Monday, August 28, 2006
QUESTIONS ON INCREMENTAL HANDLING
q: Sounds like you are writing poetry and your message is not clear. What does incremental mean?
a: An increment is a unit of action. To increment means to break into pieces or steps. Usually pieces in steps. Sequenced action in small bites. The Japanese call incremental improvement Kaizen. Alan Lakein talked about "swiss-cheesing" large projects in small bites. I refer to the continuous selection of action-increments as a basis for creating flow, but not necessarily on the same project. You can jump around, or alternate. That's kind of like the swiss-cheese technique, but more systematic. I have at least two action techniques directed to the swiss-cheesing of action. I call these Rotation, and Alternation.
q: So, what is incremental action then?
a: Incremental action means a continuous flow of action along a single path of intent across multiple projects, applying alternating task increments from multiple projects, with the goal of completing them one by one in their turn.
q: Sounds like there is no prioritization here, just scooping from the pile of things to do, willy nilly.
a: It's ad hoc, but not as ad hoc as it appears at first blush. I also apply prioritization thru the Quad System.
q: What's that? I select 4 categories of tasks and work through them in rotation in increments that are 8 minutes or less til done, repeated til done, and alternated and rotated through the quad, which is kind of like a free-hand diagrammed cross, which I call the Action Cross.
a: Well, this is getting more and more obscure.
q: Taking action in a way that really works is an art, not a given. Whether it's Musashi's Book of Five Rings or David Allen's Getting Things Done, we are all looking for a panacea. There is a panacea. It involves a technical approach to working and handling reality that involves seeing, knowing, insight, choice, improving the mind, and computer tools.
a: Where do the computer tools come in?
q: Action always involves selection or choice (even if unconscious) followed by production of the action, which we cannot do without a body, or an agent, or tools. You can't drive across town without a car. You can't cook dinner if the gas and electricity have been turned off and you have no food. So, once you choose you have to act, which involves Implementation, often of computer produced objects, such as documents and emails.
a: Where does your MASTERLIST fit in? The MasterList is a lean tool for managing the inner aspect of controlling action. It helps with choice, storage of options, quick access to inventory of potential action sequences, the ability to flip quickly through the possibilities, then study all the already available collected data you've built up over time at a glance. It's not just a calendar or a to-do list. It's way more than a PIM.
a: Thanks.
q: No Problem.
q: Sounds like you are writing poetry and your message is not clear. What does incremental mean?
a: An increment is a unit of action. To increment means to break into pieces or steps. Usually pieces in steps. Sequenced action in small bites. The Japanese call incremental improvement Kaizen. Alan Lakein talked about "swiss-cheesing" large projects in small bites. I refer to the continuous selection of action-increments as a basis for creating flow, but not necessarily on the same project. You can jump around, or alternate. That's kind of like the swiss-cheese technique, but more systematic. I have at least two action techniques directed to the swiss-cheesing of action. I call these Rotation, and Alternation.
q: So, what is incremental action then?
a: Incremental action means a continuous flow of action along a single path of intent across multiple projects, applying alternating task increments from multiple projects, with the goal of completing them one by one in their turn.
q: Sounds like there is no prioritization here, just scooping from the pile of things to do, willy nilly.
a: It's ad hoc, but not as ad hoc as it appears at first blush. I also apply prioritization thru the Quad System.
q: What's that? I select 4 categories of tasks and work through them in rotation in increments that are 8 minutes or less til done, repeated til done, and alternated and rotated through the quad, which is kind of like a free-hand diagrammed cross, which I call the Action Cross.
a: Well, this is getting more and more obscure.
q: Taking action in a way that really works is an art, not a given. Whether it's Musashi's Book of Five Rings or David Allen's Getting Things Done, we are all looking for a panacea. There is a panacea. It involves a technical approach to working and handling reality that involves seeing, knowing, insight, choice, improving the mind, and computer tools.
a: Where do the computer tools come in?
q: Action always involves selection or choice (even if unconscious) followed by production of the action, which we cannot do without a body, or an agent, or tools. You can't drive across town without a car. You can't cook dinner if the gas and electricity have been turned off and you have no food. So, once you choose you have to act, which involves Implementation, often of computer produced objects, such as documents and emails.
a: Where does your MASTERLIST fit in? The MasterList is a lean tool for managing the inner aspect of controlling action. It helps with choice, storage of options, quick access to inventory of potential action sequences, the ability to flip quickly through the possibilities, then study all the already available collected data you've built up over time at a glance. It's not just a calendar or a to-do list. It's way more than a PIM.
a: Thanks.
q: No Problem.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
THE PRINCIPLE OF INCREMENTAL HANDLING OF ACTION
Action can be handled. Action can be incremental. But, it is the handling of it that provides the increments. Action is a flow or flux that is non-stop. The crush of a river cannot be stopped. But, you can dig a ditch and shunt the river another way. Then, you build a dam over the great precipice. Later there are steps to gate the ditch and control the flow, so that you can increment how much water goes each way. And, when. Monitor. Control.
