Wednesday, December 24, 2003
IT'S OFFICIAL: THE TO-DO MANAGEMENT MOVEMENT IS HERE
The MasterList is at the forefront of a movement which we call the "to-do management movement". Or, "the to-do movement" for short. Other forerunners in the movement are to-do management guru David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, as well as Gregg Krech, founder of The To-Do Institute.
In case you didn't notice, we just christened the movement. A search of Google on this date reveals these 2 phrases have never been used in the history of the internet: "to-do management movement", "the to-do movement". We coined them, because there is a paradigm shift going on in "the to-do world" that is about to have its day in the sun.
It's not just about time management anymore, or knowledge management, or enterprise management, or case or project management, or stress management. The real crux of the issue, the real reason we buy books by gurus, and attend seminars, and fitfully try out software as if we were buying a new outfit to stay ala mode, is that there is "a to-do crisis" going on, but we haven't put our heads together yet to figure out that we all share the same problem, which David Allen calls the problem of getting things done.
What to-do about what to-do, that is the question. Study the to-do management movement, read David Allen, read Gregg Krech, stay tuned with us here at The MasterList. The to-do movement is shifting in to focus and into high gear right now. We understand the problem, we have the necessary insights for solution, we have the software. Piece of cake. That's what paradigm shifts do for us. Help us see the clear paths through the forest. Give us the bird's eye view. Provide perspectives of absolute clarity for the formerly complex.
Let's go get it done!
The MasterList is at the forefront of a movement which we call the "to-do management movement". Or, "the to-do movement" for short. Other forerunners in the movement are to-do management guru David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, as well as Gregg Krech, founder of The To-Do Institute.
In case you didn't notice, we just christened the movement. A search of Google on this date reveals these 2 phrases have never been used in the history of the internet: "to-do management movement", "the to-do movement". We coined them, because there is a paradigm shift going on in "the to-do world" that is about to have its day in the sun.
It's not just about time management anymore, or knowledge management, or enterprise management, or case or project management, or stress management. The real crux of the issue, the real reason we buy books by gurus, and attend seminars, and fitfully try out software as if we were buying a new outfit to stay ala mode, is that there is "a to-do crisis" going on, but we haven't put our heads together yet to figure out that we all share the same problem, which David Allen calls the problem of getting things done.
What to-do about what to-do, that is the question. Study the to-do management movement, read David Allen, read Gregg Krech, stay tuned with us here at The MasterList. The to-do movement is shifting in to focus and into high gear right now. We understand the problem, we have the necessary insights for solution, we have the software. Piece of cake. That's what paradigm shifts do for us. Help us see the clear paths through the forest. Give us the bird's eye view. Provide perspectives of absolute clarity for the formerly complex.
Let's go get it done!
Thursday, December 11, 2003
DIALOGUE: ORACLES AND TO-DOS
JO: Tell me how The MasterList got started.
BILL: I put in a lot of thinking and pragmatic meditation on the problem of to-dos, what are they, why do they pester us, why are we always focusing on them. How do we master them. My original thought was that I would wish for an Oracle who could answer the question: What Do I do Next?
JO: Could an Oracle solve the problem?
BILL: There are different flavors of the question What's Next. That's why The MasterList divides things by categories, by projects, by dates, and by priorities. There's a whole spectrum of possibilities for What's Next from the macro level to the micro level, with most of it being in the mid-sector involving your profession and your high-priority personal obligations and responsibilities.
JO: What do you mean by a macro level to-do?
BILL: Well you might just have lost a job, or gotten married, or be in a mid-life crisis and the question What's Next, doesn't literally mean What's Next at the micro-action level, like do I walk through that door to get a cup of coffee or do I stay here and finish reading this email. When people ask you to make life lists over the next 10 years, the question What's Next takes on global proportions. I'd call that the Oracle as Fortune Teller. By the way, you could easily create a project in The MasterList called Life List and track it admirably.
JO: What other flavors of "Next" are there.
BILL: Well at the other end of the spectrum from the global or macro level life list, there is the problem of the present or the instant, like there's a baseball coming at my head at 90 miles per hour (or an angry client) and what do I do now?
JO: What can The MasterList do about that?
BILL: Well, for one thing if you have a project going in The MasterList with a lot of knowledge, timetables, notes, and links you can quickly jump over to The MasterList and scramble pretty well to handle what's incoming. The problem of reacting to things in the moment is really about presence of mind, attitude, and resources to assist you in reacting creatively.
JO: Sounds like The MasterList is good at helping people handle to-dos as they arise.
BILL: Yes. For many The MasterList is not just a tool. It's a haven, like a chapel in the midst of a dangerous forest where you can stop and quickly review the elements of the journey before venturing back out into the fray. You know Zen is very much about the ability to handle any single to-do as it comes up, isolating it from the rest and attaining single focus. The MasterList is very good at helping to isolate to-dos as stand alone icons for purposes of single-minded handling. Because it does so in the context of a to-do list system, hundreds, even thousands of to-dos that challenge anyone can be easily separated to unfold in very neat sequences where you can focus on just those tasks that really need your attention in this moment. Not just the demanding ones.
JO: There's a kind of gratification or satisfaction in getting tasks done with The MasterList isn't there?
BILL: Yes. Many to-do management systems are about motivation. That's important. The MasterList provides the framework for motivation by providing the kind of gratification you are talking about. There's nothing like the sense of accomplishment related to the completion of a brightly circled to-do to motivate you to go on and ask again and again: What's Next.
JO: Sounds like you should have called The MasterList, "Oracle".
