Shoshana;66731 said:
I heard about this thread and thought I'd post my observation on using GTD vs Autofocus.
I went from 0 systems to Covey, and stayed with Covey, until '02. I adopted GTD in '02 and used a hybrid Covey/GTD until this year. I spent so much time tweaking GTD (contexts never worked for me), that my system evolved into something else entirely. And now I use Autofocus. The system, on almost every level, is brilliant... FOR ME. The #1 advantage of Autofocus - over every other system - is the recognition that intuition is crucial to doing quality things. All the other aspects of Autofocus are helpful, but the intuition element is key.
Finally, the OCD'ish elements of GTD were a tad disconcerting. I appreciate that this has more to do with the memers than the system, but the minutiae of GTD seemed to encourage this behavior.
I have a similar background in this regard. I started some (oh 30 odd years ago) with just a calendar in my pocket. It was a small ring punch book called a "Seven Star Diary", IIRC. It had all kinds of neat pages for different kinds of things, but basically it was a "page a day" calendar with pages for a TO DO list and reference material.
Later, I went into the computer industry and the "in thing" was to have rubber bands on your wrists and Hollerith cards in your shirt pocket ... Oh, and colored pens ... lots and lots of colored pens) So I put a simple TO DO list on a Hollerith cards and marked priority with a colored pen ... or sometimes used colored cards ... Red for high priority, etc.
My first attempt at a really structured system was "How to Get More Control of Your Time and Your Life" by Alan Lakein. I highly recommend that book.
Basically the system was to do a massive goal planning session then break those goals into actionable tasks that could be done in the next "period" then review your progress. (Much like the GtD review, with some serious life planning attached.) The actionable tasks were prioritized with an A,B,C 1,2,3 system.
Some years later, I ran across Stephen Covey and picked up his Quadrant system (actually boosted from Eisenhower). I dropped the use of that because it was the beginning of making time management systems into huge OCD centric fiddly projects. I did keep the general notion of those quadrants because it made tons of sense, but it was a lousy way to prioritize in practice. (So now I intuitively note if something is Q2 and if so, I bump up the priority.)
I read many other books and got many other great ideas (a "grass catcher" list; a bi-weekly agenda; 43-files tickler system; keeping a chron file; etc.) All very good ideas which found their places.
I came across "Getting Things Done" a couple of years ago and was blown away by some VERY good ideas. The best were:
- Have a trusted system
- Keep a someday/maybe file
- Group tasks by context
Off I went to implement. The problem was that I spent more time managing the system than I did managing my life! The trusted system idea survived as it can be implemented in any way. The someday/maybe idea will always be around ... it is brilliant! But contexts ... what a friggen' nightmare. How many contexts? What is a context? What if the same thing is in multiple contexts? Do contexts overlap? OY! I went from one context to dozens and back down to one. My context is my life! That is it! :twisted:
I heard about Mark Forester but had not gotten around to reading his books when he "published" AutoFocus on the web. In two minutes I could see that it was the answer for me. Whereas "context" was one of those things that seemed logical but would never in a million years actually work for me, the simplicity of AF shined like a beacon. How utterly simple. Keep one list, put things on it, start at the beginning, work on one item, cross if off (and add it back if not completed), throw out items you don't get around to doing ... lather, rinse, repeat. No OCD :mrgreen:
Of course, being a computer guy I had to tweak and fuss with it. In the end, I have backed out almost all of the tweaks I tried because the basic idea that your intuition knows what you should be doing next, is sound.
The things I do outside of the list itself are:
- Keep project planning files
- Keep a calendar
- Keep a tickler list
- Keep a shopping list
- Keep a list of things to talk over with my wife
- Make ad hoc lists for transient things (like an upcoming vacation)
My list is PAPER and I am quite sure that it will always be so. Paper does not crash. Paper does not "boot". Paper does not run out of battery.
As with the OCDish nature of some of these systems, I find that looking endlessly for the best computer implementation, of what is basically a TO DO list, is counter productive, time wasting, and feeds both the urge for procrastination and the inclination for OCD behavior.
So that was my journey and it exposed me to many ways of doing things. In the end, every one is just a TO DO list with lipstick! :mrgreen: