Get Everything Done

For numerous reasons, this is not a good time for me to retry FVP. And it's possible that even when I do, it still won't take and I'll go back to AF1 again. On the other hand, I hope that I do finally take to FVP, and it turns out to be the greatest thing since pie. But in the meantime, I will say in defense of AF1 (or at least my practice of it) that I end up dismissing trivial tasks all the time.

Of course, I do plenty of trivial things too; some of them are things that I would have done whether they were on the list or not. But if I see items on the page that I don't still think I need to do, I cross them out with a wavy line. (The wavy line is the only "special notation" I use regularly. I don't really need to do that, but it doesn't feel right giving them the same kind of line that I give to a completed task.)

I don't highlight them, so maybe that doesn't count as dismissal; I don't know. I just don't need to see them again. Some of them come back later on their own anyway, like the bad penny you can't seem to get rid of. But they're out of the way for now, and before long, that page starts to get really serious.

On any given page, I usually chip away at the important but easy things first. But after a few passes through the notebook, the combination I usually end up with on each page is the hard but important tasks, and the ridiculously frivolous tasks that my lizard mind apparently left there for the specific purpose of shaming me into doing the hard ones. It's the contrast between them that seems to make the difference.

Ah. Thanks Mark for that clarification (which I know you already made before, but now have clarified further).

Maybe the difference for me is that if something actually matters at a specific time, I do it at that time regardless of its position on the list. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it - I probably spend more time working without consulting the list at all.

Er, not exactly true; first thing in the morning (or the night before), I look through the list to refresh my memory as to anything that isn't on my calendar but really ought to be done today. I make a note of that and put the list away. I take care of the things that I'm required to do today, and then I do whatever tasks seem to flow naturally from the ones I've just done.

After all that, I ask myself, "what next?" That's when I look at my pages again. I cross off the things I've already done, and then go to my first active page to do AF1.

Further, if all the remaining items on a single page have something in common (for example, a group of errands, or yardwork tasks, or emails to answer, or things to do in a particular room), I write whatever it is at the top of the page so that I can easily skip it if that "context" isn't appropriate at the moment (e.g. it's raining). Or, maybe the "context" is right, and I finish the whole page.

Sometimes those no-contrast pages become problematic, but I haven't found a good way to deal with them. I've tried recycling the tasks by splitting them up and scattering them across several pages so that I can evaluate them separately, but that's a nuisance. Maybe it really is better just to dismiss them for a while, no matter how important I think they are; I'm beginning to suspect that I resist certain tasks precisely because they are on the list, because seeing them there every day feels more like nagging than a friendly reminder. (Does that make sense?) In short, I need to put more trust in the dismissal process.

Anyway, my point is - although I clearly favor AF1, I don't do it exactly as written, nor do I use it all of the time. I use it when I've got discretionary time and there's no one particular thing that I'm itching to do. AF1 presents my tasks in small (and preferably diversified) groups that are easy to focus on, and not too overwhelming to contemplate.

But AF1 probably wouldn't work nearly as well for me if I relied on it as my full-time-everything system, because as you've said more than once (Mark), it doesn't do a great job of emphasizing things that have become urgent. It also gives the same weight to old tasks that it does to new ones. That's okay for the limited way that I use AF1, but it would be a problem if it were my full-time-everything.

(I should mention that in the office, I use something that's much closer to DIT. It's just about perfect for my job, so I don't see that changing soon.)

But maybe FVP will work just fine as my full-time-everything (except work) system once I start doing it. Maybe I'll start next weekend.

Or maybe I won't. I just thought of an interesting tweak to AF1 that could address some of the challenges that I've had with it. I'm not sure how to implement it, though...

Mark (et al):

Can you help? I hope so! But it's tricky. And it's just about the opposite of FVP, in terms of putting things in an optimal order:

Say I start off with a notebook that has 25 lines per page. Eventually, I have ten active pages at various stages of completion, with 75 unfinished tasks remaining. Because a few of the pages have only two or three tasks apiece, there are various reasons that I might have to skip some, especially if my tasks have bunched up in the usual way, with three yardwork tasks on one page, three online tasks on another page, etc.

I also get used to seeing certain tasks together on a page for weeks at a time, and that has an effect too. My perception of one task affects my perception of the other two. Maybe I'm eager to do task A, but B is an obligation that I feel guilty about neglecting, and C is actually something fun.

