Get Everything Done

Hello FV forum,

I wanted to share this table:
____________________________________________________
1 minute → 1 minute
2 minutes → 3 minutes
3 minutes → 6 minutes
4 minutes → 10 minutes
5 minutes → 15 minutes
6 minutes → 21 minutes
7 minutes → 28 minutes ~ 1/2 hour
8 minutes → 36 minutes
9 minutes → 45 minutes
10 minutes → 55 minutes ~ 1 hour
11 minutes → 66 minutes ~ 1 hour
12 minutes → 78 minutes
13 minutes → 91 minutes ~ 1.5 hours
14 minutes → 105 minutes
15 minutes → 120 minutes = 2 hours
16 minutes → 136 minutes
17 minutes → 153 minutes
18 minutes → 171 minutes ~ 3 hours
19 minutes → 190 minutes
20 minutes → 210 minutes ~ 3.5 hours
21 minutes → 231 minutes ~ 4 hours
22 minutes → 253 minutes ~ 4.25 hours
24 minutes → 300 minutes = 5 hours
25 minutes→ 325 minutes ~ 5.5 hours
26 minutes → 351 minutes ~ 6 hours
30 minutes → 465 minutes = 7.75 hours ~ 8 hours
_________________________________________________________________

It is a ‘Decremental Timebox → Real (=Full) Time Conversion Table’. I did not make it. Instead I stumbled on it from this site:
http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/decremental-timebox-%E2%86%92-real-time-conversion-table

*******Why is it handy?:********

-You can build up to or build down from a set of minutes and automatically see what amount of time will be used. Vice versa.

-See 'How to crack a difficult task': http://www.markforster.net/blog/2008/10/15/how-to-crack-a-difficult-task.html . (This technique and similar topics has been discussed many times on the forum elsewhere, along with timeboxing, and pomodoros, etc.)

-Invest your time wisely when applying little and often. Have more structure in your day. And be more systematic and predictive when determining chain lengths/work loads throughout the day.

******How someone could use it?:******

-FV. Built a chain of say 15 items? Complete the chain in 2 hours, by working the first task for 15 minutes, the next for 14 minutes, the next for 13 minutes, all the way to the root for 1 minute. Repeat as many chains as you want, or increase the time spent. The point is your highest priority item gets the most work time spent on it.

-Alt FV. Same as above. Most resistant item gets the most work time spent on it.
Built a chain of 30 items? expect ~8 hours of work.

-AF/SF ..Any system including little and often: can benefit from timeboxing to prevent too little, too much and perfectionism with working tasks.

-Suppose you have ~1 hour till’ the next appointment but want to work task X. Instead of saying I’ll work task X for 1 hour (daunting)...consider saying I’ll work 7 minutes on X, take a short break, then 6 minutes etc. You may even change tasks completely.

-Be creative with the table. The ways I mentioned above work for me. Its not 1 size fit all.

Of course someone is bound to say something like: 5 minutes +4 minutes +3 minutes + 2 minutes + 1 minute is still 15 minutes of work regardless of how you break it down. Yes. But, the ‘trick’ is simply to motivate you to start with ‘do 5 minutes of work’ rather than ‘do 15 minutes of work’’. The point of timeboxing is to increase intensity/focus during a short period of time.

Anyways, hope this helps others. It is a very very handy table. It has allowed me to concentrate on ‘little and often’ and it has brought a lot of structure to my days this week.

Most importantly, because I have structured my day and ‘predetermined’ how little and often I would work on items in my chains, I have been able to work my way to 8 chains per day (from 2 chains per day 3 days ago). And that isn’t ‘get out the folder’ type of work completed either. I would reasonably say that it was ‘significant dent type’ progress on each task. I expect it to get better!

Very interesting idea. Think I'll try and give this a crack as I do often have very fragmented days (meeting based culture). So this does seem it could do some good as the slots would be bite sized even for the first chain item given 1-2 hours free to actually do some work;)
Thanks for posting
G.

I like this! A lot!

