Repetitive nature of work

The new DWM system is throwing up some interesting new perspectives. One that has struck me quite forcibly is the repetitive nature of most of my work. Previous time management systems have tended to disguise the number of times that one re-enters the same task on the list.

But DWM separates out re-entered tasks from new tasks, and rather to my surprise I discovered that the number of new tasks that I’m putting on the list is decidedly in the minority. For example, yesterday I re-entered 43 tasks and only added 11 new tasks.

This reinforces a point I have often made, which is that good systems are all important in being well-organised. If the majority of tasks are repetitious, then making sure that those tasks are being carried out as efficiently as possible will bring about huge time savings.

Comments

[learning as I go]

Hi Mark
I whole heartedly concur with your sentiments. My rx is bundling them into my habits/rituals to reduce writing and deciding! LOL! Everybody has their own scheme for handling regular life matters! I don't dare to imagine what my life would be like without my habits and checklists. The checklists come in handy for me especially during hard pain times. There are some tasks that I can get myself to do even if my brain can't focus enough to write it! LOL! It's far easier to push a mop than write it when the pain is high enough! Also it's far easier to file papers because it's next on the list rather than to look at a list and DECIDE what to do next! It's amazing what brain functions people take for granted until they aren't there any more!
learning as I go

[Will]

Mark,

Do you mean that you made 43 reentries of, say, 10 pieces of work or that you made a large number of entries of 43 pieces of work.

Following the DIT analysis, on average the amount of work you finish must equal the amount of work you take in on any day. is it working out this way?

[Jonaz in Stockholm]

Interesting. I was just reflecting on the fact that most of my entries are "new" entries, and very few re-entries.

I was wondering if that had to do thinking more in singular tasks than projects (and re-entering a new task on the one-week-page as it is a project in progress) or that I don't have that many recurring tasks.

Or if it's simply a matter of me wanting to have one month before dismissal instead of just a week... ;-)

Speaking of "granularity of tasks”; I loved the Taragh(?) video with Mark where he showed what his notebook looked like and the mental processing that was going on while he was processing. Would love to see another video like that with DWM.

/jonaz