I’m not very intrigued by Mark’s new system and can’t even bring myself to try it. The current system I’m calling Uberfocus is working quite well for me. It’s the first time I’ve had a system in the past 3 or 4 years that didn’t seem to break down after a few weeks. I’m just using it, getting stuff done and not having to think much about it. I’ve made a few minor tweaks as I’ve described in earlier comments that keep major projects on separate lists.

What is it you don’t like about Mark’s new system? I hate to comment without having tried it, but the workflow feels very contrived to be putting things out into the future. It seems like a contrived way to force dismissal. I don’t think dismissal should drive the structure of the system. It is important, but this takes it too far I think. I do force dismissal after 30 days in my system as well, so I don’t see any advantage to what this new system is really offering. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

-David

Have you read about Mark’s new system? I have tried it twice and still am not sold on it. I am still doing AF4 with some tweaks like you have mentioned here.

His new system is quite intriguing, and I have tried it now in a paper diary. It is hard getting use to adding new tasks always 30 days ahead in the diary, and ones that you have worked on and are not done, 7 days ahead. I am still thinking about giving it another go….but still just thinking about it. There are many on his website hailing this as the best system ever.

-David

Check out Mark Forster’s website. He has posted that he is coming out soon with yet another new time management system!

http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/989353

-David

As for bills i think your approach is very good. Best to automate things. For other recurring tasks (i have three at the moment) i just entered them in my Google Calendar which is synced with my iphone and they alert. That should guarantee that i don’t miss any of these. I will see how that works out.

After working with your/Marks method for a while i will probably need to adjust some things and also implement your approach for long-term projects (the discussion above). Other than that i’m really excited about trying out this method.

Thank you again.

On delegated tasks it depends: If the task does not need follow-up from me, i.e. I don’t really own the outcome, then I do nothing. If I own the outcome then it depends on how frequently I want to follow-up. If its quickly then I put it in the list. If it’s a longer term thing (for me that usually means next month), then I put it on one of my monthly deferred lists. Then at the beginning of the next month I just bring them forward.

For bills I guess it depends on when you pay. Best approach is to automate bill paying when possible. When not possible I try to pay bills as they come through my Inbox. No need to put them on a list at all that way.

When I choose not to pay them immediately, then I just add them to my main list in most cases. That doesn’t bother me, but other people have different preferences. If that bothers you then you can either park it on a deferred list and bring it forward or mark it on your calendar.

Thank you for your reply.

I had promised an update on what I’m doing but I’ve decided to just reply in comments for now. Too many things are still changing in my system to dedicate an entire post to it.

So basically the major change that I’ve done, as I mentioned earlier, is that I’m distinguishing between projects that require dedicated time, that I want to progress in large chunks of dedicated time. At the moment I only have one project that I’ve designated this way. It is a major, multi-faceted business projected. Occassionally I’ll just drop a short-task for that project in my main list, but almost everything else is getting add to a list dedicated just for that. Then I’m dedicating time on my calendar just for that project.

When I start working on that project I will check that list and see if there is anything critical to be done. If not I’ll usually just dive in and work free-form on it without using a list to drive anything specific. If something comes up that I want to make sure I get done I add it to the list and keep working free-form. When I’m about to wrap up, I review that list and usually can check off a number of items on the list. I will also add the next steps where I’d like to get done next.

So I’m using this project list quite a bit differently than I use my normal list, but it still provides the security that major to-do’s are captured, but also let’s me work in a more immersive way.

I started working with this new system on the 1st of December and I subdivided notebook a bit differently. I reserved the first half for the two lists I had before. So my personal list starts on page 1. My normal work list starts on page 30. I use the back 10 pages for the usual stuff (although I’ve begun using some of those pages for monthly goals as you suggested). I then begin working backwards from page 89 on my project list.

Overall I’m pretty happy with this system. It’s better than what I was doing before. Where I still am not happy is that I still feel that I often end up doing things in order to just cross things off and close pages even though those things are not the most critical or important items to be doing.

So as usual, I’m working on a new system for January. Hopefully by the end of January I’ll have something that I really love that also meets my simplicity requirements.

Happy New Year

Any updates? Just wondering how you are doing….

Best wishes,
-David