Actually there isn't only a fraction of the users that report struggles because only a fraction of the license sold lead to someone posting hear in the forums. What the silent majority has for experiences we can only guess, and unfortunately if you are on this list you are a cogg in this highly statistically schewd crowd. So welcome to the funny farm as they say :) :)
> > What do you have or would you advise to have as the top level tasks and what > principles would you use in terms of how you organise tasks under this. Is > there a template that works well with CSA? > I did 3/4 of the templates so here's as authoritative answer for you: CSA: All the GTD ones. Heriarchial: Traditional FranlinkCovey FlyLady MLO Demo Do it Tomorrow - don't know I assume Heirarchial On Jul 16, 2:53 am, "Richard Collings" <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks again for the detailed reply. Sadly I have tried both schemes and > can't make either work for me. And there is a steady stream (trickle?) of > other people posting similar comments. > > Although the last time, I tried CSA I was also using the Weekly Goal which > from what you have said, distorts the behaviour significantly. > > I would definitely put myself in the 'too many tasks' category so perhaps I > should go back and try it again > I would suggest using the "reset all tasks to normal urgency and importance" button and starting over ranking things as needed. This button exists for 2 reason; if you come from the heirachial method we recommend you reset and start over. Secondly people get confused and then I say "press RESET" you didn't understand the premise. (((yes someday I need to write a tutorial, but this darn thing started life as a power tool for the geeks on this list, it's not my fault Andrey built a great app that happens to sell really well...))) My #1 piece of advice is never change the Importance and Urgency of a TASK based on what you see in the Todo List; Only do that from the Outline when you are looking at the whole picture. If I could have the sliders disabled in the Todo List view; I would in a heart beat. You'd all whine, complain and hold your breath; but everyone would have far better results. If you think the todo list is in the wrong order, then there is the problem it is in the Outline not the TASK that's in the wrong place. If you can't resist tweaking individual tasks in the todo list don't use this method. Seriously don't do it I have "triaged" a number of users files over the years and without exception if it doesn't work it's because they put bad data in and then try to game the system. The program gives them an exact result of garbage and they are surprised by the result in-spite of feeding it garbage. The biggest problem is they really refuse to rank items IN RESPECT to the parent only. You have to do that or it won't work. I find lots of people are ranking the siblings against each other; that is wrong. Look we could go on and on about this for hours of examples but, there is only so much time in the day; If you have the following outline below (yes it's way too short). If we exclude everything except importance for the moment. Project A ++Task A ++++SubTask A ++++++SubSubTask A ++++++++SubSubSubTask A ++++SubTask B ++++++SubSubTask B ++++++++SubSubSubTask B Project B ++Task B ++++SubTask C ++++SubTask D ++Task C ++++SubTask E ++++++SubSubTask C ++++++++SubSubSubTask C The Only Items that must have there importance set are the ones with * Project A* ++Task A ++++SubTask A* ++++++SubSubTask A ++++++++SubSubSubTask A ++++SubTask B* ++++++SubSubTask B ++++++++SubSubSubTask B Project B* ++Task B* ++++SubTask C* ++++SubTask D* ++Task C* ++++SubTask E ++++++SubSubTask C ++++++++SubSubSubTask C That's it; if you set the importance of those you get a valid result. The mistake people make is how they do that. Let's look at 2 cases. Case (1) (SubTask C & SubTask D) The mistake here is to say SubTask C is more important than SubTask D So let's set C high and D low. That is in not correct. You have to Decide how important SubTask C is to Task B, and how important SubTask D is to Task B and you only have to do that because more than 1 SubTask X exists in Task B. Those are different questions completely. If you don't understand that keep reading that sentence until you do. Still here? really? Awesome, here's the same idea in a concrete example: Think of it like cleaning a room. If you make a list of ten things to do to clean the room, let's assume 5 of those are probably very important to cleaning the room; if you don't get them done the room isn't clean. The other 5 are optional if you don't do them the room is still clean and you can call it good enough. The first 5 are then very important to the Parent and the other 5 are not. If only the first 5 are present and the other 5 don't exist then the critical 5 are "normal" importance to the parent. The first 5 are very because the noncritical 5 EXISIT; but NOT RELATIVE to them. You rank then IN RESPECT to the PARENT. What that means in our example is: If