GTD and Autofocus

rossw;66843 said:
Mike, Mike, Mike he said ever so many times, graciously waving his tail, (oops, missed one... Mike),

ROTFLMAO ;-) I have a few cats so that picture is great. (BTW, that silly "name" is because you have to make up crap to get onto this website and I just did not feel like jumping through hoops of trying various combinations of things. Just made sense to put down four of them ;-) In fact, I have had to get up to six in some places which should tell some of these daft web designers SOMETHING!

rossw;66843 said:
You AFers keep telling us to try AF out before commenting. That's all very well, but for how long? We know all too well that it takes a couple of years to really master a new system, though you can get a good feel for it in a few months if you're diligent.

But what would happen to our GTD setup if we left it for months? Doesn't bear thinking about.

Well, a couple of thoughts. I found that AF is unlike other things I've run across in that how it works can't be easily surmised from reading the instructions. It turns out that in following the rules strange things start to happen to your brain. (Insert Twilight Zone music here)

Reading the items over and over, moving the uncompleted ones to the end and then seeing them in a different context, and various other things one does cause perceptions, motivation, oh, all kinds of things to change. Honestly, it is not one of those childish things like "How do you know if drugs are bad if you don't get high?" It is that we have all been more than a little surprised at the result of actually DOING AF. Reading it over, it seemed a bit overblown for a TO DO list, but once through the list, it was obvious that things were happening that we had not expected.

Moreover, your exact implementation will change the effect. Mark advises a list with about 30 or so lines, IIRC. He has experimented and found that was optimum ... for him at least. I have also experimented. I work out of my pocket so my book has only 15 lines. I found that I was getting a somewhat different feeling than those with 30 lines. (Thinking about it, I can see that with more lines you see items more times before you have to dismiss them. You are also likely to have a better mix of things on a page.) It really is a case of it either works for you or it does not and you can only find that out by trying for a short while.

How long? Just long enough to see how it affects you ... or not. Maybe a few days or so? And you don't have to abandon any other system. Just run AF in parallel. And you don't have to dump your life into it. Just put a half dozen of the first things that pop into your mind into an old grungy book and then add things as you go. You can keep running GTD as usual. Just run AF in parallel and then a few times a day flip back to your major GTD system to see that the world won't end. I mean, you'll see "Call Joe" on your AF list and if you look at your "@Call" context list you'll find it there also. Nothing bad will happen.

And when you dismiss items, you are really just moving them to your "someday/maybe" list, no? I mean, Mark highlights them but I move them to the same place I kept them before AF ... in the days of GTD. And you will still use your calendar. And some of us still use a tickler list. I personally have a few special lists, some of which COULD be called "context lists" if you really need to call them that.

AND, finally, if GTD is working for you, why change? I don't get a commission from Mark if I get you to switch. Hell, Mark does not even charge for it ... the ideas and his help are all free! You don't need a reason to NOT try something new ... you need a reason to try it. Absent a reason, stick with what you have if it serves you well. If you would just do me the very small favor of knowing what it is that you have decided NOT to try so if anyone asks they will get the straight scoop, I'd be thrilled ;-)

The two year comment does concern me. I had not actually heard that until I quit using GTD. I have never before, in my life, heard of such a thing. The very DAY I started using my first TO DO list I knew it improved my life. It takes only about 21 - 30 days or so for something to become a habit. It takes a bit longer for systems to get the bugs worked out. But TWO YEARS? I don't get that. If I had read that before I tried GTD I never would have even started with it. I have to believe that quote is somewhat out of context. DA could not have intended people to think it takes two years.
 

rossw

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Two years is a period I have heard quoted from a number of people as the time it takes for all the key habits to really bed themselves in to the point where you don't think about them any more. I guess this would be "black belt" standard.

A lot of people in the fora a couple of years ago, when I was last looking, were prepared to state that they were working through the "green belt" level. I think you can get to that level in a couple of months.

At this point, I think we need some guidance from a black belt. I cannot really speak with any authority, as I never managed to get my weekly review down to a couple of hours every week. And, as a wise man once said, "if you're not doing a weekly review, you're not doing GTD".
 
MikeMikeMikeMike;66848 said:
Well, a couple of thoughts. I found that AF is unlike other things I've run across in that how it works can't be easily surmised from reading the instructions. It turns out that in following the rules strange things start to happen to your brain. (Insert Twilight Zone music here)
C'mon, Mike. There's nothing strange about Autofocus. It's simple psychology.
While GTD wants you to use your self-discipline when you work and eventually use your "intuition", Autofocus tells you to use your self-regulation and use your self-discipline only for same-day urgent work or appointments (there the need for tweaks shows up).

