Get Everything Done

I doubt that they do. And that's probably a good thing, besides being a little OCD. It's probably when they don't do AF according to the rules that they learn the most about themselves and how they like to work / live, and that can vary from day to day or hour to hour.

I feel a little uneasy when it seems that people are discouraging others from experimenting. Sometimes what they're doing could be useful to all of us, couldn't it?

I imagine we all experiment to some extent. I have no problem with breaking a rule here and there, but it really needs to be the exception not the norm. I truly am learning more when I follow the AF rules exactly than when I bend them. The problem I always had with getting things done is that it was easy to find excuses not to follow whatever system I was doing that week. And I got nothing done. At least in AF you have permission not to do certain tasks and to do others to the extent that you want and trust the system to weed out the items that need to be weeded out while focusing you on what is necessary.

People can certainly experiment. But don't expect people to embrace this at every instance. It is understandable that Mark (and others) would want new users to be clear about what AF is and what it is not.

Why is that important?

One of the biggest strengths of autofocus is that it relies on a minimal set of rules and even those are held as flexible as possible. This is a good thing since everyone works and lives in an environment that is slightly different from others.

Why worry, as long as whatever flavour of autofocus is keeping you in a productive spirit, go ahead!

Some of the biggest problems in the GTD crowd result from the fact that the system is very complex and people have a hard time doing things by the book. But even there it is not mandatory!

Klaus says "One of the biggest strengths of autofocus is that it relies on a minimal set of rules" That is very true - the fact is that AF does work according to a set of rules. There is a lot of scope for flexibility in those rules and experimenting is a good thing in that it enables us to find what works and what doesn't but at the end of the day there are reasons for the rules that are there.

I think it's a bit like making a fruit cake - you need certain basic ingredients otherwise you might end up with a pot roast - very nice but not a fruit cake! So long as you have certain essential ingredients you have a fruit cake - you can maybe add more fruit, nuts, etc but if you replace the sugar with salt because it looks similar you just end up that is pretty useless. Experimenting has to be within the parameters of AF otherwise AF could become, Horror of Horrors, "just a to do list" :-)

Again, people can do what they want with their todo list and if they are productive they need answer to nobody. Yes, as Christine points out, AF has a minimal set of rules. But they are important. Some of the rules are popular and few complain. How about the rule to cross out an item even if we don't complete it? Any complaints? Most of us understand why this simple rule is so powerful. AF also asks us to work through our list one page at a time and one item at a time. Is it really a big deal in the grand scheme of things to skip around? Probably not. I have done it myself. I just did several house keeping chores that I am sure are out of order in my notebook. Big deal. This may be one of the easiest rule to break and I suspect many people do break it. But I will open the notebook when my daughter is asleep and go through it page by page and item by item because that is the only way I know I will actually get to everything I think is important. And this is because the rules to work through the book page by page and item by item are not just random affectations. Simple as they are, they have significant psychological impact on how productive we are. Most of the simple rules in AF are like this. There are plenty of ways to experiment in AF. But the eight rules are there for a reason.

From reading most of what has been written in the forum, I think that most of the comments discouraging people from experimenting have been directed to new users who haven't used it long enough to get used to the basics.

Most of us use some tweaks at least occasionally, but if we have used it for a while, we know how to recognize when the tweaks are helping or hurting. A new user doesn't have a baseline to compare with.

Oh boy, not good to come here after 14 hours at the office - and very productive hours at that...shows what working almost through one active page can do to your brain! :-)

I guess I find the rules very easy to follow when I'm on a new page or a page with very few items complete. Where the system is difficult to follow - for me, maybe that's not the case for many, but judging by the comments, I am not alone although obviously in the minority judging from the above - is when I get down to the nitty gritty of just a few items left. I find myself far more productive when I DO deliberately break the rules in those periods, whether that's hopping around, not dismissing according to the rules, and oops - not crossing an item off if I don't complete it, I sometimes don't do that too! Because that's what drives me to push on at work, knowing that I need closure on things.