I tell myself that it's okay to do A now and B later and have C for dessert, but B is so self-righteous that I can't deal with the guilt, and it makes me angry with B but too ashamed to do A or C. I can't take it! I have to skip that page too! If A, B, and C were all on different pages, this wouldn't be a problem!

(I suppose this is why I often do better if I ignore the notebook for a few hours. No pages!)

Anyway... They're all good tasks and I want to do them, but I never seem to want to do them "now" and I believe it's because of the way they're arranged. It seems as though scattering those three tasks across three new pages would help, but those new pages won't be usable until they have more tasks on them. So, what if I distribute the entire 75 remaining tasks across the three new pages? Ugh, no. I tried that. Having three full pages of recycled tasks is like having three cartons of spoiled milk.

But... what if what if there were a way to randomize the entire list, including new items, and produce a new set of "pages" every couple of days? (Or as often as needed.) I could distribute my current tasks across three long pages (spoiled milk), five medium pages, ten shortish pages, or even 15 pages if I'm really looking for trouble.

By rearranging the tasks daily, I will see them in a variety of contexts, so that each one gets multiple opportunities to stand out against different competition, including a steady stream of new tasks. This should give every task a fair chance of getting done if it's worth doing. Task B won't be able to discourage me from Task A any more, and Task B might get done sooner too because it isn't making me angry. Each page is "fresh" each day.

A task gets dismissed if it hasn't been actioned within a certain period of time; say eight weeks. Yes, that means we have to track the dates; but I need the pressure of dismissal, and I can't think of any better way to do it. A task that can survive eight weekly rounds of weeding and still not be actioned at all is a task that needs a lot more pressure.

(I'd deal with urgent tasks the same way I do now: by putting the list aside until the urgent tasks are out of the way. Truly urgent tasks tend not to be on my list at all for that very reason.)

I'd probably start with pages of 10 or 15 tasks at a time. Remember, we'll always start off with a "full" page that gets shorter as we cross things off, but tomorrow's new pages will be full again. Three pages of 25 doesn't seem like enough to look forward to. I also find that an AF1 page with 10 to 15 items on it feels "just right."

The question is, how would I do this?

A spreadsheet with some kind of randomizing macro? Index cards that are shuffled like a pinochle deck? Both seem terribly unwieldy (especially the cards - very wasteful, too.) But I can't think of anything else, unless there's an app out there that can do something like this. (And I'd need to figure out how to use a smart phone for something other than making phone calls.)

It's true that I hesitate (much too much) to dismiss tasks. It's silly, because if I can ignore a task for a month or longer, then clearly I have feelings about it and won't likely forget it. At that point, dismissing it or even deleting it outright is harmless.

But dismissal is only part of the trouble. I believe that context causes me a lot of grief. Separating A, B, and C will help me get all of them done - but deliberately splitting them up doesn't help much either, because I've already mentally linked the three tasks together and ranked them in my mind. Shuffling the tasks daily would prevent that from happening.

Perhaps the larger issue is the paralysis I feel whenever similar but unrelated tasks end up in direct competition with one another, if one of them is related to an obligation that I dread, but don't want to postpone for too long. I get paralyzed by the "want" vs "should" conflict. It's ridiculous, since I'm going to hit that page again soon enough; but there it is.

Maybe I should just move Task B to another page as soon as I can see that it's interfering with A and C. If B looks to be causing trouble on the new page too, I will give it an entire page to itself.

The best option would be to desensitize myself to the "want/should" conflict... but I don't know how. I think I'm becoming more susceptible to it, rather than less.

Julie -- fire up an excel sheet. Enter all of your tasks down column A, enter the dates associated with each task in column B, and in column C enter the formula "=RAND()" (without quotation marks). So if there are 50 tasks, cells A1:A50 are the task names, cells B1:B50 are the dates and cells C1:C50 are the formula =RAND().

Then just select cells A1:C50 and then sort by column C. This will randomize the list of tasks in column A. From there you could assign "pages" -- maybe the first 10 rows are page 1, the next 10 rows are page 2, and so on.

I like the idea because it combines the benefit of choosing tasks randomly (discussed in other threads) while still giving you a reasonable amount of control over what you do (choosing the best option from several random tasks). Also you can periodically sort by the dates in column B and delete the oldest tasks, making it easy to keep the list at a manageable length.

