Get Everything Done

I have been using AF for a week now and it changed the way I do my things. I find my tasks more important and enjoyable than before.

I wonder how it could be applied for a team. Let me give you an example, the first item standing out on my list is Write report on cat costumes. Some data is missing, so I ask Chris to provide me with them. He puts this task on his AF list. The task on my list is Presentation on dog habits. This is again something where I need help from Chris, I delegate the task, it gets into his system.

Then next morning I realize, I'd want to work on the cat stuff. But for Chris it was the dogs that stood out, he is finished with it, I have all the data I needed from him -- and I don't care, I want the cats.

This may be a bit contrived example, but you get the point. I also know I could have told Chris that cats were more important. But it was my unconscious part doing the selection, and I realized this only later.

Do you have any experience or idea how it could be applied for a group of people, either at work, or in your family?

Interesting you bring this up as I was wondering the same thing. Particularly I am wondering if I could use AF with my children more than I already am.

I homeschool and realized that in essence my kids have been using AF-like lists for quite some time. Each child has a notebook of assignments that are listed by week. Each week's list is like an AF page. He can complete the week's assignments in any order and can even move on to the next week's list before this week's list is done. The only requirement is that by next week's tutoring time, all of last week's assignments should be done. At first I was thinking that "dismissal" cannot and should not apply to them. Heaven help me if it did! LOL But then I realized that it actually DOES apply.

My children were consistently skipping their computer assignment. Each week I would insist that they get caught up, but they wouldn't. They had dismissed the task! I finally reevaluated and realized that the problem was that I was requiring that they work on it together. As soon as I gave them the freedom to complete it on their own, it got done.

Now I am wondering if's time to teach my children to use the AF approach for other tasks--particularly my oldest. I've read before about people teaching GTD to their kids. I think AF is a much simpler and more effective approach that would benefit them in the future.

The only comment I could make to your particular dilemma is that the delegator should make a deadline clear and there should be planned follow-up as Mark has discussed in previous time management approaches.

For me it's quite a common 'issue' in Project Management (or Team activities Management): if everyone decide what to do when they want, it could lead to delay for some team tasks. That's why I'm so 'commitment on due date' oriented!

For me, that's a limit of AF, or to be more specific, AF should be used for only a well defined perimeter of tasks' types (no deadline or relatively 'flexible' deadline or tasks you are alone on), in order to secure that tasks' links (I mean interdependences between team members) are correctly followed, with no time waste.

That were my 2 cents.

Regarding Adam's costume example... I don't see what the problem is. :-)

If Adam *can't* do his part of the task till Chris provides the data, then Adam's Autofocus list would have "Follow up with Chris on the data", rather than "Presentation on dog habits" and "Presentation on cat habits". Only when you get the data back, do you enter the tasks to work on the presentations.

If Adam *can* get something done even without the data, then again, there's no problem here.

In the meantime, if Adam gets a brainstorm for the cat habits, and can work on it without the data, what's stopping him from working on it? But if he *really needs* the data to move forward with his new idea, what's stopping him from letting Chris know that he really needs that data ASAP, so he can get going with this idea?

Hi Mark

I do agree your comment up go a certain level, I don't know if there is a system ( management system) in which people respect due dates... What I mean is when you have too much on your plate and on your team plate, everyone could be back to one's understanding of the team priorities, to put it w
ith the positive way!
Well, probably nothing t do with time management by itself...

Again, I do appreciate AF (as discussed in other threads, I have no issue in meeting my milestones and another time management syst like DIT do the trick as well) and the
question (for me) is how to secure other people with a less due dates oriented mind will meet their due dates and, from this stand point, I'm quite sure AF can't help...

Sorry with ali these English mistakes, I'm keying with an iPhone with a French keyboard and a French language corrector...

To be more explicit on team 'issue', I' manage my own IT team (12 people) and on my ERP project, up to 75 people from other teams (business, manufacturing, logistics...) indirectly which priorities often in conflict with the project, even if tagged as 'group strategic'... That's why I'm looking for a Graal system, esay to use and understand, which could help in securing people to understand why it is crucial to meet due dates...

Seraphim:
thank you for your idea. It seems I have to translate my GTD way of thinking into AF terms. So "@waitingFor Chris" becomes "follow up with Chris" which I like because it's more active.

Mark:
I am quite curious. I started to trust my subconscious on decision-making more, and it seems challenging to trust my peers' subconscious, too. I started to spread the word in my company anyway, so hopefully more questions will follow.

I have noticed that with AF I am less likely to delegate. It's almost a subconscious thing where I don't think it counts if someone else does the task. I know that's silly, but even the process of AF is asking: "Does this feel ready to be done?" That question seems focused on me doing the work. Maybe I should ask, "Does this feel ready to be done or is anyone else ready to do this?" LOL Seriously, any thoughts about how to delegate more frequently? I don't have a problem following up when I do delegate. I am just not passing off tasks as often as I could be.

my impression is that AF usage in teams draws much more attention to the factor of motivation than other systems. If you allow your team to trust their intuition, a demotivated or inexperienced intuition might reliably prefer the wrong kind of tasks, or work in such short bursts on a givenproject, that it will fail to meet the deadline. With a feeling of urgency / and / or fun, things turn out better...