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We Still Don’t Get Things Done

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Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#71

Post by gexla »

My app for a summary of things I have done is my time tracker.

The time horizon for my to-do list is a week. Further out than a week is probably a scheduled item which is a different thing than a to-do.

Everything else is an idea among my notes. My backlog is my notes. It's the place where I go to jot something down and then forget about it until something happens to surface that item again. If that happens, then maybe I'll act on it. Maybe I'll just add to the note and forget about it again.

Anything on my to-do list which isn't done a week from being added gets turned into a note, to be forgotten about.

Information dense project task flows aren't to-do items and I manage them in a proper PM app rather than a to-do app.

I think it's important to be constrained with how you use todos. My list is short and easy to manage. Even being memory and attention challenged, it's easy to get a quick grasp on everything I need to do for the next few days.

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#72

Post by skrebbel »

edoceo wrote: post #49
Lightbody wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, we (Reclaim.ai - I’m quoted in the article), have a lot of ADHD customers who tell us that we help with time blocking on their calendar. In particular, the fact that we do it automatically seems to be the thing they appreciate. Edit: First time I’ve ever been downvoted into negative territory. Clearly I’ve embarrassed myself ;P Is it because of self promotion? I guess… seems weird though I/my com…

Probably the claim about "a lot of ADHD" clients. How do you even know? Did you ask?! What percent? Feels real BS to me.

"talk to your customers" is rule number 1 of just about any startup, any business even. Why would you doubt that they do this?

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#73

Post by ohthehugemanate »

moksly wrote: post #32

The more project management tools I have to work with, the less likely I am to work for or with a company. I have a somewhat similar stance on software architecture. Sure, I’m TOGAF certified but if you actually expect me to work with notation correct Archimare/UML/whatever and not just draw boxes on a napkin you’re either insane or sell a product with no competition. This is anecdotal of course, but after 30 years o…

I see it as a similar problem as we (humans) have with all systems: we mistake the system for the actual solution. It's not.

You need to focus on the real problem at hand, and devise/adapt a correct solution in context. Systems and frameworks provide helpful tools and templates, but they all require contextual adaptation.

FWIW this is what I like about the foundations of Agile for project management. The manifesto points all direct you away from your tools and processes and towards the actual problem. eg "People over process," "working code over documentation," etc. Basically the people on the team should focus on working software, communicating with the customer, and adapting to change. Their processes, documentation, contracts, and plans should all be aligned to that solution, not the other way around.

And out of that... we got millions or scrum certificate weilding alcolytes who will tell you that if your project failed, it's because you didn't do their system religiously enough. God certainly has a sense of irony.

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#74

Post by reedjosh »

Lightbody wrote: post #44
moksly wrote: post #32

The more project management tools I have to work with, the less likely I am to work for or with a company. I have a somewhat similar stance on software architecture. Sure, I’m TOGAF certified but if you actually expect me to work with notation correct Archimare/UML/whatever and not just draw boxes on a napkin you’re either insane or sell a product with no competition. This is anecdotal of course, but after 30 years o…

Say what you will about Amazon culture in general (I’ve never worked there)… but one of their leadership principals is Dive Deep > Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them. IMO this particular trait correlates well with a need for less process / project management software. I really believe if more peopl…

I'm there now (for only a short time), and I'm remarkably struck by how good the culture is, and it's the exact opposite of their reputation. Maybe team dependent, but I'm pretty happy with my manager.

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#75

Post by throwslackforce »

If we were actually interested in getting things done, we'd get them done, right? It seems like the core of the problem is people having priorities imposed on them that don't match their own, actual priorities. When people aren't getting things done, they're usually doing other things, their actual priorities, not staring idly into space. (Usually. And maybe staring into space is fine too).

If your well-being or the well-being of others is at stake, then you got to do what you got to do, and "get things done". But a lot of this sounds like people feeling guilty about not going the extra mile on things they don't actually care about.

EDIT: Wow I guess this struck a nerve.

