The Discover system: a double-entry tickler file
I’ve always struggled with to-do lists. I’m great at writing them, laying them out, prettying them up.
I’m really, really bad at actually crossing anything off them.
This is for a number of reasons to do with my psychology and personal issues that we don’t need to go into here, but what it boils down to is: I’m a really bad procrastinator. Or, to put it another way: I’m a really good procrastinator. I excel at it.
So I make my to-do list and feel all proud about how organised I’m being – but when it comes time to actually do any of the items? My mind skitters away from each task; it’s all too hard. Instead, I read another webpage, play another game of solitaire, watch another game of hockey.
And nothing ever gets done.
I’ve recently come up with a solution that I’m trying out, to fool my brain into getting stuff actually done, chunking down each task into mentally-manageable bits. It’s cheaper than therapy, and the results are a lot quicker.
The system is an adaptation of the ‘tickler file’ system, where you have a set of hanging files for keeping notes and upcoming action items – one for each day of the upcoming month, plus one for each month of the year. I’ve worked with this system a little bit, and I find it really good for organising my upcoming projects and work—the problem is then in actually turning all this organised stuff into achievement.
What I’ve started doing is making what I call a ‘double entry’ for each to-do item. Sometimes, in fact, it winds up as more than two entries – but whatever it takes to work around my potholed mental state and get the job done, right?
I get a 3”x5” index card and cut it in half up the middle, so I have two pieces that are 3” high and 2.5” wide. Each one of these pieces becomes the cardstock for an action item. (You can also use blank business-card stock if you like; they’re a good size. Or recycle a stack of business cards you don’t need any more, writing on the back of them – environmentally-friendly, and compact to boot.)
I take my blank card and I write the name of the task at the top of it. On the next line I write “Discover.”“Discover” is my shorthand for “finding out what this task actually involves”. If the task is ‘submit a job application’, the Discover step is ‘work out how much I have to write, and when it’s due by’. The Discover step tells me, in a nutshell, what the task is going to require, and when I’m going to need to start work on it.
For example, I just wrote one out tonight.
Task: Buy a new journal.
Discover: Call up favourite stationery store and ask if they stock the product I want.
In fact, I just wrote ‘Discover’ on the card, because I know what that step requires for this task; I don’t need to write it out as a reminder.
The results of the Discover step tell me what to do with the card next. If I call up the stationery store tomorrow and find out they stock the product, I’ll cross out ‘Discover’ and write a new line saying “Monday: Buy it” and drop it into Monday’s folder so I can buy it while I’m in the city on Monday. If they don’t stock the product, the new line will say “Order journal online” and I’ll drop it into Saturday’s pocket to prompt me to order one from an online store over the weekend.
Obviously, the system isn’t perfect. There are a lot of tasks where breaking them down into a ‘Discover’ stage and an action stage is pointless because there’s nothing to discover. If my task is ‘tidy my desk’, there’s nothing to find out – I just have to get on and actually do it.
In a similar vein, this system is needlessly granular for high achievers who don’t need to trick their brain into performing in spite of itself. If you’re the kind of person who can go through their to-do list and actually get most of the stuff done without getting stuck in the endless loop of Just One More Round Of Solitaire, you don’t need this system.
But for folks like me—I can be, and usually am, my own worst enemy when it comes to turning ability into achievement—this is a really good way of breaking down a task into pieces so bite-size you can do them without realising. Using the Discover system, I find that tasks that previously looked imposing, too hard, or just too much suddenly become very achievable because I’m breaking them into bite-sized pieces and I’m allowing myself to procrastinate.
Procrastination’s part of the system. The whole point of the Discover mechanism is in saying “okay, here’s what I need to do. When do I have to do it by?” and then allowing myself to delay it an appropriate amount of time. Not too much delay, so that it’s late or I’m rushing; not too little, so that I feel pressured.
I find I get much better results with this strategy than in trying to force myself to participate in up-front achievement. When I try and do that, my brain just sits in a corner of my skull, sulking and eating icecream. This way, I’m giving myself a mechanism to let things percolate and come at them when I’m ready. No nasty surprises, just actual achievement.
So far it seems to be working okay. We’ll see how long it lasts!
Technorati Tags: gtd, tickler+file, productivity, lifehacks
October 22nd, 2005 at 8:53 am
Can you switch the procrastination around at all, so that instead of getting the reward before the task, you get it afterwards when the task is done? So that the task becomes more appealing because it’s a pre-cursor to a reward, not the doom waiting for you at the end of a period of procrastination?
Something else you may benefit from, which sounds similar to your system except it’s a work-now-get-reward-later system, is productivity flow production, explained here – http://www.to-done.com/2005/10/butterfly-stroke-productivity/ . I’ve been using a paperless version of this system for years to get boring crap done, especially at work, ie – I will work on this documentation for one hour or until x section is finished, and then I get to check some emails and finish reading that blog entry. I now also use the spreadsheet system for really nasty stuff I’m more likely to procrastinate on, and it works very well.
I think the other thing that helps is creating positive mental associations with work, and seeing it as something which brings it’s own rewards and sense of achievement rather than stuff that just has to be done.
Good luck with it all :)
October 22nd, 2005 at 9:39 am
Thanks for sharing; looks promising for me.
It’s a bit unclear what you mean by double-entry,
which got just one mention, and you said “sometimes, in fact, it winds up as more than two entries”
Could you explain a bit more where the 2nd, 3rd entries go
To the other half of the card that you cut up? and how does this 2nd entry relate to your tickler system?
best regards
You