Get Everything Done

Hi, As you know i am fan of GTD and i discovered AF about 02/20th.I found it so amazing than i have adopted it immediatly and it works quiet well for me after a little time in my mind implementation.

I wonder how you built a bridge on the two methods. As i lauched the subject i gona try to explain how i do it for the moment. If i am not clear please tell it to me i shall try to be clearest (fr i am French !).

I have a medium bounded notebook took in the large size.
A page is about 22 centimeters large and 16 high
it is divided in two by the medium verticaly at 11 th cm.
I put each date on the right top
It can contains about 25/30 tasks

The left part is for the AF tasks
The right part is for the notes and project notes

I have a page left just for usuals contacts (about 5) where i put all things i have to speak about when i speak to them. it's like a summery.

About GTD
COLLECT : All info are collected on AF. If it is somethings else physical thing it goes in an INBOX on my desk call IN

PROCESS
I like working with AF method.
I Plan things on ical which i need to do but not now and dated item, the next action is atomaticaly reported on AF as a last item. When i wait somethinw from someone i just put a little "w" in red on the beginning and de due date is at the end of the item like this (18/02/2009)

ORGANIZE
I kept GTD only for working on project in GTD Way,my project are on my mac with page or Omnifocus (but i dont know if i shall gon on with it) I often planify my working project time on ical to be sure to do it. I have a summery or a little heuristic shema on a page of my notebook often the right one with just the most important things to do
In this focus time i only work on projects trying to find the outcome

REVIEW
I do a daily review. All my items are red on AF. If i have to do something tomorrow i just put a dash with a pink higliner just to jump fastly on the item and try to do it first.
I look at my yellow highlines items wich are dismissed trying to decide why did i dismissed them.

I do a weekly review and list all my projects on a project list divided in 2 active and non active. I follow david allen method with a check list. I report all feelings and task on AF at night.

I Take time for working at 5000/10/15/20/25000 high and i plan this time like an appointment on my agenda i usualy do it on sunday.

Each week end i scan my book with the items left (in case i loose it)
If i have an appointment i alway take my note book with me because can work on it and collect things to do.

And You how did you make a bridge beetween GTD and Autofocus ?

Just Forgot

DO : Obviously ;) Autofocus is a DO method i just do it with Mark's method.
The context come naturaly, i report a litle ")" wich means call for me in front of tasks, available too, i am or i am not, energy ie, priority no way my mind does it naturaly.

What is fantastic with AF is that you focus naturaly on thing you just do things and the method is oriented on DOING not thinking. i found Contexts in GTD complicated and uneasy AF is more operational for me on the rush but GTD is the basement of my all organization.

I follow the GTD methodoly and use the Autofocus methodology for handling the lists of tasks (next actions). The front of my notebook is for home contexts
and the second half is for work context.

Ha ha I predict you will get plenty of replies in this thread urging you to follow Autofocus without trying to make a bridge to GTD, that they are very different, entirely separate approaches etc.

This is largely true, actually. If you start with the Allen five-step workflow model and try to force AF to fit inside it, you won't get the benefits of AF. AF's great strength is that anything can be thrown at it, skipping most of the steps of the Allen workflow except and until it becomes relevant and necessary to process, organize or do something. (For example, doing a weekly review is almost certainly a good thing for anyone following any system, but GTD relies on it. AF does not - "review" tasks can just be thrown at the system.)

Of course, much of the contents of the book 'Getting Things Done' is not really the core philosophy of GTD - things like checklists etc - and those things can be appended to an AF system just as easily as to a GTD system.

To Charles,

I see that you do the same than me. But i wonder in Gtd we put on our context only the next action & when it's finished we pick a new one on the project list. In AF we but all next or not (this is what i do so my project only contains :
The results to obtain
Heuristic sheme
Steps if necessary
and sometime notes like historical things)
Do you put all your task on AF or only the next one ?

Hi Jupiter, the only apect of GTD (and many other organization methods) that I have kept is that of clearing my inboxes first thing each day and roughly following the '2 minute rule' when emptying my inboxes. If I can dispatch the task I will do it there and then, otherwhise it goes onto my AF List. I see the rest of GTD a hinderence and a hurdle to actually 'getting things done' - and I did use it for nearly 2 years. Hope this helps.

