Discussion Forum > "A Days Work Done" versus "Being On Track"
I am interested to hear about your experiences with linking goals and tasks - please describe.
January 21, 2010 at 9:15 |
Wowi
Wowi
Yes me too.
January 21, 2010 at 9:21 |
Alison R
Alison R
Hi Andreas,
your way of working of goals sounds good; planning a large project like that is very similar to what I tend to do.
The point with a day's work in DIT, at least as far as I understood it from reading the book, is that it helps you clarify whether your goals fit your workload or not. If you systematically are unable to finish your tasks for the day, it's not gonna help to fit in a night shift. That may work occasionally, but you won't be able to do that several times a week for weeks on end. So you will have to re-evaluate your goals, change some target dates, maybe drop a goal, to make sure your working hours are enough to finish your day's work every day.
So for me, DIT was very helpful to clarify how realistic my workload is. In the end, I tend to work better with AF4, but I'm very eager to see how Mark will integrate the good things from both systems.
your way of working of goals sounds good; planning a large project like that is very similar to what I tend to do.
The point with a day's work in DIT, at least as far as I understood it from reading the book, is that it helps you clarify whether your goals fit your workload or not. If you systematically are unable to finish your tasks for the day, it's not gonna help to fit in a night shift. That may work occasionally, but you won't be able to do that several times a week for weeks on end. So you will have to re-evaluate your goals, change some target dates, maybe drop a goal, to make sure your working hours are enough to finish your day's work every day.
So for me, DIT was very helpful to clarify how realistic my workload is. In the end, I tend to work better with AF4, but I'm very eager to see how Mark will integrate the good things from both systems.
January 21, 2010 at 9:56 |
Nicole
Nicole
AndreasE:
In the example you give a day's work on your book would be around 420 words (assuming a 5 day working week). However some days you will write more and some days less, so your real daily aim is to do *some* writing on the book. As long as you write every day you should achieve your overall goal without difficulty.
The point I make throughout DIT is that if you have too many goals and commitments then you are never going to be able to do everything you have to do to the standard it should be done. The aim is to be always on top of your work. If you can't achieve that, then you should audit your commitments and reduce them until you can remain on top. For some reason, this is an exercise which many people are very reluctant to carry out.
In the example you give a day's work on your book would be around 420 words (assuming a 5 day working week). However some days you will write more and some days less, so your real daily aim is to do *some* writing on the book. As long as you write every day you should achieve your overall goal without difficulty.
The point I make throughout DIT is that if you have too many goals and commitments then you are never going to be able to do everything you have to do to the standard it should be done. The aim is to be always on top of your work. If you can't achieve that, then you should audit your commitments and reduce them until you can remain on top. For some reason, this is an exercise which many people are very reluctant to carry out.
January 21, 2010 at 10:15 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
My assumption regarding the reason why the audit exercise is avoided by many people is the anticipation of the pain they know they will feel when they will realize that they neither can do everything they have to do nor everything they want to do.
(And there is probably a grammatical error in my sentence?)
(And there is probably a grammatical error in my sentence?)
January 21, 2010 at 12:04 |
Rainer
Rainer
Nicole:
[ If you systematically are unable to finish your tasks for the day, it's not gonna help to fit in a night shift. That may work occasionally, but you won't be able to do that several times a week for weeks on end. So you will have to re-evaluate your goals, change some target dates, maybe drop a goal, to make sure your working hours are enough to finish your day's work every day.]
Yes, goals have to be reasonable. This demands some calculations. For example, I have the experience of my other novels and how long it took me to write them. Some of them were written faster than others, but more or less I have a value of "words per day" that I can rely on. Or, more exactly, I know that at a certain "word per day" ratio it will be easy to attain the goal at the deadline, at another it will be demanding, and I have to neglect other things for it, and beyond a certain level it would be simply impossible.
The most important point is that normally, you don't have one goal only. Almost everybody is working towards several different goals at the same time and has to balance his attention, time, effort etc. between them, plus all the little stuff you have to do even if it don't carry you towards any goal (filling tax forms, for example).
[ If you systematically are unable to finish your tasks for the day, it's not gonna help to fit in a night shift. That may work occasionally, but you won't be able to do that several times a week for weeks on end. So you will have to re-evaluate your goals, change some target dates, maybe drop a goal, to make sure your working hours are enough to finish your day's work every day.]
Yes, goals have to be reasonable. This demands some calculations. For example, I have the experience of my other novels and how long it took me to write them. Some of them were written faster than others, but more or less I have a value of "words per day" that I can rely on. Or, more exactly, I know that at a certain "word per day" ratio it will be easy to attain the goal at the deadline, at another it will be demanding, and I have to neglect other things for it, and beyond a certain level it would be simply impossible.