It's actually fun to look at timeboxes this way. I cleared my basement in about 28 minutes. This surprised me because I have been avoiding it since winter thinking it would take me about 2 hours.

I built up starting with 1 minute of clearing everything I could. Stopped. Went to a different corner of the room and cleaned for 2 minutes. Stopped. Went to another corner for 3 minutes. Stopped. Etc just cycling around the room doing whatever that stuck me as ‘ready to be done’ with no rest. By the 7minute batch my basement was cleared!? The only rest I had was to reset my timer.

By just changing to something new each time that the timer rang and doing a bit more each time I had fun doing a dreadful and overestimated task. This got me rethinking about how I used timeboxes and the little and often technique.

Next, I tried it with yard work which included: mowing lawn, sprinkle grass seed, rake, throw triple mix soil, relay stones about perimeter of garden, put out chairs, put out table, setup gazebo and water lawn. Again exceeded my expectations!

Although I didn't complete everything, I definitely made surprisingly good progress and enjoyed doing it. The reason I stopped is because I didn't want to spend more than 45 minutes as my tv show was coming on. (I started from a 9 minute batch and decreased by a minute each time. ) I did all but water the lawn and properly relay stones. it's supposed to rain anyway ;)

Today was my day off and I read this in good time. Tomorrow at work I will try it with FV chains to see if I can work the magic there too.

in theory, I think this will work really well for the FV chains as you described. It makes sense as you described. And I think it will be motivating and sensible to decrease the amount as you move closer to the root.

I will have to try it fully. Thanks for sharing. I'm going to print the table for my notebook.

@ GredD:

To save having to consult the table, you can use a little mental arithmetic: N tasks correspond to 1/2 x N x (N+1) minutes in total.

Thus, 15 tasks will take 1/2 x 15 x 16 = 15 x 8 = 120 minutes.

GMBW has an interesting idea here. I certainly need something to speed up the rate at which I get through chains. But I'd need to compare this with different approaches, which I won't discuss here to avoid derailing the thread.

Chris

@ GMBW : Great stuff! Thanks a lot for hinting at it.

I tried it out for a project I am working on and am very positive about it. Comparing it with the Pomodoro Technique, which has fixed time bursts to work with, I like the Decremental Time Box approach much more. It does suite me better, being even flexible in handling the breaks!

Cheers

I've been traveling and had poor Internet lately.

@Grim
I too have fragmented days. The table works very well to squeeze in appropriate chunks of time.  Obviously, if you have something like 2 hours until your next meeting, it is wise to choose a starting time of 14 minutes (decrementing) and not 15 minutes (decrementing). This is to account for breaks,  unplanned interruptions or unforseen distractions / pauses.

For an FV chain, even if some unplanned interruption (like a meeting) makes its way to pause progression towards the root task, you can be rest assured that you made consistent proportional progress towards it in manageable chunks of work. This tends to put your mind at ease when returning to your work after the meeting.

I’d like to hear how you come along with it. Like, What works for you and what doesn't. 

@GregD
Glad it is  working for you so far with tasks. Interested to hear about your experience with chains.

Regarding printing and placing the table in your notebook-->You could easily create the table in a spreadsheet as well. I have the table on my phone, at my desk, on the fridge, on my wall and online. (It is a bit overboard  but I hate not being able to find things:). 

@Chris
Thanks for the arithmetic trick!  I new there was some kind of arithmetic formula from one of my old math texts.  But to avoid being accused of adding overhead to the FV system, I posted the table for reference  instead.  So for those good with math..use the clever formula. For those that aren’t so quick with math...refer to the table. :)

When you've given it a few tries, I'd like to hear any positive/negative feedback. 

@Stefano
<<I tried it out for a project I am working on and am very positive about it. Comparing it with the Pomodoro Technique, which has fixed time bursts to work with, I like the Decremental Time Box approach much more. It does suite me better, being even flexible in handling the breaks!>>

Glad to hear the positivity. The decremental timebox is my fav.  incremental timebox 2nd. There are others you can explore as well. (Pretty wild ones like ‘parabolic’ I haven’t experimented with yet simply because the simplest is easier to remember). I find decremental timeboxing to be the most suitable for FV chains/ladders. 

