days at most to go through it. I am still an advocate of trying to keep the number of pages down. There aren't many of us out there who can juggle a dozen plates and keep them all going. I know I sure can't.

Surely in the case where there are a great many Pages, the middle ones would get neglected using these modifications. What am I missing here? If there are 30 pages (perhaps after backlog dumping), and the user moves through ten a day, the middle ones might never be reached if new tasks are being added at a rate of knots.

Laurence, you may be right. I have 33 active pages to date (the most I've ever had). Yesterday I worked only 5 of them. But my approach of using a page a day is also decreasing the number of pages I have as I usually add more than a page's worth of tasks. Yesterday I was stuck on the last page for a looooong time. I'm giong to try to move backward much more swiftly today. I should start seeing real progress though because my first 19 pages have 9 or fewer tasks on them with most having 4 or fewer. We'll see!

Laurence - I agree. I've tried this for a few days and end up spending a disproportionate amount of time on the most recent page. A greater percentage of these tasks seem to 'stick out' more for me, possibly because they've only just been entered.

Have been off forum for a couple of days and am just catching up - interesting reading about the concern about the middle pages because that is exactly the area that initially got "stuck" once I progressed past about 25 or so active pages but which I am now clearing really well. I will post my "tweak" once I catch up on the forum - just trying to work out how exactly to describe it simply ........

Hi Nick,

I have been working with your adaptive strategy and can say that it is working well for me. I think there is some intuitive logic here that is compelling -- start with the oldest page first -- time box it -- which I do -- and then go to the most recent active page and work backwards. I think this is brilliant!

Christine, I wait anxiously to hear of your tweak!

Best wishes,
-David

Hi David - getting ready to post ....... :-)