Get Everything Done

I love AF, FV and FVP but there is something wich brings me a lot of trouble I mean the huge increasement of my list wich makes it at least unmanageable...

Years ago I had a great explanation of MF about dismissing stuff. The basic idea was at a point of time of highlining the items page per page so we could see if they are relevant or not. It was one of the great principle of AF.

I have pushed the system getting a part of it from jane westman (I spoke about her in this forum) and found a way to increase my efficiency

Here is how I process

Sometime when I fall of the wagon I just read the all list from THE BEGINNING asking me one item by one item : What do I really want to do a soon as possible ?

So I report on a fresh list all that stand at me (this is crucial - it uses my intuition). I cross all non relevant items and I hihline with a yellow stabilo boss all which is left page per page (like we did in AF). Then I give them a chance to be done later. I read theses highlined items when I feel it. It can be in an hour, tomorrow, in 3 days or even next week when I will do my wednesday's weekly review....

SO I often start the next week with a real brain new often reformulated list wich is fully operationnal. It contains my core items. Of course during the week the chaos will happen and my list will be at then end of the week pretty messy. Never mind ! Doing my dissmissing process next week on wednesday I will make things clearer and decides again what I really want to do during next week or so...

With this system I feel quiet. I know things will be under control anyway, anywhen too

What do you think of this process ? Does it helps you ? What are your own tips about cleaning the list....

Kind regard to all

I forgot to tell you that at the end of the yellow highlining process I put a big red cross X on the top right page to tell me that all which is before is dissmissed.

The left page of my note book is always for notes, ideas, or some stuff I can't put in my FVP list.
ie projects or big notes about some complocated stuff.

@Jupiter,

I save the left-hand pages for temporary notes, and all my list items are on right-hand pages. (For permanent notes, I work from the back of my notebook.)

So with AF, when I'm done with a page that has dismissed (highlighted) items on it, I tear off just the corner. That way I don't have to flip to that page just to see whether or not it has an X. I can easily find the next active page.

I've been tearing the corners off of all kinds of pages (magazines, etc.) for similar reasons for many years. (I used to fold the corners down, but sometimes they would unfold, or they would create too much bulk.)

Now, if all items on a page are crossed out (not highlighted), I tear out the whole page. I'm using a spiral notebook and I don't want to save any of that information, so this is harmless. Plus I'm keeping all my "important" notes in the back of the book. Alternatively, if I had the kind of notebook that doesn't have such a forgiving binding, I'd probably just tear off a bigger piece of the corner, or even half the page.

But if you need to keep the notes that you have on the backs of those pages, or you want to keep a record of all the tasks you did, I don't know if tearing off the corners would work for you, because there wouldn't be an easy way to distinguish "finished" pages with highlighting from "finished" pages with no highlighting other than to look at each page individually.

I have been using a "Reverse FVP" to select the task I least want to do, then I "Review" it. When "Weed List" comes up next via the usual FVP algorithm, I do the following...

I ask myself "What am I resisting more than X", read down the list until I find one I'm resisting more than X, and rather than dotting it, I just put my finger on it. Then I ask the question again and find the next task. I put my finger on it. And so on, until I have my finger on the task which I am resisting most on my whole FVP list. I use my finger rather than dotting tasks because dotting tasks which I'm "resisting more than X," would easily become confused with already dotted tasks which I "want to do more than X."

Once I have my finger on the task I resist the most on my FVP list, I "Review" it. This means that consider the task and my motivations for putting it on my list, I do one of the following:

Kill it - cross it off and don't look back
Suspend it - transfer it to either a future date on my calendar, or to a "Maybe Someday List"
Reincarnate it - re-enter it on the FVP list in either a re-written form, or broken out into subtasks
Revive it - leave it on the FVP list exactly where it is

The larger my FVP list gets, the more I need to weed it. The more I need to weed it, the more frequently "Weed List" comes up via the FVP algorithm. Each time I "Weed my List" I Reverse FVP and Review 1 task. I find of course, that if I "Revive" the selected task, then the next Reverse FVP tends to select it again, and again, and again. So I re-think the task over and over and over until I do something other than Revive it.

