gtderik;63419 said:
I have been enjoying playing around with the idea of the short list to help with prioritization lately. David talked about it in the last couple audio podcasts he has put out. When life gets crazy draw from your lists the few crucial items for when you get a few moments during a wall to wall day.
Has anyone else played around the the idea of fully processing in to actions and outcomes, and then creating temporary "scaffolding" for those days that get crazy?
Erik
I have been toying around with the idea for some time now, and have tried a few approaches. Earlier I used to select a few actions for the day. This obviously had the problem that DA himself keeps pointing out: new inputs can blow this up. So I started calling it my 'in-focus' action list, and these were the first action choices that I would consider doing, as far as new inputs don't change the scene. Currently I have found out a better alternative: I maintain an 'in-focus' checklist which contains a few projects or milestones of bigger projects rather than actions. In a way it's the goals I am setting for myself for this week, but even that is not correct; it keeps on changing according to the inputs. The 'in-focus' section of my office actions list still exists, but I am now more confident as to what actions to put there. Also I make it a point during my weekly review to shuffle in-focus list if necessary as to balance various areas of responsibility.
My projects list is still projects list: a list of commitments, separate from someday-maybe. The in-focus list is an additional list to get priority decisions off my mind, but I constantly keep in mind that it is not hard and fast, it is just a convenience, and it can change at a moment's notice.
Depending upon the context/time/energy, I am also able to move forward other projects which are not 'in-focus', since the corresponding actions are still on my actions lists. The 'in-focus' section of my lists is just the first to look at for choices, not the only one.
I think the problem is that at higher levels from projects upwards we know our priorities, because these things change relatively slowly. The actions list moves very fast, and it's a huge effort every time to look at a list of 100 actions and make choices from structurally equal-looking choices. So my solution of the 'in-focus' list at a level higher than actions is just a convenient and flexible structure to make the choice quicker for me. Now I feel quite confident that it will work for a considerable time without further tweaks.
Hope a few others find this useful.
Regards,
Abhay