BILL: I would have, but the name was already taken. The oracular principle is built into it though. Something happens, you pause, gather yourself, assess, analyze, note, inventory, see the lay of the land relative to everything else you know, with all relevant dependencies displayed. Then, you ask What Now or What Next? It's really your own inner voice that makes the final choice, but The MasterList helps by laying out all the options. Since you input them in the first place, they are about as enlightened as they can be assuming you have been diligent in using the system. After all, ultimately, as I said, the Oracle is really your own voice. The MasterList is simply a tool for helping you make great choices.
JO: Tell me how The MasterList got started.
BILL: I put in a lot of thinking and pragmatic meditation on the problem of to-dos, what are they, why do they pester us, why are we always focusing on them. How do we master them. My original thought was that I would wish for an Oracle who could answer the question: What Do I do Next?
JO: Could an Oracle solve the problem?
BILL: There are different flavors of the question What's Next. That's why The MasterList divides things by categories, by projects, by dates, and by priorities. There's a whole spectrum of possibilities for What's Next from the macro level to the micro level, with most of it being in the mid-sector involving your profession and your high-priority personal obligations and responsibilities.
JO: What do you mean by a macro level to-do?
BILL: Well you might just have lost a job, or gotten married, or be in a mid-life crisis and the question What's Next, doesn't literally mean What's Next at the micro-action level, like do I walk through that door to get a cup of coffee or do I stay here and finish reading this email. When people ask you to make life lists over the next 10 years, the question What's Next takes on global proportions. I'd call that the Oracle as Fortune Teller. By the way, you could easily create a project in The MasterList called Life List and track it admirably.
JO: What other flavors of "Next" are there.
BILL: Well at the other end of the spectrum from the global or macro level life list, there is the problem of the present or the instant, like there's a baseball coming at my head at 90 miles per hour (or an angry client) and what do I do now?
JO: What can The MasterList do about that?
BILL: Well, for one thing if you have a project going in The MasterList with a lot of knowledge, timetables, notes, and links you can quickly jump over to The MasterList and scramble pretty well to handle what's incoming. The problem of reacting to things in the moment is really about presence of mind, attitude, and resources to assist you in reacting creatively.
JO: Sounds like The MasterList is good at helping people handle to-dos as they arise.
BILL: Yes. For many The MasterList is not just a tool. It's a haven, like a chapel in the midst of a dangerous forest where you can stop and quickly review the elements of the journey before venturing back out into the fray. You know Zen is very much about the ability to handle any single to-do as it comes up, isolating it from the rest and attaining single focus. The MasterList is very good at helping to isolate to-dos as stand alone icons for purposes of single-minded handling. Because it does so in the context of a to-do list system, hundreds, even thousands of to-dos that challenge anyone can be easily separated to unfold in very neat sequences where you can focus on just those tasks that really need your attention in this moment. Not just the demanding ones.
JO: There's a kind of gratification or satisfaction in getting tasks done with The MasterList isn't there?
BILL: Yes. Many to-do management systems are about motivation. That's important. The MasterList provides the framework for motivation by providing the kind of gratification you are talking about. There's nothing like the sense of accomplishment related to the completion of a brightly circled to-do to motivate you to go on and ask again and again: What's Next.
JO: Sounds like you should have called The MasterList, "Oracle".
BILL: I would have, but the name was already taken. The oracular principle is built into it though. Something happens, you pause, gather yourself, assess, analyze, note, inventory, see the lay of the land relative to everything else you know, with all relevant dependencies displayed. Then, you ask What Now or What Next? It's really your own inner voice that makes the final choice, but The MasterList helps by laying out all the options. Since you input them in the first place, they are about as enlightened as they can be assuming you have been diligent in using the system. After all, ultimately, as I said, the Oracle is really your own voice. The MasterList is simply a tool for helping you make great choices.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
SHOOTING GALLERY OF TO-DOS
Unsorted. Unorganized. Backlogged. Careening. Waiting to be done. Needs to be done first. Most important. Most scary. Pending. Not filed. First in. Last in. List. The List. Lists. Find the List. Organize the List. Too many items on the List. Countless items. Counting the days, hours, minutes. Unimportant information. Jumbled information. Unstructured information. Lost information. Interruption. Persistent interruptions. Needs follow-up. Unmet goal. Unseen target. No Overview. Can't remember it. Happening too fast. Pie in the sky. Low priority. Unexamined high priority. Undone high priority. Unsorted priorities. Uncategorized priorities. Un-optimized priorities. How to prune? How to capture? How to tidy up? How to define? How to narrow? How to improve? How to decide? Needs direction. No direction. Lost direction. Misdirection. Opposition. No sharing. Lost opportunity. Missed chance. Mis-take. Mis-perception. Need to find and implement strategic vision across all elements of the personal and professional planes of existence? Deal with it. The MasterList works.
Unsorted. Unorganized. Backlogged. Careening. Waiting to be done. Needs to be done first. Most important. Most scary. Pending. Not filed. First in. Last in. List. The List. Lists. Find the List. Organize the List. Too many items on the List. Countless items. Counting the days, hours, minutes. Unimportant information. Jumbled information. Unstructured information. Lost information. Interruption. Persistent interruptions. Needs follow-up. Unmet goal. Unseen target. No Overview. Can't remember it. Happening too fast. Pie in the sky. Low priority. Unexamined high priority. Undone high priority. Unsorted priorities. Uncategorized priorities. Un-optimized priorities. How to prune? How to capture? How to tidy up? How to define? How to narrow? How to improve? How to decide? Needs direction. No direction. Lost direction. Misdirection. Opposition. No sharing. Lost opportunity. Missed chance. Mis-take. Mis-perception. Need to find and implement strategic vision across all elements of the personal and professional planes of existence? Deal with it. The MasterList works.