The action in our daily lives is no less than a great river. The great river of our life. It has everything. Personal. Family. Business. Romance. Dysfunction. Anything you would spill your guts about to a confidante. That's what it is.
The MasterList is a self-defined series of sluice gates to control and increment the handling of action in your life.
At any given moment, you have more than one, less than infinite choices, and pressures to pick a direction and an object and travel in flow down a path that is the best use of your time and soul for the moment. The MasterList allows you to shunt all the other pressures off in their own directions, into holding channels, with complete oversight and control, so that you can focus on the one path you wish to take now.
Because, with The MasterList, you can jump between and re-open gates from a centric position of control, you can increment the flow of any one task-path or project-path moment to moment. Fine-tuned. 8 minutes here. One half hour there. Jumping between project "ditches" and flowing fully and completely within the focus of each one, without the compromising mix-up of a Niagara of impossibly merged agendas.
No whirlpool of angst with this tool. The principles we apply to our lives and to the use of the tool we call The MasterList can give you mastery over the handling of the details of your life.
More about the Principle or Incremental Handling of Action, later. Stay posted.
Action can be handled. Action can be incremental. But, it is the handling of it that provides the increments. Action is a flow or flux that is non-stop. The crush of a river cannot be stopped. But, you can dig a ditch and shunt the river another way. Then, you build a dam over the great precipice. Later there are steps to gate the ditch and control the flow, so that you can increment how much water goes each way. And, when. Monitor. Control.
The action in our daily lives is no less than a great river. The great river of our life. It has everything. Personal. Family. Business. Romance. Dysfunction. Anything you would spill your guts about to a confidante. That's what it is.
The MasterList is a self-defined series of sluice gates to control and increment the handling of action in your life.
At any given moment, you have more than one, less than infinite choices, and pressures to pick a direction and an object and travel in flow down a path that is the best use of your time and soul for the moment. The MasterList allows you to shunt all the other pressures off in their own directions, into holding channels, with complete oversight and control, so that you can focus on the one path you wish to take now.
Because, with The MasterList, you can jump between and re-open gates from a centric position of control, you can increment the flow of any one task-path or project-path moment to moment. Fine-tuned. 8 minutes here. One half hour there. Jumping between project "ditches" and flowing fully and completely within the focus of each one, without the compromising mix-up of a Niagara of impossibly merged agendas.
No whirlpool of angst with this tool. The principles we apply to our lives and to the use of the tool we call The MasterList can give you mastery over the handling of the details of your life.
More about the Principle or Incremental Handling of Action, later. Stay posted.
Saturday, August 05, 2006
HOW I OPERATE IN MULTIPLE FIELDS OF ACTION, USING THE MASTERLIST
The future is a field of possible actions, some of which are too many to calculate, some of which are completely unknown, some of which we are bound to like slaves, and some of which have roots and causes that bind us to them for reasons we are not even clear about.
There could be other possible reasons or explanations for future possible actions. And, questions about why we would actually contemplate them, rather than just reacting, like a bug. But, this much is clear. Like a leg on a pair of pants, we can only engage in one aspect of any action in any instant.
Which leads to a question. What next?
Hamlet said "To be or not to be, that is the question." So, to act or not to act, is my question. And, if so in what direction, to what purpose, why, where, when, how, and in what aspect?
I tend to think of action like a diagrammed sentence. There is the subject. That's me, the actor, the agent, the subject. There is the transitive verb. "Going" is a good example. "I am going to the store". Now, if life was simple, I would just go to the store and nothing else would happen. A true action vacuum. A test tube environment for action. But, what really happens, is that you go into a restaurant like those 2 gangsters in Pulp Fiction, and suddenly that hamburger you ordered becomes a novel length drama.
Oh, yes. I forgot the object. That's the end of the action, and it could be a destination, a place, a tangible object, or even an emotion or judgment, like "completion".
