Get Everything Done

Hello I have a lot of pages and quit a lot minor tasks. Even if i stricktly applied the metodology i wonder how to treat the tasks i have to do today. I dont want to spend time on minor tasks and not doing the most important one. How do you do it ?

This is slightly different but related to your problem - I was putting in tasks that repeat a lot, like practicing piano and studying Chinese which I do almost every day, as well very often checking email/forums etc which I usually did too often by habit, as a kind of semi-conscious procrastination thing. However, I found that these relatively mundane, low-level tasks kind of spammed up the pages.

So I decided to omit them from the book and do them as soon as possible each day (i.e. when arriving home from college), then being free to do the more varied AF tasks. This way I need to be a bit more disciplined than I currently am, but that's the best solution I've found so far.

How about you create a daily checklist for the things you need to do each day? This would complement your AF task list.

hi Jupiter, Do you mean important as in urgent / a deadline type of task or important as in "moves you towards a major goal?"

Charles:
"How about you create a daily checklist for the things you need to do each day? This would complement your AF task list."

That's a really good idea, and simple to boot. I think I'll try this :)
thanks,
Oisín

I mean with AF i have a big mixt up of all kind of task.

Well it's difficult to explain. When i read my task what jump at my eyes is not sometime the most important things i had to do. And when i arrive to this very important task well i dont have any time left to do it....

The question i wonder is do i have at night choose and mark the important tasks i must do tomorow just to be sure to do it and jump on it missing if neccesary the others tasks.

The main problem i find with AF is yes i am over productive better than i ever but do i do the right things at the right time ?

Jumping tasks by tasks make me productive BUT choosing the best things to do at the right time make me efficient and my brain doesnt mind one or the other he just does....

Jupiter

The way AF works is by balancing the rational (conscious mind) with the intuitive (sub-conscious). If something is genuinely urgent and needs to be done today then the common sense rule applies - "just do it". Some people find it helpful to have those tasks listed on a index card or separate piece of paper. However for everything else try to learn to "trust the system". It is by working intuitively - on the items that "stand out" that the system starts to sift the items as to what are genuinely important to you. Where that does not match with what you "think" is important or feel "ought" to be important, that is when the reasons for those discrepancies start to be revealed. By overriding the system and doing what believe you "ought" to do, you stop AF from identifying the areas you are struggling with and the reasons for resistance in those areas.

If you are doing the first one that jumps out, it sounds like you may not be following the instructions:

First, read quickly through all the items on the page without taking action on any of them. (This sets up you subconscious with possibilities.) Second, go through the page more slowly looking at the items in order until one stands out for you. Your goal at the precise time you are going through the list will let certain items stand out.

For example, if you are really trying t get a project moving when you start working on your list, project related tasks are likely to stand out. If you are very tired and just going through the motions, easy or entertaining things might stand out more readily.

The steps in the instructions should help you avoid doing the first one that jumps out and choose one that stands out as one that you should do. It is ready.

With lots of minor items on your lists, you should be moving through them quickly. Not because the tasks are easy, but because you won't have a lot of important items standing out on each page. It is fine to do some easy tasks (many need to get done and we all need a break sometimes), but if you are really trying to uses AF to get important things done, then often it should be the important things that stand out.

Hope this helps.

Jupiter, I wonder if you started the day with reviewing your written goals and really thought about where you wanted to go with them, if that would help? Maybe even review them regularly throughout the day. Get yourself in an enthusiastic state about accomplishing them, imagine what your life would be like if you achieved them, and I would bet that you naturally gravitate towards those more important tasks.

For example, I have a lot of cleaning tasks on my home lists, but my home renovation is by far more important because if I do that, I can retire. The cleaning still has to be done, but every time I work on that home renovation, I'm one step closer to financial freedom.

Same thing with making improvements on your job - every time you put in the time to make improvements, you could be reducing the time you have to spend in future doing those mundane tasks - but hardly anybody ever does this. Every time you over-deliver to your boss or client or someone who's in control of your paycheque and progression, you give yourself another push up the ladder. I always make the effort to over-deliver where it will reward me in the future. Even if that's helping out someone else and making their job easier as well because it not only feels good, you get a reputation as a go-to person.

