Get Everything Done

My brief experience with af has made me reflect on the time I have spent developing complex systems and buying software that I never used. Not to mention the opportunity cost oft the time I wasted. That is what I love about AF. You feel I'm control, the system requires minimal maintenance and actual stops me wasting time trying another new app (oh the time wasted searching for that perfect iPhone - web-desktop sync!) because I am actually doing my work!

There would appear to be a pechant for number on hear so my top three according to the waste of time ratio (wtr - hours spent using : hour spent researching and setting up)

Rtm. 0.4:1
Thinking rock 0.5:1
MLO 1:1

Most gtd forums are full of people talking about how they are trying to restart o have completely changed their system

Oh the joy of the simple life!

Once you got a system working it can make up for the time researching, providing you find something that works. I know I've spent a long time researching certain apps over the years but these periods would usually come after getting frustrated with not being on top of things enough. I ended up wasting money of a few pieces of software simply because I found better solutions or because they didn't streamline with my workflow. It can be frustrating.

This past year has been incredible though, I have found the holy grail as far as apps go (for my personal situation) and it has greatly improved my ability to accomplish things. I don't need to look further any more. It's amazing how quickly applications develop.

I wish I could correct my typing errors....sigh!

Peter,

Thank you for your reply - I once made a couple of typos on the Times Educational Supppement forum. I got a lot of reponses to my question but only to castigate me for my spelling! I use my iphone for these so it can be hit and miss. As regards paying for apps I am a marketing persons dream!

Mark J,

Oh lordie ;-) How great .... the WTR. We really need to get a web site set up to display the WTR for ALL software. I wonder what it is for Windows? Something like .0005:1? LOL ;-) Of course, you'd have to refine the "tool" a bit. You'd need to weight it by amount of use. Some programs just don't get much use so the WTR might be bad, but the total impact not horrible ;-)

Thanks again for that funny stat.

The problem with simplicity is that everyone wants it but no one likes it when they get it. See all the threads with long posts on how to tweak AF.

Nothing wrong with wanting to experiment, but it seems procrastinating via building a better todo is not limited to electronic systems.

Now I have to quit trying to develop the best research process and start actually writing. I am just glad to have task management decision taken out of my hands.

Norman, I believe that most of the necessity (desire) for tweaking has come about simply because people have lists that are too long and too unwieldy to follow AF properly within the given rules. But for some reason they do not want to admit that they are overcommitted and dismiss - in effect saying - I am NOT going to do this - not now anyway. AF itself is telling them they are overcommitted and they refuse to listen.

I ran into this situation myself and went from 25 active pages down to 3 in a week through working like crazy and dismissing like crazy because I could see that my frustration with AF was due to trying to do way more than I had time for. The system wasn't failing me, I was failing the system. I think what people tend to forget with Mark's list of 57 books is that he only chose 5 of them, and didn't start reading all 57 using the little and often approach. :-)

JMHO

I am fed up with all the acronyms WMMV and stuff like that MLO what is mark j talking about...........................

YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary
MLO: My Liife Organised, an advanced To-Do list application

@ anon - sorry, I did intend some irony with the TLAs ( three letter abreviations) and posting from my phone so saving time. RTM is remember the milk - another web based application

@peter k - I should stop myself asking but you mentioned the holy Grail of applications...could you let me know what it is please...I might just take a peep

Mark j I think he's saying that his "holy grail" is AF?

@Jacqueline & Mark J
I did mean holy grail in terms of finding an electronic solution. The disclaimer is that it's the holy grail to my personal situation (many projects/discretionary time/entrepeneur/consultant/web based work). I use Mindmanager with some very very powerful complimentary components from Gyronix. I'm going to share a 'how-to' for how you can apply AF with Mindmanager soon. I think those that have Mindmanager already will like it! There's a learning curve to it because you can do just about anything with it.

My own desire has been to have minimal manual input and maximum flexibility in terms of delivering the right information I need. Most apps don't have a lot of flexibility, that's part of the reason apps don't stick. The thing with Mindmanager and the complimentary components is that it can do anything you want - which makes it very sticky.

My setup helps me manage a large number of projects big and small, personal and professional. The 'neat' thing is that I can run any system without causing additional overhead. I can do AF, GTD, project management and Dit all in the same week if I wanted to, without having to re-enter or shuffle tasks around manually. I'm currently using my own system however. AF didn't work very well for my situation as far as acting as the main 'operating system' so to speak, it has become a supporting tool. A very powerful one at that.

I don't think the unending search for devising better systems/software solutions is not that black and white though. In 90% of cases the research does go to waste and yes, a simple paper and pen just-do-it approach would have brought more tangible results. If your work load is pretty straight forward in nature, but it's rather the volume that you are trying to manage, most systems aren't going to help with that.

Adversely, if your workload is very varied, depends on a lot factors, people, ideas and information, that is when I think you really need a good system to cope. That is when a lot of research upfront can pay off on the long term.