And, let's not forget all those modifying phrases.
So, here I am, writing my blog. Hey! Blog-writing is a field of action distinct from other fields of action in my life: yardwork, housework, bill-paying, career, and projects within projects within career. So, sitting here looking out 360 degrees x 360 in all possible potential future directions, how is the tool I call The MasterList helping me today?
Well, here's how my action sequences proceeded today (Saturday). If you reverse engineer it, I guess it's a recipe.
I started outside The MasterList with a file card, on which I drew a cross. I call this an action crux, and the four quadrants of it "quads". Into the quads,I write 4 arbitrary fields of action, which it is my goal to "rotate" through the day. Kind of like crop rotation. Today's 4 quads were 1)Yard Work 2) House Chores 3) Desk clearing and MasterList To-Do List clearing, and 4) Writing.
Suffice it to say, I did not need The MasterList to decide on what yard work to do today. However, in clearing my to-do list, I did notice a reminder about watering certain plants I had forgotten; and, another reminder that my wife wanted 2 specific hedges trimmed. So, when I "bumped" or blasted certain other tasks forward on the list to future dates, I "reserved" those for today; and, may still get to them after the arbitrary tasks I chose earlier. The net effect was similar for my house chores today. Right now I am on the Writing chore. I am writing 2 kinds of things these days: 1) A novel; 2)getting back to my blog writing after a hiatus.
Here's how The MasterList helped with novel writing today. My novel is called Jaguar Bird. I have a project in The MasterList called Jaguar Bird. In that project, I have a link to a Word document that contains the text of all chapters written to date, by way of a hyper link at the project screen. In that project I have a Notepad journal linked to the project screen at which I collect my ideas and scraps that are either about the novel or haven't yet found there way into it. At that project, I also have some internet links to some research sites, where I am organizing information I have surfed on Google. And, of course, I have the Google icon itself linked into my master linking tray that appears on all screens.
In short, to write my novel, all I need is access to my database. There is no paper, no pens, no resources, other than those that I can work with in combination at a single screen, that I control the organization of, pulled-together the way I want for just that project.
As you can imagine my Blog writing project is similar. I have a project called Blog regarding my 2 Blogs, this blog that you are now reading, and another one called BLACKSWAN. My project "Blog" has lots of links to Word docs and notepads with ideas and scrap text. It has links to the webpages for creating and editing these 2 blogs. It works like all my other MasterList project screens, at home and at the office. It simply puts anything related to any project at the project screen where I can immediately access it in combination with all other possible related data and links. (Oh yes! It has my user name and password noted in a free-text box at the project screen too.) And, it allows me to cross-cut through all that in various ways other than by project, or by calendar - the best one being, the running to-do list we call My Day, which has blasting tools to clear out and re-prioritize the task load by bumping tasks that can't be done now to appropriate future dates in a nanosec.
So, back to putting those pant legs on one at a time. The MasterList is a tool, like a hammer, or a power saw, a level, or a compass. Sometimes I need it. Sometimes I don't. When I do, it's handy.
It's particularly handy when I am doing what I call metaphysical work, thinking, planning, projecting, creating, visualizing, and organizing. Because I do that kind of work as a career, it's more than particularly helpful when I am jumping between multiple fields, taking multiple calls, juggling multiple email demands, and trying to stay on top of competing fast-moving priorities that are hard to shoot down and wrap up in nice tidy "completion bows".
So, one more recap. We live to act, and to choose. We choose and act across multiple possibilities in multiple potential fields of action. We can only act one moment at a time. We have a lot to keep track of with our mind's eye.
The MasterList brings all the metaphysical realities of your action fields together in a single data base, organized by field (project), with links to anything and everything you want to keep your mind's eye on as you jump from pant leg to pant leg.
A life of composed action takes a lot of detailed twists and turns.
If that describes your life, I would recommend trying The MasterList to help you manage it all.
The future is a field of possible actions, some of which are too many to calculate, some of which are completely unknown, some of which we are bound to like slaves, and some of which have roots and causes that bind us to them for reasons we are not even clear about.
There could be other possible reasons or explanations for future possible actions. And, questions about why we would actually contemplate them, rather than just reacting, like a bug. But, this much is clear. Like a leg on a pair of pants, we can only engage in one aspect of any action in any instant.
Which leads to a question. What next?
Hamlet said "To be or not to be, that is the question." So, to act or not to act, is my question. And, if so in what direction, to what purpose, why, where, when, how, and in what aspect?
