Preliminary Instructions for Autofocus v. 4
Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 10:34 Here are the preliminary instructions for AF4 as demonstrated yesterday. I will write them up in more detail later, but basically everything you need to work the system is here.
I will give the system for paper and pen, but it is easyhttp://www.markforster.net/blog/2009/9/4/work… to adapt the system for electronic use.
You will need a ruled notebook.
1) Draw up your list of things to do with one task per line. (If you already have a list you can continue to use it). You don’t need to put everything on the list at this stage as you can add other tasks as and when you think of them.
2) Draw a line at the end of the list. Everything before this line is known as the Backlog. As you think of new tasks add them after the line. Everything after the line is known as the Active List.
3) You start with the Backlog. Look through the tasks in the Backlog in order and work on any tasks which feel ready to be done. Delete each task when you feel you have worked on it for long enough, and re-enter it at the end of the Active List if you need to do more work on it.
4) When you come to the line, do not go into the Active List. Instead return to the beginning of the Backlog and continue to move through it in it doing any tasks which feel ready to be done. Keep circulating in this way, until you have done a complete pass through the Backlog without any tasks being done.
5) You now cross the line into the Active List. Move through the Active List in order working on any tasks which feel ready to be done.
6) When you reach the last task on the list, you then go back to the beginning of the Backlog and repeat the process from Step 3.
7) When you have crossed off all the tasks in the Backlog, you draw a line at the end of the Active List and this now becomes the Backlog.
So just to recap:
Your list is divided into two parts, the Backlog and the Active List. You circulate round the Backlog until no more tasks seem ready to be done. Then you do one pass through the Active List. After that you return to the Backlog. Once you’ve done every task in the Backlog, the Active List becomes the Backlog and you start a new Active List.
Deleting undone items
After you have been working on the Backlog for some time it may be reduced to a few tasks which for some reason or other you are reluctant to tackle. At this stage you may find that when you go back to the Backlog from the Active List you do a complete pass of the Backlog without doing any of the tasks.
If this happens, you should delete all the remaining tasks in the Backlog using a highlighter instead of a pen stroke, and then proceed as in Step 7 to make the Active List the Backlog.
The next time you come to the beginning of the list, you should finally cross off the highlighted tasks by deciding what to do with each one in turn. You may elect to abandon it, re-enter it on the Active List (with or without re-phrasing), or put it into a reminder system for review at a later date. In making the decision what to do with each task, you should look at the reasons why you haven’t done it yet.
Other implementations
It’s perfectly acceptable to use sheets of ruled paper rather than a notebook. You need two lists, a Backlog and an Active List. If you have undone items to review as in the previous paragraph, you will need to keep the old Backlog list until this has been done.
Electronic implementation is easy, as seen on my example yesterday. Rather than use Strikeout for actioned items, you can simply delete them. There’s no need to put new tasks in italics - I did that purely for demonstration purposes. You might want to use Bold for the current task, as it helps to find your place again.
Mark Forster
There is a brilliant file by Andreas Hofmann which gives an animated version of my demonstration of AF4. This is an absolute must for quick understanding of the system. Many thanks, Andreas, this was a huge undertaking.
Reader Comments (58)
I then first check this post it note, before I continue with the list.
You said << Mark's advice is that you pass through the AF4 list at least once a day. >>
I did not know that. Could you let me know where this advice is as I seem to have missed it?
I am still settling down with the system. Currently my Closed List is too big to do in a day, but I think it will take less than a week. I am recently back from holiday so do have a backlog (!) to catch up on.
Seraphim:
Thank you for your comments. I will look at DWM once I see how things settle down for me with AF4. Certainly if my list continually grows something will need to change. But here is another advantage of having everything written down - you are aware of how committed you are already, which makes it easier to say no to some new things.
What I like about AF4 and Mark's approach generally, is that I still feel free to make the decision to step outside the system occasionally if the situation demands it, and yet I am made to be aware that I am doing so. My aim is to be more proactive and less driven by imminent deadlines, and using AF4 is definitely helping me move in that direction by increasing.
Nico:
That's a neat idea. I am finding that following AF4 is making me change my thinking about how I approach my work. Before AF4 I would often start working on a task as soon as it came up (immediate gratification) but I am actually finding it is a good discipline to add it to the list where it sits for a while and often decreases in "urgency". This I like.
I am still experimenting with how to handle tasks that genuinely do need an urgent response. As I said before though, I hope and expect that these will become increasingly rare as a) I get more organised, and b) I think more critically about them!
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Papier-crayon : format du système que je vous livre ici. (Version électronique ? Envisageable aussi.)
Prenez donc un carnet à lignes.
1) Vous pouvez partir de zéro ou bien d'une liste pré-existante. Dans votre carnet, appliquez-vous à écrire une tâche par ligne : en déroulant à la suite un maximum de tâches, ou bien — et c'est tout aussi profitable — en écrivant seulement celles qui vous viennent à l'esprit.
2) Pour clore la liste, tracez une ligne (tout ce qui se situe au dessus devient votre Carnet de commandes). Après cette ligne, vous mettez les nouvelles tâches auxquelles vous songez : c'est la Liste active.
3) Commencez par le Carnet de commandes, regardez-y les tâches, dans l'ordre : commencez par travailler sur toutes celles qui vous semblent mûres. Sitôt que, pour chacune d'entre elles, vous pensez arriver au terme, rayez. Et s'il faut retravailler dessus, reportez ladite tâche en fin de Liste active ; et ainsi de suite.
4) En dévidant le Carnet de commandes, vous finissez par venir buter sur la ligne : remontez au tout départ, pour accomplir les tâches du Carnet de commandes qui — désormais — vous semblent mûres. Faites des boucles. La ligne, direction Liste active ? Elle se franchit seulement quand le Carnet de commande vous semble sec, seulement quand l'inspiration se fige.
5) Vous franchissez la ligne : déplacez-vous-y, en travaillant de la même manière (circulation).
6) En Liste active, lorsque vous atteignez la dernière tâche, vous revenez au début du Carnet de commandes, y travaillez et reportez en même temps les tâches à re-travailler — comme d'habitude.
7) Lorsque que le Carnet de commandes se termine vraiment, vous tracez une ligne à la fin de la Liste active. Celle-ci devient le Carnet de commandes.
This, however, seems to be just ideal: no fuss about entering actions, with projects and contexts, just actions. (It's even really easy to point a task in the list to an 'external list', like adding a sheet of paper in the notebook.)
I'll buy a notebook tomorrow, and I'm going to get started right away =)
<< What if you physically can't do a task? >>
You should treat it in the way described under the heading "Deleting undone tasks".
That is to say, you delete it with a highlighter and on the next pass have the choice of abandoning it, re-entering it or putting it in a reminder system for later.
If it is just a matter of the time of day, the weather or your location, then you will probably go for the re-entering option.