Thanks Neal, This seems a lot like the system I devised in order to use mlo (with the exception that, since I've turned my weeks into 'projects', mlo does the counting for me). I guess that means I'm on the right track. It's only been about a week but I'm pleased with it as a band-aid solution so far.
Sent from my iPhone On 2011-01-25, at 11:43 AM, Neal <nschm...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello Mary, We have had this conversation with Richard in the past. Here is > the link: > > http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized/browse_thread/thread/1831641b58ec4747/4fb039f575aa3715?lnk=gst&q=unschedule+nschm873#4fb039f575aa3715 > > As to answer your question, I'll review what I posted at that time. To > forward plan you really shouldn't try to place your actual tasks in a > calendar. You only use a calendar to figure out how much time you actually > have available to you. So the steps are: > > Figuring out time needed to complete tasks: > > First you use MLO, or GTD, or whatever tool you use to gather all of the work > you really need to do. You then take this work and figure out how many 30 > minutes time slices you need to complete all the tasks you have given > yourself. > > From there you add your interruption percentage. Basically, what percentage > of your time at work gets interrupted by others needing something from you. > You have to add enough additional time slices to cover this loss of time. > > Now you know how many time slices you need to complete your tasks. > > Figuring out time available: > > Now you use a calendar to mark all of your commitments. Read unschedule for > more information on how to do this. Basically, you place all of your > scheduled meetings, your travel time, your lunches, your personal and leisure > time, etc. Once you have this you now know what free time is actually > remaining for work. > > Then you add up this time in 30 minute time slices. Well you add up how much > of this time you are willing to give to work. You can read about the > pomodoro technique as an example of this phase. So now you know how many > "gross" time slices you have available. > > Putting it all together: > > Since you now know how man time slices you need and how many time slices you > have, you simply add them up. You go back to your unscheduled calendar and > start counting time slices available for each day, until you reach the total > slices you determined that you need to complete your tasks. > > Advantages: > > The advantage of this method over trying to put tasks directly into a > calendar is its flexibility. You don't have to spend any time "sliding" > tasks to a later time slot if you add an emergency task. By having time > needed and time available as separate lists you can add or subtract tasks to > your list and readjust your dates accordingly. > > So to recap, you would use MLO or GTD or your personal task collection > methodology. You then use a calendar and the unschedule technique. You > would then use pomodoro or the dash method for your time segment technique. > Combine them all together and you can now forward plan. > > Anyway, I hope that is what you were looking for... > > On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 3:56 AM, Mary D. Renaud <mary.d.ren...@gmail.com> > wrote: > Is there any way we could steer this away from the gtd discussion? If GTDers > have ideas for using it with tight, competing deadlines, great; I'd be > grateful to hear them and see if I can implement them. But I need multiple > deadline management (as do many program managers, project managers, and > students - who also encounter bottlenecking issues) and I'm really hoping to > share ideas and tweaks with people about how to do that rather than go back > and fourth on the gtd thing. > > > Sent from my iPhone > > On 2011-01-25, at 1:54 AM, Mike T <kenr...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Have you actually read the GTD book? Just asking. > > > > GTD as I understand it is a system approach to seeing in one place all > > the things you have promised yourself you'd do now or in the future. > > Its up to you, not GTD, to estimate how long its going to take to > > complete them. Now it might be worthwhile to use a tool like a Gantt > > chart or MLO or Microsoft Project to estimate how long the things you > > have as active projects are going to take to complete and to look for > > places where you've scheduled too much to be finished at one time, but > > GTD has done its part if its let you keep track of all your > > promises. > > > > > > > > On Jan 24, 1:45 pm, "Richard Collings" <r...@rcollings.co.uk> wrote: > >> But unless I am missing something, GTD has nothing to offer in helping me > >> see that I am overcommitted next week (or whenever). > >> > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > > To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to mylifeorganized@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mylifeorganized+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
