More on SuperFocus v. 3

As I go on, I get more and more confident about the changes I’m testing for SuperFocus. With these changes in place, SuperFocus has proved itself to be capable of dealing with almost anything I’ve thrown at it.

There are several things which I’ve never quite managed to achieve in any previous system. I’d like to focus on a few of them:

1. In spite of the fact that I am still using the original Autofocus principle of entering tasks as they come up or as I think of them - without any pre-sorting - after nine days of testing I still have only 4 1/3 active pages. One of these is on the point of being finished. Compare this with AF1 where I quickly got to 15 active pages (and I was using a larger notebook too).

2. With urgent tasks, the system is simply superb. I can enter something which needs doing immediately or within a few hours and be absolutely certain that it will get done.

3. Perhaps the most impressive thing of all is how the system deals with difficult or lengthy tasks. These get cracked very quickly, but not at the expense of the mass of minor tasks which we all have to deal with every day.

4. A surprise for me was how well the system deals with repetitive tasks, such as learning a language, practising a musical instrument, and so on. In the past I have advised dealing with these outside the system by blocking out a set time each day. Although many people might still prefer to deal with them this way, nevertheless SuperFocus v. 3 can quite happily manage them too.

These are all very impressive, but what I have also found is that the system has the same feeling of flow to it that AF1 has. But unlike AF1 one doesn’t ever finish the day thinking that all one has accomplished is to process a lot of trivia. With SuperFocus v. 3 I am finishing the day feeling that I have accomplished the stuff that matters.

Comments

[Jupiter]

Sounds good Mark ! Hope you will release it soon. I like papers systems they are more efficient with action and i can tell you that for the moment there are so man things to deal at my office than I feel being mike a hant on the motorway ! It you need testers i will be please to help you. You have my email ;)

[David Drake]

Hi Mark,

This sounds absolutely fantastic! As you can imagine, I am so anxious to see this. I do hope you release it soon. And a hearty congratulations and thank-you for this!!

Best wishes,
-David

[Brian D.]

I am motivated by your enthusiasm for your newest system. I have always followed your blog and forum (as a passive reader) and I have always struggled to commit to any one system. I've fallen off the Getting Things Done bandwagon, but still believe in its principles of getting things out of your head. I fail to engage with the list once it's written out.

I'm accumulating a rather large backlog of tasks (I keep capturing new ideas, while acting or finishing very few). I'm like task fly-paper.

Here's hoping that SuperFocus v3 has the spark to get me going! Congratulations on this breakthrough! There is an energy on this site, not seen for a long time.

[Fil Salustri]

I've written up a "format" for AF variants that has been useful to me. It imposes a little more structure on things than Mark seems to have indicated, but it does help me keep organized on paper. See http://dofastandwell.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-first-original-tool-formatting.html for details.

Thanks Mark!
Cheers.
Fil

[Erik]

"With SuperFocus v. 3 I am finishing the day feeling that I have accomplished the stuff that matters."

This s the big piece for me!

[Krishna]

Hi Mark,

I adopted AF4.0 from GTD about a month ago and so far the system has been great. I am thinking of creating separate sets of lists for tasks from work and home, though. Because after dealing with urgent requests from work - a dozen of these everyday, the other tasks tend to never get done. Wondering if this is a good idea - literally maintaining 2 separate notebooks, one for work and one for other "contexts".

Looking forward to your Superfocus system - esp if it allows me to deal with urgent tasks in a way that doesn't clog up the whole list.

Cant wait to see the next system.

Cheers,
Krishna

[Mark Forster]

Krishna:

I do in fact recommend as normal practice that you should have a separate list for each location. That of course is subject to individual variations as I can't cover everyone's different circumstances in a general rule.

[John]

This sounds like very good news. I have been a "firefighter" (and occasionally an excellent arsonist) by nature and profession all my life. I like to think that I am pretty good at juggling several urgent tasks at once, especially when working for my clients, but I really struggle with the repetitive and mundane - except, bizarrely, with physical training - especially when I am the one who would benefit. I am very unproductive when all is calm and get far less done than I should. Given the amount of down time I get I should be fluent in about 4 languages by now!

Really looking forward to seeing the new system.