@ GMBW : I did read about some other exotic variants too. However, like you, I am more in favour of the simplicity of the original.

Tried it on a FV chain yesterday too. Again, first impression is positive so far. However, I would not like to always apply it on chains. Only, if I have a meeting coming up or other stuff, and I do need to make sure not to miss the plane - really quite handy!

@ ubi : You're right, there should be an app for it :)

@ubi. (I don't want to confuse others so this is really targeted for ubi. Feel free to ignore this post as I'm certain it will make someone complicate the technique/over analyze it when it's really simple) :)

Glad you like the idea. I think spending 1 minute  on the root is not as measly as you may think.  remember you can always build a chain with it next time. Or increase the time as you please. 

I think keeping the root at one minute keeps things simplest and systematic (even though it seems like it won't do much).  But if it's the oldest item, then most likely you just want to get it started anyways considering you've avoided it so long.  "get the folder out" type work on it should suffice. And would probably take no more than a minute. 

Anyways, everyone has there reasons. However, I would suggest a possible simpler way than write a program.  consider this:

If you don't want the root to be 1 minute just do a shift.  That is, Count the number of tasks you have in the chain and add the 'shift'.  This sounds more complicated then it really is. 

What do I mean?
Ex1. Suppose 1minute for the root task is too little. Say instead you are comfortable with 5minutes for the root instead.  Suppose you have  10 items in your chain. Start at 14 minutes. (not at 10 minutes). 

Ex. 2 Suppose 1minute for the root task is too little. Say instead you are comfortable with 7minutes for the root instead.  Suppose you have 12 items in your chain. Start at 18 minutes. (not at 12 minutes). 

This may take a bit of extra thought to calculate time available. If you look at the table , you'll see that example 1 would be 95 minutes and example 2 would be 132 minutes long.  If you can easily see this from the table above, within a few seconds then maybe this shift technique is for you. Otherwise, make your own table. I'm pretty great with math but feel as if calculating those things each time would be overhead even for me. 

Which is why I'd recommend just using the table starting from a minute. 

Also, I'd suggest taking breaks as you please for however long you please.  Generally , I take 5 minutes for every half hour of work (typical pomodoro way) But I could easily take 20 minutes break also.  Up to you. but once you get to items with smaller timeboxes you don't feel to take long breaks anymore.  That's kind of the beauty of working 'rediculously' smaller units like 1 minute. a minute or two of working deserves probably 10 seconds of break. YMMV

All said and done, of course you can make your own table and get creative with it. Make whatever works for you and is easiest to follow. 

@GMBW:

Experience with chains: works like a charm. I have been able to speed up chains per day. Yesterday I worked 4 chains. Which is a great increase for me. Before I was doing maybe a chain or two on good days. Also, the quality of work is much better simply because its intense portions of focused work.

Before not only was I doing less chains, but because the chains felt like moving through mollasses , I kind of just did easier work to just finish a chain or even worse just scrapping it when it felt stale the next day. My chains never feel stale. I usually crank through it.

The most items I've put in a single chain yesterday was 18 items. Had i not worked with timeboxes I think I would just linger on one of the first few tasks and take too long and 'dilly dally' and let time pass. With the time boxes, i set a kitchen timer to 18 minutes. and worked my way down. I didn't feel take a break in between each timebox though. Sometimes just switching from one task to another was a good enough break for me. Once I started getting to smaller timeboxes like 5 minutes, It became even more addicting (the whole chain itself is more fun btw).

Another thing I really like with this, is that it works with your energy levels. Meaning the more timeboxes I did, the less work I had to do in each successive timebox. This makes sense to me because generally I get tired near the end of a chain anyways but want to finish no matter what.

I also read the post on time mapping. Great stuff! That said, I would like to do something like that but with FV and the timeboxes you describe. I can`t see a way, but they are both very interesting techniques in their own way.