Why not work each page with the FVP algorythm ?

Well it occured to me that as in AF1 you have to do at least one task (if you do not dismiss the whole page) on each page, why not let this task be the first one (anyway Julie is looking to randomize, so why not have the system choose it ?).
FVP process just makes sure that any other task that could stand out in each page is dealt with.
One FVP chain per page. With obligation to take any action, even if little,(or simply delete or dismiss) the first unactioned task of the page.

Mark: Although that's the first time they've been the only tasks on the page, I've seen them together on that page for a couple of weeks, and I've seen them several times a day. Whereas seeing some kinds of tasks frequently helps me warm up to them, there are other kinds of tasks that seem to have the opposite effect - especially when they are a bunch.

Simon: THANK YOU. That is much simpler than what I had envisioned. I don't think I could work with a spreadsheet-based list all the time (too much data entry to keep up with unless I start doing everything on my phone), but this still gives me a handy way to scramble my tasks from time to time.

AlexB and Mark: True it wasn't what I was looking for, but it did give me an idea that I'm embarrassed not to have thought of sooner. I could finish that page just by doing the tasks in the order that they're listed on the page. Normally I balk at following a prescribed sequence for unrelated tasks because I want to make the decisions as I go; but if I really can't feel comfortable with any decision, doing them in their order on the page is the reasonable and blindingly obvious solution.

Thank you, thank you, thank you all around!

I guess when AF1 really clicked for me is when I learned not to be afraid of dismissing tasks or having lots of pages with a few tasks on them. The way I work, I spend most of my day on the last page. In fact, I may only cycle through the whole list only once a week on Friday, my catch up day, if incoming work is slow enough to allow it. In fact, I started entering a task "Cycle through the list!".

For dismissal, I just follow the rules. If I don't want to do the task now and I haven't done any tasks on the page, I highlight it and move on. I also enter a task to review dismissed items. In a few days, when I feel ready, I review the dismissed items and either re-enter them or delete them by closing the page with a circled X in the upper corner. Sometimes I do re-enter them and then they are on the last page where they have the opportunity to get worked right away.

I used to feel that dismissal was a personal failure, that I wasn't working hard enough or smart enough. What it means is rather the reverse. It means that I have been spending my time on items of more value that *should* be done sooner rather than later.

I'm not disparaging FVP at all. Everyone should use what works for them. In my case, looking through all the pages to build a chain increases my anxiety. Almost everything stands out. I love, LOVE I say, the focus that the closed list effect brings to my work.

Mark:

The reason I don't dismiss certain tasks is because they're not optional. They don't have deadlines either, though, so they can be put off for a very long time - until some situation forces the issue. (Example: a minor but inconvenient repair is delayed until something breaks. Now I have to do something about it.) I try not to let that happen!

On the other hand, dismissal isn't the same as deletion, so there's no reason I should be so slow to do it. Clearly, keeping such tasks on my active list indefinitely isn't effective and it just makes the list longer. If they're dismissed, I can still see them.

As for skipping pages: normally I don't, but if I physically can't work on the few remaining items on a particular page because of location, health, weather, etc. then what is the alternative? Unfortunately, this seems to happen a lot because - as I previously described, but maybe not clearly - the last few items remaining on a page are often three-of-a-kind. I don't know for sure why it happens, but it does. So I have three yardwork tasks on a page, but I can't do yardwork today. That's another reason why I wanted the ability to shuffle tasks.

Jake:
I feel a little anxiety building a chain, too. I thought it was just me!

In a way, FVP auto-dismisses tasks, but in a less brutal (or more insidious) way than AF1 or DWM, in that the are of focus moves on, leaving things we aren't really interested in all alone in the dark. Of course, as with AF1, we can always add a task to review them and hoik them back into the light. If they deserve it.

A new recurring task to add to my list. Weed and hoik.
Thanks Will.

When I come across the last items on a page and they cannot be done now due to wrong time of day, wrong context, or even if I don't feel like doing them now due to low energy, et cetera, I have a few choices. These are items that I do want to do at some point.

First, you could simply delete the item and rewrite it at the end of the list where it will come up again at a more opportune time. Items on the last page don't get deleted if you cycle through the page and don't do anything, so this item is safe to linger there a bit longer.

