Get Everything Done

I have a very good feeling about this autofocus system. I've always felt trapped in time management systems even while I was giving them my best shot, because although I've always had a lot of trouble spending time doing things that are not as important as other things and then regretting it later, when the stakes get higher I am a superb prioritiser - not just decent but a master.

Therefore I am confident that I do actually have the ability to choose well what to do now. And I've always wanted to use that ability in my "system" but the way the systems were set up seemed to work against it.

With DIT, for example, I found the closed list a relief and a comfort after GTD, but the scope of what I was working on tended to narrow because of constantly trying to predict closely what exactly I would acheive the following day. With GTD, where the idea is "mind like water" and one is supposed to use intuition to decide what to do next, I found the endless open list overwhelming and it sapped my motivation. I also found the forced "next action" detail stifling. When, as often, there are many choices of what the next action could be, it doesn't work for me to always have to decide in advance. With the Autofocus method, woolly badly-formed ideas will self-reveal during repeated reviews and eventually under threat of page-dismissal, so I will catch them and re-phrase them if necessary. Meanwhile other list items can inspire me despite being written with mammoth-like furry fuzziness.

My main problem with this system will be watching out for spending lots of time on a chosen task, revelling in the excitement and juiciness of progress and deep involvement, and then suddenly realising that 4 hours have passed and I've not finished reviewing page 1, never mind page 4. Timers will become my friends (actually, they already are, but they will become better friends).

Gez

One of my problems is the temptation to spend an inordinate amount of time reading the fascinating emails that Mark's introduction of Autofocus has initiated. Most of those contrbuting seem to speak my language. (For example, the last two paragraphs of your post reflect exactly what I have been thinking.)

What I love about Mark Forster's writings (and I have been following them closely now for some 7 years) is that he seems to often be just one step ahead of me and providing me with the solutions to problems I have been having with time management.)

Mark, I have seen your thinking progress very creatively over the years, and I can see pretty well exactly why you have introduced this refinement to DIT.

I am surprised that some have given up already. My experience is that it takes time to adjust to new practices and I have noticed that I am having trouble sticking to the system. But I have resolved to give it a full year and I trust that it will take a number of weeks before I truly feel that the system is working for me rather than being a burden that I have to carry. Mark, we can rely on you to keep applying the practices to your own life and I am confident that you will be very ready to suggest changes if we strike troubles after the novelty of what is new wears off.

Gez

This is exactly how I've felt with previous time management systems - they were either too rigid for me or I just drifted.

Autofocus seems to feel so much better - like a comfortable, familiar sweater rather than a skin tight thing that's too restrictive or a baggy thing that you're lost in!

Jim

Me too! I find this whole forum rather too tempting to sit reading for far too long but I hope that as it's early days the volume will decrease with time. It can be a bit confusing to find the new posts in the forum when there are so many coming in with the same date and you can't recall how many replies each post had when you last looked at it.

But my intuition is telling me I've already spent too long here so I'll go now and add "check forum" to the bottom of my list so I can return later.

That seems to be one of the key features with Autofocus that all of a sudden my intuition is working at full power again. While I was in rigid structure mode it was often squeezed out but when I was drifting I think it often fell off to sleep. Now it's firing on all cylinders and it feels great!

Hi Hannah

Your comment about your intuition working at full power again after having been squeezed out is exactly what I am finding - and it feels great! After three days it is fascinating to look back - Day 1 I was able to focus on AF all day and completed a significant number of tasks (in what would not have been the order i would have expected in any way, shape or form). Day 2 was more restricted, in that as my car had broken down I had requisitioned my father's and was therefore designated chauffeur to Tesco's! Nevertheless, in the time I had I completed more items, added new items, and found myself jotting down news tasks and ideas over coffee in Tesco's. Today I was out all day but spent a good part of the train journey brainstorming ideas and jotting down tasks. AF just adapted itself quite naturally and I am really looking forward to rescanning through my lists tomorrow. Can't remember the last time I felt like that about a To Do List!

As for me Autofocus provides a good frame for my intuition and my thinking to go hand in hand. This Autofocus system works like a charm for me.

Now back to autofocused work.