Get Everything Done

I finally drew a line this week. It was 14 days since I last drew a line. The previous line was drawn about 4 days after the prior line.

I am curious how long other people are taking between drawing lines.

I haven't been keeping close track of it, but it has varied from about a week at the most (that was the first line) to just 2 or 3 days. Since the line I drew when switching to AF4 (on the Tuesday after it was released), I have drawn 6 lines so... about 2 a week, I guess. I have been jotting down how many items get put up for review each time, though - they range from 0 to 17.

I haven't drawn another line since the day I started. There were 18 pages and 150 tasks that started my closed list. Today I have 15 pages with 79 items on my closed list and 5 pages/93 items on my open list. About 25 of those came from going through old "Dismissed" items from as far back as January and resurrecting them.

So things really haven't changed much except that I am getting a lot done. Projects and important tasks are progressing and little things are being taken care of. Some stuff just gets deleted if it becomes obvious that I will never do it. (I don't wait for the review once I really know.)

For me, this is working well even though I keep working with my closed list and find things that stand out ready to be worked. I am clearly overloaded, but this is helping greatly in deciding what is important and what isn't going to get done. Before AF, it was hit or miss.

When AF4 came out I drew a line to close the list I had. Today, 17 work days later, I finally drew my next line. I highlighted 41 tasks.

My new closed list has 221 completed tasks and 57 open tasks. Some of the 41 highlighted tasks will make their way back in to my open list tomorrow.

I'm sure I'll work through this new closed list quicker because it's considerably shorter than the long list I began with.

List: 1 (from previous post)
# Work Days: 17
Tasks Highlighted: 41
Tasks Completed: 221
Tasks Open: 57

List: 2
# Work Days: 25
Tasks Highlighted: 12
Tasks Completed: 230
Tasks Open: 61

Positive: AF4 still very effective. Not missing tasks. Efficient. One place for all tasks. Not wondering what I might be forgetting.

Negative: When doing 'little and often' I often end up doing all of a task instead of a little. This makes me put off starting some tasks because I see them as big and time-consuming. Need to take smaller bites.

Mark wrote:
>>>It's important with AF4 that you don't use too long a list. The list should consist only of what you are currently working on.<<<

I was sick for a while and fell way behind on my list. It was my same old monster list I've used since AF1. AF4 had helped me whittle it down significantly, but it was still too big. But I was determined to stick with it (as a matter of stubborn pride, it appears).

So anyway, I got sick for awhile and my list sat on my desk untouched for a couple weeks. When I finally was able to get back to it, I found myself absolutely repulsed by it. Didn't want to see those same old unfinished tasks.

So I finally just started a new list. And wow, AF4 is *REALLY* effective when you have a lean list.

I am still occasionally scanning my old list for anything that really needs to be done. And if I'm not sure, it goes into the "tickler" for a random time 3-6 months hence. After simmering for that long, it had BETTER be worth doing or it will die a needful death.

And I'm using that principle very aggressively with new incoming tasks also -- if I can't work on it now, it goes in the tickler (or in the trash).

Wish I had given up on my 1300+ task list back in Sept when AF4 got started... Probably wouldn't have gotten sick. :-)

Mark: The list should consist only of what you are currently working on.

Welcome back! Isn't the above a major departure from the right brain aspect of AF1? Have we lost something here? I am not sure I would have developed the Artist's Manifesto with that approach, as it started with a whim.

Laurence,

>>> Isn't the above a major departure from the right brain aspect of AF1? Have we lost something here? I am not sure I would have developed the Artist's Manifesto with that approach, as it started with a whim. <<<

I don't see why that is incompatible. You can get an idea that is way out in left field. You can put it on the AF list and then apply this filter: "Will I do this before my next review?" (In my case, about a week). If you will not, DELETE the item. Put the yellow marker over it and when you do the review, you'll catch it as something that is interesting but not "current" and so you can put it on your "someday/maybe" list and keep coming back to it every so often as you do your review. One day, if the idea is basically sound, you'll find that you outline it as a project and put some tasks to accomplish it on your AF list and DO THEM.

The think you wan to avoid, as I found out some months ago and Seraphim found out last week ;-) is allowing your list to become cluttered and so distract you from what you need to DO. The operative word in all of this is DO. AF is a to DO list. Not a to trip over list ;-) Mark points out that the list helps ideas percolate ... but they can't even do that if there are too many of them. So you have to apply SOME filter. I mean, don't you do that already? Maybe you want to retire to Mexico or someplace in 20 years ... I'll bet THAT is not on your list today. (I COULD be wrong ;-)

The idea of a "someday/maybe" list is perhaps the only jewel to come out of GTD. It is golden. Get crap out of your road, put it on the someday/maybe list,k and then go back to it weekly to see what sings to you yet. Used this way the AF list is brilliant. You can always go back and look at the yellow highlights. That itself can serve as a someday/maybe list.

