Get Everything Done

First time post and my issue is pretty simple: I never get through my pre-selected list. I created my original pre-selected list and while I have been able to put a dent in it every day, I never seem to complete it such that I actually accomplish the final to-do item. The day ends with a handful of items remaining (which I place back into the master list w/exception of the one original to-do). The following morning I create a new pre-select list and the pattern starts all over again. I'm not sure if I am implementing incorrectly, making the pre-select too long, or just not getting enough done in the day. Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks,
BB

Hi Blake,

You don't have to make a new pre-selection each morning, you can just keep on going up the same pre-selected list. You only need to make a new pre-selection if the old one has become irrelevant for some reason.

If you feel that yes, the list is becoming irrelevant each time, then eventually your frustration will affect your preselection: "what do I want to do before this task that has been sitting at the top of the chain for the past three days? (quick scan) Nothing." Boom, do it.

Also bear in mind that you don't have to *complete* each item you've selected, only do *some* work on it, so that's another place where you have control over how you get through the chain.

Hope this helps,
John

All of John's advice is spot on. And yes, you may be making your pre-list too long. How many items do you typically add?

All, what John and Zack suggested + remember that you are not preparing "today list" or "closed list" like in DIT. You can repeat preselecting and going through the list more times a day. You just select several task to move on - it is up to you (and your experimenting with the system what works best) if preselected list will have three items or ten items. When you are done, you preselect again - and it can be 10 minutes or 10 hours from your last preselection. Also - very important - as John said - you do not have to complete the task, this is not GTD/next step approach. Just move on with the task until you feel like you are finished for the moment. It can be as short as only "thinking about what to do first and what to prepare" in "make order in garage" task. And then cross it, re-write it at the end of the list and go to next preselected task. And also - some days have many appointments and predefined work, it is OK not to use FV at all until you have discretionary time again - I would not preselect long list if I know I have to start half-day long appointment in 30 minutes...

I found that with a long list of items to be done, there is a big difference between asking "what do I want to do this time through" and "what do I want to do before the previous dotted item". With a long list I now ask the former question because I found it took me too long to cycle through. Other people may not have that problem - it depends on the length of the list you have and how much time you have that you have the freedom to work on your list.

I create projects when I find I have around 5+ items that relate to the same matter and put the project as one item on the main list. Then when I select the project to act on, I use the dot system within that next level down and because I typically have around 5-ten items on a project list I use the second question for that.

This means that I cycle through far more regularly on the main list

Mike

I have ~10-12 pre-selects, but admittedly have not taken advantage of the "nibble" approach (instead getting hung up on an item until it is completely finished. While it probably goes against the spirit of FV, I will also make an effort to shorten the list. It seems that unduly long lists negate the strength of FV to weed out the stagnant non-actioned items. Thank you for your advice.

I have an interesting phenomenon about the length of the chain that I have observed. I decided for the heck of it to track the age of the FV list by putting each new date to the left of my list whenever I start a new day. The idea is to honour the principle of having as much stuff coming in to your day as you have going out. When I started, it took a long time to get through the list and some of my stuff was a month old before I got to it. Now I have a few items that are about 6 days old, but that's it. What I've noticed (for me) is that on average I have about 10 - 12 new items per day. Guess how long my chain is? I try to keep it to about 10 - 12 items if I can. My goal is to have the list only a day old - hard to do with some deadline items, but it creates an amazing feeling of accomplishment the younger the list is. The younger the list, the better I feel.