Get Everything Done

Regular time-management systems are time-based. In such a system we break a project to stages, and assigning some measurable milestone and deadline to every stage. So every day has specific tasks to do. But AF isn't time-bases. How can it handle projects?

From my point of view, it works like this:

The materials pertaining to a project have to live in a file of some sort and when you work on the project you go into the file. The deadlines go into your calendar which is checked regularly. Then, "work on XYZ project" can be an entry in the AF list, when it stands out, you pull the file and work on the project to move it forward toward the next deadline.

Separating the project planning from the reminder to actually work on it is a good thing.

I've got most of my work tasks in my company's planning tool, so I've only got "work on xyz" in my AF list. Unless there's one specific small thing that I shouldn't forget, of course.

Ideally, when working on a project, I'm working in my flow and I'm getting tasks done in a rapid manner The work steers itself. Somehow the tasks I used to think up beforehand would be irrelevant after a few hours of work (solving a bug also fixed something else; a colleague would do one of "my" tasks, etc).

kiwiserg

The following posts include some ideas on this topic

http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/623306
http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/625387

Hope that helps .....

I use an A5 spiral bound notebook for Autofocus which works well for me and has 22 lines per page, so 44 visible at once.
For Project checklists I use the back of the notebook, but turned upsidedown so it still opens the 'right' way and reads forward through the pages.
In my Autofocus list I sometimes write 'Work on XYZ' which is the project and sometimes put a specific next action or actions depending on what seems necessary.

I think it is important to consider granularity. In the days where I did project management (complete with PERT/CPM tools) the smallest item in the list (except perhaps a project review meeting) might take a week or more, but the actual tasks I would do on that week long project would fill pages on my TODO list.

IOW, project management tools and time management tools are not managing the same things.

Mike/Mark

I've seen you both use the word "granularity" on various posts on this forum. What exactly do you mean by this? I do of course have a fair idea from the context that you use it in but when I try to define it for myself I can't quite grasp it.

On the lines of 'if you don't ask, you don't find out' I thought I'd finally ask one or both of you what exactly granularity means!

I have used AF in projects so that i'll put name of project on the list and on the same line i add next steps/actions as reminder.

Oops sorry Mark, I can't recall where I thought I'd seen that then!

I'll await Mike's confirmation of what he means but what you say is pretty much what I thought - like granulated sugar I guess!!

Hannah

I think it was Jacques who also used the term - not one I'm familiar with either, so thanks for asking the question!

Like Mark said, granularity in PM is just breaking down to the appropriate level of detail. WRT AF, that likely would be dependent upon the individual.

My assumption of the meaning of granularity is a tangible task that can be completed in less than a few hours and you know when you have completed it. For example,
a project item of "Saturday cleaning" (Total time of 4 hours) could be broken
down to this level of granularity:
1 . Wash kitchen floor
2. Vacuum loungeroom
3. Change the bed linen

Often this tasks that appear on a project plan typically have an associated
process or sequence of steps that is repeated. Another example
that comes to mind is "Setup new employee" which has many steps
that are repeated for all new employees.

Charles

Projects are an interesting dilemma and one I have tried a few different approaches on. For AF one could literally put all of the steps to all of their projects into the system and let it sort thing out. Additionally for one could use an AF notebook as a project management tool and use a single notebook to manage a project.

I have in my Ebook which was written before I discovered AF but after I read DIT, outlined a method for a notebook based system , where you start the notebook with a page or pages per project and then launch into a page per day type setup or just use the project lists to trigger what you do. It was sort of like AF but not as evolved. It is based on the idea that pretty much all of the important things we do in life are so how connected to a project at some level

I used this method because of my own desire to cut down on the number of places I have reminders as I know the simpler I keep things the more productive I am.

Gerry

I divided my notebook into few parts : Proj1, Proj2, Prog3, Misc and a few places.
Task are writen in the relevant part but this aproach seemed to be not very successfull - sometimes I forget about smth important in one of the projects.
Pulling everything in a heap make planning a real challange and you risks to forget to write down smth important.

The only way out I see is using PDA or netbook. But I failed to find suitable software.
Can anybody give a piece of his experience in using Software for AF?

Hannah,

the term granularity is used in GTD sometimes, specially in articles.

Ptah,
Andreas has created a web tool for AF. I can't post the link I am away for my computer and don`t have time to look for it right now.

I use Thinking Rock to make my projects. http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/

ptah

I personally think OneNote is fantastic with AF but if you check out the FAQ's at
http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/645945
you will find a number of suggestions on software
The site Silvia mentioned is detailed in the following thread
http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/681097
Hope that helps!

Ptah,

I use MLO and for me it's perfect. I created some views and have all the needed information available within a second. See http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/663920#post673989 for details.

klausr