Do It Tomorrow by Mark Forster

Who: Mark Forster - When: Tomorrow

Mark Forster is something like the David Allen of the U.K. He has been around for some time already but nontheless goes on and lectures, writes books, hosts a forum on his home page, and even updates his Twitter account quite frequently. Furthermore, his first time management book was named “Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play”. I think that is an awesome title, and it must come from a cool man.

In the time management circuits Mark Forster is famous and for having slightly alternative views on common time management points. One of them is visible in the title of this very book: Do it Tomorrow (= oh my goodnes, tomorrow,  not today). David still manages to start of with a general discussion and theory of time management in his Do it Tomorrow book. So no need to get a separate David Allen publication for that.

Seven Time Management Principles á la Mark Forster

Principle wise, Mark emphasizes the following thoughts:

Have a clear vision. As Mark states himself there is nothing new in emphasizing the importance of a vision. He correctly notes that many visions are all too broad and general to have any impact. In stead one should try to paint one’s goals as precise and down to earth as possible, turn them alive.

One thing at a time. Don’t spread your efforts over too many things. You must establish limits, and learn to say no. Multitasking? No thank you. Focus only on one thing at any particular time.

Little and often. Keep on starting, and you will finish. The human mind also works best when it has time to work on a larger task in smaller pieces.

Limits. Mark also wants to remind us, that even in our current thinking-out-of-the-box hyped society, sometimes it is good to both create and admit the existence of limits. I think most of us do this automatically. Mr. Forster encourages for example, to establish limits for the amount of time you work on one specific task at one go.

Closed lists. This is the concept that Mark is most known for to propagate. The idea of a closed list is, that it is a list with a line drawn under the last item (physically or with some other arrangement). The means no new items can come one the list, before the list is cleared. One example of a closed list philosophy is working on email in batches during the day, in stead of reacting to them one-by-one as they come. Which method do you think is more effective?

Reduce randomness. As Mark states: “Random factors are the real killers for the day’s work.” We should all try to eliminate such factors as far as we can. It is hard, but we all can do something.

Commitment versus interest. According to this principle, we should all distinguish the difference between these two. Do you know it?

Am I Really Working?

Another point that I appreciated as the usesful reminder in the following table:

Real work vs. Busy work according to Mark Forster

How often have you cought yourself doing busy work? My guess: too often.

Two Sorts of Lists

A final notion of Mark’s philosophy is the concept of working with two lists. The first one is the task diary, and the second is the so called will do list. The task diary is the place where you collect your tasks on the day you want to do them. When talking about Mark, the place into which fill your new tasks is mostly the day of Tomorrow. The will do list is a generic template for work.  Example of will do template:

1. Morning coffe
2. Read email
3. Purge physical mail
4. Answer voicemail
5. Daily tasks/work
6. Prepare next days work

The list above is just for illustrating the point.

Conclusion

All in all, I think this is an excellent book and contains good thoughts for both the novice and more seasoned time management self help expert. You can find this book on Amazon.

Time Management Books. Please have a look at my personal collection of the best books around this subject. From each one I have got at least one really useful insight.