I would hate to see someone not continue with the system because they came to these kinds of sticking points as well.

What if by deliberately not following that fruitcake recipe, I ended up with not just any fruitcake, but an exceptional fruitcake, that could bake in half the time and be twice as tasty as the plain old fruitcake? :-)

Don't mind me, I'm always the one in meetings that will point out the elephant in the corner of the room. I'm not *looking* for an elephant here, I just like to see growth and development and improvement in everything and I wonder if it does dishonour to the system by *not* trying to grow it to become more adaptable. Some people aren't comfortable with that and want to have a clear set of absolutes that they must follow.

I guess I still am of the opinion that if your list contains exactly the right things that are important in your life, and you find it easier to work the list than to not do so, you will be successful.

Like I said before, I would hate for a system that was developed by self-experimentation not encourage its users to do a bit of that self-experimentation as well.

I'm not sure what you mean by "practicing AF strictly according to the rules all the time". AF isn't a religious discipline intended to form the foundation of your life. It's just a tool for managing your tasks and keeping focused on what's important to you.

Sometimes what's important to me is to stay 100% focused on a single project, day after day, because of a key deadline that requires a big "push" to complete. That's what I've been doing the last few days. I've made zero progress on the other tasks in AF, and have barely consulted my lists. I've visited this forum (and done a few other things) whenever I want a little break.

Other times, I just want to spend a couple days with my kids, like we did over Presidents Day when we went sledding in Flagstaff. That was great. We were doing what was most important for us as a family -- taking a break and doing something recreational. My AF list stayed at home, however.

Most of the time is somewhere in between, where the pressure of an important deadline isn't an overwhelming force that makes it obvious what I need to be doing. And that's where Autofocus really shines -- helping you not just to stay focused on what's important, but to figure out what *really is* important.

Does this mean I am not "practicing Autofocus"? Again, I'm not really sure what that means. Autofocus itself isn't what's important. Autofocus is just a tool to help us realize and stay focused on what *is*.

(Heh heh heh, maybe that fooled them Mark? Now their guard will be down, and when our squadron of Autofocus Conformance Agents knocks on their door, they won't know what hit them!)

When I first read the Quick Start Instructions. my immediate impression was "huh? - how can this work?" but having known Mark's systems for many years I was prepared to trust Mark's judgment and try what he said. I was very quickly totally amazed by how the system worked, and not just by the getting things done, but by the way in which it enabled me to realises the reasons behind my procrastination, behind my dislike of certain tasks, and behind the emotions I had attached to certain tasks. Had I not followed the system to the letter I would have got things done but would never have developed the level of knowledge that will enable me to avoid many of the issues that have caused my backlogs in the first place.

MartyH is correct in that it takes some time following the system according to the rules to identify what is going on and what adjustments suit you - but adjustments within the rules. If my dishwasher completes it's cycle and I am on page 20 with an "unstack diswasher" task available, am I going to complete that task but leave the dirty washing up on the side because "stack dishwasher" is on page 30? Of course not! (And no I don't regularly have stack/unstack dishwasher on my list now - that just gets done). :-)

Jacqueline says "What if by deliberately not following that fruitcake recipe, I ended up with not just any fruitcake, but an exceptional fruitcake, that could bake in half the time and be twice as tasty as the plain old fruitcake? :-) " and that is absolutely right and perfectly possible. However, to get to that stage you have be a pretty good cook and know what you're doing, or else incredibly lucky! The likelihood of a five year old, cooking for the first time with Mum, producing a gourmet creation unaided is somewhat remote .... a gourmet chef on the other hand ........... Even Mark has made it clear from his postings that he is still trying new ways to see if he can improve on AF and so far his reports have been that none of those ways have worked. That's not to say that something won't in the future.

Certainly I occasionally do things out of order - erratic discretionery time necessitates that, as it also necessitates more crisis management of urgent stuff than I would like. However, when I have discretionery time and follow the system according to the rules I am infinitely more productive, and tasks are more enjoyable, than when I am in "crisis" or "must do" mode.