As for me I am still in the process of throwing every part and bit of GTD into my Autofocus list, e.g. collecting , processing, organizing, reviewing, writing checklists, etc. are tasks on my AF lists. Then I track what becomes of these tasks.

Hope to see if any part of my GTD implementation is necessary for me at all.

Hi Jupiter,

after I initially tried to skip all project planning, I now use OmniFocus again to think about the big picture (in GTD-speak, the higher altitudes), about commitments, projects, deadlines and milestones. A reminder to "review projects" in my paper-based AF lists periodically triggers my omnifocus use.

during these review sessions, I just read through my project list and manually sort the project list (important projects on top etc), to re-evaluate my priorities.

I found that my use of AF benefits from these GTD-inspired reviews. AF is based on intuition - which item stands out - but intuition can not always be taken for granted. It is like a car GPS car navigation: works well if you enter a destination. While I found the AF lists very helpful for fast execution, regularly thinking about commitments and outcomes supports my daily choices.

But I do not scan my notebooks - I added a note on the first page with my address, offering a reward to the lucky finder (like in these expensive moleskines). Honestly, if I lose my notebook, I would just start a new one. This is another benefit of a seperate project list (in OmniFocus, a mindmap or elsewhere): You can just start your AF lists again from scratch by reviewing the projects and writing down what you think is important.

Hi H_N this is very interesting. I use omnifocus too and i love it but sincerely AF and GTD works much better for me. I tried to copy and past each day items from one to another but the AF works bader. I tried t put every thing on OF than edit it each day or wekly it was a wash out too. I supose it's a question of memory about AFreading task and writing them has a real influence on my comitments. More the way i use AF since 2 days is more productive than it has never been for me.

Anyway i ve been working 2 years with GTD method i supose i know it quiet well. My conclusion is that i may have to keep some of the best parts of methods to do something wich could be workable for me (like Leon). This is what i'm trying to do with this thread i am sure that there is a solution but which one ?

You ask how we can make a bridge between AF and GTD. I really don't. When I first started GTD I did it in a hacked Moleskine. I ended up doing many of the things you mention above with different colors and codes to the outside of various entries to indicate project or what I was waiting for. I ended up throwing my hands up in despair and moving to Omnifocus. While this helped some, I eventually decided that GTD was too much overkill. While a small fraction of my tasks might require some special care at planning, etc, GTD seemed to require this for most tasks.

When I found AF I never looked back.

This does not mean I do not use some GTD principles. I still have a physical inbox that I dump into and process often. I do tend to use the two minute rule when clearing my email inbox (which is always at zero) and my physical inbox. I file papers using an a-z filing system which GTD suggests. If I have to plan a complicated project (a talk or workshop) I use whatever method is appropriate, but more often than not I simply trust Autofocus. Anything I put into Autofocus follows the Autofocus guidelines.

My only suggestion is that all the coding and colors you put into your AF list to make it more GTD like might distract you from the intuitive/rational decision process that makes AF so powerful. You can do what you like of course, but you might want to try a more pure AF methodology, at least for the notebook itself and for the actual time you spend with the notebook.

I don't quite understand the issue with combining the two systems. AF never pretends to deal well with complicated projects, so you need a separate system for that. You must still have an inbox (email, physical) that must be processed. And a lot of people still have physical contexts in their AF notebooks.

I have two contexts - home and everywhere else. I try to keep a separate list of my projects (not in a GTD definition, but what feels to me to be an ongoing project). I keep digital reference filing. I am also experimenting with keeping a list of general life principles and goals that I can review regularly.

However, when I was strictly GTD, I had a complicated system to collect my next actions. Now I basically have two next action lists, on paper. And I work through them using AF. And it does include lots of recurring tasks and "brainstorm x" etc, that I would have had more trouble with on my GTD system. Equally, the tasks are not stated as next actions unless they need to be.

I am not sure why this is a big deal to combine the two. How is it that I am failing to use the advantages of AF?

Cris

Like DrCris, AF works very well for me alongside GTD - at least my common sense, simple implementation of GTD. I find that the *structures* of GTD still apply but that AF handles most of the *processes*, as well as the *doing of the next actions*.

So alongside my main AF list I have agenda lists, waiting fors, a project list and project notes, A-Z filing, a diary and bring-forward/ reminder system, and a sometime-maybe list for dismissed items. These are mostly things which most AF purists acknowledge need to be 'outside of AF'. I keep all this in a loose leaf organiser.

