Final Version Perfected (FVP) Instructions

A Longer Example

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In this example for ease of understanding no new tasks are added while working on the list. This of course is unlikely in real life. Your initial list of tasks:

Email 

In-Tray

Voicemail

Project X Report

Tidy Desk

Call Dissatisfied Customer

Make Dental Appointment

File Invoices

Discuss Project Y with Bob

Back Up  

Put a dot in front of the first task:  

• Email 

  In-Tray

  Voicemail

  Project X Report

  Tidy Desk

  Call Dissatisfied Customer

  Make Dental Appointment

  File Invoices

  Discuss Project Y with Bob

  Back Up

Now ask yourself ” What do I want to do more than Email?”

You work down the list and come to Voicemail. You decide you want to do Voicemail more than Email. Put a dot in front of it.  

• Email 

  In-Tray

• Voicemail

  Project X Report

  Tidy Desk

  Call Dissatisfied Customer

  Make Dental Appointment

  File Invoices

  Discuss Project Y with Bob

  Back Up  

Now ask yourself ” What do I want to do more than Voicemail?” You decide you want to tidy your desk.  

• Email 

  In-Tray

• Voicemail

  Project X Report

• Tidy Desk

  Call Dissatisfied Customer

  Make Dental Appointment

  File Invoices

  Discuss Project Y with Bob

  Back Up  

There are no tasks you want to do more than tidying your desk, so you have the following dotted tasks:

Email

Voicemail

Tidy Desk 

Do the Tidy Desk task.

Your list will now look like this:

• Email 

  In-Tray

• Voicemail

  Project X Report

• Tidy Desk

  Call Dissatisfied Customer

  Make Dental Appointment

  File Invoices

  Discuss Project Y with Bob

  Back Up 

Now start again from Tidy Desk (i.e. the last task you did). and ask yourself “What do I want to do more than Voicemail?”  The only task you want to do more than Voicemail is Back Up. Do it.

The list now reads: 

• Back Up

There are no further tasks beyond Back Up, so there is no need to check whether you want to do any tasks more than you want to do Voicemail. You just do it.

The list now reads:

• Email 

  In-Tray

• Voicemail

  Project X Report

• Tidy Desk

  Call Dissatisfied Customer

  Make Dental Appointment

  File Invoices

  Discuss Project Y with Bob

• Back Up

 There is only one dotted task left on the list and that is Email. You now need to check whether you want to do any of the tasks more than Email. So ask the question “What do I want to do more than Email?” You already know that you want to do Email more than In-tray, so you start scanning from the first task after the task you have just done (Voicemail).

You decide you want to do Make Dental Appointment more than Email, so you dot it and change the question to “What do I want to do more than Make Dental Appointment”. The answer is “Discuss Project Y”. As this is the last task on the list you do it immediately, and then do Make Dental Appointment immediately too. There’s no need to scan because you already know that you want to make the dental appoinment more than you want to file invoices.

The list now reads:

• Email 

  In-Tray

• Voicemail

  Project X Report

• Tidy Desk

  Call Dissatisfied Customer

• Make Dental Appointment

  File Invoices

• Discuss Project Y with Bob

• Back Up

 So the tasks on the original list have been done in the following order so far:

Tidy Desk

Back Up

Voicemail

Discuss Project Y with Bob

Make Dental Appointment

These tasks have been done in the exact order of what you want to do most at the time. There may be a huge number of factors affecting what you want to do most, but you can allow your brain to sort them out for you below the level of consciousness simply by asking the question “What do I want to do more than x?” and applying it in the way shown above.

 If you are having trouble following the example above, then I suggest you write the list out on paper and work through it by hand.