Another method I'm considering using, is Reviewing the oldest tasks on my list once a day. I'm not sure yet, but I think I may Review 1 task per open page of my FVP list. So if my FVP list spans 4 pages, then today I'll Review the oldest 4 tasks. That way, the larger my list grows, the more I will Review to keep it in check.

Hi Jupiter,

A difficulty I have had with 'long list' systems like AF and FV systems, that I now realise, is that it has felt quite messy and random, like a big jumble sale.

I'm getting on well with FVP. What I especially like is the facility to enter notes straight into the system yet not be hindered by rules that work against actioning them flexibly. This has meant that I have started to 'cluster' my entries more deliberately as I go along whenever possible. Basically unrelated items have a line space between them. Items that are related are clustered together. Example:

Tidy 1 area
Prepare for next day
Clear desk

(1 line space)

Camping dates - Robinsons
July 17-18
July 24-25
Sept 04-05

(1 line space)

Party playlist
uptown funk
summer
sugar
I like to move it

(1 line space) etc.



The effect is really quite dramatic for me because it's like having the big jumble sale neatly separated out into different groups instead of being all mixed up. I found it very tiring, even exhausting, before when reading through one long list. This seems much more manageable for my brain somehow. I think it will make it much easier also to weed and pair down items.

The effect of this 'clustering' and general note entry is likely to mean 'more pages used'. So I may incorporate page dismissal (as in AF when an X is entered into a top corner etc.) I think this will be useful for me as it will quickly allow me to move over pages that contain tasks and note items which are no longer actionable. It will prevent a need to score through many of the note entries on a page.

This may or may not help you and others, it has helped me to verbalise the benefits for me however.

"A difficulty I have had with 'long list' systems like AF and FV systems, that I now realise, is that it has felt quite messy and random, like a big jumble sale"

I really understand this. I also hardly struggle with this. For me there are only 2 real pathes
One is collecting stuff as it come and after clean the clutter. This makes things complicated with projects or even with relative tasks. The result can easely be a multi tasking system and it can also be very difficult to focus on one subject only.

The other way is trying to clean the list. It can be GTD but it is so hard to respect it and so hard to do it right that it is easy to fall of the wagon.

I am trying to understand how famous people do. I mean successfull entrepreneer or successfull people. I hope Mark's new book will explain this. May be he found some answers. I indeed hope too. I did not find any thing on the web. Not even in a book. No one has done this for the moment. May be no one explained how to do things. And school never tought me how beeing efficient or organised.

For the time beeing I am trying to do a mix. It is my own method. There is a bit of GTD contexts such as @Call @Projects which are extracted from my master list. Some notes on the right page of my note book, some projects at the end of it.

The basic idea is to try to forget the system. Instead I try to do the right things. I can tell you it is hard and complicated. Sometime I am lost. Some time I spent a marvelous day doing what I really wanted. Sometime my day is a disaster. I did almost nothing or I am really desapointed about my day.

What seems sure is that there are some crucial principle, laws and rules.
One is to collect all in one place. It can be in a software, it can be on paper no mater. But it must be accessible at any time and anywhere.

The other is to preparer some crucial stuff for tomorrow and it is better to do it at night and read it again in the morning. I got some great ideas after sleeping.

One is also the power of less. To many things to do and not enough time to do it...

At last the weekly review is great to know what to plan for next week

This are my first thought. Each day I use the kaizen principle. Experiment, note, improve my way of doing thing.

There is, sadly, no perfect system.

Personally I prefer to minimize formatting to make the list as "flat" as possible. Indenting, spacing, marking important items with asterisks or whatever - all these things that tend to push some items into the background and bring others forward increase the effort involved in making entries and making comparisons and encourage me to start dreaming when going through a list.

This is very much a matter of personal psychology.

My personal psychology DEFINITELY needs an unsorted, jumbled list. I used to "cluster" my tasks as Leon described, thinking it would lead me to work more efficiently. Oddly enough, it did the opposite. I would look at a group of similar-context tasks (like a list of email replies), and then I would automatically - involuntarily - begin prioritizing them. If I happened to be resisting a high-priority task, then I couldn't bring myself to do any of the tasks in that cluster. I couldn't convince myself to just tackle the lesser tasks first. It seemed somehow like eating dessert before the meal.

