Get Everything Done

I am a lefty with atrocious handwriting. That's why I do everything digitally. But I do recognize that paper offers many benefits.

Here's what I've found using paper and pen. My page becomes very hard to read when almost all of it has been crossed off. It's difficult to even find the lines that are still uncompleted. I know that someone else mentioned that he uses a ruler to cross of his items. I think that that would solve my problem, but I didn't want to keep another object on my desk and I didn't want to take the extra time to cross off slowly and neatly.

Today I have found something that helps me with this particular problem. My paper has a left-hand margin, but you could use this method even if yours doesn't. Instead of crossing off, I put a check mark in the left hand margin. For some reason, I find it much easier to scan just the left-hand margin to look for open lines. And the entire page looks much neater.

If I dismiss a page, I use an "x". You could use your own symbols, of course. Mine are derived from Franklin-Covey.

And I forgot to mention, that Mark's suggestion of using a dot to mark the line that is currently be actioned works very well with these symbols. It works much better than drawing lines did. Your mileage may vary.

I use something fairly similar that works really well. Every item has an open box to the left of it (think of it as a bullet). When I complete the item, I colour the box in and cross out the item. It's then very easy to see what is still left on the page - white boxes are still open, black boxes are closed.

This is a tip I picked up from Dan Roam's "Back of the Napkin" - our eyes are very good at quickly distinguishing colour differences. Ticks and crosses in the box don't work as well, because we are not quite as good at distinguishing shapes at a glance.

Not entirely appropriate here but for those who like colours, I have seen a system in use whereby items intended for action are marked alongside with a yellow highlighter. When done the mark is coloured over with a blue highlighter. The result is a green mark indicating "done".

I too have rapidly deteriorating handwriting - and left as well. What I've done is to utilize 3 colors of highlighters to clear things off - for easier visibility. I use purple for complete, orange for dismissed, and yellow for deferred. That way the unfinished items just seem to pop out against the purple. I also use an arrow vs a dot for the current thing. I am astonished at how autofocus is working for me. I am at the busiest time of the year. Accounting year end x2. Many urgent reports, and multiple projects underway. For urgent tasks, I've been using purple at the beginning of the line - as it must be done "today!"- Just a highlight over my arrow, then when done, I zap the whole line. I've had too much "to do" list and "closed list" training over the years, and often have time sensitive tasks that must be finished by a certain day. Hope this idea works for some of those who are still looking for simple ways to fine tune the autofocus.

Like many here, I've tried every planning system under the sun - back to Alan Lakein, thru Covey, Franklin-Covey, Daytimers, GTD, DIT, even the RPM(OPA) style system from Anthony Robbins. My book collection on time management is astounding, and embarassing. I've tried trials of every software, PDA's, basically every single thing I could find on the net, in the bookstore or stationers.

However, I noticed, that when the stress hits the wall, I always end up on paper. So, I like Mark's paper system for managing this, even if my writing's a bit of a scrawl. I've found this January (to date) since using Autofocus, to be the most productive in recent memory, even spending much time reading these discussions. And the feeling of control that Autofocus is giving me, it is the best system I've used to date. The bonus was that set up was so simple, it just caused me to put pages into my DIT paper planner (Covey pocket size binder) - under a new tab. I started in a notebook, but it was too bulky to haul around. My productivity at work has been amazing. The only drawback is that I haven't managed to carry it to home, yet, but... I'm still trying to make it work there as well.

I am also a lefty. I use a Moleskine Pocket Graphed Cahier with 27 lines. It fits in my pocket and goes everywhere where I go.

It also squared or graphed which makes it easy to use the far let square as the "status" box. I like your idea of coloring the box in, Simon, to indicate its completion. I am reluctant to use highlighters (except to dismiss items) as they are as portable as a small pen (I use a space pen). For coding, I use the following thus far.

A small dot: presently actioned
A full circle: absolutely needs to be done today
A "W": for waiting
A "E": for evening (as there are a few things I can only do in the evening such as call to the states (I live in Europe)

Some use "E" to mark errands but I keep my errands on a separate list (either a 3x5 card in my Moleskine or my PDA). If an errand is time oriented or urgent it goes in the AF list.

Hope this helps!

This is intersting to me because when I started using the system I misunderstood (read it too quickly!) and thought that you were to highlight "done" actions. So I've been highlighting those that I've completed. If there are actions I don't want or need to do any more I highlight those as well.

It might be that Mark has explained the importance in keeping the difference between stuff done and stuff you've chosen not to do but the handy highlighter seems to work for me.

I have a few other "issues" and I will post them on elsewhere.

Andrew

Thanks Mark. Now I understand.

I will move to the crossing off and highlighting technique and see how I get on.

Andrew

I have to confess to not having crossed off a single item since i started AF because I just use a simple tick - easy to see which items are done or not. But for those who find their crossing out messy a simple trick is to use a deliberately wavy line. Great for separating the page too for those using the work up/leisure down approach on the same page!

Maybe one could also use the "dash-plus" system by David Rhone that's been floating around the GTD internet for a while.
It consists of an initial dash and several variations build upon that dash (like a plus sign for 'done' other variations, one of which could be used for dismissed AF items).
Of course, it would have to be adapted for AF.

The original post is here:
http://patrickrhone.com/journal/archives/2006/05/175.html
(the "dash-plus" system is at the end of the page).

For years I've used a cross out and dash plus type, for all my lists and it works well with AF as well.

I completely cross out the item and then I put a dash down the height of the printed line gap of the page.

On my shopping lists I put the dash down in the middle of the line but thought with AF I'd put it at the end out of the way on the right.

But then changed, to the dash on the left as that is where I start reading.
Because the dashes join up as items above and below get crossed off, it is very easy to see gaps

In DIT I used a marking system I picked up somwhere on the internet. I draw a check box in front of every item. I put a little dot in the checkbox when I start work on it. Done items are checked off. If I did some work but the task is not yet complete, I'd put a small circle in the checkbox (like an "o" for ongoing). And for postponed tasks, i.e. moved to the next day, I draw a horizontal dash through the box.

Now in AF, I again do not cross out items. I still use the checkboxes, but now only the dot (to find it back) and the check are relevant. You don't postpone tasks, they simply stay in place until you start working on them. And "ongoing" is implemented via checking off and rewriting. So here also, the AF system shines in its simplicity!

Oh yes, by the way, I'm left-handed too...

This doesn't prevent me from always writing with a fountain pen, however ;)