But some times to achieve optimum simplicity it requires that much more of a complex system. If that system isn't robust as well, it's prone to fail under pressure. Not only should a system be simple in use, it must be easy to maintain under common stresses. This is in part also David Allen's philosophy, but ironically I think at least 25% of GTD's methodology is flawed conceptually.

ps. All the acronyms can be tricky, forum is littered with them! JMHO = just my honest opinion? Didn't know that one either!

Thanks Peter I will look forward to your mindmanager post with interest. I have used it since about version 3 having been introduced to the concept by my mentor when I started teaching. I did use it for gtd for a while and it did work quite well for me for a while. I have tried quite a few of the web based mind map tools some of which are okay but I have never paid for any mindmanager add-ins. I have an office at college but often use different computers so I have tried to find web based options, however I have been using logmein which has allowed me to use mindmanger in the classroom - it is awesome for lesson planning.

I completely agree about the maintenance issues with gtd and is of course a common theme. I am currently using a paper system but I do miss being to attach notes to take which I have done since I got my first psion organizer in 2000. I tend to yoyo between paper based and tech based now as the weaknesses of each becomes to much of a pain. I am really hoping that using AF will stop this.

Mark

Hi Jacqueline

I do agree with Norman about simplicity and posted elsewhere that I feel that trying to invent tweaks can be almost a form of procrastination in itself. I certainly ran into that danger a couple of times, hence my lengthy post about trusting the system. However you are right about the need for finding tweaks arising out of length of lists. That was certainly the reasoning behind the tweak I use but I don't think that it is as simple as pure overcommitment. Or maybe it is that simple but the solution may not be.

I really do take your point about your frustration being the fact that you were trying to do way more than you had time for. Me too. I would love to have just been able to dismiss page after page (and I am dismissing - and dismissing fairly extensively). However I do have way too much stuff, but stuff that is not easily dismissable; therefore I have had to find a way to work AF with that volume.

I'm not saying that there are not things that cannot ultimately be streamlined but sometimes it is just not that easy to get rid of tasks, even when we are knowingly overcommitted. It's easy to look at the scenario of most tasks losing urgency when suddenly faced with a burning building, but suppose there are two burning buildings, both with impact on other people? What - or who - do you dismiss?

My situation, and I am sure it is not unique, is that I am very definitely overcommitted. I know that, I recognise it, I am dealing with it, largely with the help of AF of course :-), but at the end of the day I do have more tasks than I can deal with in the time I have available and therefore have to make choices, even though some of those choices are limited. I have elderly parents with health needs and no siblings to assist so related tasks are not ones that I can or want to dismiss. When I sold my business to give me more time and space to do so I took my eye off the ball, was too trusting of the purchaser (a friend) and effectively lost everything. I am still having to deal with the fallout, added to which health problems limited my ability to deal with those and other issues resulting in more backlog and so on and so on.

Nevertheless, with the help of AF I am now dealing with those issues, feeling so much more in control, and although there are days when I just have to react rather than work purely from my lists, AF is the system that is enabling me to dig out from under and finally see that clearing the backlog can be done which is something I had all but given up on. However there are certain scenarios that will always take priority, so no matter how much I may wish to plan my week, or decide to spend time working my lists, that can change at a moment's notice. Of course what is great about this forum is that it is pretty much 24 hour, so I can always recharge my batteries after a particularly bad day - or sometimes before one :-)

I guess we are all in very different situations and what will work for one will not necessarily work for another - we are all very much novices when it comes to AF (it's not even 4 months old yet!) but isn't it great being able to discuss it in so much detail? I'm always so encouraged by how much you are managing to achieve with full time work and still moving towards your goals - you do realise I hope that you will have to continue posting when on your travels so we can all continue to be inspired :-)

JMHO = Just my humble opinion :-)

I hear you Christine, I feel at times like my whole house is one huge backlog ! I have a big backlog with my consulting project, and god only knows how many other goals I've put on the backburner because of these two.

My dismissal arises more from I will not do that now (ie. this month), vs. I won't ever do it. I just dismissed making plans to have lunch with an old friend, and what's that? Just an hour of my time. But it seems to me that in dismissing items that are related to personal relationships vs. concrete tasks, it feels like we are rejecting that person in a personal way. And that can bring up a whole other can of worms.

Back in the day (not so long ago, as you probably recall), when my *tweak* was following impulses to do things that I felt really excited about doing, there was no element of the length of list involved. It came down to the fact that I really like starting new projects and am not so great on the boring 'scutwork' / finishing up. So I have to work on that by limiting what I put on the list. I'm ok with that. :-)

I think many of us end up here interested in time management and solutions precisely because we are overcommitted, if not in actual duties, in the things we want to accomplish and the dreams we have for our lives. The pace of life has accelerated and it's hard to maintain some clarity and not have the expectation of working like crazy or not working and feeling bad about yourself for not getting things done like we "should".

I also wonder if, given that you have health issues now, and didn't have them before, if you are looking at what you put on the list, comparing it to what you can do now, and find it lacking compared to what I imagine you used to be able to accomplish before? (Since you seem like a pretty high energy person.) I know that when I had kids, I really battled with this one. It's hard to face up to the fact that you just cannot do what you used to do before having them. In fact, I don't think I'm there yet, and my oldest is 21 !