@Chris Cooper:

thanks for the math trick. its great. I will use it if for whatever reason I cant view my table. For me its just easier to look it up. Also, I like to look it up quickly , as things like 253 minutes is ~ 4.25 minutes isn't that obvious to me in my head.

@ubi:
I think your Matlab calc is neat. But from my experience, the table can give you a good enough approximation. I think knowing when you'll finish exactly may be a little too disciplined. Just take a break if you need it, and get back to work when you want as you'd normally do.

I find this idea intriguing and am starting to try it. But, admittedly with that background of ignorance, I do wonder: is an interval as short as 1-3 minutes any use at all, other than for "get out the file" self-tricking?

@David C 
I hear you. At first, it does seem gimmicky to work a 1-3 minutes of work on something. But, it's purpose is not for self tricking, it's moreso to motivate i) to make that minute or two count ii) to get started with the task and move on iii) to have a better understanding of how much/ what to do next time. 

In regards to its application to a projects/tasks: I'd definitely work with the table as is.  I can't really advise against it.  

In regards to FV chains:
Don't be discouraged to work only 1 minute on the root task. why?

- its old. For it to get to the root , you've selected others before it numerous times. Its been neglected, teased, insulted and ignored too often :( If you really wanted to act on it, it would of been preselected and congregated to the end or middle by now.  So do your self a favor and just get it started or delete it. What better way to motivate yourself than to just do 1 minute of work? 

-it's one minute this time, but if you feel to act on it more then select it in a later chain. the time will add up. even if next time you can only work on it for 3 minutes. Think about it realistically : the less time you work on something you really want to do, the more you will crave it, and the more it will select it in later chains. If  you avoid it completely, it will end up in the root again. 

Don't be discouraged to work N minutes on a non root task. Why?
Lets say N is 10 ( to make the example simple) 
-is a solid focused 10 minutes on a task  really to little?
-----no? Great! It will pay off in the long run ( not so long run). Continue. 
-----yes? ok, but why not work the easy 10 minutes of work  now and Select it again in another chain after about 55 minutes of work (plus breaks). 

Still not convinced? Feel free to make a personal table for yourself with more appropriate starting values. It won't change the technique. 

@Navigare
<<I am only wondering about mind shifting to other tasks costs. There are several studies which proves that you need at least 15 minutes to get into flow state. Do we loose something here?>>

I'm not familiar with this.  But, I'm assuming flow state is a state where you know what to do and are just doing it. If that is true, I would say it is dependent on the person. Therefore, it is best to try it out and adjust if necessary.  Your adjustment may be to add 15 minutes to each row of the table. But also remember, that you can apply this method on a single task or project or goal and not just chains of work.  Also, checklists  (for routines and other stuff ) are great aids to jump in and know exactly what to do. They can also be made in a minute or so. 

<<In some tasks I really need some time to get off from the earth and use a lot of self-discipline to start, shifting back and forth seems to be wasting this efforts (thruth is, I don't like my job much). >>

Also, remember you can take breaks  if you need it and as you please. Enough to get you ready to work on the next timebox. For me, I take breaks as I feel. But usually my break from one task is to do another. So the task switching is actually relieving for me. I hate doing something boring for more than I have to. And I don't like to over indulge on something I like to do at the expense of something that also needs attention. This is why I think task switching is a good thing ( of course in an appropriate manner). But if I'm working on the task, it is the only thing that I work on and has my undecided attention and focus for the entire timebox.

Cricket answered replied to this quite well. Thanks Cricket

@GregD
<<I also read the post on time mapping. Great stuff! That said, I would like to do something like that but with FV and the timeboxes you describe. I can`t see a way, but they are both very interesting techniques in their own way.>>

It depends on how you set up your time map.  There are several examples that could help you set one up or get an idea for what may be appropriate for you. The key is to determine a few priorities and alot appropriate times towards them. Then make it a routine. 

Once you've decided your map categories, and the times, you build lists to reflect them. Later any stuff that pops up go on those lists as well. 

