Sunday, November 20, 2005
THE MASTERLIST IS A LEAN TOOL
The MasterList is a lean tool for organizing the process of personal and professional time and task management. Without any tool, all that remains undone and piling up around us is chaos. Tools like Outlook only take you one level up from chaos. Not enough.
The MasterList applies relationality to chaos (unorganized time and tasks) by providing an organizing system or set of organizing principles.
These principles are fairly simple: Cluster tasks as projects. Cluster knowledge, ideas, and notes with tasks at projects by utilizing the power of the relational data base to link any file or “data object” to the task or project.
The MasterList is a lean tool for organizing the process of personal and professional time and task management. Without any tool, all that remains undone and piling up around us is chaos. Tools like Outlook only take you one level up from chaos. Not enough.
The MasterList applies relationality to chaos (unorganized time and tasks) by providing an organizing system or set of organizing principles.
These principles are fairly simple: Cluster tasks as projects. Cluster knowledge, ideas, and notes with tasks at projects by utilizing the power of the relational data base to link any file or “data object” to the task or project.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
WHAT IS THE MASTERLIST?
*The MasterList is a software system for getting things done.
*It is a project-centric to-do manager.
*It is a step-up from a PIM (personal information manager) in that it organizes calendar, to-dos, and contacts by project; and, adds in notes and linking tools.
*It even relates project email to project task screens.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE MASTERLIST?
*It provides an organizational “system” or framework for getting on task, staying on task, finding your way back to tasks, or “laying off” tasks for future work.
*It brings knowledge objects associated with tasks together with the tasks. Knowledge objects include any computer “object” that can be accessed through an operating system, such as a folder, a file, a document, a spreadsheet, a note, a URL.
*It is personal, as well as team based.
*The MasterList is a software system for getting things done.
*It is a project-centric to-do manager.
*It is a step-up from a PIM (personal information manager) in that it organizes calendar, to-dos, and contacts by project; and, adds in notes and linking tools.
*It even relates project email to project task screens.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF THE MASTERLIST?
*It provides an organizational “system” or framework for getting on task, staying on task, finding your way back to tasks, or “laying off” tasks for future work.
*It brings knowledge objects associated with tasks together with the tasks. Knowledge objects include any computer “object” that can be accessed through an operating system, such as a folder, a file, a document, a spreadsheet, a note, a URL.
*It is personal, as well as team based.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
SUPER-PRIORITIES: WHAT ARE THEY AND HOW TO USE THE MASTERLIST TO IDENTIFY THEM AND WORK THEM
HOW THE MASTERLIST STRUCTURE SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF JUGGLING PRIORITIES
When priorities get bottle-necked at a single day, we refer to this as a "queuing issue". It's what's responsible for all those piles on your desk, the backed up email, and the mental stress. The MasterList system is designed to attack the issue of queuing, by "taking away", "cutting back", or "cutting down" the number of priorities you are juggling at any one time, and piling them "outside" your ring of action, not to be thrown at you until the "next act" or even later. (That's why we say we are modeled on just-in time inventory principles.)
Why juggle the flaming blades of death now, when you are too busy with the higher priority of fending off the poisonous arrows of the Black Crane Society? Even if you are an octopus, you can only put your pants on one leg at a time. So, with priorities. No matter how fast the action, it is always one at a time. The key is having software that will let you keep up with the Fast Action, make Fast Accurate Decisions and get the Timing and Sequencing right, so that you can deliver best implementations appropriate to the time and situation, with a continuos uninterrupted flow of action that runs at priority rich levels. How you grade out in this world isn't about 1 lifetime goal. It's about handling a complex mix of problems encountered at high speeds, with great difficulty, and often in competition or conflict. No matter how much we think we have things under control, problems are never solved in a vacuum.
