From MLOwiki

N.B. This is based on a discussion on the board a while ago and I'm in the process of trying to edit it into a more wiki-style article. Feel free to help.

The fundamental question that prompted this post was the fact that Ilias was finding a list of 30-40 items from MLO to be somwehat unsettling, as it didn't really represent what had to be done today.

Ilias considered a To-Do list to be "a list of things that I seriously, honestly, whole-heartedly, honest-to-God have decided and committed myself to do and complete [today]".

For most people, the MLO to-do list isn't this focussed. And when I use it, I see it as a "could-do" list, or "should-do" list. The rest of this post is suggestions for getting a Real To Do List, either by correct entry in MLO or by post-processing the list.

Contents 1 The 5 phases of Task Management 1.1 Planning 1.2 Action 2 Getting to the Real To Do List 2.1 Working with Outlook 3 In Closing

[edit] The 5 phases of Task Management

There are 5 phases that we need to discuss here:

1. COLLECTION. This is when you collect stuff that's coming to you from external OR internal sources. Email, phone calls, commitments you make to others and to yourself, ideas that you come up with, wishes or desires of things you want/have to do etc. etc. STUFF.

2. PROCESSING. Here's when you process all the stuff you collect form the collection phase. Processing doesn't mean you do them--processing means you decide what they are, what they represent, what they mean to you, and what you will need to do about them (if anything).

3. PLANNING. Here's where you actually plan what you will do. Here's where you decide what your goals and projects are, you plan those goals and projects, your break them down into sub-goals/sub-projects (if need be) and into manageable and self-contained DOABLE tasks.

4. ACTION. Self-explanatory. This is where you get-off your butt and get things DONE.

5. REVIEW. Making sure your view of the world is complete and current.

Let's turn the discussion back to MLO. Which of these phases/modes does MLO accomodate? Arguably all of them. Collection by the Rapid Task Entry dialog, and processing by entering stuff into the Outline view. The two that most people spend time on, though, are the Planning and Action areas.

[edit] Planning

Planning is supported by the Outline tab of MLO. That's where all the planning stuff happens. When you are there, that's all you do. You don't collect. You don't process (that has been done already by the time you are ready to add them to your outline). In the outline, you decide which things will happen, the order that they will happen, importance, urgency, how long they will take, where they will take place. It's called VISUALIZATION or MODELING. The better you are at visualizing, at TRULY visualizing outcomes and having them happen in your head and in your senses, the better you will be at this. I have an extremely vivid imagination, and when I am in the outline I can actually SEE and SMELL and TOUCH and FEEL and EXPERIENCE the outcomes I am hierarchically describing.

[edit] Action

Now, this is the critical part. This is where the rubber meets the road. If you fail in this mode folks, all your other efforts are meaningless. Truly meaningless. It's sad, really sad to sweat all the other phases, to spend so much time, effort and energy (physical and mental, mental being more important) and fail at this. I see this a lot, it happens to me too (used to happen a lot more) and it messes up my psychology to no end. it' USELESS to do all the other stuff if you are not DEAD-SERIOUS about THIS phase! It is in *this* phase where procrastination is the #1 enemy.

So, which module of MLO supports this action phase? The to-do list, of course.

OR IS IT?

Ok, let's all thing a bit about how *exactly* we use that to-do list and what it is we do with it. If you are anything like me, when faced with a huge list, your first impulse is to knock off a few things. You want to make it shorter. There's a psychological satisfaction, I guess, but shortening it (either by completing items, or consciously postponing them for another day.)

I want to describe to you, as vididly as I can, my usual interaction with my to-do list. I don't know about you, but when I am face to face with my list of 140 or so items, the first feeling I get is that of overwhelm. I sink in my chair. It's hard to imagine *anyone* whose stress levels stay completely unaffected by looking at a grim endless list of things to do. I take a deep breath, and I try to make some sense out of it. I scan the items. I had gotten into this habit of scanning the list for things I *won't* do today--hey, after all, that's the quickest way to make it shorter, right? Identify and *consciously* decide what I *won't* do today (we don't want to have any guilt feelings, do we). So I am sitting there in my office, clicking and playing and interacting constantly with my to-do list, pushing items into the future by changing their start/due dates, skip recurrence of a gazillion recurring items/reminders (aaaah this "skip recurrence" dialog.. we have become the closest buddies.. it will be interesting to find a way to count how many times we come face to face with each other each day! If I don't see that little dialog one day, my day will not be complete--I will miss it!)  :)

So I am sitting there interacting with my to-do list, postponing items into the future, skipping recurrences, changing dates in recurrences, finding little imperfections in my outline and fixing it, becoming unsatisfied or annoyed by the order of things and adjust priorities and urgencies to make it better and/or just "right", skipping more recurrences... fixing more faults in the outline............

