Get Everything Done

Perhaps I have missed in one of the posts how to implement this in the new system.

For example I wash the car every several weeks. I add it to the page for today (February 8) plus 1 month, i.e. March 8.

Perhaps it stands out, on Sunday, February 14, and so I do it then. Being a recurring task I follow the rules and re-enter it on the page for a week later, February 21. Come February 22, with the car still looking good, I dismiss the task.

In DWM how would the system help us do repeating tasks which are done less often than once a week?

Two possible approaches I can think of right now:

1. Enter the task as "Wash car?". When you get to it when it's to about to be dismissed, answer "not yet", which counts as working on the task and re-add it.

2. If you, say, wash your car about every 2-3 weeks, put "Add 'Wash car' task to DWM" in your calendar/tickler system so you get to it in two weeks.

Have a weekly recurring task "Check car if it needs cleaning", do this tasks weekly, and according to the result of your checking, clean the car or not. Same with refueling, motor oil, etc. And check the up-to-dateness of your checklist monthly.

To me this is a new task - not the continuation of an incomplete task. So I would enter it one month hence. I have several such tasks. Although they are repeated at intervals, each instance is essentially a new task.

Paul

For recurring tasks, I've been going back & forth between re-adding them at the "today+7" or "today+30" date. I don't have a definite guideline (for myself) of which one date to use, but it seems to be coming down to if it needs to be done again within a week, then "today+7" otherwise it goes on "today+30" as a new item. Anything longer than that goes in a tickler.

For now. I may change my mind once I get to Mar and "today" is February's "today+30"

As far as repeating task before 1 week is up, I don't see why DWM would be an issue - the "today+7" isn't the start date of the task :) If it needs to be done twice a week, it'll stand out before the "today+7" date.

Hi Mark,

That also answer's a question I have about paying my monthly bills. I just create a new task at +1 month, when I completed paying my last bills.

I can see the logic of putting task reminder in Outlook Tasks for longer that 1 month interval tasks. However, I wonder whether it is really a bad thing to immediately add such a "two-months once" task into the diary at +2 month? Since we scan our diary from today to +1 month, that "two-months once" task will only start to get scanned in a month. Same impact as if I entered that task at that time, right?

Thanks all. In the light of the above ideas, it seems to me that it easier for me to procrastinate ever washing the car in DWM, as when it comes up the dismissal rules are less stringent in such a case (we let it off because it is typically recurring less often than other tasks and re-enter it in one form or another) - I feel a tweak coming on for tasks like this.

Another example: Conquer the world. And when it comes up . . . I still want to do it, but maybe next month.

In AF4 these would naturally drop off the list after a period of time (the fruit, over-ripe, falling from the tree).

Laurence:

Don't you have the same problem in AF4 if you work through the list faster than the recurring task? The only difference is in DWM it's a set amount of days, in AF it depends on how many tasks you have, which tasks you action an how frequently you use the "little and often" principle. Pretty much all solutions here (writing tasks as questions, outlook reminder)have also been proposed for AF previously.

Andreas:

<Don't you have the same problem in AF4 if you work through the list faster than the recurring task?>

That's right. I hadn't noticed as I have long AF lists and it hasn't happened to me yet.

One of the reasons DWM immediately appealed to me is that I was already using my Tickler to store and re-enter tasks to be done in about another week or about another month.

For example, if I wanted to wash my car every week or so, I would put it on my list as "+W Wash car". After I washed my car, I would cross it off and then on a page in my tickler a week out, I would add "+W Wash car". A week later it goes back on the list. Etc.

This means I do have to rewrite repeating tasks, but things get done. A nice side-effect I notice with DWM is that you get much more time before things expire.. I'll see by the end of this month whether or not that's a good thing.