Get Everything Done

Hi. I read this forum a lot more often than I contribute, and I want to thank Mark and all the commenters for your incredible help.

I tried using the FVP system a long time ago, and somehow fell from grace. However, I did continue consistently using a remnant of the idea, i.e. always working from a task list, but not systematically.

Well, I started a new book for the new year, and am now at day 7 of getting back to use the system properly, and it is going wonderfully. Not only am I being more productive of course, but more importantly for me the feeling of being in control.

However, I am frankly nervous about being able to maintain the momentum. For me, this is a time of fairly low pressure work-wise, with a lot of my customers still on holiday so less product support requirements than usual.

I think what happened last time was I got to the point where tasks were getting added to the end of the list so fast that keeping the reins on the system was impractical, as I often just had to attend to whatever was the next most urgent task.

I don't want this to happen again. I want to stay with dots and chains. Hope you understand. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Regards
Steve

The action you take on a current task on the list can always be:
- to defer it, to re-negotiate it with yourself and other stake-holders, to schedule it to a future date, to just delete it, to end the project, to cut the size of the project.

Many thanks, Mark. Yes, I know about accessing the end of the list and adding urgent tasks, and I think I know how to do it properly. However, if you end up spending all day puddling around at the end of the list, doing stuff that was added since the last time you did the scan/chain process, and find it difficult to get back up the chain to a previously dotted task, then it can start to feel like there's no point in having a system. As Christopher says, re-negotiating everything every step, same point - what's the point? I think that's what happened to me - I gave up making the effort to be disciplined and just followed the dictates of whatever task hit me in the eye next. Which I realise of course is a big mistake, because once you drop the ball it's hard to pick it up again. Anyway, I am encouraged to try again, and stick to it this time. Thanks again.

Regards
Steve