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4.2 - Porqué otros sistemas fallan

Antes de revelar el Sistema El Ciclo, quiero explicar algunos sistemas comunmente usados por los adminsitradores de sistemas que no funcionan: El Sistema de Notas Dispersas y la Creciente Lista de la Perdición.

El Sistema de Notas Dispersas implica escribir notas en pedazos de papel de forma aleatorea o tener múltples listas de tareas dispersas por ahí. Mi favorito es cuado veo el monitor de una PC enmarcado con post-its amarillos. ¿Es cada uno un pendiente por hacer?, ¿un recordatorio?, ¿un número de teléfono?, ¿Quién sabe?, ¿cuál es la prioridad de los mismos?, ¿Qué tal si uno se cae?. Hay demasiado caos.

When you get assignments at a meeting, you start a new list. Now you are managing two lists. Then you lose one list because it got thrown out with other papers. Now you're missing meetings and failing to meet deadlines. Not a good situation.

The other extreme is The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom . Usually someone realizes that having many lists or scraps of paper isn't a good way to track things, so he buys a notebook and declares that this will be his one list. No more confusion, right? He diligently carries this notebook everywhere. Any new assignments get written in the notebook, and old tasks get crossed out as they're completed. The process works great at first, but then it starts to break down. It's difficult to prioritize work. Older items get forgotten since our eyes tend to look only at the last (newest) few items.

The most important failure of this system, and why I call it a list of doom, is that it's pretty damn depressing. The list never ends. You work and work and work, and the list never seems to get any shorter! You cross off items that you complete, but new items appear at the end. The number of pages starts to accordion out as you cross off items in the middle, but there's that one item waaaaaay at the beginning that is just never going to get done. Soon you are flipping through pages of crossed-out items to find the one item that isn't crossed out. You feel stressed because you fear missing an incomplete item hidden in pages of crossed-out items.

Worst of all, this is a total self-esteem killer. You never get that big feeling of accomplishment from having completed the list because the list never gets completed. It's the List of Doom.

Newman: Soy un trabajado de la oficina de postal de los Estados Unidos.

George: ¿No son los que siempre se vuelven locos y le disparan a todo el pundo con una pistola?

Newman: A veces.

Jerry: ¿Porqué es eso?

Newman: Porque el correo nunca se detiene. Simplemente llega, llega y llega, nunca hay un descanso. Es implacable. Cada día se acumula mas y mas y mas! Y tienes que liberarlo, pero entre mas liberas mas llega. Y entonces el lector de código de barras que descompone y es día de Publisher's Clearing House!

Seinfeld, episode #418, “The Old Man”

If The Scattered Notes System is too chaotic and The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom is too depressing, then The Cycle is, as Goldilocks would say, “just right.” It utilizes a device (either PDA or PAA) that you can carry everywhere with the bonus benefit of keeping everything in one place. The Cycle gives you a feeling of completion and accomplishment at the end of each day when you complete the day's list.


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