Clarification: Speed of movement

There are several comments from people who are concerned that, if they are on an early page of the list and have a pressing item at the end of the list, that it may take too long before they get to the pressing item.

As I say in the instructions, it’s important to use your common sense here. If something must be done immediately, then do it immediately!

But it’s also important to appreciate that it doesn’t necessarily take a huge amount of time to move from page 1 to page 15 (if that’s the number of active pages you have).

You only HAVE to do one item on each page, and you only HAVE to work for a short time on that item. So you could in theory move from the first page to the last page in a matter of minutes.

Remember that your mind knows what is needed when, so if you trust it to make the right choice (see previous post) it will move you at the right speed to where you need to be.

The more you practise this the more you will gain confidence in the process.

Comments

[Linda]

Thanks very much for this clarification, Mark.

"You only HAVE to do one item on each page, and you only HAVE to work for a short time on that item". I think this is the crucial point that I've not really grasped for the last two days. So if I can just make the tinyiest beginning on something I am resisting, it will get easier the next time round.

Also, your point about trusting your mind to make the right choice - that's hard for me, given past experience! But I really want this to work for me so I'm going to give it my best shot!
Linda

[ds]

I am a little confused by this post and the previous one (using the example of coins). Here you say,

"Remember that your mind knows what is needed when, so if you trust it to make the right choice (see previous post) it will move you at the right speed to where you need to be."

This jibes with my understanding of the method. Your brain applies all its knowledge about your life, your needs, your location, your mindset, etc. to make an intuitive, but informed choice from the task list.

In the example of the coins, I suddenly worried that you were saying the choice should be RANDOM.

My comment here is really just a request to verify that RANDOM is not the way you suggest the choice be made???

Thanks!

[Mark Forster]

ds:

No, not random. The idea is to let the choice make itself rather than influence it with your rational mind. In other words you are responding in much the same instinctive way that good tennis-players responds to a shot. They don't rationally analyse what to do - they just react. But the success of their reaction comes from all the training and experience they've had in the past interacting with the current situation - it's not in the least bit random.

I used coins in the example so that the feel of "letting a choice make itself" isn't influenced by other factors - bit like the above tennis players' practising serves without an opponent.

[Dave]

Mark,

Useful post. It seems to me that one of the key pieces is the second "HAVE" - only needing to work on particular task for a short time in order to register progress. A bit of a mindset change for those of us who habitually see some activities as monolithic, opaque 'lumps' - but a good mindset change!

D

[Ben H]

Mark,

Thanks for this, which is very helpful. I hadn't grasped that if no item stands out then you move on to the next page - I was continuing to work on the same page until all the items had been dealt with! Thanks for the clarification.

Ben H

[JD]

Hi Ben,

Correct me if I am wrong here, but you do have to do at least one item on each page (the one that stands out the most), before moving on to the next page. But as Mark pointed out, it doesn't have to be long at all, if you sense an urgency to press on to the next page. It could be something as simple as taking out the file on the subject, and since obviously it is not finished, cross it out and move it to the end of the list.

By responding to your post, I am attempting to understand the rules better myself, so I'd be happy to be corrected :)

JD

[Ben H]

JD,

You are quite right - you do have to work on the item that stands out most, and then see if anything else on that page stands out to you, before moving on. I didn't express myself very well!

Thanks

Ben H

[Hannah]

Yes, this matches what I've found today. Previously I had been going through my pages very slowly but today I have been running through them much faster. I decided to just do a very small amount on 1 item on each page (although sometimes it's been more than 1 and sometimes a bit more on a particular item - whatever felt right at the time) and by 12 noon having not started till nearly 10am I am on page 7 of 8!

Much better...

Thanks Mark - although early days, it really does feel like I'm at last successfully keeping all those various plates spinning without dropping any (unless I want to of course).

[Mark From Florida]

Major clarification Mark - THANK YOU!! This makes the only flaw I had felt go away - Working smoothly and beautifully now!!