When those blocks of time come around during the week just apply  any system you want to.  In your case, FV with timeboxes. 

Example: One time map section maybe  "Priority xyz" and is from 9-noon. In this case, you may find it appropriate to either: i) build a chain to fill up the time (i.e. 18 items would be ideal), ii) build a few chains to reflect the time available until noon (i.e. Chains less than 18 items), or iii) do whatever work that feels ready to be done for 'xyz' using timeboxes and breaks. (i.e. Work xyz for 18 minutes. Stop. Work xyz for 17 minutes. Stop. ......). 

The time maps are great ways to proportion your time towards priorities. And timboxing is a good way to keep you focused, motivated and not trying to perfect everything. You really get more done when you budget your time and enforce limits. It's a great combination. 

@ubi
BTW, I checked out the free Pronto app. thanks.
Unfortunately, the sucker in me purchased an app called Nag. So I'll have to use that to get my money's worth.

Chain Timer (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chain-timer/id289981961?mt=8) should be perfect for this purpose.

@ Cog : nearly perfect … unfortunately it does force you to pause the current chain instead of starting the next time box session in the chain :( I would like to decide, if I am ready for the next session or if I would like to have a break :)

I just passed the 2 week mark, and wanted to share some progress, positive feedback and negative feedback since I started with timeboxing. It might be insightful to others interested.

1. ~Chains per day: 2 weeks ago (May 27) I was averaging around 2 chains per day. After 3 days of working with timeboxes (May 30) I jumped to averaging 8 chains per day. Recently, (up till June 10th) I have been able to do 9 chains per day max*. This is not as high as I anticipated statistically. But, nonetheless I am quite happy. I'm sure the plateau is based on what I can handle per day, but then again I've been travelling quite a bit.

2. ~Cycles: I have looped my FV list! By loop, I mean some of my oldest tasks have become a root task twice. This is pretty impressive since I haven’t been able to do this ever since I started FV. And I occasionally, did so with AF or SF. This is an indication that I’m doing more on my list than I am adding to it. Best conclusion I can draw :) Still, I feel more in control and the old tasks soon won't be so old.

3. ~1 minute: I have to retract some of my defenses about the smaller timeboxes. Sometimes a few minutes just doesn’t 'feel' enough. I realized this for some tasks and not for others. The best solution for me: Just ignore it or select it the next chain. Over analyzing is wasting precious time. Over analyzing things like this causes me to waste time because I'm trying to be perfectly efficient and perfectly prioritized to the point where I reach analysis paralysis and not do as much as I could have.

4. ~Mental tasks: Mental tasks (‘consider’, ‘think about’...etc.) just don't feel suitable for timeboxes. I have been removing them completely from my FV list. That way, all my items are strictly physical actions**. I can squeeze physical actions into any timebox. But my thoughts are too open ended and I don't like to rush my thoughts. Instead I do mental tasks during brainstorm sessions, quiet times, night, even during breaks.

5. ~Projects: Each week I schedule a large block of time for my most important-resistant-unthought-out project I want to do. I start from a 25 minute timebox and work my way to a 1 minute timebox. This kills*** 2 birds with one stone: makes a lot of progress and creates a bunch of unfinished bite size physical actions to go on my FV list for the rest of the week. Its like planning and doing in one shot. This saves me a lot of time.

*Its worth noting, that ‘generally’ my chains do not exceed about 12 items or so. Thats just based on how the FV question works. There's no particular reason I can’t do more or force myself to do less. Sometimes my answer to 'What do I want to do before x?' is 'nothing' early in the preselection and sometimes its 'Nothing' late in the preselection

**By physical actions, I’m referring to anything I can physically do. (i.e. like make coffee, prepare report, call samantha NOT: ‘think about’ report, consider event, chocolate or vanilla?, brainstorm project).