The usage of Autofocus thus costs less mental and emotional energy than the usage of GTD. So AF is more sustainable than GTD. The results are better for the one who uses AF, but that doesn't mean the results are always better from your boss's or your customer's point of view.

Adding an AF list to an implemantion of GTD or using a combination of GTD and AF might be useful for some people.
 

Brent

Registered
Rainer Burmeister;66862 said:
The usage of Autofocus thus costs less mental and emotional energy than the usage of GTD.

Well, what are you saving that mental and emotional energy for? A rainy day? ;-)

I'd rather invest it in today's work, personally, to make it that much better. I don't want to give up my ability to make wise decisions about today's work.

I may be completely missing the point, but to me this is like slacking off on martial arts katas, because that's easier. No, I want to make it hard on myself, as that's the only way I'll make the right choices when I'm facing five nasty opponents.

That said, I don't think the Autofocus method of reviewing lists is evil -- it's just a different way to review a list. Forster doesn't mention contexts on his quick-start page, which I think would make it even more efficient.

To me, there's great value to the discipline of maintaining a specific wall between Projects that you've committed to and Someday/Maybe ideas that you haven't. Autofocus doesn't seem to have any inherent limitation keeping you from starting all those neat ideas you've ever had...and never finishing them. While GTD doesn't completely prevent that, of course, the clear division between Projects and Someday/Maybe highlights those situations a little more clearly than in Autofocus.
 
Brent;66866 said:
To me, there's great value to the discipline of maintaining a specific wall between Projects that you've committed to and Someday/Maybe ideas that you haven't. Autofocus doesn't seem to have any inherent limitation keeping you from starting all those neat ideas you've ever had...and never finishing them. While GTD doesn't completely prevent that, of course, the clear division between Projects and Someday/Maybe highlights those situations a little more clearly than in Autofocus.
Brent, what used to be my @work context list is now my AF list for my work location (aka office).
The AF list gets reviewed weekly like the former @work list did.

Currently I have two tweaks for my AF usage:

1) A closed list of next actions (not projects or tasks!), finished and written anew every day, with a workload of maximum 2 hours per day (http://litemind.com/will-do-lists/). This list is for work I have promised to do on that certain day.

2) A Someday list where most of my "dismissed" items go to, reviewed regularly. This list serves the purpose to keep everything that is not current (= this fortnight) off the AF list.

Appointments are written in the calendar, not the AF list, of course.
 

TesTeq

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These rams are psychic!

rossw;66883 said:
Cats? Rams? This is all getting a bit zoological... Are we heading down a rabbit trail?

I am afraid we are. These rams are psychic :!:
 

Oogiem

Registered
psycho rams ;-)

TesTeq;66884 said:
These rams are psychic

Not psychic but psycho, at least my rams are. 42 testosterone filled boys with big horns is a bit much. :) 20 of them have a date with the freezer, as soon as we get approval for our sausage recipe. ;-)

Oh you meant computer ram....

Now you have me trying to draw a computer ram with horns and wool.

Funny I was just having a conversation about how AI can mean totally different things depending on whether you are in the computer or agriculture business. And if you are both it's even more confusing.

Thanks for the giggle early this am.
 
Oogiem;66886 said:
Funny I was just having a conversation about how AI can mean totally different things depending on whether you are in the computer or agriculture business. And if you are both it's even more confusing.
In both cases one could say: "It's better to have AI than to have no I at all"!
:)
 

ratz

Registered
rossw;66860 said:
At this point, I think we need some guidance from a black belt. I cannot really speak with any authority, as I never managed to get my weekly review down to a couple of hours every week. And, as a wise man once said, "if you're not doing a weekly review, you're not doing GTD".

At the risk of de-cloaking; this blackbelt will raise his hand and share a couple mundane thoughts on this most interesting subject.

First a tiny framework for my GTD background. I have been a GTD devote since about 2001-2002; coming from the franklin world before that. I'm guessing a handful of people here who read these observations can or will blame me for their introduction to GTD, I have bent more than a few electronic system into a form that supported GTD and then selfishly shared those ideas with others so I could build on the insights of other to improve my system.