I tend to think of action like a diagrammed sentence. There is the subject. That's me, the actor, the agent, the subject. There is the transitive verb. "Going" is a good example. "I am going to the store". Now, if life was simple, I would just go to the store and nothing else would happen. A true action vacuum. A test tube environment for action. But, what really happens, is that you go into a restaurant like those 2 gangsters in Pulp Fiction, and suddenly that hamburger you ordered becomes a novel length drama.
Oh, yes. I forgot the object. That's the end of the action, and it could be a destination, a place, a tangible object, or even an emotion or judgment, like "completion".
And, let's not forget all those modifying phrases.
So, here I am, writing my blog. Hey! Blog-writing is a field of action distinct from other fields of action in my life: yardwork, housework, bill-paying, career, and projects within projects within career. So, sitting here looking out 360 degrees x 360 in all possible potential future directions, how is the tool I call The MasterList helping me today?
Well, here's how my action sequences proceeded today (Saturday). If you reverse engineer it, I guess it's a recipe.
I started outside The MasterList with a file card, on which I drew a cross. I call this an action crux, and the four quadrants of it "quads". Into the quads,I write 4 arbitrary fields of action, which it is my goal to "rotate" through the day. Kind of like crop rotation. Today's 4 quads were 1)Yard Work 2) House Chores 3) Desk clearing and MasterList To-Do List clearing, and 4) Writing.
Suffice it to say, I did not need The MasterList to decide on what yard work to do today. However, in clearing my to-do list, I did notice a reminder about watering certain plants I had forgotten; and, another reminder that my wife wanted 2 specific hedges trimmed. So, when I "bumped" or blasted certain other tasks forward on the list to future dates, I "reserved" those for today; and, may still get to them after the arbitrary tasks I chose earlier. The net effect was similar for my house chores today. Right now I am on the Writing chore. I am writing 2 kinds of things these days: 1) A novel; 2)getting back to my blog writing after a hiatus.
Here's how The MasterList helped with novel writing today. My novel is called Jaguar Bird. I have a project in The MasterList called Jaguar Bird. In that project, I have a link to a Word document that contains the text of all chapters written to date, by way of a hyper link at the project screen. In that project I have a Notepad journal linked to the project screen at which I collect my ideas and scraps that are either about the novel or haven't yet found there way into it. At that project, I also have some internet links to some research sites, where I am organizing information I have surfed on Google. And, of course, I have the Google icon itself linked into my master linking tray that appears on all screens.
In short, to write my novel, all I need is access to my database. There is no paper, no pens, no resources, other than those that I can work with in combination at a single screen, that I control the organization of, pulled-together the way I want for just that project.
As you can imagine my Blog writing project is similar. I have a project called Blog regarding my 2 Blogs, this blog that you are now reading, and another one called BLACKSWAN. My project "Blog" has lots of links to Word docs and notepads with ideas and scrap text. It has links to the webpages for creating and editing these 2 blogs. It works like all my other MasterList project screens, at home and at the office. It simply puts anything related to any project at the project screen where I can immediately access it in combination with all other possible related data and links. (Oh yes! It has my user name and password noted in a free-text box at the project screen too.) And, it allows me to cross-cut through all that in various ways other than by project, or by calendar - the best one being, the running to-do list we call My Day, which has blasting tools to clear out and re-prioritize the task load by bumping tasks that can't be done now to appropriate future dates in a nanosec.
So, back to putting those pant legs on one at a time. The MasterList is a tool, like a hammer, or a power saw, a level, or a compass. Sometimes I need it. Sometimes I don't. When I do, it's handy.
It's particularly handy when I am doing what I call metaphysical work, thinking, planning, projecting, creating, visualizing, and organizing. Because I do that kind of work as a career, it's more than particularly helpful when I am jumping between multiple fields, taking multiple calls, juggling multiple email demands, and trying to stay on top of competing fast-moving priorities that are hard to shoot down and wrap up in nice tidy "completion bows".
So, one more recap. We live to act, and to choose. We choose and act across multiple possibilities in multiple potential fields of action. We can only act one moment at a time. We have a lot to keep track of with our mind's eye.
The MasterList brings all the metaphysical realities of your action fields together in a single data base, organized by field (project), with links to anything and everything you want to keep your mind's eye on as you jump from pant leg to pant leg.
A life of composed action takes a lot of detailed twists and turns.
If that describes your life, I would recommend trying The MasterList to help you manage it all.