***I don’t actually want to kill birds.

@ GMBW : thanks for the insight. I did have a similar experience and that's the reason why I have settled with decremental time boxing for ( 1 ) projects and ( 2 ) "time consuming" single tasks I do want to work off efficiently without wandering off ;)

@Stefano:
There's a setting that allows you to "Treat a chain as a single timer" that gets rid of the automatic pauses between sub-timers. Turn that on and you can still pause manually whenever you like. I've set up a chain that starts at 25 minutes, decrements down to one and increments back up to 25. Then all I have to do is decide how much time I have and start with the appropriate sub timer based on the table above. Simple, flexible, effective.

Perfect after all, then ;-)

P.S. I have nothing to do with the Makers of CT. I just think it works well for this purpose.

Mistake on the above post (Why aren't these editable?)
Read: " ... a chain that starts at 1, increments up to 25 and decrements back down to 1."

@ Cog : Thanks for the clarification and it seems to be a good choice for the iPhone.

@ GMBW,
<< 4. ~Mental tasks: Mental tasks (‘consider’, ‘think about’...etc.) just don't feel suitable for timeboxes. I have been removing them completely from my FV list. That way, all my items are strictly physical actions**. >>

Where do you keep your mental tasks? On a separate mental task list which is/is not another FV list? How do you choose what to work with?

@pkNystrom

<<Where do you keep your mental tasks? On a separate mental task list which is/is not another FV list? >>

For the tasks I must think about, I keep them separate from my FV list. They get jotted down in on one page in my native notes app on my phone.  

When I have my time to think about it, I'll relax, choose something, take out a sheet of paper and brainstorm, list pros/cons, list new actions,  answer questions, solve problem, whatever is necessary etc. 

When I come up with some physical tasks , I'll just put them on my FV list. When I'm done thinking about something, I make sure to extract the actions and delete/archive the note. 

<<How do you choose what to work with ?>>
I just choose whatever I feel.  I suppose you could choose based on FV but I never considered it. 

@Cog : Thanks for the recommendation.

@Mark Forster

lol. I'm sensing sarcasm.  

I knew you used incremental timeboxing  from the 'how to crack a difficult task' post.  But I didn't know it was in your book.  I apologize. :)

In any case, it's pretty convenient combined with FV.  You should give it a try and give feedback.  I've been looking for negative feedback from others to see if somethings been overlooked. 

But so far it's mostly been positive. 

I've found http://www.chromeextensions.org/utilities/timerset/ , a free multiple countdown timer that is an add in to Google Chrome.

I set the timers to 1, 3 ,6 ,10 minutes so that they go off at intervals of 1, 2, 3 and 4 minutes etc.

I just passed the 4 week mark of my trial of FV with timeboxing. Here’s an update, stats and brief discussion.

1.~Chains per day (average): May 27th- around 2 chains per day at best. May 30th- 8 chains per day. June 10th- 9 chains per day. June 24th- 9 chains per day.

I haven’t increased the chains per day since last update. If I really pushed myself I’m certain it’s possible to reach higher values. However, I have unavoidable meetings, events and commitments throughout the day which take up blocks of daily task time. Also, I have to rest properly, eat properly, and commute places like everyone else. If I suddenly start averaging higher than this, then most likely I’m overworking. If I suddenly start averaging below this, then I’m probably slacking.

2.~Cycles: Based on the oldest incomplete item currently on my list, it has become a root item for the 4th time.

Again, I’m very proud of this. Even though I haven’t increased my chains per day, the consistency of this method over time has allowed all the items to be “touched” at least once or deleted. Tasks becoming stale is not an issue.

3.~Projects: 3 out of 4 projects are complete. The 4th project has tasks scattered on my list soon to be completed. I’m happy with this.

As I stated from the last update post, on a weekly basis, I find my most important resistant project that needs work/breaking down then spend a large block of time working on this project alone. I usually start from a 25 minute timebox and work down to a minute (5.5hrs of work and some breaks in between). The remaining tasks get worked on throughout the week. I’ve been doing this routinely for 4 weeks now. These are the projects I am referring to.

General notes: I’m going to toot my own horn and say overall I’ve been getting great results with this method. Some things that have helped and should create excellent results.