Having a jumbled list is exactly what I need. Because it's no longer convenient (much less a reflex) to evaluate the priority of each email task, I can now reply to six emails sooner and with less stress than I would have needed to reply to that one high-priority email in my old "system." And when there's only that sixth email left, I no longer resist it. I still don't want to do it, but it's easier to get started.

Magic.

As far as the mess of a long, long list:

At some point I noticed an increasing number of low-quality items cluttering my list. Granted, the whole point of the AF algorithm specifically is to weed those out. However, some of the items weren't even worth highlighting upon dismissal, and it's disheartening when all you can do on a page is cross things out without acting on anything. It also takes longer to find the tasks that are worth doing.

So... I'm now collecting "new" tasks on a sticky note. They don't go on my "official" list until later - after I've finished whatever I was doing, or at the end of the day. By that time, the urge to add certain of those items will already have passed, or I'll have come up with a better way to approach a given task.

It surprises me how many things get weeded out after even a brief cooling-off period. As a result, my list is less cumbersome, and the average value of the tasks on my list (even the fun ones) is higher.

< My personal psychology DEFINITELY needs an unsorted, jumbled list. I used to "cluster" my tasks as Leon described, thinking it would lead me to work more efficiently. Oddly enough, it did the opposite. I would look at a group of similar-context tasks (like a list of email replies), and then I would automatically - involuntarily - begin prioritizing them. If I happened to be resisting a high-priority task, then I couldn't bring myself to do any of the tasks in that cluster. I couldn't convince myself to just tackle the lesser tasks first. It seemed somehow like eating dessert before the meal. >

Good points JulieBulie, I didn't think of that potential disadvantage - I will certainly bear this in mind as I practice. What I seem to really need though is a way of separating notes I want to take down * perhaps for reference or info only * with actual tasks. (I don't want to use the front and back of my notebook at once though).

This is very exciting. Finally FV or FVP are just acting and collecting systems like AF was too.

> The main point is about what putting in the list. Ideas ? Actionnable tasks ? Future tasks ? Everything ? Reponding what suits to me is not an answer for me... What do you put in the list ? How do you do when it becomes so huge than you feel lost about the huge stuff which is left ?

Anyway, what I noticed is that the list has a huge advantage. The one to put all in one place. So you can find everything if you do it rightly...

> But for me FVP is only an "action system". When you are an entrepreneer or even a perso overbooked, whatever you do, you may need like me to take a little of altitude and incorporate the system as a part of your global organizational system. FVP can't do anything it is just a guidline.

Now I notice that what I really care about is knowing what I really want to do of my life and spending time to think about it and make a really plan about it. It is difficult an uneasy.

The list has a special effect about this. When I note "think about my life & where do I want to go" is not an actionnable task (except if I want to do it now) but reading it let in my brain a special effect which creates action to do it so. ie take a sheet of paper or a word file and write all the step to do it. Then I will take some items and put it in my FVP list. When I will feel ready I will do them one by one. Except if I decide to get rid of them.

Tomorow is wednesday and when I see this week I notice that I wrote 14 page but 8 pages of tasks. All are crossed except 4 pages. So I am in front of 4 pages of tasks. But what are my core projects ? Where are my new weekly objectives or target ? Where do I go next week or may be this month of june ? What are my core business targets ? All is included in a big clutter which doesnt tell me the vision to do what I really need to do. It is quiet worrying for me for I need to know where do I go...

On another way what I know is that I can spend my time, hours and day doing stuff. I think the tasks I will do will be the one I really need to do. The only trouble is that all that tasks which are mixts in a big melting pot are relative to projects. But as they are burried in the list I can't have a global vision about the project itself.

So on one way my intuition tell me OK don't worry all will be rightly done at the right time.... And in the same time my rational brain says how can you say that you dont have any vision of the all projects or even your priorities. So How can you be sure of this.

Well it is this paradoxal thinking that force me to clean the list and now I really dont know what to do.