Here's how The MasterList was designed to clear the decks and pare back what's "on your plate" in any given moment, making it more "vacuum-like" and pristine so that you can implement your actions, "just so" free of extraneous interferences. First, MasterList to-dos are always associated with projects. That is a limiting factor in dealing with to-dos. They are kind of penned in. Second, projects are sub-sets of larger contexts we call categories. Thus, in a pinch, I can use my time-blasting tools to prioritize my Administrative work, before I prioritize by West Coast projects, etc... Third, The MasterList project to-do lists use grids that place all primary tasks in timed sequences. If you don't want to mow the lawn today, you can assign it a trigger or do-date from here to eternity. The result is that all the primary to-dos for any project line up in chronological/sequential order. Fourth, The MasterList supplies the system with the cross-cut relational task retrieval screen called "My Day". The My Day screen quickly narrows the focus to what is most relevant in terms of the time management aspect of managing projects and to-dos. By creating a focus on today only, it narrows the field to answer the question. What do I do now or next? Fifth, The MasterList provides time-blasting tools to push tasks off the My Day screen into the future, where they belong if they can't be done today. This can be done individually or en bloc. The result is what we call Fast Triaging. And, why not! Who can do 50 tasks in one day? So, Time is the governor/regulator of The MasterList system and everything is organized according to its timing.
Recently I began to apply 2 new techniques to my MasterList usage. Target/Arrow compression and Lakein-ization. The structure described above are internal to the design of The MasterList. These new techniques are partially external, but take advantage of internal structure of The MasterList for their implementation. Again, demonstrating the remarkable flexibility of The MasterList system to address any management, to-do, project, time or queuing issues of any scope, kind, number, or magnitude.
NEW USAGE TECHNIQUE NO. 1: TARGET/ARROW COMPRESSION
At home, where I run a unique MasterList data base, I used to have about 250 tasks pending at any given time, including trigger dates spread from here to sometime next year. At work, where I run another unique MasterList database, I had over 600 tasks pending from here to there. Because in the daily task reports, this tended to generate over-large cross-sections of work lists, that overwhelmed even our special quick-triage "blasting" tools, I decided to "compress" those numbers by defining two levels of tasks. First Level. Second Level.
First Level tasks I call Targets or Triggers, because they set the pace for action in any case or project. They include all events and deadlines of any sort, plus follow-ups and to-dos that tend to collect sub-sets of actions around them vs. follow-ups that tend to be sub-sets of other actions.
Those actions that are more of the sub-action or sub-set genre, are the Second Level tasks. I call these Arrows because they point at the targets, and are not important enough, uniquely to stand on their own as targets. Of course, just like in a chess game, all potential tasks are in play, but Arrows or sub-actions are the Pawns. Targets or Triggers are the primary pieces of your Action Plan.
As we know from chess, all pieces are important to the overall game plan, but not all pieces are equal in ranking. The same holds true for components of an action plan, which I tend to call a "project' if I am working professionally as a manger, or a "case" when I have my litigator's hat on, or even a "context" if it is a more nebulous set of actions that seem like they ought to congregate together.
In terms of MasterList usage, First Level tasks, then, sit "out front" on The MasterList screens. The Second Level tasks, arrows, pawns are lined up in series, SUPPORTING the Targets/Triggers EITHER by a text description in the of the task numbered 1,2,3 OR by creating a series of bulleted sub-tasks in the particular MasterList notepad always associated with every First Level MasterList task.
These sub-bulleted lists supporting the First Level task not only Support and protect the tasks, like pawns in a chess game, but they also provide a kind of genetic coding for the task, acting like a recipe, manual, or battle plan for carrying out the task in whatever depth of detail is required.
By "compressing" my MasterList tasks, I moved the "details of strategy" one level back from the front screen, so that I could essentially "see the forest for the trees". All of my MasterList projects and cases now looked like simple plans, with a limited number of First Level or Target/Trigger tasks, supported by Knowledge Logs, Links, and Second Level task bullets and notes.
NEW USAGE TECHNIQUE NO. 2: LAKEIN-IZATION
But, I still had one major clean-up operation to perform. Even halved, the First Level tasks were too many, when you consider the fast judgment that is required to reduce what you think you can handle to one screenful of tasks (20) to start any given work day. That is when I recently began to apply the A,B,C system of prioritization to my MasterList usage, in a process I call "Lakein-ization" after Alan Lakein, the first major prophet of A,B,C prioritization.
