Get Everything Done

A number of folks have indicated that they end up with lists that are too long or they feel like the algorithm easily ends up being abandoned unintentionally while creating the list, and the result is a system that's easily resisted. I've had this problem too and thought I'd share what works for me.

The trick is to refuse to dot anything unless you have a strong feeling that you definitely want to do it before the previous dotted item. Avoid at all costs thinking, "What else would I like to do during this next list?" FV works much better for me when I move relatively quickly through the list and only dot what stands out to me as "I have a quick, strong feeling that I definitely want to do this before X."

Never dot something if you aren't sure that you want to do it before X. If they feel about the same and you can't decide right away, just move on.

I have a problem with the Dot. I feel I will forget the lines I have marked to do. I'm not willing to play with pencil and eraser but maybe I should use them instead of pen. To start my FV list I go find my post its in order to rewrite the chain in one of them. And then I get totally distracted, forgetting pen, notebook, post it, ideas and time :D . I need to establish a better way to take advantage of FV because deep deep I know it is already working for me. For else Merry Christmas to you all and many thanks to Mark.

I'm having trouble understanding your difficulty with the dots. It sounds like you're saying you are afraid you'll forget what you've dotted (as in, you can't always see everything you've dotted maybe?) If you have trouble seeing what you've dotted, I'd say either dot bigger or draw a dash instead. I think the post-its will slow down the final version, not just because of the extra writing but for psychological reasons as well.

I forgot to add, Happy new year!

When this happens to me, it's because the list is too long for me to process effectively. I weed through the list - removing duplicates, moving things that realistically won't get done in the next 1-2 months into a future tickler file, putting reminders into the calendar - usually are enough to bring the list to a manageable size. If it still needs weeding, I'll block off an afternoon and run through the list just doing the 'quick hit' items (things that can be finished in less than 30 minutes). Or if the list has gotten spread out over multiple pages, I'll rewrite the list (in the same order) so it's on fewer pages.

I find those things helpful too although I generally prefer to do them before the fact rather than after, if possible. That is, I don't put things on the list that are over a week away. Actually, I generally don't put things on the list that I couldn't do tomorrow if I wanted to. In this way my list is basically DIT+backlog, but with an efficient heuristic to process it.