But AF is brilliant at solving the problems I was having with GTD such as: not knowing yet what to do with some stuff, not having clearly defined next actions, never getting around to the weekly review, and still finding the 'doing' of the next actions as daunting as ever! Now with AF I feel not only organised, but empowered to get on with things in a way I've never felt before.

GTD is a brilliant system to order everything you have to do into a clear, logical, concise system - and then to lean back and do nothing of it...

I am injust, maybe. And there are some valuable concepts in there - the need of an inbox, the contexts etc. But as for as the actual doing was concerned, I never felt moved by a GTD system. If things got really dense, I always escaped to the good old day plan with improvised to-do-lists...

I am with Chris: Since I found AF, I don't look back. I don't WANT to go back. Why should I? Working with AF feels as if I am only doing what I want, having fun all the day, and nevertheless, miraculously, almost everything gets done, almost effortless... What else could I want from a time management system?

Chris,

I think that the problem we have been alerting some of those who try to combine AF with GtD of has to do with making the system overly complicated and not getting to learn how it works initially.

The essence of the AF system is that you process items sequentially and leave it to intuition to decide what to do when. When someone new to the system starts adding multiple contexts and various other trappings of other systems he does not have a chance to see how AF works in isolation.

Personally, I have no problem with mixing and matching ... I do it as a matter of principle. It is just that trying to discover how AF can help you while trying to fit it into other systems does not allow you to learn the AF system. You can see that in the questions asked ... not questions about how to use the AF system, but how contexts fit into the picture.

I am trying this combination. Yes, it is because there is too much on my plate right now and I don't fully "trust" AF, so I have reverted. What I have done is replaced my context lists with my AF list. So far, the "must do today" stuff is keeping me pretty busy, but I do get to the odd extra item, and I know where to go to put stuff and check for more work.

No opinion on success yet though. I wasn't a big doer of contexts anyway, being at a desk all day.

-Gordon

Question to all of you who are combining AF with GTD:

How about the UCT (ubiquitous capture tool)?

Do you use your AF list as UCT or do you have something different, e.g. index cards, pda, etc?

My uct is a small stack of A7 index cards that I carry with me.

I have a few "ubiquitous capture tools": my most-used one is a "pocket briefcase' from Levenger, a leather case for 3x5 index cards. I also have a smaller equivalent, also from Levenger, which holds smaller, business-card-sized cards (for when I feel like carrying even less). I also have an Olympus digital voice recorder that I use to capture things while I'm driving.

My UCT is simple it is my paper note book. Before discovering GTD and OF ! i used note book . I wrote every thing on it and red it afterward.

Now i have divided my page in two
LEFT is for autofocus
RIGHT is for notes about capture

Then when i work with af i just read the LEFT part, and when oi review my note the right part. It works very well with me. After if it goes on projet it goes on my project page wich is in a binder divided active project and not.

I took the convenient part of GTD system and all AF system nothing else but the method

All of that works today absolutly perfectly well.

And when i am outside my UCT is à simple little carnet de note and i just note evetyting task conversation and if i am with client just a sheet of paper wich will become a project or an UCT for reporting things on AF or on the project itself

That's all folks !

Rainer - my 'everything book' is where I capture thoughts, ideas, workings, useful info, meeting notes etc as I go along, ie a separate notebook. If it's an obvious task to do I might put it straight onto the AF list, but I don't like to clutter AF with non-tasks, so mostly I don't until I'm sure it's a task and I'm sure it's for me to do it!

Outside of work I have a few rough pages in my organiser for jottings, which is separate from my AF pages.

Thanks, Jane.

Very helpful, once again!

I am with Jane. I have a notebook as my capture tool. I review it (almost) daily and pull ou actions, which are entered into my system. They go into "today" if they are critical. If they are not date sensitive they go into my AF list. Sometimes they go to a specific date as a reminder or a note to follow up on someone else.

-Gordon

Well my system matches almost entirely with Gordon's, and to support it all I have a tickler file system of 43 folders (see previous threads) to manage the paperwork that needs something done but not just yet and put a note of the date against the entry in AF if I have made one. I have a standing item of check tickler file daily. I have to say that it all works really well and having a combination of these alongside AF has increased my productivity and sanity now end!

- Titch