Lakein-ization provided another angle of approach to cutting down candidates for the "A" to-do list and getting closer to the action-vacuum we would all like to have, where our choices for action in any given moment are made crystal clear and we can focus on just that one right action that is needed just then, and pull it off without concern. Lakein-izing involves stripping the task of its "label" type and re-naming it strictly as A, B, or C and letting the text in the task entry tell you what it is really all about. By denominating tasks as A's, B's, or C's, they can be pared even more quickly using the Time Blasting Tool. After all, what's in a name, when the order of priority or "firing sequence" of action is more important to the tactical work of getting things done.
Voila! It worked. I am rarely if ever working on C's, except on a slow day (more likely at home than at the office). My personal MasterList at home is so clean, I barely need to triage my priorities. However, as for my work MasterList, there was still some overload of A priorities, such that B's could barely be touched and many A's had to be pushed forward to another day. I realized that I needed to develop a new technique to further cut back the A's. Then, it hit me. I already had one, built into the MasterList. Color-prioritization. Because I was now prioritizing using Lakein's A, B, C system, my color-prioritization tool was freed-up to become an "overlay" for my A list, marking a higher level of prioritization.
I had just invented super-prioritization.
RECIPE FOR SUPER-PRIORITIZATION USING THE MASTERLIST
Essentially, by applying color coding to my A priorities, I had created a super-priority that takes priority over the priorities. Let's call it the A, B, C System + Super Priority. And, indeed, in a fast world with hundreds of pending tasks, it makes sense that we would have 40 A priorities that are not B's whatsoever, because after all, we have 120 B's, as well as a huge set of C's. We want those A priorities out front where we can see them at all times, but let's face it. 1 leg at a time. Can't do all priorities at once. They can't all be equal. By creating the super-priority and "kan-banning" it with a color marker, I can separate my super priorities from my other A priorities. They are easy to decide upon, easy to change, and easy to identify. Here's how it's done:
* When blasting A priorities forward to the future, where there are more than 20 in any given daily session, determine which ones are near-mandatory for action vs. which have a little more cushion.
* Selectively apply color coding to the near-mandatory A's. Super-Priorities seem to identify themselves by the amount of pressure that you instinctively feel about them relative to other A's. You know a super-priority when you see it and should mark it accordingly.
* In your next triaging session, to reduce your daily work list to 20 or below, aggressively retain all color-coded A's, as well as true events and deadlines in your list.
* As for the rest of the list, unless you are already under 20 tasks on your work list, blast all C's forward 3 to 5 days or more. Blasts all B's forward 2 to 3 days or more. Blast all A's that are not color-coded 1 day, unless you still have room for some in the 20 item screen frame.
Guess what. Eureka! In all the years I have been using The MasterList, I have never been able to say with 100% confidence as the inventor of the program, that The MasterList works mechanically, axiomatically, like a system, and can crunch any mix of to-dos or projects inexorably without fail and make success almost mindless and robotic, leaving you to take on 1 thing at a time, just in time, all the time, so that you can have fun and enjoy and thrill in the success of controlling each and every implementation moment in your time and life.
I thought I had designed the program to make that representation. I thought I was there at times. But, not always. Backlogs, even for me, the inventor, continued to creep in. Well, we've tweaked it now. This system works all the time. By applying The MasterList as designed, keeping the to-lists compressed with a target/arrow differentiation, Lakein-izing my priorities, and focusing on my super-priorities rigorously, I am holding back the "whelm" and enjoying zero-ing in on the essence of what I choose to do.
HOW THE MASTERLIST STRUCTURE SOLVES THE PROBLEM OF JUGGLING PRIORITIES
When priorities get bottle-necked at a single day, we refer to this as a "queuing issue". It's what's responsible for all those piles on your desk, the backed up email, and the mental stress. The MasterList system is designed to attack the issue of queuing, by "taking away", "cutting back", or "cutting down" the number of priorities you are juggling at any one time, and piling them "outside" your ring of action, not to be thrown at you until the "next act" or even later. (That's why we say we are modeled on just-in time inventory principles.)
