best way to set up the incentive scheme for mark forster's final version

[johannes meier]

Hi,
I've recently started using Mark Forster's Final Version time management system, in hardcore mode (i.e. sorting by undesirableness).

How do you set up your beeminding incentive system to minimize side effects?

[Alexander Schwarz]

Johannes,

please keep us (or at least me) posted on your experiences with this.

I'm very interested in the various systems Forster has designed.

Currently I'm about to implement the random approach.

http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2014/1/22/random-time-management.html

Alex

[Ryan Freckleton]

I've had a goal before to complete at least one "resistance first"
chain per day. The difficulty I ran into was it tended to cause
resistance to increase to the point where I didn't want to do it at
all. That partially could've been due to the fact that I was trying
too many changes at once, or it just may cause too much ego-depletion.

The most effective addition to Mark's FV for me is a personal kanban
to track my commitments, their approximate time frames and when they
need to be started (backlog, this month, this week). With this in
place, standard FV can just churn through my commitments.

I also use the pomodoro technique with my FV list, the pomodoro isn't
interrupted as long as I'm doing a FV task or selecting a new chain.
This I track through beeminder with an easy to reach goal of 12 poms
per week.

What issue are you running into with alternate FV mode, specifically?
=====
--Ryan E. Freckleton

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[johannes meier]

On Tuesday, October 7, 2014 4:33:00 PM UTC+2, Ryan Freckleton wrote:

[...] a personal kanban to track my commitments, their approximate time frames and when they

need to be started (backlog, this month, this week).

Can you describe that in more detail, please? (I tend to get discouraged by the perceived size of the task when I try to estimate it up-front.)
 

I also use the pomodoro technique with my FV list, the pomodoro isn't
interrupted as long as I'm doing a FV task or selecting a new chain.
This I track through beeminder with an easy to reach goal of 12 poms
per week.

I've been experimenting with pomodoros, too. They work well for things like studying vocabulary, but badly for creative work - which happens to be the most important stuff.

What issue are you running into with alternate FV mode, specifically?

Incentive schemes are tricky, I'm trying to avoid unintended consequences. Also, I'm not sure I won't start resisting "maximum resistance" FV.

[Ryan Freckleton]

On Thu, Oct 9, 2014 at 2:23 AM, johannes meier
<johannes...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Tuesday, October 7, 2014 4:33:00 PM UTC+2, Ryan Freckleton wrote:
>>
>> [...] a personal kanban to track my commitments, their approximate time
>> frames and when they
>> need to be started (backlog, this month, this week).
>
>
> Can you describe that in more detail, please? (I tend to get discouraged by
> the perceived size of the task when I try to estimate it up-front.)

Sure, I have a personal kanban with the following columns:
- Ongoing projects (stuff that I'm committed to due to my employment)
- Backlog (catchall for anything that I feel would be a distraction if
I put it on my FV right now)
- Month -- this is stuff that I need to *start* within the next month
to get it done when I want it to be.
- Week -- this is stuff I need to work on this week in order to be
where I want to be. This is the column that ends up feeding my FV
list. In addition, emails, conversations and my calendar end up
feeding my FV list.
- Done -- where stuff goes once it's completed.

I don't actually estimate effort or time for things, I just say when I
want to start them. Sometimes I'll put a due date, either one I choose
myself or one that someone assigns me, but these tend to be fluid as
well. The columns are all based on when I want to *start* things, so
it's just a way to determine relative urgency. I also try to keep them
in order from most urgent at the top of the column to least urgent at
the bottom.

These articles have a bit more on how to use urgency as a
prioritization scheme. It also has some relation to the concept of
"Cost of Delay" that's used in the lean community.
- http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/26/urgency-the-natural-way-to-prioritize.html
- http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/27/how-do-we-tell-how-urgent-a-task-is.html
- http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/28/urgency-and-importance.html
- http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2012/1/30/how-do-we-tell-how-important-a-task-is.html

>
>>
>> I also use the pomodoro technique with my FV list, the pomodoro isn't
>> interrupted as long as I'm doing a FV task or selecting a new chain.
>> This I track through beeminder with an easy to reach goal of 12 poms
>> per week.
>
>
> I've been experimenting with pomodoros, too. They work well for things like
> studying vocabulary, but badly for creative work - which happens to be the
> most important stuff.
>

I've found they work well for creative activities, but I tend to treat
them like "sessions" in exploratory testing, or music recording. But
the important thing is to find and use the techniques that work well
in your context.

>> What issue are you running into with alternate FV mode, specifically?
>>
>
> Incentive schemes are tricky, I'm trying to avoid unintended consequences.
> Also, I'm not sure I won't start resisting "maximum resistance" FV.
>

For me, if I'm running into resistance or feel that I need to use
"maximum resistance" FV, it's been a sign that I have too many
commitments, hence the elaborate kanban system :).

I've found the best way to avoid unintended consequences are 1) make
sure your commitment is something small to start with and 2)
understand what your goal *truly* is. For me, it's often to change the
type of person I am. E.g. to cultivate virtues and change my character
to the point where I don't need the hand-holding the graph and
incentive provide.