STOP THE PRESSES!!! What is going on here????? What MODE am I supposedly in??? Folks, I am in ACTION mode--or am I???? If I am not mistaken, what I have just been describing is PLANNING, is it not???? I am still planning my day!! I am not doing, I am planning!!!

Folks, now that I think of it, the amount of time I have WASTED doing what I have just described all these months must have been ASTOUNDING! I swear, even the little breaks I had at the office, I was back into my to-do list to see what else I can knock off. How sick is that? It was like an addiction of some sort, a sinking feelings that all this truckload of things are waiting to be done, and I am just sitting here doing nothing! Absolutely sickening!

But the worst part was that I was deluding myself. I was thinking that I was in my to-do list to get things done, but what I was really still doing was further planning... and planning... and more planning....

BUT WHY???

Because, folks, THE TO-DO LIST THAT MLO PRESENTS IS NOT A TO-DO LIST AT ALL.

What I was doing there was trying to MAKE it into a to-do list... because it's really not...

And that takes me to the original argument.

In my view, MLO DOES NOT HAVE A WAY TO SUPPORT THE ACTION PHASE in the present time (if you use it anywhere near like I do, at least). Because MLO's "to-do" list requires further planning. In a true, pure to-do list, there's no planning left to do because all the planning is already done, and you are just purely DOING. In MLO's to-do list, there's lots and lots and lots of planning hiding in there that still needs to be done in order to turn it into a real, honest-to-God, committed to-do list.

And thaaaat... THAT folks is PERFECT breeding grounds for PROCRASTINATION to live in. Procrastination LOVES all this half-finished planning, lack of focus, unsure loosely defined "commitments", maybes, mights and perhapses.

[edit] Getting to the Real To Do List

Once I realized that MLO's to-do list was not a to-do list after all, I realized that I was starting my day without this most precious compass. I was facing my day half-blind, really. Without the clarity and the determination that I should have had. I realized that with MLO I never really *was* in the action mode, so how could I expect to get things done if I am not 100% there?

So now, I tend to see MLO's outline as Planning Phase 1, and MLO's to-do list (i like to call it suggestion list now) as Planning Phase 2.

So what do I do now?

(The answers below are a collation from Ilias post and other responses.)

• I just create THE to-do list from MLO's suggestions. I spend 15 minutes each morning scanning the list and pick 10 (no more, that's the magical number) of things that I *will* do that day. This also forces me to be REALISTIC about them. It forces them to think ahead and visualize (again) my day. When I pick, for example, the call to the dentist to add it to my real to-do list, I consciously think "10 minutes". Likewise, to finish the report, I think in my head "mate, that's a deadly heavy-duty one.. I really want to set aside 5 hours for this to be safe". It helps me get a clearer picture of what my day will be like, what is realistically possible and what not, and to model my day in my mind. I have also decided that I better have 10 things on my plate that I can complete them ALL and cross them clean, rather than have 140 and do 15. The psychological difference has been ENORMOUS for me. My stress levels are below zero, even my friends have commented on a change on me.

• A quick side note on the NUMBER of items. In "Time Tactics of Very Successful People, by B. Eugene Griessman, Mr. Griessman recounts that Mary Kay Ash, of Mary Kay Cosmetics, heard a story about Charles Schwab, then an president of a big steal company. A management consultant had approached Mr. Schwab and told him he could tell him how to make his company more efficient. Mr. Schwab said "what will it cost me?," and Mr. Schwab agreed to pay him a percentage of the money the company saves because of the idea. The consultant met with each of Schwab's executives for 10 minutes and simply told them "At the end of the day, before you leave the office, write down 6 things that you didn't get done today that you really need to do tomorrow." The executives became more focused, and soon there was a noticeable improvement in the productivity of the company. Schwab cut the consultant a check for $35,000. Today Mary Kay Cosmetics prints little pink note pads by the millions. At the top of each sheet are the words, "The Six Most Important Things I Must Do Tomorrow." I encourage you to take that 10 item list down to 6. You'll be amazed to find out that you usually can't finish the 6 items! If you do, good for you - go fishing, work on your someday/maybe list, or grab a couple more of your most important task for that week. But narrowing the list to 6 really hyper focuses you on the truly important task of the day. "Eat your frogs first"