(1) Trust the system. I think Jupiter has finished going through the "this is great! look how much I can get done! And it's so simple!" phase, and is now entering the "my list is getting bigger and I can't remember if I did all the time-sensitive tasks yet!" phase. And Jupiter hasn't learned to trust the system yet, even when life is a little overwhelming. So: trust the system.

(2) Some things that might help a little:

(2a) If your task has a deadline, include that when you write it into Autofocus, just so that bit of information is readily available. Examples:
"Pay the electric bill (due 3/25)"
"Walk the dog (today)"
"Finish the presentation (to be delivered 3/20)"

(2b) Avoid using special tags, colors, and codes, since they tend to interfere with the "standing out" process.

(2c) If you are losing touch with what's in your list, and are getting anxious that you are missing some urgent task, then take some time to read through your whole list (it really doesn't take very long -- even a big list doesn't take me more than 20-30 minutes to read through). If anything stands out (e.g., "Oh, I forgot about that! Need to get that done by Monday!"), copy that item to your last page. Do that with everything that seems urgent, or especially catches your attention -- stuff you don't want to get lost in the mix.

After doing this complete review, you'll have a list of all your "urgent" items nicely summarized on your last page. Usually just writing them down like this is enough to get you calmed down and focused again, and you can start working the list as normal, from wherever you had previously left off. Since the urgent items are fresh in your mind, it makes it harder for other items to stand out, and you'll move through the pages pretty quickly till you finally get to those urgent items that are bothering you. And now they are all in front of you, and ready to be acted upon.

(2d) If, while copying all your urgent items like this, you realize that you've got some critical tasks that must be actioned now, then the "common sense override" goes into effect. You can jump straight to the last page, where you have summarized all these things, and start working them immediately, following normal Autofocus procedure. What's nice about this approach is that as soon as the crisis passes, you can just keep on going forward with Autofocus, cycling through the pages as normal.

Hope that helps.

A. About Actions for today.

Thank you so much for your advices especially to jacqueline & Seraphim it helps me a lot.

1. I aggre with you for stop tags color & coded; yes indeed they affect the system.

2. I am right too about rewiewing if i am afraid of loosing important tasks and report these undone important tasks on the last page. I did it yesterday intuitivly. I think this gona be efficient. Then action for today may be coming little by little on my last active page natural to be treated. .

3. Starting my day reviewing my goals like christine said is indeed a very good habit. In make you operationnal and focus immediatly on the way to do it and review it regularly is to a good GPS for the day.

4. The idea of putting a date for due date on AF list is good too and i lready repport them in ical and review ical at he beginning of my day.

There is something wich is not very clear for me it's about things to be followed.

Well i work and do things but lot of things needs to be followed e.g calls i made (waiting for they call me back), ask for a teaser about a printer (waiting for them to send it to me by email today ? Tomorrow nobody knows), Waiting for datas for a deal 'hope having the on thursday/ I put a date on AF and the item on ical at thursday)

If y don(t tag them, What to do with them ? do you highline them like a dismissed task ?

Jupiter, are you asking that if the follow up shows that it wasn't done what you should do? If that's what you're asking, I would cross it off that I followed up, but maybe take that follow up off list if it was very important or enter a date behind it when I re-entered it if I knew it was just something I had to nag about. I stopped using my calendar for home a couple of weeks after AF came out, so someone else that does still use one probably has a better answer. I could possible program it into my phone.

Hi Jupiter,

AF handles follow-ups really easily. Just enter them into AF like any other task. For example:

- I made a call, and am waiting to hear back. I enter "Follow up with NNN about AAA (due today!)" or whatever.

- I ordered a product online, and want to make sure it arrives in a timely manner. Enter into AF: "Should receive solar cooker by 3/25"

- Waiting on coworker to provide data: "Data due from MMM by Thursday"


Then, as I work the list, those items remind me to follow up as needed. I can make the phone call / send the email / whatever, and then re-enter the task again as needed.