About three ago years I started not participating in the forums (I read, but don't write often any longer); you are all very interesting; but my system just hit a zen state and the sharing rewards diminished and frankly it takes time to not sound like a moron with bad grammar; and I do bad grammar really well, as this disorganized 4 am mess will prove.

During those 8-9 years I have used the GTD philosophy in IT Systems (specifically the unpredictable world of infrastructure support) as a trench grunt; a dept manager, an executive director, and currently small business owner, homemaker, homeschooler, athlete and at times single father of 2, and now a husband to be..(again)...

Any how to the point.....

The GTD system has served me well and I owe my sanity at least in part to David's writings... As others have noted in this thread. Collect, Process, Organize, Do IT, Review IT. Is simply transformational. But it's not a walled garden, never has been. For over 6 years now I have done my Action Lists in a manner similar to AutoFocus. I just learned about Mark's writings on autofocus about 1 month ago, very much a "huh, someone else thinks that a good way to do things moment." In my case, it is just how I'm wired; I actually memorize information via a very similar technique (read item 1, read item 1 and 2, read items 1-3, read items 1-4, repeat until end of items). So I guess it was a logical extension. I have enjoyed reading Mark's writing on the topic and I've added to my system the things I hadn't thought of. But more on that in a bit.

Over that 9 year period, my list of contexts was always in flux as my roles and responsibilities changed. The nature of my responsibilities has never stayed solid for more than 1-2 years; and the contexts ebbed and flowed in reaction over time just like they should.

Sometimes my contexts where physical; sometimes they were a combination of physical and virtual. And now over the last few years the barriers between my contexts has gotten much softer; and I have less contexts today because there are very few places I cannot do EVERYTHING and ANYTHING.

Contexts today are much more about separating my obligations during hours of the day than about where I am. Blame the cellphone, the laptop, the bloody iphone; ubiquitous wifi even on airplanes, they all contribute to Context consolidation.

Context Lists use to be: @Office, @Calls, @ComputerWork, @ComputerHome, @Days Off, @Evenings, @ErrandsWork , @ErrandsHome, @Home, @Outside, @WaitingFor, @Agendas ...... (at one time I had 15-20).....

Context Lists thanks to technology are now: @Work, @Home, @Errands, @Waiting

Why is that important?

I postulate that the nature of your current contexts and the mobility of your person as you DO your job will dictate the success of your then current GTD Implementation. Tweaking happens when your contexts morph or your mobility requirements shift. If you fail to notice the change and adapt; then you fall off the wagon via: tweak-itis; system distrust; system inflexibility etc etc.

So how does AF apply. to all of this?

(Here's the take home paragraph if you are drifting off)

Simple apply most if not all of the techniques of AF to EACH of your context lists separately; read what Mark has to say; take the parts that you are comfortable with and apply them to your context lists. Try as much of the entire technique as you can stomach, the more the better. Just embed it right in your GTD system. Really it fits nicely in the system if you are good at GTD; you don't have to give up you GTD habits. Oh and nobody but you will know, really we wont' tell on you.

(End of take home paragraph. Missed it? backup and re-read it)

Do that for 10-20 days, and you will find out the following:

1) It's a wonderful way to make sure you are actually working your lists.

2) You know that some "crap" gets on the lists no matter what you do, As david says with great humor; "sometimes projects just go weird". The weekly review ferrets them out when that happens. However, Autofocusing each context list during the week keeps most of the crap out or gets the crap done before it even hits the review. Try it you will see.

3) David's always said you still have to be mature enough to go do you lists. But he also admits that sometimes you ain't so smart and you ain't so motivated. The AF techniques will carry you through those periods when you simply don't have "it".

4) It is very very hard to fall off the GTD wagon if you use AF Techniques to DO your context Lists. Because even when you fall of the wagon you'll still be capturing and doing; and when you get your Mojo back you can process and organize yourself back into shape. If your world morphs you'll find you are less likely to have a complete system failure.

That's it I'm not gonna beat the dead horse. This has worked well for me when I had a ton of contexts and it still works for me now with just a few.

But before I go, since someone always asks how I do it:

Your miles will very:

Tools:

1) I use a calendar
2) I use reference filing
3) I use a tickler.
4) I do a weekly review every Sunday evening.
5) I have an physical inbox and I use it when it's appropriate
6) I manage my actions lists in an AF manner
7) I will use action lists to collect stuff on the fly when the fires are ragging and my hair is ablaze.
8 ) I have separate a personal system and a work system because it makes sense for me currently;
9) I have a had single systems in the past. Both single and separate work; pick the one that fits your current reality.