Why juggle the flaming blades of death now, when you are too busy with the higher priority of fending off the poisonous arrows of the Black Crane Society? Even if you are an octopus, you can only put your pants on one leg at a time. So, with priorities. No matter how fast the action, it is always one at a time. The key is having software that will let you keep up with the Fast Action, make Fast Accurate Decisions and get the Timing and Sequencing right, so that you can deliver best implementations appropriate to the time and situation, with a continuos uninterrupted flow of action that runs at priority rich levels. How you grade out in this world isn't about 1 lifetime goal. It's about handling a complex mix of problems encountered at high speeds, with great difficulty, and often in competition or conflict. No matter how much we think we have things under control, problems are never solved in a vacuum.
Here's how The MasterList was designed to clear the decks and pare back what's "on your plate" in any given moment, making it more "vacuum-like" and pristine so that you can implement your actions, "just so" free of extraneous interferences. First, MasterList to-dos are always associated with projects. That is a limiting factor in dealing with to-dos. They are kind of penned in. Second, projects are sub-sets of larger contexts we call categories. Thus, in a pinch, I can use my time-blasting tools to prioritize my Administrative work, before I prioritize by West Coast projects, etc... Third, The MasterList project to-do lists use grids that place all primary tasks in timed sequences. If you don't want to mow the lawn today, you can assign it a trigger or do-date from here to eternity. The result is that all the primary to-dos for any project line up in chronological/sequential order. Fourth, The MasterList supplies the system with the cross-cut relational task retrieval screen called "My Day". The My Day screen quickly narrows the focus to what is most relevant in terms of the time management aspect of managing projects and to-dos. By creating a focus on today only, it narrows the field to answer the question. What do I do now or next? Fifth, The MasterList provides time-blasting tools to push tasks off the My Day screen into the future, where they belong if they can't be done today. This can be done individually or en bloc. The result is what we call Fast Triaging. And, why not! Who can do 50 tasks in one day? So, Time is the governor/regulator of The MasterList system and everything is organized according to its timing.
Recently I began to apply 2 new techniques to my MasterList usage. Target/Arrow compression and Lakein-ization. The structure described above are internal to the design of The MasterList. These new techniques are partially external, but take advantage of internal structure of The MasterList for their implementation. Again, demonstrating the remarkable flexibility of The MasterList system to address any management, to-do, project, time or queuing issues of any scope, kind, number, or magnitude.
NEW USAGE TECHNIQUE NO. 1: TARGET/ARROW COMPRESSION
At home, where I run a unique MasterList data base, I used to have about 250 tasks pending at any given time, including trigger dates spread from here to sometime next year. At work, where I run another unique MasterList database, I had over 600 tasks pending from here to there. Because in the daily task reports, this tended to generate over-large cross-sections of work lists, that overwhelmed even our special quick-triage "blasting" tools, I decided to "compress" those numbers by defining two levels of tasks. First Level. Second Level.
First Level tasks I call Targets or Triggers, because they set the pace for action in any case or project. They include all events and deadlines of any sort, plus follow-ups and to-dos that tend to collect sub-sets of actions around them vs. follow-ups that tend to be sub-sets of other actions.
Those actions that are more of the sub-action or sub-set genre, are the Second Level tasks. I call these Arrows because they point at the targets, and are not important enough, uniquely to stand on their own as targets. Of course, just like in a chess game, all potential tasks are in play, but Arrows or sub-actions are the Pawns. Targets or Triggers are the primary pieces of your Action Plan.
As we know from chess, all pieces are important to the overall game plan, but not all pieces are equal in ranking. The same holds true for components of an action plan, which I tend to call a "project' if I am working professionally as a manger, or a "case" when I have my litigator's hat on, or even a "context" if it is a more nebulous set of actions that seem like they ought to congregate together.
In terms of MasterList usage, First Level tasks, then, sit "out front" on The MasterList screens. The Second Level tasks, arrows, pawns are lined up in series, SUPPORTING the Targets/Triggers EITHER by a text description in the of the task numbered 1,2,3 OR by creating a series of bulleted sub-tasks in the particular MasterList notepad always associated with every First Level MasterList task.
These sub-bulleted lists supporting the First Level task not only Support and protect the tasks, like pawns in a chess game, but they also provide a kind of genetic coding for the task, acting like a recipe, manual, or battle plan for carrying out the task in whatever depth of detail is required.