the only the second five existed then they would all be "normal" importance IN RESPECT the parent, and the Parent "clean the room" would in all likelihood be less important IN RESPECT to its parent IF it had sibling items within that parent. Ok backup and read this paragraph again 3 more times; it's a very very hard concept to grasp, but if you are struggling if you can grok it; you might get yourself over the hurdle. What are you waiting for go back and read it again. Case (2) Why is is subsubsubTask C more important than SubTask D; I must change it.... NOPE. SubSubSubTask C will be more important if what you said of above it computes it to be that way. if it's wrong to your intuition go to the outline and review your outline the problem is elsewhere because SubSubSubTask C has no siblings and therefore should be NORMAL importance. (Cavet if SubSubSubTask C had previous siblings it might be something other than normal). In the virgin case above though there are 3 tasks that must be completed to get back up the tree to Task C Therefore If you make Task C important or then all the tasks below it have to get our of the way to get back up to it; the more there are the more important they become because the road block is thicker. Another good trick if you want to learn that the system works; it to only use Dates for a while. If you are in a new outline set only due dates for awhile and watch the results. If REV3 was deployed I would suggest both start and due dates. If you have an existing outline you can save a copy and then use the "reset importance" button; and look at what your due date date is telling you. Most people can get their due dates right. > I am not sure that I understand the math. I tried Googling for GLOB sorter > and couldn't find anything. If the CSA is based on a more widely used set > of theories I would be interested to read a bit more - do you have any > references? Ah sorry GLOB sorter is a term from Chaotic Mathematics and Number Theory, I think one of my profs made it up 25 years ago; some very odd stuff. If you chart natural scientific data; things tend to cluster in storm cells are points of interest where near by points are similar in the characteristic being modeled. Many, nonlinear chaotic oscillating function do that. What the algorithm is doing is taking a finite set of data; and trying to figure out which things in the outline are important and urgent; It's basically mathematically doing covey's 4 quadrants for you. Most everything the algorithm does can be found in a Nonlinear mathematics text book; or a good computational math book would do, I doubt you'll find them combined in one spot. I use http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/gkp.html for most fancy things I do. The best self regulating qsort with an embedded shell sort can be derived from that book; but you have to know where to look. > > Would I be right in thinking that what you have as your top level tasks is > quite important to the CSA. At the moment, I start off with a Home/Work > split and then split each of these into things like Single Step Actions, > Daily Routines, etc. What matters is the first level at which you move the sliders out of the central position; OR assign a Due Date to an item; From that point down the algorithm is morphing the data. > > And given what you say about the CSA not being suited to sorting things down > to the level of individual tasks, it maybe points back to the need for a > layering a manual sort, which I desparately need, on top of this (and I > believe Andrey is thinking about) - ie: you use CSA to bring the most > important stuff to the top and then use manual sort to put into an order in > which you want to tackle things today. > Manual sorting on top; I've looked at that twice and all implementations are ugly due to the need to reset at some point; when is the right time without loosing the data. It's a real briar patch. But Andrey may have other thoughts. As for having things in a precise order for the day? I suggest that people really try and get beyond that psychological itch; nobody can maintain that in today world. I know I'm sure that rubs a few people; but I'm old enough now to get away with it. But I've got a challenge for everyone that disagrees. Tomorrow take you top ten things you need to do. Write them on an index card in the order you think you need to do them; then put that card in a drawer, now right down your top ten things you need to do; on another card; no read the whole list and pick one; do it; when you are done cross it off and number item 1. Read read the WHOLE list and pick the one that feels right and do; when done cross it off and number it item 2; repeat until done; when you are finished compare the order of the two cards. If you find that interesting then join the thread on autofocus. Most of my current energies are being used to see if MLO can be a platform for that technique. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/myLifeOrganized?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
