For the last couple of days I’ve been experimenting with a variant of Autofocus 2. This was a system which I developed in response to the perception that Autofocus had difficulty dealing with urgent tasks once the list had grown beyond a certain size - which it inevitably did.
Unfortunately Autofocus 2 suffered from the same problem in reverse. It was great at dealing with urgent tasks - which is why I still use it for panic lists - but not so good at dealing with non-urgent tasks, particularly the more difficult ones which tended to congregate at the beginning of the list.
So I’ve been looking at how I can improve Autofocus 2 so that it keeps its ability to deal with urgent tasks, but keeps the work going on the beginning of the list as well.
I’ve found a very simple change which seems to solve the problem. Just divide the list into two. Here’s how:
1. Draw up a list of things to be done. Keep it reasonably short at this stage. My first attempt was 23 tasks long and so far it’s working fine.
2. Draw a line at the end of the list. Everything that you enter or re-enter from now on goes after the line.
3. You have now two parts, the Old List and the New List.
4. You scan from the end of the Old List back towards the beginning of the list. When you come to a task that stands out as being ready to do, you do it. Then delete it and, if there is still work to be done on it or if it will recur again within the next few days, re-enter it at the end of the New List.
5. Now scan back from the end of the New List in the same way. When a task stands out do it and re-enter it as necessary.
6. If no task stands out continue your scan in the Old List as in 4.
7. Continue in this way, scanning for one task in each list alternately until there are no more tasks in the Old List. When this happens draw a line at the end of the New List which becomes the Old List, and start a New List.
8. Please note carefully that if no task stands out in a List, just carry straight on to the other list. But if a task does stand out, once you’ve done it you do not scan further in that list but move immediately to the other list.
The rules sound more complicated than they actually are. In fact it’s a very simple procedure.
If anyone wants to accompany me in this experiment, please do so. Your comments are welcome.
P.S. Make sure that 1) you always scan backwards from the end of a list towards the beginning. 2) you only pick one task before moving on to the other list.
One last point. When the Old List is down to just a few tasks and none of them get selected on repeated scans of the list you may either delete them or move them to the end of the New List (which will then be free to become the Old List).