Second, instead of performing the task, you could make a plan to perform the task. For me, that often means scheduling a calendar appointment to do the task at a certain time or entering a reminder in my phone to pop up at a more convenient time. That lets me get peace of mind that I will do the task later as well as marking it complete in the list.

Third, contextual tasks are similar to the item above. Sometimes, especially on weekends, I am at home but am on a page for things to do elsewhere. I just make a "context list" which is done by scanning the entire AF1 list for things I can do while I am out on errands, at church, etc. Then I mark the items complete and make a plan to perform those tasks at the proper place and time. As in item two, the plan usually involves some sort of visual reminder like a Google Now reminder in my phone or a calendar appointment.

Fourth, as was previously discussed, you could dismiss the item with a highlighter and enter a task to review it later. That lets the item stay on the list with no pressure to do it, that is until the item to review dismissed items is the last item on a page! Wow... that sentence is mind-blowing.

Fifth, sometimes you are in one context and you know something is on your list that needs to be done even though you are not on that page. If you are in the right place to do it and have the opportunity and energy to do it, just invoke the "if it needs doing now, do it now" rule. That lets you get things done and have the joy of crossing things off the list later.

I think I am using AF1 according to Mark's original rules and intentions. Something else that had to "click" for me was something that has been said often on this site. The system exists to help me get things done. It is a means to an end and not the end itself. Any system should not imprison us by making it harder to get things done and causing stress by trying to work the system. Rather, the system should simply free us to get the things done that matter to us.

AF1 is really a very simple, elegant, and practical, system that works very well for me. Your mileage may vary! The more I use it, the more I wonder how I got along without it. Thanks Mark!

Yes, it's a quandary as Seraphim describes. To avoid the quandary, workarounds may suggest themselves. Some of the workarounds are okay for occasional use, but trying to make them an official part of the system is a mistake because workarounds are clumsy.

The best solution is probably just to copy those tasks to the last open page, but I wasn't doing that at first because I had an injured hand, and then I wasn't doing it because I'd amassed so many of those tasks that I didn't want to copy them all. (Also, I've found that it's unpleasant to see so many old tasks consolidated onto a single page... it just reeks of failure, like a refrigerator full of spoiled food.)

Recently, some urgent tasks have come up that are blocked by older neglected tasks. I've had to break all of those out into separate lists so that I can see the dependencies. Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy. But I knew this would happen if I neglected something too long.

I do like the idea that Seraphim mentioned in another thread (for FVP, but might work for AF1 too), about putting new items a few pages ahead if I know I can't do them until the weekend. This makes me wonder if I wouldn't like to keep weekend-only items on a separate list, or in another section of my notebook; but again, that's just making AF1 more complicated... and I'm really starting to see the appeal of FVP!

JulieBulie wrote, "and I'm really starting to see the appeal of FVP"

Indeed! Remember, FVP works because it's a really efficient sorting algorithm. Workarounds are virtually unnecessary.

It isn't clear to me whether resisting dismissal is an essential subconscious driver for AF1, or a misunderstanding of what dismissal is. Mark's guidance always seems to be that we should be happy to dismiss. But he's been saying that for the best part of a decade, and without the benefit of his military background, we still stubbornly resist.

Perhaps if we re-labelled it something less dismissive, such as "defer"?

"Defer" is easier to cope with, I think, for the tasks that just weren't feasible when I had time to do them.

But the sterner "dismissal" is still valuable for the tasks that really could have been done by now, but weren't. I have some of those too, and actually dismissing them (not deferring them) does help because you're not supposed to just copy those over. You have to first consider why they haven't been done, and try to reformulate them in a more approachable way.

If "deferral" were an official part of AF1, it would be much too easy to overlook the distinction between your deferrables and your dismissables, and defer things that don't have the ghost of a chance of getting done in their current presentation. That's not deferral - that's procrastination. Not only are you procrastinating on doing the task, you're procrastinating on finding a way to make it happen.

Maybe there isn't a good way for AF1 to handle the tasks that depend on some delicate combination of conditions. I've thought of more workarounds, but all of them are clumsy.

I have been thinking of ways to combine AF1 and FVP in a way that isn't too clumsy, because I feel that I need more structure to work with FVP. 70 items doesn't seem like too many for the whole list, but it would be good to be able to work with only part of the list at any given time.