Leon, I don't know how you feel about copying things from one place to another, but there are still items that I add to my big list if I can't immediately add them to the smaller lists where they belong. Examples: shopping list, address book, daily calendar/Outlook, reference file, etc. When I'm finally able to copy them to where they belong, I cross them out in my big list.

That would be burdensome if I had a lot of them, but there aren't many and they're not the kind of list-clutter I was thinking of (mostly things that don't ever need to be done, things that I definitely won't forget to do, things which have already been superseded by better ideas, things that are not my responsibility to worry about, things that I took care of on my way to the bathroom, etc.). But If this kind of thing ever becomes burdensome, obviously I'll need a better solution.

But I do understand what you mean about wanting to keep your notes. The front/back notebook business got tiresome fast. It's time-consuming, it's rough on the notebook, and you need two bookmarks instead of just one to keep your place.

My new plan is just to write all of my notes on the left-hand pages, and when I'm done with the list items on the front of a page, I'll see if there are any notes on the back that I want to keep. If there are, I'll tear off the corner as before and draw a giant X across the entire front of the page so that I can tell right away that the good stuff is on the other side.

Now I'll have two (or three) kinds of no-corner pages: pages with highlighted dismissed items, pages with useful notes, and pages with both. But these are all pages that I want to be able to easily thumb past when I'm looking for live tasks. That's why I'm tearing off the corners.

During a periodic review, I will tear out the notes-only pages and decide what to do with the notes. They could be physically cut/pasted into a scrapbook, or scanned, or thrown into a folder - or maybe my next notebook will have a pocket where I can stow such things - I haven't decided yet. But I don't like keeping dead pages in a live book; they just get in the way.

For all the trouble I have with physical clutter at home, I'm fairly efficient about eliminating data clutter!

Jupiter, regarding your worries about the projects, I will echo what Mark said. I use both of the tactics he described. They're effective not only for true projects, but also for "simple" tasks that need to be split up in order to break up resistance.

@Julie & Mark Thanks you so much for this

"There are basically two ways of working with projects. These are not exclusive - it's perfectly possible to use both at the same time.

1) You put all current actions which are part of the project onto your FVP list. Don't forget actions like "Plan", "Review", etc.

2) You only put the name of the project into your list and then work off a task list for the project. The task list is a separate list which is kept with the project documentation.

It sounds to me as if you need more of 2) and less of 1)"

I did not see this answer.

Yes I guess I need more (2) than one according to my projects wich are almost complicated. Next week I will do this and try if it makes my day easier.

Anyway I just began my weekly review and listed on a page my current business, my opportunities and I will try listing the main subject I have to work during the incoming week for making business. So consequently, I cleaned my past list and reading it I feel a certain comfort in my head knowing that everything is under control.

Now it is also time for visionning next 6 month, until the end of this year. I wonder how.
Should I create a special project for this, list all the stuff and make a plan ? Should I just write the tasks in the FVP list little by little and consequently put ideas in my list ie non tasks ?

Any ideas ?

Kind regards.

I would do all of my brainstorming on a separate list (more like a diagram or mind map, probably). Then I'd put it away for the night.

The next day, after it has simmered in the back of my mind for a while, I'd review the diagram/map/list. I'd organize it a little more, and consider the time/expense/effort required for the various ideas and projects to see which ones are realistic and worthwhile:

- Throw out the ideas that didn't survive the night.

- Put single-task (non-project) ideas on the AF/FVP/DIT list, calendar, etc.

- For projects that I'm not sure about yet, add a task to the AF/FVP to explore further.

- Put projects that are potentially good, but not feasible just yet, in a "someday file" (or a dated tickler file if they're only good at a specific time) for future consideration.

(This is starting to sound like GTD, but you don't have to do it all the time - just every six months, right?)

- There are probably still too many project ideas left over, and I want to do all of them. A more disciplined person would pick a handful to focus on, and handle them the way Mark described above. The rest would go in the "someday file." I have got to try this.

(The way I really do it is to put all the projects on my list, start many of them, and rarely finish any as they are eclipsed by newer, more exciting projects. I'm still learning to accept that some projects must be sacrificed for the sake of the others.)