The most important point is that normally, you don't have one goal only. Almost everybody is working towards several different goals at the same time and has to balance his attention, time, effort etc. between them, plus all the little stuff you have to do even if it don't carry you towards any goal (filling tax forms, for example).
January 21, 2010 at 12:59 |
AndreasE
AndreasE
Mark Forster:
[In the example you give a day's work on your book would be around 420 words (assuming a 5 day working week). However some days you will write more and some days less, so your real daily aim is to do *some* writing on the book. As long as you write every day you should achieve your overall goal without difficulty.]
As I mentioned, due to the re-writing process, the workload is a bit more demanding. In fact, some days I write more and on some less, but I have to know always where I stand: When I don't know whether I am behind or not, I can't let go and I would work on that one thing as much as possible, losing any balance between it and the rest of my life - stress, in one word.
I read that Hemingway did something similar, counted his words written every day and did a precise bookkeeping about it. So, if nothing else, at least this I have in common with him... ;-)
[The point I make throughout DIT is that if you have too many goals and commitments then you are never going to be able to do everything you have to do to the standard it should be done. The aim is to be always on top of your work. If you can't achieve that, then you should audit your commitments and reduce them until you can remain on top.]
I agree absolutely, and there were times in my life when this was a problem. But working with different task/time management systems for decades now, the careful re-evaluation of goals and commitments has become almost second nature. ("Don't promise what you can't keep, and keep everything you promise.")
However, until recently, "goal supervising" was something I did separate from AF, which felt unharmoniously, not integrated and clumsy. It happened that I fell behind without noticing, was almost missing deadlines etc., so I was thinking about a way to connect both better, in a way that would work better for me.
I'll explain how I handle it, but... I'll do it tomorrow. ;-)
[In the example you give a day's work on your book would be around 420 words (assuming a 5 day working week). However some days you will write more and some days less, so your real daily aim is to do *some* writing on the book. As long as you write every day you should achieve your overall goal without difficulty.]
As I mentioned, due to the re-writing process, the workload is a bit more demanding. In fact, some days I write more and on some less, but I have to know always where I stand: When I don't know whether I am behind or not, I can't let go and I would work on that one thing as much as possible, losing any balance between it and the rest of my life - stress, in one word.
I read that Hemingway did something similar, counted his words written every day and did a precise bookkeeping about it. So, if nothing else, at least this I have in common with him... ;-)
[The point I make throughout DIT is that if you have too many goals and commitments then you are never going to be able to do everything you have to do to the standard it should be done. The aim is to be always on top of your work. If you can't achieve that, then you should audit your commitments and reduce them until you can remain on top.]
I agree absolutely, and there were times in my life when this was a problem. But working with different task/time management systems for decades now, the careful re-evaluation of goals and commitments has become almost second nature. ("Don't promise what you can't keep, and keep everything you promise.")
However, until recently, "goal supervising" was something I did separate from AF, which felt unharmoniously, not integrated and clumsy. It happened that I fell behind without noticing, was almost missing deadlines etc., so I was thinking about a way to connect both better, in a way that would work better for me.
I'll explain how I handle it, but... I'll do it tomorrow. ;-)
January 21, 2010 at 13:47 |
AndreasE
AndreasE
Well, filling tax forms does carry me towards the goal of getting my returns...
January 21, 2010 at 14:03 |
Nicole
Nicole
AndreasE
The method I used to keep track when writing my books was to use the word-counter in Word to get the number of words written, subtract it from the overall target and then divide the result by the number of days to the deadline. That gave me a daily average number of words that needed to be written to meet the target. I would keep track of whether this average was rising or falling.
So if my target was 60,000 words and I had 90 days to write it in, the daily average at the beginning would be 667 words. If after 30 days I had written 10,000 words the daily average would have gone up to 833 words, which would indicate to me that I needed to get a move on!
I found this method very motivating.
The method I used to keep track when writing my books was to use the word-counter in Word to get the number of words written, subtract it from the overall target and then divide the result by the number of days to the deadline. That gave me a daily average number of words that needed to be written to meet the target. I would keep track of whether this average was rising or falling.
So if my target was 60,000 words and I had 90 days to write it in, the daily average at the beginning would be 667 words. If after 30 days I had written 10,000 words the daily average would have gone up to 833 words, which would indicate to me that I needed to get a move on!
I found this method very motivating.
January 21, 2010 at 14:03 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
<< "goal supervising" was something I did separate from AF >>
My simple solution is to put the goals into my AF list. To work on a goal is to plan it, audit progress, whatever. AF won't let me ignore this task too long, so it's all good.
My simple solution is to put the goals into my AF list. To work on a goal is to plan it, audit progress, whatever. AF won't let me ignore this task too long, so it's all good.
January 21, 2010 at 15:30 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Mark wrote:
The point I make throughout DIT is that if you have too many goals and commitments ... then you should audit your commitments and reduce them until you can remain on top. For some reason, this is an exercise which many people are very reluctant to carry out.
