Get Everything Done

I printed and read the instructions first thing yesterday morning at work (after getting in late due to the snow and cold;) and decided to give it a go (at work) instead of my current DIT-based approach. I started with a squared notebook (I prefer them to ruled ones) that I had lying around and that allows me to have 20 tasks on a page. So where do I stand after 2 days?

Currently I'm on my 5th page, with a total of 86 tasks in the system (including a lot of rewritten ones), of which 31 are already checked off (I prefer using small checkboxes before each entry that I can check off, instead of crossing the items out).

I really feel that I'm moving and accomplishing things, but this may of course be the novelty effect. I read somewhere that adopting a new productivity system, ANY productivity system, will temporarily increase your productivity. This also happened to me when I first started using DIT. So the real proof will come only after a few weeks of constant use. Anyway, the early signs are positive.


Positive aspects are:

+You're allowed to strike tasks off before they are complete, on condition of course that you rewrite a follow-up task at the end. In other systems (including DIT), I kept rewriting some tasks until they were complete, and this has a demotivating effect. With AF, you don't rewrite anything as long as you didn't work on it. Striking off doesn't signal completion but progress, which is a lot more encouraging. In fact, this builds the "I'll just get the file out" mechanism into the system, and this is a great trick to get things moving. In one sentence, AF puts the focus on "starting" rather than "completing", and a series of starts will lead you to completion without the stress.

+You don't need to prioritise tasks. If you follow the system, there is no agonising over what to tackle first (often resulting in good old procrastination). You simply work on the next thing that "stands out", and things are supposed to be progressing correctly anyway. This of course will have to be confirmed in practice, it's still way too early to tell.

+You don't need to do the task on the day you've written it down for, when you sometimes really don't feel like it. In DIT, I routinely write my tasks down for the next day (unless they are same day/urgent). Here you write them down and let the system "decide" when you're ready to do them. Again avoiding procrastination (even if that sounds contradictory).

+AF gives you an easy way to progress projects by combining the "little and often" approach with the "starting early". I added several tasks to kick off actions that are only due in several months (some as far as September or December), and actually already started work on some of them. I feel that this may lead to my closing these actions way before their (imposed) target date, which is a nice change from the stress of the looming deadline driving you forward. In fact, I feel AF allows you to have a lot of "balls in the air" at the same time, with everything progressing nicely in parallel at its own rhythm.


Slightly worrying aspects are:

-My list seems to grow at such a rate that I still haven't reached the point where I can return to the first page for a second pass. I suppose this is because initially I've thrown in a lot of backlog tasks, and that this will stabilise after some use. If not, this would mean that any items that don't stand out on the first pass through a page are de facto "dismissed" and also, in DIT terms, that the inflow is be larger than "a day's work", so a more fundamental solution would be needed.

-You don't have a clear view anymore on "a day's work", or if your inflow more or less matches your outflow. Of course, if your list keeps expanding faster than you can process them as described above, you know there is something wrong. But you lose the nice balanced view of DIT.

-DIT has a kind of SLA (Service Level Agreement) built in that I like. I've got into the habit of replying to requests "I'll write that down for tomorrow", and deliver most of the time. This tends to increase your credibility and the confidence people have in your promises. With AF, you have no such "guarantee". You can simply hope that the system brings these tasks up in an acceptable timeframe. If all goes well, you may even deliver faster (same day), but essentially it is less predictable.

-Deadlines are not explicitly addressed. In the positive points, I mention the "start early" approach by which the deadline problem can be avoided in a lot of cases. But not always, so how do we cater for this?


Some complements that are needed to reach a fully operational system:

*A way to handle project-related material. A project progresses via a series of tasks "hidden" in the pages of your notebook. But a project often requires a collection of information, some form of status overview etc. You need to set up something to handle this (e.g. as described in GTD). But my guess is that any effective approach to this question can work with AF.

*A way to handle time-dependent items. Some actions can only be started at a specific date. In DIT this was easy, I simply wrote them down in on the first possible date. In AF, if you add them to your list when they pop up, they may require a lot of passes through a page before they get active (or even get dismissed!). So some form of calendar or tickler file is needed (as briefly mentioned in the instructions). Again, the implementation probably doesn't matter to the essence of AF and that's why it's not prescribed. My current feeling is that I could simply inject a recurring task into the list to check the tickler/calendar. For now, I keep using my DIT notebook for this purpose.


My very preliminary conclusion:

The AF system looks promising. I've experienced 2 nicely productive days which were actually fun, wherease this post-holiday period in general showed a very slow start-up. Lots of positives, some concerns, a few things to be worked out as I go along. But I intend to keep working the system for at least some more weeks to see what happens when I reach a stable running mode. Things may well look different (and I hope even brighter) by then.

Anyway, thanks Mark for yet another fascinating approach to productivity and time management. This is what sets you apart from most of the other authors in this area, and what I like about your work (I read all the books!).

Marc (from Brussels)

Hi Marc (and Mark)

Your thoughts very much reflect my own observations – and concerns – about the AF system. I have started to assemble a list of pros and cons (it's early days, but I'm having some problems adjusting, so more cons at this stage):

Pros:
+ “Free-fall” feel of random pottering (in my old system confined to weekends) imbues a feeling of freedom.
+ Things get done that would otherwise fall by the wayside / be squeezed out by the more rational demand for “getting on with the task in hand” (= daily duties, routines, tasks with deadlines attached).