By "compressing" my MasterList tasks, I moved the "details of strategy" one level back from the front screen, so that I could essentially "see the forest for the trees". All of my MasterList projects and cases now looked like simple plans, with a limited number of First Level or Target/Trigger tasks, supported by Knowledge Logs, Links, and Second Level task bullets and notes.
NEW USAGE TECHNIQUE NO. 2: LAKEIN-IZATION
But, I still had one major clean-up operation to perform. Even halved, the First Level tasks were too many, when you consider the fast judgment that is required to reduce what you think you can handle to one screenful of tasks (20) to start any given work day. That is when I recently began to apply the A,B,C system of prioritization to my MasterList usage, in a process I call "Lakein-ization" after Alan Lakein, the first major prophet of A,B,C prioritization.
Lakein-ization provided another angle of approach to cutting down candidates for the "A" to-do list and getting closer to the action-vacuum we would all like to have, where our choices for action in any given moment are made crystal clear and we can focus on just that one right action that is needed just then, and pull it off without concern. Lakein-izing involves stripping the task of its "label" type and re-naming it strictly as A, B, or C and letting the text in the task entry tell you what it is really all about. By denominating tasks as A's, B's, or C's, they can be pared even more quickly using the Time Blasting Tool. After all, what's in a name, when the order of priority or "firing sequence" of action is more important to the tactical work of getting things done.
Voila! It worked. I am rarely if ever working on C's, except on a slow day (more likely at home than at the office). My personal MasterList at home is so clean, I barely need to triage my priorities. However, as for my work MasterList, there was still some overload of A priorities, such that B's could barely be touched and many A's had to be pushed forward to another day. I realized that I needed to develop a new technique to further cut back the A's. Then, it hit me. I already had one, built into the MasterList. Color-prioritization. Because I was now prioritizing using Lakein's A, B, C system, my color-prioritization tool was freed-up to become an "overlay" for my A list, marking a higher level of prioritization.
I had just invented super-prioritization.
RECIPE FOR SUPER-PRIORITIZATION USING THE MASTERLIST
Essentially, by applying color coding to my A priorities, I had created a super-priority that takes priority over the priorities. Let's call it the A, B, C System + Super Priority. And, indeed, in a fast world with hundreds of pending tasks, it makes sense that we would have 40 A priorities that are not B's whatsoever, because after all, we have 120 B's, as well as a huge set of C's. We want those A priorities out front where we can see them at all times, but let's face it. 1 leg at a time. Can't do all priorities at once. They can't all be equal. By creating the super-priority and "kan-banning" it with a color marker, I can separate my super priorities from my other A priorities. They are easy to decide upon, easy to change, and easy to identify. Here's how it's done:
* When blasting A priorities forward to the future, where there are more than 20 in any given daily session, determine which ones are near-mandatory for action vs. which have a little more cushion.
* Selectively apply color coding to the near-mandatory A's. Super-Priorities seem to identify themselves by the amount of pressure that you instinctively feel about them relative to other A's. You know a super-priority when you see it and should mark it accordingly.
* In your next triaging session, to reduce your daily work list to 20 or below, aggressively retain all color-coded A's, as well as true events and deadlines in your list.
* As for the rest of the list, unless you are already under 20 tasks on your work list, blast all C's forward 3 to 5 days or more. Blasts all B's forward 2 to 3 days or more. Blast all A's that are not color-coded 1 day, unless you still have room for some in the 20 item screen frame.
Guess what. Eureka! In all the years I have been using The MasterList, I have never been able to say with 100% confidence as the inventor of the program, that The MasterList works mechanically, axiomatically, like a system, and can crunch any mix of to-dos or projects inexorably without fail and make success almost mindless and robotic, leaving you to take on 1 thing at a time, just in time, all the time, so that you can have fun and enjoy and thrill in the success of controlling each and every implementation moment in your time and life.
I thought I had designed the program to make that representation. I thought I was there at times. But, not always. Backlogs, even for me, the inventor, continued to creep in. Well, we've tweaked it now. This system works all the time. By applying The MasterList as designed, keeping the to-lists compressed with a target/arrow differentiation, Lakein-izing my priorities, and focusing on my super-priorities rigorously, I am holding back the "whelm" and enjoying zero-ing in on the essence of what I choose to do.