Mark - This is the one thing that is hardest for me. And I do see how the quality suffers in each endeavor because my energy and focus are spread out too thinly.
AF1 seemed to help automate the process of identifying which commitments to reduce, using the dismissal method. AF4 still has that effect, but it doesn't seem as strong, it doesn't seem as *central* as it did in AF1. I find I must make a much more conscious effort of deciding what to put into my list, what to put in the tickler, and what to discard from the start. If there's too much clutter, the autofocus stops auto-focusing.
Both AF1 and AF4 seem to lack a way of *quantifying* your work. I know it is very easy for me to add three times as much to my list as I am able to complete -- my list can just grow and grow. This was especially a problem in AF1. In AF4, the system loses its edge when it's got too much clutter, so whenever I feel the system is going soft, I start aggressively crossing things off and putting them in the tickler for consideration at some later time.
But in both cases, when the quantity gets too big, the only way you know about it, is if the system just starts feeling like it's bogging down. There really isn't any *objective* way to know what's happening (unless you do metrics every day and count your number of open items or something).
That's one advantage of DIT -- you know when you are done. DIT takes quantity of work into consideration quite explicitly, where it's only implicit in AF.
Will your new hybrid system take this kind of thing into account?
The point I make throughout DIT is that if you have too many goals and commitments ... then you should audit your commitments and reduce them until you can remain on top. For some reason, this is an exercise which many people are very reluctant to carry out.
Mark - This is the one thing that is hardest for me. And I do see how the quality suffers in each endeavor because my energy and focus are spread out too thinly.
AF1 seemed to help automate the process of identifying which commitments to reduce, using the dismissal method. AF4 still has that effect, but it doesn't seem as strong, it doesn't seem as *central* as it did in AF1. I find I must make a much more conscious effort of deciding what to put into my list, what to put in the tickler, and what to discard from the start. If there's too much clutter, the autofocus stops auto-focusing.
Both AF1 and AF4 seem to lack a way of *quantifying* your work. I know it is very easy for me to add three times as much to my list as I am able to complete -- my list can just grow and grow. This was especially a problem in AF1. In AF4, the system loses its edge when it's got too much clutter, so whenever I feel the system is going soft, I start aggressively crossing things off and putting them in the tickler for consideration at some later time.
But in both cases, when the quantity gets too big, the only way you know about it, is if the system just starts feeling like it's bogging down. There really isn't any *objective* way to know what's happening (unless you do metrics every day and count your number of open items or something).
That's one advantage of DIT -- you know when you are done. DIT takes quantity of work into consideration quite explicitly, where it's only implicit in AF.
Will your new hybrid system take this kind of thing into account?
January 21, 2010 at 22:25 |
Seraphim
Seraphim
Mark:
"The method I used to keep track when writing my books was to use the word-counter in Word to get the number of words written, subtract it from the overall target and then divide the result by the number of days to the deadline. That gave me a daily average number of words that needed to be written to meet the target. I would keep track of whether this average was rising or falling."
This is more or less what I do, only that I use a spreadsheet: This gives me a diagramm with a straight line how the novel SHOULD progress and a scrawly line, dancing around it, that shows how the novel REALLY progresses - or not... ;-)
"The method I used to keep track when writing my books was to use the word-counter in Word to get the number of words written, subtract it from the overall target and then divide the result by the number of days to the deadline. That gave me a daily average number of words that needed to be written to meet the target. I would keep track of whether this average was rising or falling."
This is more or less what I do, only that I use a spreadsheet: This gives me a diagramm with a straight line how the novel SHOULD progress and a scrawly line, dancing around it, that shows how the novel REALLY progresses - or not... ;-)
January 22, 2010 at 9:58 |
AndreasE
AndreasE
I have started a new thread regarding linking goals and AF under http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/993079, because my first post is rather lenghty.
January 22, 2010 at 9:59 |
AndreasE
AndreasE
For example: I am a writer. I have recently started a new novel that is due end of the year. So what I usually do is some math: The novel will have (around) 100.000 words length. That means, by mid of the year, I ought to have 50.000 words, otherwise I'll be behind. And that means, at the end of each month, I must have at least 8.400 words more, which comes down to a weekly goal of 2.100 words. So, I can take a calendar and write down for every friday in 2010 the number of words my novel must have in order to be on track. If I have more, I am ahead (and may take a day off), if I have less, I'm behind and will maybe add a night shift...
I simplified, of course (there are things like re-writing and second and third drafts, so the due date for the first draft is far earlier), for the sake of making my point: In order to assure you're on track, you have to define milestones, and better more of them than less.
So, I don't work "work load oriented", I work "goal oriented". I have no idea how this would fit with DIT (or DIT2), but if anyone's interested, I'd be happy to explain how I handle interactions between goals and tasks in my "Ping-Pong-AF" tweak (explained in http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/988459 ).