Get Everything Done

Mark, it's been asked since the trail-blazing days of December 2008:

What happens if something new, important AND urgent comes up during processing the chain?

How do I handle appointments? And projects?

Two for me:

"Should tea-breaks/rest-breaks etc be written into the task-list?"

And,

"Should long-term projects - e.g. writing a book - be included in the system or blocked-off at a set time every day?"

How to conquer with (very) long lists
What to do if the task-chain gets interrupeted - where to catch up respectivelly generate a new chain
how to minimize rewriting
what to do if first unfinished task can't not be done due to context, time etc.

What was not clear for me during first reading (but I must admit, the instructions are very clear, after re-reading you can understand the system fully): Do you go from the currently preselected task only to the bottom of the list or when you reach the bottom (and find nothing to do "before") you can start from the top of the list again? Do you choose only the first task from the list "which you want to do before..." or you can choose more tasks? Do you compare tasks against the first preselected (on the top of the list) or against the last preselected task?

As I said - you can find all answers in the instructions, but maybe more readers will have difficulties to understand it by first reading.

1. Is there a limit to the length of the chain, and what is a typical length?
2. How do you handle dismissal in the new system?

Locations / contexts.

Checklists - when to pull them out, when to leave them in.

Clarifications of the question, and common mistakes.

I think fleshing out examples and case studies might be necessary, sometimes even examples of doing it wrong. There's plenty of material here for a book. Sometimes we need to spend several hundred words on a concept. It's too easy to read a line, think we understand, and move on before it sinks in. Also, since many of the answers are "it depends on your situation and brain", maybe examples of two different ways, working and not working. Definitely beyond the scope of an FAQ.

In the first FV newsletter you mentioned two topics that you'd address in the future, and I'm waiting with high anticipation. Please write more about:

1. How to run projects with FV

2. Using the Little and Often principle with FV

If you make a mistake in chain selection, e.g. you realize you want to do #3 before #2, is it better to A) deselect 2 and re-select it (perhaps depending on your response to The Question) B) do 3, then 2, or C) force yourself to do at least some of 2 before 3.

I was doing C, but now think that A) often works best.

Is there one place to learn everything I need to know to use Final Version?

I would like it if you would address the issue of multitasking. There are some tasks that can be done simultaneously (exercise, listen to audiobook, do laundry), and this seems to present a diversion from the usual way of working the list.

A few possible FAQ questions:

- What are the rules for adding new items to my preselect list?

- What are the rules for removing items from my preselect list?

- In what situations can/should I abandon my current preselect list and choose another one?

- How often should I be cycling through the list (ie, completing my preselect list and choosing the next one)?

Thanks!

- Erik.

For me the big one is integrating projects into FV.

I assume I should probably keep the list of projects and plans for them outside FV and transfer the next set of upcoming tasks into FV on a regular basis.

But tips, best ways of doing this etc, would be great.

- Ian

Hi. Testing FV now, and since my work is mainly project based, with projects that can last for weeks, I'm also interested at specific methods for project handling. For now, I just noted how in stress days I tend to break the method skipping the First unactioned item and going straight to my commitments. Infact, if I have a time consuming First unactioned item, I just can't think of completing it in such days. I mean, in more relaxed days it's a great pull to do things, and I already proved it to be a very good method, but it does not fit all my situations. So I was wandering if there should be some rules for particularly big tasks that cannot be broken down in chunks and how to deal with them.
Or maybe I should just delete the tasks that I can't deliver in some occasion and reinsert them at the end of the list. I don't like doing it though, I almost feel I'm cheating the system.

@ Lorenzo: << Infact, if I have a time consuming First unactioned item, I just can't think of completing it in such days. >>

Remember that you don't have to complete a task at all in the first run. If you do, that's great! Otherwise, just do "little and often" to move the task towards completion.

Ciao.

@Alan Baljeu
Hi Alan. Not exactely. I have used SuperFocus from last October, but I often broke it in the same manner: from time to time I have to face a project and dive in it really deep, that it means that I work 10-12 hours a day. In those situations I can't manage to follow no system at all, I just go with my pace. When times are more relaxed both systems has proven their strenghts, but I definitely prefer FV cause it forces me to consider all the list every cycle of actions and face the older items on the list. With SF I tended to stuck too much in one page, maybe because I wanted unconsciously to fulfill the page, I don't know. Also with SF I tended to let it go a bit when times were really calm, as if I thought I had all the time in the world so there was no need to follow the list. Off course that stagnation did not help me, putting me in bad attitude to do whatever thing I was planning.
A worst stop also happens typically when I finish a big project, as I feel a great emptyness (lack of adrenaline must have a part in it). Then, I slowly recover and in a week or so I can get back to rhythm, or not.
It's really hard for me, and it's not uncommon for freelances. I know other people that have similar problems.
It's too early to judge FV but for now I suspect it's way better for me then SF in a normal situation.
But I'd like to use it more extensively, also during hard pressure days. I'll keep trying.

@Stefano F. Rausch

You're right, but there are some tasks that just take much time and you can't work that way. ES go in some place relatively far, or visit some public office you know you'll spend an entire morning ecc.

@ Lorezo: I might be totally off-track here, however, your examples suggest that:

"If the first task on the list can't be done now for some valid reason (e.g. wrong time of day, precondition not met, bad weather), then cross it out and re-enter it at the end of the list. Use the next task as your starting benchmark."

should be applied in your situation. Same would be applicable when you are "deep" in a project. Your judgement in that moment is the correct one and hence you should follow your "inner voice" - as long as it is not a way to escape certain tasks ;)

Ha! You're perfectly right Stefano, I would have read better the rules.. but I hope to take further control of my projects too in the future with the help of FV or some other system. I'm sure there's a sort of training to use the method in the right way.
And thanks for the advice Will, I'm going to apply it the next time I have similar situation. At least that sound less like chating, there's a reason for such a decision and I'm not posponing arbitrarily.
So thank you both guys.