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Anti-procrastination Hacks: Dynamic Unordered Todo List
Contro:
This is a really trivial thing, but as I have found it so useful in a recent project I felt the need to post about it and give it a fancy name.
Essentially I am just reporting that one thing I have found particularly helpful in avoid procrastination on a project is to keep a list (in a google doc in this case) of tons of random unordered "mini-tasks" that need to be done for the project.
So it's just a to-do list that we all know about.
But the point is to have a list you can add to and delete from at any time in any order.
I have found this so useful in avoiding procrastination because I can always find SOME SMALL ITEM that I can perform and delete from this list.
And I wanted to argue for the psychological benefits of this over having a much more structured ORDERED plan where you have to do A then B then C.
While such ordered plans are more logical and efficient, I have found that they lead to real psychological roadblocks when you get to some point your mind doesn't want to work on.
Having a list of lots of items big and small, in all different areas, is a great way to help get yourself to mentally just start on something.
And you can always switch gears and be productive by ADDING ITEMS to the list, which can be useful when your brain otherwise is refusing to be productive.
Anyone else have any tricks they use to avoid procrastinating?
-mouser (June 30, 2017, 04:16 AM)
--- End quote ---
I agree.
The reason of procrastination may be simply tired.
I am using a sort of alternating method with the pomodoro technique to assure I make sport and move from the office.
But the most useful thing for me, besides the software, are simple physical cards with usual tasks (similar to mouser's basic tasks) . I revised often and this work faster than alarms in the pc.
I feel better (in physical form and mental form simply varying the tasks)
When we have procrastination is just because ( in some cases) we don't respect the body, the mind, the rest, the ocium , the sport.
I have a word
DADO
Descanso - Rest
Alimentación - Food
Deporte - Sport
Ocio - Ocium
RFSO
:-*
And sometimes the best is close the pc and take a good walk
note : I have tried and revised the above answers.
I have read a lot of procrastination and its causes.
the main point for me is rispect DADO
IN you are not in good condition is impossible to get it.
Many good words will not give you a good rest, good food, good sport, good feelings to make a happy life.
So....... Tomorrow I will go to the mountain to enjoy for a while.
:P
Refresh your mind !!!!!!!!!
Think on green !!!!!!
Contro:
...It just brought home to me the fact that the name of the game is not "what to do" but "what not to do."
So the main problem is the quality of the judgement involved in prioritising. It's all too well to capture, list and order all tasks. But the main issue is to decide what to do now, today, by making very painful decisions about what not to do, temporarily, and most likely permanently. ...
_________________________________
-dr_andus (July 02, 2017, 05:36 AM)
--- End quote ---
Yes, an elementary truth that is not always easy to perceive.
The solution that I learned from a book on time management (I forget its title - I had borrowed it from a friend and returned it), some years ago, was to categorise/prioritise tasks into permutations of Urgency (criticality) and Importance:
A - Urgent and Important.
B - Not Urgent, but Important.
C - Neither Urgent nor Important.
A, B and C are mutually exclusive. Cs may become Bs and Bs may become As. Misjudged As can be demoted to Bs, but it seems unlikely that Bs will become Cs, unless one is working in total chaos.
This scheme disregards the logical 4th permutation: Urgent, but Not Important as it is a nonsense.
This scheme seems to have been based on The Eisenhower Method, which uses the concept of Immediacy (to express Urgency).
The way to work the ABC prioritisation is to concentrate on what is Urgent or likely to become Urgent - actioning the As first, maybe picking up some Bs as one goes along (if a B synchronises with the As and is likely to become Urgent and is not a diversion), but otherwise leave the Bs till you have some slack/delay time whilst/after doing the As (remember, Bs are Not Urgent - right?).
The Cs are just ignored until they become Important, and, if they never become Important, then they never need to be actioned and can safely be deleted after a while.
I have coached others in the use of this ABC scheme, and it has saved my sanity and that of those I have coached. I recall one particular incident where I coached one of the systems engineers who reported to me - a really able and intelligent guy who was in his first job. I noticed that he was having great difficulty doing all his work and was rushing around like a mad thing. After having a chat with him, I saw the problem immediately. After my coaching him on the ABC method (he picked it up in a flash), he went away and started to rigorously apply it. I had asked him to report back to me on progress after 2 days, and he did. He was overjoyed, being now on top of his work and he knew exactly what his priorities were. He thanked me profusely and said that, though he liked his job, he had been on the point of resigning as he felt like he was just being overworked beyond his coping limit. He was amazed how that simple method had changed his whole outlook on work and made his life bearable and more enjoyable.
He was able to gain a sense of achievement from the knowledge that he had the power to control his workflow and focus on doing a good job by addressing the priorities.
I originally had a simple paper-based system for the prioritised tasklists, but I later made it computer-based on a nifty relational database PIM for managing text records (Lotus Agenda). I could look at (say) all the As together, and make progress notes about them and flag them as "Done" when they had been completed (the date of setting the "Done" flag was automatically recorded), and then review the Bs to see if any warranted action or upgrading to As, and make notes about them also. I would ignore the Cs unless some event had raised the priority of one of them.
This system was easily replicated to a greater extent using the PIM InfoSelect v8, but that has become legacy software (does not run perfectly on Win10-64bit PCs) and I have now replicated it to a lesser extent by using @mouser's CHS (ClipboardHelp&Spell), which is quite versatile. I found I could extend its versatility by using the CHS Virtual Folders functionality and making fuller notes (where necessary) in MS Office OneNote - with CHS as a kind of front-end to that. It's a bit kludgy, but it works.
If the NoteFrog beta had not been prematurely pulled, I would probably have migrated from CHS to that by now, because NoteFrog was designed as a PIM, whereas CHS is not (though it originally was).
This does not mean that using CHS for the ABC scheme is not a good, workable idea - as I have proven for myself. It got even better for this purpose when the automatic SQL generator was built-in (and especially when that later had its bugs fixed). That made the CHS Virtual Folders functionality much more effective. :Thmbsup:
-IainB (July 02, 2017, 08:00 AM)
--- End quote ---
I have applied and apply.
But for me is more important the alternation or change with apps like workrave.
In general we are very exigent with ourselves and forget the basic.
The basic is not the efficiency, the basic is not the work. The basis is rispect your body and mind just because we only have one.
Be clean and organized. Be responsible. But above all apply "DADO". After apply DADO then work .
:-*
Contro:
BTW I have write down all the foods that cause me addiction and treats the list exactly alike that the tobacco , alcohol, drugs.
So I have my list near my sight every day.
it's simply now forbidden the yellow cheese, the sugar drinks, "salchichón", "chorizo cantimpalo", etc.
They steal your discipline.
:-*
Contro:
I resume the Mouser Method as Enjoy, alternate and Treat flexible
Ejem . I the MM EAT
Mouser Method Enjoying the flexible alternation.
IainB:
@Contro: What are you smoking? I think I'd like some, please. ;)
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