EDIT 2: And I think "people having priorities imposed on them" would also include people imposing priorities on themselves without sufficient self-reflection.

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#76

Post by [deleted] »

edoceo wrote: post #49
Lightbody wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth, we (Reclaim.ai - I’m quoted in the article), have a lot of ADHD customers who tell us that we help with time blocking on their calendar. In particular, the fact that we do it automatically seems to be the thing they appreciate. Edit: First time I’ve ever been downvoted into negative territory. Clearly I’ve embarrassed myself ;P Is it because of self promotion? I guess… seems weird though I/my com…

Probably the claim about "a lot of ADHD" clients. How do you even know? Did you ask?! What percent? Feels real BS to me.

[deleted]

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#77

Post by adevx »

kilroy123 wrote: post #14

I'm always curious how others "work." I use the Pomodoro technique myself, where I do a minimum of 8 sessions per workday. I try to do 10, but usually, I'm somewhere in between. I do not count meetings. Every day at work, I show up and do a minimum of 4 straight hours of concentrated and focused work. I often get told things like: "I'm killing it", "I'm a high producer", etc. To me, I feel like I'm cheating the syste…

I have no system. I boot up my laptop in the morning, have a coffee and answer all support emails. After finishing my emails I feel like I've done a lot and start looking at my fun projects (trading bot, IoT projects) Then a server error pops up on Telegram and I realize I was supposed to rewrite the image processing routine. Back to work, and up until late at night before finally finishing this task. In short, event driven task management.

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#78

Post by neilv »

> You can blame Zeigarnik again. The mere act of making a to-do list relieves so much itchy stress that it can, paradoxically, reduce the pressure to actually get stuff done. “People feel that when they put all their tasks somewhere, they’ve already done most of the work,” Perchik says. But it’s an illusion. The pile of work is still there.

I suspect that this effect can work for you, without working against you.

For personal (non-work-project) tasks, I've been using a variation of Todo.txt throughout the day, for both "to-do list" task management, and scheduling appointments and reminders.

I suppose this Zeigarnik effect described by the article might be helpful, and not defeated, partly due to the priorities assigned the tasks.

Tasks are assigned priorities A-Z. I usually only end up looking at priorities A-C (occasionally D).

One effect of this might be that prioritizing a task as D or E gets it off my mind (thanks, Zeigarnik)... but another effect is that I keep being reminded of the A-C tasks on days that I could do them, so they don't feel done (take that, Zeigarnik).

(Some notes on my variation on Todo.txt, and a snippet of Emacs Lisp that helps support it, is at: https://www.neilvandyke.org/todotxt/ )

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#79

Post by cortesoft »

jkhdigital wrote: post #24

I still think David Allen nailed it in Getting Things Done . Not the system necessarily, but he nailed the diagnosis of why we fail to get things done: an inability to be honest with ourselves about (1) the full scope and scale of the commitments we make, and (2) just how little time and attention we have at our disposal in meeting those commitments. Really, it’s the same sort of problem that is described in The Goal…

Yeah, at the end of the day we simply have more tasks than time we are able (willing?) to devote to them.

There is no technique or strategy to have infinite productivity.

Re: We Still Don’t Get Things Done

#80

Post by markus_zhang »

sgt wrote: post #70
markus_zhang wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every day at work, I show up and do a minimum of 4 straight hours of concentrated and focused work. It's a lot TBH. I'd laugh loudly if I can do that everyday. 4 hours of focused work most likely will deleptes all of my energy and leaves me drained after work. On my side. I work as a BI developer so a lot of time is spent in meeting. A day with 3 hours of meeting is fairly common but most of the time I don't need to…

Not sure I would be able to cope with 3 hr meetings on a regular basis. I try to keep meetings as short as possible (15-30 min), and to have an e-mail thread already having taken place in anticipation of the call.

Yeah I do the same. Some of the meetings are not avoidable though considering I'm in the middle of requirements taking. For the rest I just ait through.

It was a lot worse when I worked in the analytic team. Pretty much everyday is 3 hours of meeting at least.

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