The problems for people seem to arise primarily over concern about dismissing items. The rules about dismissal are there for a reason. If one leaves odd items scattered through pages because of a specific decision not to dismiss them then that is of course a choice - but it is a choice made consciously and therefore has overiden the intuitive aspect of AF. If an item needed to be done it would have been done, rephrased, or otherwise actioned. If an item is still important but cannot be done now it is dismissed and readded when it can be done. If there is that grim determination to do the item no matter what then just do it - leaving it on the list rather than doing or dismissing is just bypassing the point at which AF will be shouting out the reason for that "non-doing". That is the point of decision - to listen to what AF is telling you or to ignore it. If the choice made is to ignore it then the effect of that choice is to continue with previous work patterns and treat AF more as a "To Do" list. At the end of the day it all boils down to choice - AF as a To Do list, perhaps with some of the additional benefits up to a particular point of discomfort, or "pure" AF, with the accompanying discomfort factor as it starts to highlight a few things we would probably rather not deal with.

To go back to the original question - "does anybody really practice AF strictly according to the rules all of the time?" the answer must be no but change the question to whether doing so would be of benefit and the answer has to be yes. For me personally the answer is currently no - and for two very different reasons:

Firstly I have backlogs of enough significance that they do create a need for occasional crisis management and secondly there are areas that AF has identified as issues that I am not able or willing to address right now. With regard to the first reason, I can see that my backlogs are decreasing and that this will therefore be a transitory problem. The second, I am making a deliberate choice to defer dealing with certain tasks because at this point in time I do not have, or wish to allocate, the resources to resolving them. That is my choice and I cannot blame the system - the system has done it's job in highlighting the issue - the choice as to how I address that is mine. If for example AF causes someone to realise that they are in the wrong job they may choose to change jobs or to stay where they are, at least for the present. AF will continue to work just as well, regardless of the decision made - it has done it's job by highlighting the issue. However, if that reason is not faced, and a decision is not made, then the person involved will more than likely struggle with AF, considering it not to be working when in fact it is!

As to whether I want to follow AF according to the rules all the time the answer is a resounding yes!

I almost always respond the same way to this class of statement. I do so because I think back to the first one do to any particular thing and realize that he did not go to a university to learn how to do it, or sit at the feet of some guru ... by deffinition the first at anything had no place to learn the thing from ... he had to develop it by experimentation.

Likewise with this. Mark discovered/invented it by experimenting. He is still experimenting. He has asked us if any have tried this or that twist on the system and if so, how it has worked. I suspect that Mark has the personality that loves to discover new ways of doing things and so will continue to explore. As will some of us here.

The converse of this is the personality that loves rules. (In Enneagram parlance, the Type 1 personality ... the "school marm". ;-) There is nothing wrong with that either, that is just another way of being in this life. The thing is that those who feel uncomfortable with others going their own way will find it hard to relate to them ... and vice-versa.

I eschew all rules. It is just my personality and so give me a rule and I will instantly break it ... as much to understand how it came to be as for any other reason. But I do understand that others love to follow the rules. No prob. ;-)

OTOH, I completely agree that:

1) People can't understand the system until they use it for a while following the rules and using pencil and paper, and

2) The more I change the system, the more I find that I return to the simplicity of the basic system, and

3) I will always have at least a few customizations to make the system my own.

That said:

- Learn the system first,
- Break the rules with abandon,
- Revel in how we are all different. ;-)

Jaqueline,
You should do what you want to do to help yourself be productive. You should not feel guilty about this.

My only response to your suggestion that we take the system and tweak it to make it better is fine as far as it goes. I suppose that if you develop a perfect system that takes some of AF and blends it with some of your own ideas and it works for you then you should feel proud but it will not be AF. That does not make it bad or worse--just not AF. The problem is that if someone makes major changes to a system before they have done the system consistently, they can't even honestly say they are really fixing the system. Maybe what you are making is a new system that happens to incorporate a little from a few other productivity systems including AF. Keep in mind, this is Mark's web site and his AF system.