-Sticking with it. Being consistent, regardless of how silly it seems to work a few mins. on a task.
-Breakdown whenever possible. Using a minute to breakdown a task into smaller pieces makes things run smoother.
-Take breaks as needed and as long as you want. But don’t abuse breaks if its not necessary. i.e. 5 minutes of work doesn’t really need a break but 25 minutes of work may.
-Make each timebox count, filled with focus and no distractions. Don’t multitask.
-Make each task as clear to you as possible so you can jump in and work. Don’t waste some of your timebox figuring out what the task is about. (I recommend (Get)____ structure for those that need to use it).
-Keep your list filled with physical items. The mental items are difficult to timebox.
-Be aware of your calendars events and refer to the table to squeeze in work time wherever possible.
-Create checklists for recurring items. Make them efficient. i.e. washing dishes could seem like 30 minutes, but with an efficient checklist it could be more like 5 minutes.

@Hugo 
The timer app you recommended is very very tempting. But because of my past as an 'app junkie', I'm forcing myself to save my money and not buy anymore apps for at least a few months. But it looks perfect for timeboxing. 

@David C
I have tried the chrome extension and in the fashion you rec.  thank you   It works very well.  Usually everything done outside of my mobile is by using a basic manual egg timer but I'm sure this comes in handy. 

@ubi
I'm glad you're enjoying it. continuing to a logical breakpoint makes sense and adding a extra few minutes if absolutely positively necessary for the task makes sense. But by not stopping, you sacrifice a bit of time and effort towards another task. I find it very liberating to have discipline to start and stop things on time.  It's a bit challenging sometimes but it's very motivating to trust your commitments of time you say you'll work.    

Obviously if you have a call, and the times up, you would simply wrap up the call the best way possible and not just abruptly hang up. But if a report is being written and the time is up, it's best to just stop, save the document, leave the program and not try to write that extra paragraph. 

On a side note / huge tangent, I know from a previous post, one of your goals was working out/stronger shoulders and arms. Have you heard about Tabata training ( http://tabatatraining.org/ )? I have been adding it in my FV list lately and they seem to describe very well the power of a few minutes. 

Regarding your Clear setup, it sounds pretty interesting. I'm wondering if it's just easier to count the tasks selected and not append the times to the tasks line ? For me , if I have say: 9 selected tasks, I know my time is 9 minutes on the next task in the chain.  if I have 8 , then 8 min. And so on. 
 

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, but not to FV that I've been happily using (thanks Mark :-) since it has been released.

I will definitely give the decremental timeboxing a try. I think it may Well solve some of my problems with FV, such as the tendency to preselect too long chains considering the time available.

I think that a very useful IPhone/IPad timer for this purpose may be an app called 'seconds'. It use it regularly for my running interval training. it is highly customizable. you can set manually a chain specifying the length of each interval as well as setting breaks of any length after each burst. it has also a voice synthesizer that speaks out loud each interval. The paid version allows to save all timers so you could setup all the timers you need according to the timeboxing table early posted by GMBW.

a review about seconds
http://www.macstories.net/iphone/seconds-review/

Hi Michael,
I am not sure I have understood precisely what you mean by "Results Curve".

Is it a way to use the decremental timeboxing method to a single task or else?
how does it work?

thanks

I am really intrigued by the decremental timeboxing applied to FV.

I was actually a big fan of the incremental timeboxing proposed by Mark in his GTD: It helped me a lot to overcome procrastination in the past and I still use it from time to time when I'm really stuck. the problem is that it doesn't work in the long term for me. Although it is excellent for a jump-start, after a while I find it stressful, probably because the time length of each time burst increases, whereas energy tends to wane.

Back to the decremental timeboxing applied to a chain of tasks, I am trying to figure out how to apply in practice (basically some 'rules').

for instance, let's suppose that I have an hour for working at the FV list. this would make, according to the timeboxing table provided by GMBW, a 10 task chain length with a decremental timeboxing starting from 10 minutes.