"Maybe you want to retire to Mexico or someplace in 20 years ... I'll bet THAT is not on your list today. (I COULD be wrong ;-)"

OTOH, one of my long-term goals is to live in one of the Tumbleweed Tiny Houses and my AF list reflects that in my attempts to reduce the amount of stuff that we own. ;^)

Sarah, the Tumbleweed houses! Me too! Although the Katrina houses are perhaps a little more up my road.

http://architecture.about.com/od/periodsstyles/ig/House-Styles/Katrina-Cottage.htm

So there's a lot of "get rid of" on my list and not a lot of "buy".

Jacqueline, I hadn't seen those - thanks for the link! I'm completely head-over-heels in love with the Tumbleweed B53 (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/houses/b53/). I love the style of it. And I can't envision a world in which I minimize down to the point that I don't need that second bedroom for guests/sewing/etc.

>>It's important with AF4 that you don't use too long a list. The list should consist only of what you are currently working on.<<

Thanks Mark. All I can say is bad habits are hard to break and I have a bad habit of pushing myself thru a task until it's completed. I'm a firm believer in little-and-often, I just need to practice it. I'm hoping to work thru my list much faster this time. (But that's what I said last time.)

Mark:

<<I've taken some very whimsical photos in my time! >>

Yes, but (these days) taking a photo gives instant gratification. Would you be snap-happy if you had to take out a reel of film in the dark room and slowly develop it in a tray of chemicals?

Mark:

Perhaps sorting the photos lets you bask in the after-glow of the holiday . . .

This is a problem of our age. I was using Picasa Web (Google's online photo system) but have switched over to PhotoBucket because it allows for hierarchical filing.

I have used ACDSee and like it a lot. Its main feature is extensive tagging. If you tag a photo with everything in it that is meaningful to you, then it is a snap to get to them or get collections that you might want. I.E. all photos with me and my wife but no others and waterfalls in them. Pretty neat.

Evernote is also nice in that you get automatic geo-tagging. You can also get a memory card for the camera which will automatically geo-tag the photos and instantly upload them to your favorite sharing site (i.e. Picasa, Evernote or whatever) as soon as you get into wi-fi range.

LOL ;-) It's just a mouse click, once the tag is there.

But I do know what you mean about 3,000 pictures. Two years ago we went to Washington state and then on a cruise to Alaska. The icebergs were fantastic and waterfalls everywhere. Amazing. Anyway, I filled up my share of memory cards and picture organizing saved my sanity. (Well, what there is of it ;-)

List: 1 (from previous post)
# Work Days: 17
Tasks Highlighted: 41
Tasks Completed: 221
Tasks Open: 57

List: 2 (from previous post)
# Work Days: 25
Tasks Highlighted: 12
Tasks Completed: 230
Tasks Open: 61

List: 3
# Work Days: 20
Tasks Highlighted: 31
Tasks Completed: 415
Tasks Open: 57

Positive: Taking smaller bites. The last few days I've focused on putting 'everything' on the list and not doing things that aren't on the list. I'm moving thru the list quicker and am (1) feeling on top of things (2) motivated and (3) getting a lot done - all three related to one another.

Negative: No real negatives. I highlighted/dismissed a lot of items this time and don't know how that will turn out.

"It's important with AF4 that you don't use too long a list. The list should consist only of what you are currently working on."

Can anyone point me to where this is explained? Or offer a *concise* explanation.

I don't remember reading much about limiting what to place in AF. I find that the review process takes care of any of my grandiosity on its own. "Subdue Mongolia" was on my list for a while, but eventually I had to get realistic and change the task to "Increase Influence in Khövsgöl." But it has been a while since I read any of the rules, so maybe I am missing something.

Thanks a lot.

I don't think it's a problem to put those on your list. But it does imply you plan to work on it.
Today you don't feel ready to Increase Influence. Tomorrow you decide that's really something you want to work on. How will you do it?

Three strategies come to mind:
A) Pull out your Influence Increasing project binder, and follow the plan you have set up there, working on your Influence for a time until you've had enough.
B) Pull out your Influence Increasing project binding, and select some worthy smaller tasks. Put those tasks on your AF4. When these are done, you go back to the binder and grab others.
C) You are a natural at exerting influence. You see the task and immediately know what to do. You go out and do it.

Mark,

Which version of AF, or other technique, do you recommend to use to get a long AF4 list down to manageable proportions?

Thanks,
Wooba

In the past Mark has recommended just starting over from scratch, culling tasks as you think necessary and adding things as they come up. Everything eventually comes up again on its own.

Mark: Thanks, that's what I'd hoped you would say!

Mike: Thanks, I might try that if AF1 doesn't work.

Wooba: My approach is to dismiss tasks to secondary lists until my AF4 list is manageable. When my AF4 list gets low, I pick some to go back in.