• In the morning I go to my outline and view it by due date so I can see everything that is due today. I have my projects separated into "professional" and "personal" categories. If there are no "personal" tasks that are due today, I don't look at the personal tasks during work hours. Otherwise, I find myself distracted by them, and I will be spend my day doing things like organizing my photo albums and tricking myself into thinking I'm working by crossing things off my to-do list. So, by only viewing the @working context, I cut the number of items on my list a lot.

• I am really strict about using the "complete sub-tasks in order" option. Even when there are times when I could be working on a task without completing an earlier tasks, I don't, just for simplicity. I can see people being worried that by doing this they will not finish an important task on-time because it won't show up on their list if they haven't completed previous tasks. I only set due dates when they are really strict, definite due dates, so when I do my quick view by due date check in the morning (described above) I will see if there happen to be any tasks that are due today that don't show up because I haven't yet completed an earlier task. Also, during my weekly review I keep an eye out for these kind of situations, and move tasks up in the list if need be.

• I also try to be strict about putting things in the someday/maybe category. During my weekly review I basically look through everything and think about what I am likely to have time to do this week, what my goals are, etc. If I decide I won't be working on a project that week, I move it to someday/maybe, and then will probably move it back out the following week.

• I pick my 'x' number of tasks for that day and write them on a White Board I have on the wall next to my desk. I write them big and noticable from across the room. I have found the process of physicially WRITING the words helps to solidify my commitment, not to mention I typically have the list memorized by the time I've reached the bottom. There is a motivation factor involved as well - since I work at home much of the time, I want those items crossed off before the end of my day. I refuse to erase the list until every item is crossed off (crossing off is much more satisfying that erasing), so if I don't cross every item off, it stays on the board ALL night as a reminder. As I type this, I am seeing the 1 task I did not complete 2 days ago staring at me from below the list of 8 crossed out tasks.. and belive me, I'm not happy.

• I sync my MLO list to Outlook, but I do NOT map priorities. Once in outlook, I use the User Defined fields from MLO to setup my views so that I can see MLOProject, MLOContext and MLOPriority (or whatever the exact name is). Now, if I WANT to see the list in MLO's sorted order, I sort on priority. Otherwise, I'm free to do as I please. However, the real key to this method is using Outlook's Priority which only has three possible values. Since everything comes over neutral, I simply tag my chosen items as high priority. This is quick and easy if you enable in-cell editing and make sure the Priority is one of your columns. Then I have another view that is just for High Priority items - conveniently, this matches my Method 1 list now.

• For me, the planning phase 2 gets embodied in the Outline view. For example, I might have a project to write a document. I'll break that down in the outline until I get to something that really is a next action. I use "Complete Sub-tasks in Order" and Places to keep the actual to-do lists in order. My outline view has something over 500 items at the moment, and I get to-do lists of typically between 15 and 50 items. I KNOW I'm not ever going to do them all on the day they show up, but I can see the ones that are DUE today (or yesterday) and the ones that I just need to get done, but it doesn't really matter if it's today or tomorrow. If I can cross ten things off in the day, I'm happy. If stuff comes at me so fast all day that I don't have a chance to even look at the list, that's OK. The important thing was that I had a good enough idea of the to-do list so that each time something came my way I could make an instant "react now or add to the list" decision.

• My new solution is to scan the To-Do list when I am planning my day and highlight the ten or so tasks I am absolutely committed to completing. I will then print a report (either to file or paper), and refer to it directly throughout the day. This way I can stay in action mode throughout the day and will gain a sense of completion when the day is finished.

• My current (and so far best) method is creating a list of recurring "schedule" items, each of which corresponds to a category of items (phone calls, errands, project x, class prep, budget routine, etc.). So each day I check each of these sub-lists, and when I have finished all the tasks from that list that I want to do for today, I check the schedule item off.

