FV and FVP Forum > Too much urgency
Steve:
It does rather depend what you mean by urgent.
In "Do It Tomorrow" I use three degrees of urgency:
1) Immediate. This means something so urgent that you need to drop whatever you are doing and attend to it. Immediate tasks are not necessarily emergencies. For instance a customer would be an immediate task for a shop assistant or a cashier. With immediate tasks there's no need to enter them on any lists as it's obvious that you should be doing them.
2) Same day. This applies to tasks that must be done the same day or face unacceptable consequences. In FV you might need to use the method you mention to clear some of them, but often they can be dealt with through the normal working of the list.
3) Everything else. Tasks which do not fall into 1) or 2) should always be actioned according to the normal rules.
A lot of problems are caused by overclassifying the urgency of tasks. The default position is that a task belongs to 3). Only if it must be actioned TODAY should it be classified as 2) and only if it must be actioned NOW should it be classified as 1). Clearly identifying which group a task belongs to will help you take appropriate action.
It does rather depend what you mean by urgent.
In "Do It Tomorrow" I use three degrees of urgency:
1) Immediate. This means something so urgent that you need to drop whatever you are doing and attend to it. Immediate tasks are not necessarily emergencies. For instance a customer would be an immediate task for a shop assistant or a cashier. With immediate tasks there's no need to enter them on any lists as it's obvious that you should be doing them.
2) Same day. This applies to tasks that must be done the same day or face unacceptable consequences. In FV you might need to use the method you mention to clear some of them, but often they can be dealt with through the normal working of the list.
3) Everything else. Tasks which do not fall into 1) or 2) should always be actioned according to the normal rules.
A lot of problems are caused by overclassifying the urgency of tasks. The default position is that a task belongs to 3). Only if it must be actioned TODAY should it be classified as 2) and only if it must be actioned NOW should it be classified as 1). Clearly identifying which group a task belongs to will help you take appropriate action.
August 10, 2014 at 22:46 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
Similar to degree 2 above, I use the criteria of "what do I need to do to leave work at 6pm (my usual stopping time)". I had been working late due to waiting until the end of the day to work on those items.
I had recently been using that as motivation on what to work on even without a coherent system, so when I decided to start using FV again yesterday, I find I am still using that as the criteria to dot items, i.e. "what do I want to work on before this?"
So with FV I end up focusing on what I need to do today while still occasionally working on less urgent matters instead of forgetting about them completely.
I had recently been using that as motivation on what to work on even without a coherent system, so when I decided to start using FV again yesterday, I find I am still using that as the criteria to dot items, i.e. "what do I want to work on before this?"
So with FV I end up focusing on what I need to do today while still occasionally working on less urgent matters instead of forgetting about them completely.
October 8, 2014 at 14:28 |
Don R
Don R
Option 1: Write Urgent tasks in uppercase letters. This helps them to stand out as you don't waste your mental energy with tasks written in lowercase letters. This works only if you do not overdo urgent tasks.
Option 2: Try adding a temporary (A5) sticky note on the page.
In Mark’s terms, the maximum number of spinning plates I can have without losing the feeling of being in control is 8.
When the number of ’need to/must do now/today’ tasks is much over 8 then I write the next 3-8 tasks on the sticky note and start doing them. Then I add new ones. The tasks are either Now tasks or tasks selected mostly in Autofocus mentality from the subset today.
When I add the sticky note I try to get rid of it as soon as possible.
Option 2: Try adding a temporary (A5) sticky note on the page.
In Mark’s terms, the maximum number of spinning plates I can have without losing the feeling of being in control is 8.
When the number of ’need to/must do now/today’ tasks is much over 8 then I write the next 3-8 tasks on the sticky note and start doing them. Then I add new ones. The tasks are either Now tasks or tasks selected mostly in Autofocus mentality from the subset today.
When I add the sticky note I try to get rid of it as soon as possible.
October 9, 2014 at 13:23 |
pkNystrom
pkNystrom
"So... what do you do if a large number of items on your list are, or become, urgent?"
As MF said there is many kinds of urgencies. Immediate, same day everything else
My 2cents
1. Use GTD for collecting, processing, organizing, review
2. Use MF or list for acting
Before carrefully choose what is really urgent or not. It is by knowing your engagement that you will feel or know what is really urgent or not.
Collecting stuff in one trusted system whatever (database, excel, word, paper, notebook...- makes a sole unit of decision
Personnaly I use OF for all of that and extract day by day what must be done. LT project and Short terme or sole actions
Then I stay focus on that and nothing else
If someting happens I collect it mostly with the omnifocus keyboard short cut
Then I do it as I planned to do it
except only if the stuff must absolutly be done by now
it nevers happens
As MF said there is many kinds of urgencies. Immediate, same day everything else
My 2cents
1. Use GTD for collecting, processing, organizing, review
2. Use MF or list for acting
Before carrefully choose what is really urgent or not. It is by knowing your engagement that you will feel or know what is really urgent or not.
Collecting stuff in one trusted system whatever (database, excel, word, paper, notebook...- makes a sole unit of decision
Personnaly I use OF for all of that and extract day by day what must be done. LT project and Short terme or sole actions
Then I stay focus on that and nothing else
If someting happens I collect it mostly with the omnifocus keyboard short cut
Then I do it as I planned to do it
except only if the stuff must absolutly be done by now
it nevers happens
October 10, 2014 at 18:34 |
Jupiter
Jupiter
So... what do you do if a large number of items on your list are, or become, urgent?
I am aware of the method of putting an urgent task at the end of the list, and working on it immediately. But what happens to me, if I have a number of such urgent tasks come up, which ends up taking a large part of the day, I start to feel that I am not using the FV properly, or gaining the advantage of it, and I lose heart and impetus - which I obviously don't want.
So I guess it is a psychological phenomenon I am dealing with here, rather than a methodological one? Should I just plough through and follow the rules, keep adding my urgent tasks to the end of list and keep working at that end of the continuum, in the expectation that it will all come right eventually?
Thanks.
Regards
Steve