Get Everything Done

I would propose you the following FV hack

1\ select a task that "stands out" near the end of the list. Mark it with a dot;

2\ use this dotted item as the starting point of a FV chain;

3\ execute in the orthodox way the FV chain of selected items;

4\ when you execute the last dotted item (the first item of the current chain), move upward the task list looking for the first item that stands out. Mark it with a dot.

5\ go to 2

notes:

.. This algorithm guarantees a good focus at the end of the list.

.. In the meantime you slowly move toward the beginning of the list, so the oldest items does not become neglected.

"When you scan back to the very beginning of the list do you select the first task as the root task"? ... yes, I select the first task as the root task.

I'll try the second alternative you described, to see how it works.

Nice to know that the idea was fairly usefull to you...

@Caibre65

Last days I tried both alternatives you mentioned. Here are some thoughts.

With the first, after reaching the top of the list I selected the first item. This way, I ended up with a vanilla FV chain. So, after the completion of that chain I had to go near the end of the list, selecting a new root task, following the discussed little FV-hack, otherwise I would stuck forever in a traditional, pure, FV algorithm

With the second, as you said, after reaching the top of the list without finding a task that stood out, I circled to the bottom of the list and I moved upward until a task stood out. From there I went on with the FV-hack until I reached, again, the top of the list.

So, the only difference btw the 2 alternatives is the mandatory selection of the first item of the list, when one reach it, looking for a task to stand out…. Not such a big difference.

In my opinion, the important thing is that one could go through the first item of the list, soon or later, and then decide to select it or not.

Thank you for your comments which gave me the opportunity to do some experimentation and reflections

@Mark:

>"…I get the impression that it would work rather like FVP except that one would move
>towards the beginning of the list faster…"

Here are my impressions:

a\ one scan the list downward less often than FVP [every time one executes a task in FVP; every time one completes a FV mini-chain in FV-hack]
b\ one moves upward faster

Both effects give me some benefits. With FVP (and its variants) one has the chance to scan the list downward maybe too often according to my preferences [every time one executes a task].

On the other side, with FVP (and its variants) I often feel uncomfortable knowing that there are dotted items at the top of the list waiting [for too long time] for execution.

I feel that the proposed FV-hack has the advantage of offering two separate and alternating phases of work:
1\ a phase of selection: upward to select a new standing out root task; and downward to select a new FV-sub-chain;
1\ a phase of execution: when one focus only on the execution, task after task, of the items of the selected chain.

I feel comfortable: knowing that I will move to the top of the list fairly fast; knowing that last and re-entered tasks, at the end of the list, will be often (but not too often!) considered for selection.

So far so good, waiting for some not yet revealed negative side effects to show up….

Thank you Mark for sharing the results of your trial.