Cons:
- Very different from structured daily to-do list system I’ve grown used to.
- Requires leap of faith – lack of structured approach to the day makes me feel nervous (will I really get the things done that definitely must get done?).
- Lack of daily task list to get through makes it harder to measure success/efficiency (how much did I actually get done? How much could I have got done if working to my old system?).
- No sense of completion at end of the day, even if a lot got done!
- Old system felt "safer" in that once things had got on a daily task list that more or less guaranteed they would get done that day. With this system, I put things on the to-do list, but I still have no way of knowing whether they will actually get done – or when!

An update after my third full day (still at work only):

The list now runs to 106 items with 46 checked off (from 31/86 yesterday). So the rate of checked items seems about constant from day to day, whereas the addition of new tasks is slowing down after the start-up boost (as I expected).

I'm now also in my second pass through the 4th page (of 6 currently).

All other observations remain valid. If new things come up, I'll post them here.

Betti,

Why do you have a feeling of "No sense of completion at end of the day, even if a lot got done!"?

If you have achieved a lot during a day this is reflected in the striked out tasks on the respective page(s) AF-wise, isn't it? And if it is like that, does that not give you a feeling of having been very productive, even though you might have only worked according to the "little and often" approach and the final completion is still outstanding?

IMHO this is very rewarding indeed and has an effect of becoming more relaxed ... ;)

Just my 2 cents.

All,

For those of us who are not the tactile type (don't want to keep writing stuff over and over and managing paper lists) I suggest you have a look at Zenbe Lists (zenbe.com). It is a web based list keeper (free for now at least) that is well suited for Autofocus.

One may arrange a list anyway they like by dragging around tasks into any particular order. When you check off the check box, a line is drawn through the item and it moves to the end of the list. If you complete the item, just delete it and its gone.

There is a free iPhone app that automatically syncs with the Web application and it can be used across any number of computers with automatic syncing.

I use iGoogle.com as my web start page. There is a Zenbe gadget that lets me place my Zenbe list right on my start page so when I log onto the web, the first thing I see is my list. I can also work with the list right from my iGoogle start page and it automatically sync's with the Web base which sends it to my laptop and to my iPhone.

If you don't like paper lists, give it a try.

[Disclaimer - Honest, I am in no way affiliated with Zenbe, I just find that it mates well with Autofocus]

Hi Marc,
I'd asked similar questions to what you'd asked in this thread. You can find that and Mark's answer here:
http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/622076#post622106

Four full days of AF and things are going very well! Here is the status:

Day 2: 31 items checked off on a total of 86 (36%)
Day 3: 46 checked (+15) / 106 total (+20) (43%)
Day 4: 71 checked (+25) / 141 total (+35) (50%)

No dismissed pages/items as yet.

I feel I had a very productive day. I checked off a lot more items than the previous days, but I don't know if this is because I worked faster or if the items of work were smaller.

I made one intersting observation: whereas before I was regularly drawn to distractions, like reading my RSS feeds, now I've totally lost this desire (apart from reading the comments in this forum a few times a day). The drive to continue work seems so much greater than before, the need to procrastinate has evaporated. Consequently I'm doing productive work a larger percentage of my time. I'm not sure yet if this is inherent to the AF system, or if it is because I want to be able to report nice figures on this forum in the evening though ;)

Hi Stefano

Just noticed your question... The reason that I said there is no sense of completion was that I'm comparing it to my previous system, which was very much based on having a predetermined daily task list that I would do my utmost to get through. So, on the days when I actually managed to tick of everything on my list, the sense of accomplishment was immense! (The flipside, of course, was that on other days, when I'd only managed to get through half of it, the sense of frustration was also immense!)

I have certainly noticed that the day seems to flow by with much more ease and I feel less pressurised and harrowed using the autofocus system. However, I also feel slightly less organised and am missing the structured approach to the day that I'm accustomed to, where I would know exactly when I went to bed what I'd be doing the next day. Now it's more like, well tomorrow I might clean the bathroom or I might not...

The reason that I say it's difficult to gauge what I've actually accomplished at the end of the day is that, the number of items crossed off the list is not really an indication of what I've actually achieved. I may have worked on some of these items for less than a minute - so the number of crossings-off is not a proper reflection of things that have actually got done!

Final statistics after my full first week of use:

Day 2: 31 items checked off on a total of 86 (36%)
Day 3: 46 checked (+15) / 106 total (+20) (43%)
Day 4: 71 checked (+25) / 141 total (+35) (50%)
Day 5: 91 checked (+20) / 168 total (+27) (54%)

I can say I've had a very productive week, much more so than usual. I have some additional observations, but I'll make my end of week evaluation in a different post soon.

Well, the end of week evaluation I promised is still not there yet, and we're already one week further. The reason may be that I'm not yet using AF at home, so things tend not to get done as smoothly as at work ;) Time to give it a try!

On the other hand, the second week at work was as productive, or even more so, than the first. I didn't keep detailed day-to-day statistics anymore, but I couldn't resist a litle count at the end of the second week. Last weekI checked off 91 items, this week 103. I really have the impression I'm flying...