During the day:

A) I'm computer bound for my daily work these days;
B) I'm at the computer 8-12 hours a day working from home.
C) I get interrupted by: the phone, the email, the support chat line, the help desk tickets, random thoughts, project requests, and the kids. All and all about 10-20 thought interruptions PER HOUR during core working hours. I'm always at someone's 1 moment whim and I have structure and routine work/projects that also have to get done.

Work System:

1) Action items are in a program called Task Paper; but could be anything that can capture a list, and filter it. My software of choice has changed numerous time based on what my job was. I process AI's via AF

2) I tag my items with @Waiting; @Errands, and @Agendas as I go; but they are mixed together. Best of both worlds thanks to filtering; I can narrow list if the situation dictates it; mostly I work unfiltered; again nature of the job.

3) All other GTD stuff applies; my email inbox in my case is empty every 30-60 minutes and items are filed, deleted, forwarded/delegated and add to the action list on the fly.

4) When I had a very mobile on the go executive job my work system looked just like the following Personal System, because it was reliable and it looked good in the boardroom.

Personal System:

a) I use a Journal approach
b) I have nice fake leather journal 5x7 for @Home;
c) I tag the stuff I write in the Journal with @Agenda; @Waiting, @Errand as I write items in.
d) When I kill a page ala AF; I move incomplete @Agenda, @Waiting @Errands to the BACK of the journal as needed. Each Context has 5 pages reserved in the back of the journal.
e) I work the back pages BACKWARDS in page order and the context pagers are tagged with "post-it" flags.
f) When the journal is full I get a new one; they cost $2.90

Separation of work and home.

When I'm working I don't look at my personal stuff; but I will add things to it if I think of them. Open Journal write it down close it. Home Journal moves with me everywhere I go.

I tend not to think of work stuff when I'm not working; I believe it's either because work is in control; or I'm not that bright after a full day of work. On the rare occasions I think of something; I send myself an email from my iphone. and Let GTD take if from there in the morning.
 

petdr

Registered
Good to "read" you again, ratz

ratz,
Thanks for taking the time to weigh in. You described the complementary fusing of AF and GTD very well. Enjoyed your past detailed posts re: Life Balance and GTD; good to read your stuff again.
 

moises

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ratz,

Five posts in six years. I like people who, if they don't have anything important to say, don't say anything at all.

What I "take home" from your post this year is that GTD can be compatible with AF. If it weren't, I wouldn't bother posting here any more.

As far as contexts go, I got real excited by contexts when I first started GTD. Very quickly I realized that all I needed was Work, Home, and Errands.

With AF I have a work list, a home list (the electronic free autofocus.cc web version), and I make errands lists in an ad hoc manner.
 

ratz

Registered
moises;68100 said:
ratz,

Five posts in six years. I like people who, if they don't have anything important to say, don't say anything at all.

:GRIN: That was just humorous enough and startling that we'll have to make that 6 in 6; and you actually got me off the back porch to a real keyboard.

It's amazing the stats that the internet can track and how time flies.

I remember the early days of posting on slow days 20-30 messages on the PalmGTD yahoogroup and various other forums. But eventually those promotions dug into the time available for such things. And lately building a business from scratch for the last 4.5 years, I can a test, really digs into your time. It's a very interesting and obvious effect that as soon as you work for yourself and every penny either goes into your hand or doesn't get earned; you quickly don't find the time to post to the internet anymore; it was much easier to do on someone else's nickel. :) Or maybe it's just GTD keeping me on target; or is it covey keeping me on important things, or.... well you get the point.

That said, I thank everyone that continues to post ideas and tips; I still cherry pick from everyone as I go; and I don't think more than 2 weeks go by before someone emails me asking for a copy of those old Life Balance templates or asks a question about the MLO templates; thankfully the Datebk5 questions have stopped. It continues to be gratifying.... But I do grin a little; as it's odd that people find methods from 8 years ago brand new and sparkly, so I guess these techniques are here to stay for a while yet.

Oddly I for one continue my evolution over time, closer and closer to the paper, I'm going kicking and screaming the there. Apparently though, it served me well in college when computers didn't fit in you pocket; maybe I should just give in....

ok well... nope.

See ya' all next year ;)
 

tjisolutions

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MikeMikeMikeMike;66760 said:
One of the powerful things about AF is that it does not require you to think in any way specified by someone else.

I would argue that this is not "One of the powerful things" its the most "powerful thing"
 
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