Get Everything Done

I’m going into day 3 of AF. The AF time management system has worked swimmingly for me! I have accomplished a lot both in my work and personal life. On Day 2, I even managed a crisis at work and was able to find opportunities to tick items off the pages.

Here’s a small sample of what I've accomplished since going live with AF:

-Manage major IT Systems Outage at work (worked overnight)
-Performed post-mortem to prevent future systems outage
-Setup Google Reader for efficient blog and news reading
-Install New Keyboard Tray for my office workstation
-Read New York Times everyday on my Amazon kindle
-Read local paper everyday
-Caught up on reading business periodicals
-Delegate and follow up on work assignments with my direct reports, redistributed work load since two of my workers are out.
-Advance my leadership development program (corporate work assignment)
-Brainstorm next fiscal year’s department budget at work with my boss. Followup is tomorrow.
-Researched and prepared discussion with legal counsel on regulatory laws related to my industry
-For relaxation, downloaded and played hours of XBOX 360 game “Braid” I’ve always wanted to play

I am really impressed at the volume of work AF can handle and how real life emergencies (aforementioned IT Systems Outage) don’t throw a monkey wrench into the system. Other time management systems would buckle when an unplanned crisis arises.

For anybody that doubts this will work in a corporate environment, I would suggest giving it a chance. I’m a busy IT manager who tries to be as proactive as possible but has accepted the reality of day to day crises and emergencies. I don't think I could live without some form of the AF process helping me.

Background: I have tried all sorts of time management systems: GED, GTD, Steve Pavlina, etc. AF has been the best system so far. It is elegant and boils down time management to its essence: a to-do list and a selection criteria for what to do next.

MAKING WORK PLEASURABLE & ENJOYABLE

I get to do what I want to do. I don’t feel guilty indulging in tasks that I want to do and I don’t feel guilty dismissing tasks I don’t want to do (at the moment). This has really made work enjoyable and yet the work is challenging and meaningful.

It is a leap of faith to engage this system. I thought I would subconsciously avoid tasks related to “real work” such as corporate deadlines and my boss’ assignments, but surprisingly my subconscious has made these “stand out” as you say. So I really have no worries that a major goal or work project will be neglected.

I am pleased that this is quite the opposite of GED where you identify tasks being resisted and take them head on. Although I was somewhat productive with this approach, I ended up feeling exhausted with constantly fighting my internal resistance toward certain tasks.

PROCESS FOR STRUCTURED PROCRASTINATION

I was fascinated with the post on structured procrastination. For the past few weeks I was somewhat successful in accomplishing tasks when I procrastinated a rather large and onerous task.

I had been trying to figure out a way to practically implement structured procrastination. John Perry recommends identifying a challenging, onerous goal that “seems important”. The problem with this is my subconscious knows that this is a made up task and I end up procrastinating other tasks of seemingly relative importance. Suffice it to say, it felt contrived.

AF works by putting real tasks up for procrastination, so there is no need to fool my subconscious.

A LITTLE AND OFTEN

What I liked in GED is the system of rotating your attention against a task list. AF takes it a step further. Instead of mechanically rotating through a list, you let intuition be your guide.

I am quite surprised that this system can process rather large projects by re-entry of tasks. The act of re-entering is an excellent mechanism for obliterating a large project into manageable, enjoyable chunks.

AF BETTER FOR INTUITIVES?

My personality and work style is intuitive. So this system suits my personality quite well and multiplies my productivity. I’ve noticed linear systems have a negative impact on my productivity since the linear process goes against my subconscious feelings.

TASK DISMISSAL

I think it stands out from GTD in that GTD does not have a mechanic for “dismissing” items, so you end up with rather large, amorphous context lists.

FINAL COMMENTS

Mark, I think what you’ve done is brilliant. You’ve developed a system to help us execute what we want to do in our heart of hearts, performing tasks that are more aligned with personal values and enjoyment versus being guilt stricken for what we are not accomplishing or resentfully performing loads of drudgery.

I love the fact that AF can handle projects of whatever magnitude and through the process of re-entry and a little and often, allow you to build enthusiasm and emotional momentum into taking on and completing challenges.

Finally a time management system that is NOT a computer operating system process scheduling algorithm retrofitted to bootstrap into humans but an elegant system to simply tap the inner fire of human nature: passion and enjoyment.

I know I’ll be using AF for a long time because I’ve been practicing parts of this system in the past and now with a formalized system in AF I’ve never had so much fun!

Mahalo & Aloha,
Cliff from Hawaii