To Think About . . .

It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you place the blame. Oscar Wilde

 

 

 

My Latest Book

Product Details

Also available on Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, and other Amazons and bookshops worldwide! 

Search This Site
Log-in
Latest Comments
My Other Books

Product Details

Product Details

Product Details

The Pathway to Awesomeness

Click to order other recommended books.

Find Us on Facebook Badge

FV and FVP Forum > DIT, DWM2, 3T, AF2, AF3, AF4, AF4R, SF3?

If you could use just one of Mark's systems listed above for the next year, which would you choose. To be clear, the following are not acceptable answers to this question:

"None."
"AF1"
"FV"
Any system not listed above.

Tweaks or hybrid systems involving only those listed above are acceptable answers.
July 7, 2012 at 1:02 | Registered CommenterMichael B.
I posted this question here as opposed to the General Forum as I'd like to hear from an FV-centric audience.
July 7, 2012 at 3:12 | Registered CommenterMichael B.
AF4
July 7, 2012 at 10:47 | Registered CommenterFrank
SF3 with minor tweaks (today tasks, only selected started tasks to second column)
July 7, 2012 at 12:12 | Unregistered CommenterDaneb
If I were in that situation, then presumably I would be in prison or some other totalitarian environment where one was being forced to do something of this kind. If, at the moment, I found that I had the courage to do so, I would refuse to consent to participate, regardless of the consequences, on the principle of the thing.

If, under duress, I found that I could not resist participation, then I'd choose whatever system was appropriate to my totalitarian environment. Based on the written Gulag experiences of people like Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Fr Arseny Streltzov, Richard Wurmbrand, and so many others, I'd guess an urgency-based response system would be most appropriate. If I remember correctly, AF2 worked pretty well under those circumstances. So I'd choose AF2.

This would all fall apart if the guards took away my pen and notebook, however, as they most likely would do. I guess I'd have to keep the list in my head. Does that still count?

The most intriguing thing would be that a totalitarian regime has people in authority who read Mark's website. Thus, presumably, Mark would have been able to escape the Gulag himself and worked his way into a position of influence. Thus, I would have hope that Mark is still using Final Version in a secret attempt to free us all from the Gulag and overthrow the totalitarian regime. That task, "Take over the world", has always appeared on Mark's example task lists, so perhaps Mark is already laying the groundwork for such a contingency. Thus, we could probably rest assured that we would not be required to use the system for an entire year -- Mark would get us out before then. This makes my selection of AF2 all the more bearable.
July 7, 2012 at 17:24 | Registered CommenterSeraphim
Seraphim:

That is an acceptable answer.
July 7, 2012 at 17:43 | Registered CommenterMichael B.
Seraphim:

Personally, I would hope that Mark had all along presumed these events to unfold and had intended that the acronyms to his systems be combined into a long string to be entered into an alpha-numeric keypad at a high-security checkpoint out of the facility. Mark? Thoughts? Confirmation?
July 7, 2012 at 17:52 | Registered CommenterMichael B.
I *have* taken over the world and you are all already in the Gulag without even realizing it thanks to the mind-altering drugs my minions have put in the water supply in every country.

And they said I was mad - ha ha ha ha ha !!!!
July 7, 2012 at 19:45 | Registered CommenterMark Forster
Since AF1 is not a choice and I really am only proficient at AF1 and DIT (throught this book I found the site), I pick DIT. The reality for me is these two have the fewest rules so they resonate with me.

Good luck

Gerry
July 9, 2012 at 18:38 | Registered CommenterGerry
@ Mark,

Luckily for me, I don't drink water - I drink Kool-Aid, straight up and cyanide free. And everyone knows that Kool-Aid has only trace amounts of water in it solution of sugar and food coloring.

Besides, I'm one of your minions.

Now for the serious answer: I would use DWM2, modified to operate on 4 and 15 day cycles rather than 7 and 30. Additionally, I would occasionally make several passes through the list considering only unfinished Tasks, just to keep on top of my commitments. I'd pick this because I've done it already before FV came out, and it worked famously for me.
July 11, 2012 at 21:05 | Unregistered CommenterMiracle
DIT - never tried, but seems interesting
DWM2, 3T, AF2, AF3 - never
AF4, AF4R - yes
SF3 - only if I had to
July 11, 2012 at 21:37 | Registered CommenterAlan Baljeu
@ Alan Baljeu

I've never tried AF4R, but it tempts me. I particularly like the idea of spending a concentrated period of time wrestling only unfinished tasks to the ground. I'm considering integrating this into FV by marking my unfinished tasks on my FV list (ala DWM2) and creating at least one pre-selected task chain a day in which I consider ONLY the tasks that I've marked as unfinished.

But may I ask why you would give such endorsement to AF4R? What's the biggest draw to AF4R for you? What's the biggest drawback?

Thanks for sharing!
July 12, 2012 at 17:38 | Unregistered CommenterMiracle
"yes" is a "big endorsement"? Anyway, I like its segregation of old/new from active tasks, which allows me to focus on tasks for a while, yet I can also quickly get at new tasks, and I don't lOse track of old tasks.
July 12, 2012 at 19:47 | Registered CommenterAlan Baljeu
@Alan

And that segmentation is what I'm "salivating" over. And "yes" is a big endorsement IMHO, given my POV. Of all the productivity systems I've tried, Mark's work the best in a practical sense. And of (almost) all of Mark's systems, you would prefer AF4R... Which is exactly the one I've been eyeing.

Not wanting to stray from FV which has worked better for me than any other system I've ever tried, I've decided I will in fact give my tweak a 2 week test run:

1) Mark unfinished tasks on my FV list with a circle in the margin, where I usually put the dots for preselection. I'll use a circle so I can still put a dot in the middle of the circle to preselect that task.

2) For the first preseltion of every day, consider only tasks with circles in the margin. (ie: first dot the oldest open unfinished task as the root task, and ask "the question" of the following unfinished tasks only).

3) For all subsequent preselections that day, proceed as normal FV. (ie: first dot the oldest open task on the whole list, and ask "the question" of all following tasks, both untouched and unfinished).

Ha. Now that I've decided to do it, I can't wait...
July 12, 2012 at 21:11 | Unregistered CommenterMiracle
Miracle:

"Mark unfinished tasks on my FV list with a circle..."

... I do the same. I mark all unfinished tasks with a tiny circle to the left of the task when it's rewritten to symbolize it as an "open loop". Though I use it differently.
July 13, 2012 at 3:01 | Registered CommenterMichael B.
If not "FV" on EN Desktop/Android and not "AF1" that I haven't really used, I would say ...
DWM.xls
July 13, 2012 at 6:09 | Unregistered Commentersabre23t
This marking unfinished tasks and doing those first happens to be the same as what I wrote about in General "do what I did yesterday", and also matches Seraphim's take on blending DIT into his practice.
July 13, 2012 at 12:12 | Registered CommenterAlan Baljeu
Of the options specified, I'd have to say AF2. But as of today, I'm trying AF2ND.
August 21, 2012 at 17:39 | Registered CommenterDeven