Get Everything Done

Mark, If my memory hasn't let me down, some weeks ago you mentioned that you kept your AF list at home, and didn't add any new items when you were away from home. Please correct me if that's not what you posted. When a new item occurs to me, I add it to my AF list, even if I'm not actually working on the list at the time. If I'm away from home, and don't have my AF list with me, I make a note of the new item on a scrap of paper or notebook if I have one, and then add it to the AF list when I get home. Is there something in the AF instructions that I've missed? It would also be interesting to hear how others on the forum deal with this. Best wishes.

I carry the list and add to it as I think of things.

I do it vIa JOTT to my email and then unto my list

I would guess that, if Mark still follows his own AF instructions :), he would do as you, Margaret:

> DON’T leave your list without some means of recording ideas and tasks which come into your mind.

That means he advices one to note things down in a scrap of paper/small pad/etc. when away from the list.

I'm starting to get that how one does this kind of thing depends a lot on how one sees one's self with regard to the kind of "worker" one is. Some people are more "office centric" and so seem more likely to have a fixed book or a computer program. Others seem to be more peripatetic (I get to use that word only a few times a year -- YAY ;-) and so seem to carry more with them, or have multiple books.

I've tried and failed numerous times to make my desk work for me. I just can't seem to do it. Even at home, I'm more likely to work curled up in a chair (if not in the yard or working on a house project). All I can seem to make work at the desk is to plan or to work an intensive paper project (like taxes). I'm pretty sure that is why I feel the need to have my book with me at all times.

Thanks, Mark and others, for your replies. Like others, I feel no qualms about adding new items to the AF list whenever they occur. I think my confusion was caused by misunderstanding a topic raised a few weeks ago about adding many more items than were being actioned.

Mark, I like your current Twitter entries about what you're fed up with, and what you're going to concentrate on; I hope you reconsider the 'experimenting' part at some stage - your willingness to experiment, and your open-ness when reporting both successes and failures, are much appreciated. However, I can understand how much time and effort continual experimentation takes, and perhaps you've reached the stage where you want to concentrate on the actual 'doing' part of your work, rather than the 'how-to' part.
Best wishes to all.

I've not seen Mark's Twitter comments but I can sure understand what you say. It must get old having people "demand" updates on a system that already works, just because ... well, just because.

I carry my home notebook with me everywhere. I think at some level I'm afraid that if I abandon it even for a few days, I won't go back to it - despite only having a couple of days close to the beginning of AF where I found myself avoiding the book.

I have taken it on weekend camping trips, even though there are only a few things that I could possibly do in my book on a camping trip. I write a list of the things that I want to do to work on the camper etc. right in the book - I have definitely kept a tidier campsite and it takes less time to get ready to go home by using AF. I'm spending my last couple of hours reading and relaxing instead of packing up - it's great! Everything that doesn't get done just gets dismissed until the next time I go. I need to have a central place to capture my thoughts and ideas as I tend to think outside the box a lot more in that kind of environment.

Yay to coming out of retirement BTW Mark!