If a task is not completed during its allotted timebox it will be rewritten, according to the FV rules, to the end of the list. 

Instead, if a task is completed it gets crossed off from the list. However, as it is unlikely that every task will be finished exactly when the timebox is over, how to deal with the remaining time? for instance, if I am working within a 8 min timebox and I'm done with the task after 4 min, what am I supposed to do with the remaining 4 mins? Possibilities:

a) end the timebox now and move to the next timebox/item. 

b) use the remaining timebox time to start working on the next item that, hence, it will have a longer timebox than originally planned (its own timebox + the residual of the previous one).

c) use the remaining timebox time to work further on an item that was not completed in an earlier timebox (in case of multiple uncompleted tasks, which one?)

solutions b) and c) are focused on completing items and thus may be more attractive for the mind in its quest for completeness, but the disadvantage may be that this going back and forth across tasks may lead to loss of momentum. Particularly, I guess that momentum is kept by the feeling that you have only a very limited amount of time for working for a given task: this feeling and momentum may get lost with the artificial elongation of the timebox. Also, remaining attached too long to a task may interfere with cognitive flexibility (I.e. the ability to  switching abruptly between tasks) that is very important to keep the attention mechanisms sustained and focused.

These problems would not occur with option a) whose main downside would be to generate a number of unfinished. however, it is also true that by finishing earlier some tasks, the unfinished ones could be built in a new shorter chain for the remaining time, thus making the system flowing smoothly. I think this solution was also suggested by Mark in GTD regarding time bursts, is it possible?

What would you suggest?

Fabio:
~Regarding ‘basic rules’,~
It sounds as if you have the concept spot on. I’ll re-iterate through examples to clarify.
Suppose you have an hour until your next meeting, then you would decrement from 10 minutes, since adding all the timeboxes gives 55 minutes of work. Suppose you build a chain with 13 items, then this chain would require 91 minutes of work. The momentum really builds by having the discipline to start and stop on time by sticking to the timeboxes. Rest as needed but don’t abuse.

~ Question: <<as it is unlikely that every task will be finished exactly when the timebox is over, how to deal with the remaining time?>> ~

Again, you have the concept spot on in your solutions a, b and c. All work well and neither have a major disadvantage to worry too much about. ‘Consuming’ a task with a larger timebox happens very frequently and it really feels good to finish a task and still have time left over.

Suggestions:
-I usually choose solution ‘b’ because I feel a snowball effect which builds more momentum/motivation for me to continue.

-And yes, solution ‘a’ makes the system run smoothly because there is less thinking involved such as: ‘add this residual time to this’ etc. Its just straightforward militant logic ‘ this is item 10 so it gets 10 minutes, break, this is item 9 so it gets 9 minutes, break...”

-Solution ‘c’ introduces a bit of choice/extra thought and nitpickiness. That said, I personally wouldn’t choose this because my indecisiveness costs me too much time and fiddling. My target is to keep the system as smooth as possible with no unnecessary slowing down.

I don’t want to go into nittygritty details but there is a lot going on behind the scenes for each case you presented. I’ll let you think it through since, discussing all will confuse/derail the thread. For instance, that snowball effect (solution b) tacks on a larger time to a smaller timebox. If you think about it, the smaller the timebox, the closer it is to the root, hence the older the task, but you still want to do it before a bunch of other (even smaller timeboxed items). So yeah ,right now, it makes the most sense in every form to tack that extra time onto the task so you have to do less on it next time.

So your highest priorities get time consumed/completed and any unfinished items will recieve incremental timeboxing as Mark described here (June 20, 2012 at 14:15). Thus, pushing it closer to completion. Eventually, all tasks must get to the point of being ‘consumed’ by a larger timebox. So you can’t really go wrong. It all works out. You should focus moreso on i) preselecting your chains to reflect your priorities and then ii) commiting to starting on time, stopping on time and relaxing as you need it.

@Michael B.

thank you, I had missed that thread.

In the light of decreasing timeboxing, how would you approach that single task?