• I create an outline item (top level) underneath which I store all the items that I would like to do but do not have hard deadlines, and check hide the branch from the to-do list. This way, all the items that go into this branch doesn't show up in my to do list. I only want the items that must be done (with hard deadlines) show up in my to-do list, and this is what I do. What I do with this list is to review it once a week to see if any of these items I want to work on this week and then I move it to a place where now it can be shown (either its own project folder or my weekly to-do list folder) with a hard deadline (or deadline is the day I want to work on this). I also review this list during my daily review if and when I know I have time left over in my today's schedule.

• An alternative is to (mis)use the Weekly Goals setting as a Daily Goals setting; just review MLO's to-do list in the morning & mark a realistic number of tasks as "weekly goals". They will then be highlighted with an exclamation mark, and get their own view (the goals view) in MLO. But most useful for me is that they can then be synced to outlook with the "Map MLO priority to Outlook's Low/Normal/High priority" setting checked, which automatically assigns Weekly goals to "high" priority, and anything else to medium or low. It is then simple to set up a customised view in Outlook which filters the list leaving only the high priority tasks visible, i.e. your "TO-DO TODAY!" list. This is also useful if you sync with a palm & have software such as DateBk5 which can filter tasks by priority. A major advantage of this method is that the other tasks are still there, but hidden, so if you need to refer to them (for instance if you get all of today's tasks done!) or change something it is easily done.

[edit] Working with Outlook

There are quite a few MLO users who are synching MLO with Outlook.

Many of you synch because you want to have your to-do list accessible in your PDAs (via Hotsync or ActiveSync synchronization of Outlook). Others like to synchronize with Outlook for other reasons. Whatever the case might be, I would like you to sit and consider why you are doing this. To be honest, I was doing this too. I liked to have my "stuff" in both places. Why? Because I could. That's why.

Yes, it's true that Outlook is a hub that connects and integrates with plenty other software, but really, take a hard look at this, be honest with yourselves and ask yourselves why you really need to have MLO's SUGGESTION LIST in Outlook. Do you really need that? Are you willing/prepared to do this further planning required (Planning Phase #2) in Outlook so that you can just synch back?

Or is it better to selectively create a NEW, REAL to-do list in Outlook based on MLO's suggestions?? And now that new, real to-do list will synch to your PDA or whatever. Wouldn't that make it simpler for you? Cleaner? More elegant? Less stressful?

Think about the FOCUS and CLARITY that would bring into your personal and work life, instead of populating Outlook with endless tasks that you then later need to shift through and separate the wheat from the chaff (not to talk about synch issues and conflicts and more and more tech complexity).

[edit] In Closing

I read a quote by Albert Einstein that had a profound effect on me a few years ago, and I just saw it again a few days ago and it always strikes a chord in me. He said "Everything should be made as simple as possible... but not one bit simpler than that."

Boy, I can't believe how long this post got to be. I certainly didn't intend it to be this long--if I did I might have prepared and organized it. I wrote it as it was coming off my head, and it certainly unprocessed, disorganized and perhaps "raw". But knowing me and my perfectionism, if I had waited to prepare it and organize it, it may never have been written at all. So this is probably better than nothing at all.

You may have read this post and it may have sounded just common sense to many of you. Some may have have wondered "so what? big deal" but for me, it was a realization that has literally changed completely my efficiency, effectiveness, stress and peace of mind. Sometimes the smallest realizations create the biggest change, and this is certainly what has happened to me.

It has brought back clarity and focus into my life. I have the short, "real" to-do list that that I am truly, honestly COMMITTED (i love that word) on doing, but also the peace of mind that comes from having ALL my stuff collected, processed and organized into a system I can TRUST--and that system is MLO.

The thing is to be clear about what it is that's happening to you. Be clear about your emotions, about your roadblocks, about what gets you excited, motivated, but also what drags you down, sucks up your energy and messes up your psychology. Awareness is key here. Each one of us must find what works for him or her and what doesn't, and the only way to do this is by constantly observing yourself and asking the infamous question "Why?". If you are procrastinating on something, ask "Why?" If you are not motivated or if something is sucking up your energy, ask "Why?". If something is not working out in your flow and in your time/life management process, ask "Why?" The better and more detailed answers you can come up with, the better the chances that you will identify the roadblocks and eliminated them. One at a time.