Don't worry, I'm learning balance - if not in a day, then within a week - or maybe the week after. It's like a productivity hangover. If I experience it enough times, I'll know how to deal with it. Take 2 hours of mindless TV, some web surfing, a long walk, some physical labour and call me in a few days. :-)

Hi Jacqueline

I'm so glad you are getting on top of things - that feeling of panic when you look at everything is not a nice place to be in! One of the great things I have found with AF is that it enables you to gain perspective - which can be one of the first things to wander off when you're not looking :-) That situation where you find yourself with goals put on the back burner because of one or two burning issues can lead to so many negative emotions and it becomes easy to blur the line between justification and excuses. It is easy to justify why I took my eye off the ball business wise because I had more important matters to take care of. That may well have been true but does not excuse my naievity in not putting proper controls in place to protect myself from those who took advantage of the situation. I would never ever have let one of my clients get into that position so why did I allow myself to?

Like you I like starting things and run out of steam on the boring stuff and it certainly is hard to maintain clarity with the pace of life as it is. I guess that is where I am finding AF so good at enabling me to recognise those things more easily, whilst at the same time recognising my own limitations, not just in what it is physically possible to achieve but in the practical limitations of other demands upon my time. I do have a degree of resentment over my backlogs but realise that that resentment is primarily a reaction to the frustrations I have over the way I handled many of the things that led to that position. However that is a totally wasted emotion and serves no purpose whatsoever. Far far better to concentrate on clearing that backlog - even if that requires the odd "tweak" and even if it means more "do it now" tasks that I would like to think will be necessary at a future point in time :-)

Christine, you need to cut yourself some slack. How could you have known there would be problems if it was not within your range of comprehension? Too many times we think people will act the way that we would act given that situation. That's why there's the saying "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me." And for some of us (who give the benefit of the doubt to people we shouldn't because we're "nice" - and they know how to manipulate nice people), sometimes it takes more than twice to learn the lesson.

I don't know how many times I said to myself in the last 4 years up until a couple of months ago - why didn't I start this 4 bloody years ago? I'd be 90% done by now. But now that I really am doing something about the whole job, I'm not so unkind to myself. My perception of myself has changed. It's not too late, and I don't think anything is too late for anyone. I did what I knew how to do - focus on work and bonuses and overtime and raises. I didn't have the very simple tool to keep myself going on a project that was more for me and not just what was valued by other people. I should have worn a sign "will work for pats on the head."

I was re-reading Mark's books while at the torture palace of a children's play centre today (p. 31 - crossed off...) :-) - specifically the chapter on working without tools but based on your level of resistance. And I was thinking - isn't it wonderful? If nothing else, AF has removed whatever level of resistance I had to doing virtually anything. Why resist when I know I absolutely WILL do this - with no willpower? So I can almost literally pick anything on that page, whether it stands out or not and know that it will likely not stand out and I will delay usually because I seem to know at some level that's not fully conscious yet that it's just not the right thing to do or something that doesn't need to be done at all.

It feels like G. Gordon Lilly eating rats when he was a kid to conquer his fears. :-)

Hi Jacqueline

You're absolutely right - at the end of the day getting resentful only hurts me and I'd still rather be the sort of person who trusts people rather than become totally cynical, just preferably without the "MUG" tattoo on my forehead or the "Please wipe your feet here" T-Shirt :-) and sometimes it does take more than twice to learn the lesson!

I am definitely getting to a much better place though and making the degree of progress that makes me really believe that things WILL get done. As you say, it is never too late!

Mark - love that quote! :-)

That anecdote comes from a story about a senior citizen waiting in line to register for classes at a University. Last year on NPR, I read a story of an 87 y.o. who graduated from University. What a great attitude that guy had!

http://www3.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=697308

"Q. Do you know what age you'll be when you finish this?

A. The same age I'll be if I don't. "

Barbara Sher - an excellent self-help author amongst a sea of mediocrity - always mentions that.

Jacqueliine,

This is strange. I remember hearing a different story on NPR (in the USA, National Public Radio). Edith Eger was a girl imprisoned in Auschwitz. Mengele used to ask for her to dance for him.

This article:

http://www.saljournal.com/news/Story/Auschwitz-survivor-4-22

gives the basic narrative. In the NPR program, Eger describes how she was middle-aged and was contemplating pursuing an advanced degree in her field. She said to her mentor, "Do you know how old I'll be when I finish?" His reply was, "The same age you'll be if you don't." Convinced, she went back to school.

Actually, the story is apocryphal. It has been told many times, many ways. Make up your own to spice the story up ;-)

So Mike, are you saying it's like the "1953 Yale study" of the 3% of people who had written goals being "more successful"? (Not sure how they measured that but since the study never existed, I guess it's a moot point.)

The stories just make their rounds, but it could have had an original basis in the lady moises is referring to. Especially since she's a motivational speaker herself.

Avrum, I love Barbara Sher too!

Jacqueline,

Yeah, it could be like that one ... though if it cites a study it might be different. But yes, these things all start somewhere then take on a life of their own. I'm sure if you had the inclination you could trace back all of this stuff to the Ancient Greeks. LOL ;-)