Get Everything Done

I am excited about the simplicity of FV. I used the first few AF systems and then my life took a strange turn and I wasn't using anything basically. But I'm at a place where I can and want to get back into a good system. I've been working with it this morning and I can see the power of it.

One question: What about checklists?

I know it is mentioned, and I have a number of things that I can best track on daily and weekly checklists. But I'm a bit fuzzy so far on how they actually intersect with FV.

For now I'm staying on paper (I appreciate the physical act of drawing a line through the item) which makes effectively using checklists very helpful in cutting down on the clutter of the paper list.

Thoughts?

Checklists are usually about a particular topic. I've had sucess simply adding the title of my checklist to the list and treating it like any other thing that needs my attention. If I don't finish the checklist I add to the end of the list, knowing that I'll see it again eveytime I scan my list. I can trust my sense of incompletion to raise the urgency of it to the point of where I'll want to work on it . If not I'll get to it eventually just by moving down the list.

I use checklists too for tasks that repeat daily or weekly. I print them out and insert in sheet protectors (one for each day of the week,) and then I checkoff items with a dry erase marker. I really like Tom L.'s method of listing the checklist title on the master list. I think I'll give that a try. I've just been doing the checklists separate from the regular list, keeping them separated as one is "routines" and the other misc. things to do.

Tom L.'s method is brilliant. I make extensive use of checklists (CLs), two to five per day, triggered by time of day or change in location (work <-> home). See right side of

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62110063/Photo%20Feb%2013%2C%2014%2016%2050.jpg

for an example. I normally work through all, or at least several, of the items in each CL in one short block of time. So I can stay in the FV flow by adding, e.g., CLmo1, CLmo2, etc. (for Monday's CLs) to the FV list and dotting and doing them at the right time. If I don't tick off all the items from a CL in one session, I can reenter its title and dot-then-do it later.

Thanks for the tip, Tom!

Thanks for the pictorial example Ubi - it makes all the difference. I can see how you use them now and it encourages me to think about adding more checklists.

I've mentioned this before on the General Forum, repeated here just in case there are newer members here.

Read The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande.

Although focused on the author's medical profession, it mentions other settings, starting off with flight checklists in the 1930s when people realised that 'four engines was too much airplane for one person". Gawande write superbly and has at least two other books about medical practices, eminently readable by the layman.

Checklists are great, not 100% foolproof as I discovered when I reached my current assignment in Africa on Saturday night, but still better than my sieve-like brain.

One of the first items on my first FV list today was: "ERRAND: get spectacles lens cleaner, top up mobile phone.

In addition to the other comments, note that Mark's systems (which I suppose includes FV) are generally intended to manage one's discretionary time -- NOT your scheduled or pre-committed time.

So, if you have a morning checklist, or a "to do on arrival at work" checklist, or a "close up shop" checklist, those would be managed outside the FV list and performed at the appropriate scheduled time.

Tom L's method works great for those items that ARE managed during your discretionary time.

Seraphim,
My experience confirms that validity of your point. SF incorporated my morning routine without skipping a beat. This morning (before I read your post) I stipulated that I was in nondiscretionary mode, hence, non-FV mode. What I found is that I can use one list, but use it in different modes.
So, I went to the top of yesterday's list, where I started my morning routine yesterday. Once I am done with my morning routine, I will enter discretionary FV mode.

Great post - this is just what I've been wondering about. I wanted to know in what contexts others use FV. Ubi - great photo! Thanks for that, it's fascinating to see how others create their lists and systems, gives me ideas and Roger J - I'm going to check out Atul Gawande. I like structure but wanted the freedom and flow everyone has been talking about from the FV list. Thanks for all the great tips everyone. I plan to incorporate FV in to my discretionary time, which I did for a while but realised I was making my chains too long. I ended up just referencing the list just like a master list and writing out the tasks on a seperate sheet of paper to prevent myself feeling overwhelmed. Obviously this is a method that could be used for the FV but I think it is a bit disjointed. Now I feel I have ideas to really make the FV part of my own system and use it to its full potential.

For the first time in a very long while, I feel like I've had a truly productive day. Not just busy, but doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I've been using FV—and realizing it's better than anything else I've ever tried—but I still wasn't spending my time in the right way.

This "checklist" post changed all that. I bought the book and started reading it last night, made some checklists in Clear, and am off and running.

So, thanks to everyone who posted on this thread. You've helped me enormously.

If you're using EN Desktop/Android for FV, checklist is very nicely integrated.

Each notes/items/tasks can have a body with list of checkboxes (checklist). Nice. I'm currently using it by consolidating a number of related tasks into one task with checklist checkboxes.

Thanks for these comments, especially the tips about using electronic methods. I'll check out the Android stuff as I don't have an IPhone - useful to hear methods though of using these various Apps, so appreciate that. Thanks v much!

There is an Iphone app - Accomplist which allows you to mail the checklist to yourself or anybody for printing or ticking off. Great idea

Every morning I paste a copy of my “morning checklist” at the bottom of my FV list.
I delete some of the items from the list if they aren’t applicable that day (for example I have “clear all tables” which I might delete if the tables are already clear), and I put a dot on the ones I want to do before I continue on yesterday’s chain.

I delete items rather than reenter them iff they are done for the day.

I'm running FV in Evernote and so my checklists are single entries where the checklist is the content of the note. Rather than recreating the note every time I need it, I just update the date modified to move it to the bottom of my list once I'm done with it.