Oh no! I feel another workaround coming on... I know I am overthinking this. That's what I do. But it's a huge consolation to know that no matter how much I try to tweak these systems, I'll still get things done. If I'd gone ahead with GTD before I discovered DIT, AF1, et al, I'd have languished in the setup phase for months and eventually abandoned it without getting anything else done at all.

I like the fact that AF1 forces me to deal with a task. There are many tasks that don't need to be done right now. However, if I keep putting off doing something on them, even "just getting the folder out", those tasks will become bigger and harder to tackle later on.

It's like your mother saying that if you eat some of your vegetables first, then you can have dessert. ["How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?" ~ in the words of Pink Floyd. LOL!] If you do the things you need to do, but have been avoiding, then you can get to those emotionally satisfying tasks later.

My understanding of FVP is that there are tasks that you may never get to because the of the sorting algorithm. I'm pretty sure many people have said this on the forum. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, this concerns me because my capacity to procrastinate and avoid unpleasant tasks is very great. Maybe the idea is that at some point, you will complete all the tasks toward the end of the list and work backwards toward the older tasks at the front. I'm not sure.

By the way, I just want to reiterate that I'm not being argumentative or putting down FVP. Everyone should use what works for them. I have lurked on this forum since just before AF4 was released. I have learned much here and have a lot of respect for Mark and this community. Thanks!

Jake, I have had exactly the same concern about FVP from the beginning. Certainly you can just go back to the top of the list and reselect whenever you want to, or move something to the end of the list, but I already know with AF1 that the easiest pickin's are at the end of the list and that's a good way to procrastinate too. With AF1 I'm still required to do something on page 1 eventually, whereas FVP doesn't ever require that. Thus, my wish to add some page-related structure to FVP.

Right now I have 70 tasks over 16 pages, and there's no way I can do FVP by the page with that. However, FVP is more electronic-friendly than AF1. I can set up my list in any word processor and adjust for 30 lines to a page. Print it out, and I have two "closed" lists of 30 each, and one "open" list with 10 and room for more. I'll do FVP on one page at a time, never skipping either of the full pages, and always adding new items to the third page as they come up.

Then update the file periodically and reprint so that I have 30 tasks per page again - a good selection for FVP. (If I ever end up with one page of 30 tasks that I've truly never been able to act on so far, time management probably won't be my biggest problem!)

It's rather fussy compared to scrawling things in a notebook, but it's nowhere near as clumsy as the AF1 workarounds I've entertained so far.

On the other hand... maybe reverse psychology comes into play after poking around at the end of the list for a while, resulting in an urge to go back up the list and do something harder. I did experience a little of that. And there is also the tactic of moving a task to the end of the list to give it more urgency. I'd rather try it the "right" way again before dragging a word processor into the mix.

Mark: Our posts must have crossed in the mail! Yes, I like that idea - I just need a page that has more than two items on it, which is why I thought of maintaining the list in Word. It's not quite as good as AF1 for adding pressure, but it takes away the opportunity to ignore the harder things. Tasks that bubble their way up to the top of the first page are the tasks that will have to be re-examined, if not dismissed, so there may be opportunities there, too.

Dealing with urgent items isn't a problem for me at all, since I'll do them when I have to, whether it's their turn within the system or not. I need more help addressing the things that aren't on fire!

Mark:

I did try FVP, and intended to do it exactly as prescribed. But shortly after I started, I injured my hand, which made it tricky to use a pen. This made me reluctant to cross out & rewrite the recurring or incomplete tasks, and I wasn't bumping up older items to the end of the list to give them more emphasis. This probably skewed the experience quite a bit. (Too bad it didn't occur to me then to maintain the list in a Word file; my ability to type wasn't affected!)

I will try FVP again, starting this weekend, and do it the right way. No per-page processing until I have some evidence that I really need it.

By all accounts, FVP is more flexible and more forgiving than AF1. If I do decide that I need to work by the page, FVP can probably accommodate such an adjustment much better than AF1 handled any of the workarounds I threw at it. AF1's power comes from its rigidity, but that rigidity is also very limiting.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm looking forward to this - I'm on vacation next week and hope that I can get things done, enjoy myself, and not feel that I've wasted any time struggling over whether to do one thing instead of another.