I go through the same thing at my school. We have a new system of curriculum that I tried for a week or two and do not like. I use parts of it, but I do what I think is best day to day, which is not usually within the guidelines of the new system. I too like to point out the elephant in the corner. But I also don't pretend that I am doing this instructional system properly or even that I know the system doesn't work (how could I know if I have only tried it a little for a couple of weeks!) I also don't expect the people who train us on the instructional system to want to hear all about that elephant when maybe the elephant in the corner is my own resistance to the new system.

I don't think it is. I think the instructional system stinks. I still need to speak out and look for solutions, but I also need to be humble.

Of course, you don't think AF stinks or you would not be here. You like AF up to a point. No one will censor your remarks so experiment all you want. But expect people to argue for a purer AF if only as part of testing whether AF (as opposed to a blend) works for most people.

But then again, maybe you are using AF for about 90% and breaking a few rules here and there. Then you aren't that much different than the rest of us. In other words we make exceptions when we have to (many of which Mark also suggests) but try to stay within the confines of the system. Because this is so new to me I try desperately not to break rules because that is the only way I can no if AF is ultimately for me.

Mike and Mark, I fully agree with you. It wasn't until I was into the system for awhile that I even felt tempted to break the rules.

And right now I am breaking them at home because I have 14 pages in that home book with only 1-4 items on them where some of them are time/light and weather dependent. For the last couple of days I've been determined to close off those pages by treating them as a separate closed "will do" list and it's been working extremely well. Any slight resistance I ever felt to doing any of those items is gone.

In contrast, I think AF works much better for me at work because I seldom do #3 "little and often" there - I finish things off before going to the next thing. I would like to stick with things longer at home like I do at work. I want that same sense of closure and accomplishment at home that I get at work. Any suggestions for this?

Great post Chris. I am definitely an elephant in the corner person too (love that expression - not one I've come across before) and my first reaction to anything is normally some form of mental risk assessment. The "trouble" with AF is that it can have a fairly high risk potential. Jacqueline posted "getting my enthusiasm and confidence in myself back by using Autofocus has been more motivating and more real and I believe more lasting than any seminar I've attended" and I think that shows the real strength of AF but I suspect we are all finding to a degree that the self analysis which can result is not always comfortable!

The rules are what make the system work, but as the way in which it works is not easy to describe it is not easy to see why the rules are important. As you say that is why the only way to test the system is to work it before experimenting if you wish to. It's also helpful to realise that the rules are not the same as guidelines. The "closed page" is a rule - number of items on a page is a guideline (although with specific reasons behind the recommendations). The dismissal process is a rule, methods of rephrasing are guidelines. The way I see it, the closer I stick to the rules the better it works but am I going to experiment within the guidelines - absolutely!

I've followed Mark's blog and forum since its inception - probably read every post on here (never posting before AF) and read all of his books - more than once. I'd go to a seminar if he'd just come over here already! :-) I find that he's more open about experimentation and trying new things and being open about what works and what doesn't than probably any of us here. Thank goodness he's not a Stephen Covey or a David Allen where they're more invested in selling their systems than looking at why it doesn't work for so many people. I imagine preaching to the choir feels good, but it doesn't serve the people who are struggling.

I am definitely not suggesting that Mark change the instructions, the steps or the system - I think they're perfect as they are and simple for starting out - or continuing with for that matter 95% of the time. It was definitely love at first sight for me. Only now it's revealing the flaws in myself and I'm trying to figure out how to get around that.

I would like to see more of "here's a tweak I did, and wow, it works really well !" I'm hoping that as we all get more experience with the system that will happen, it's early days yet. I want Mark to go on experimenting so I can be lazy and don't have to recreate any wheels. :-)

Just to be clear, are the rules intended to achieve (from Mark's original beta instructions):

• a greatly increased volume of work,
• a lack of stress,
• a focus on what is important,
• very fast processing of routine actions
• thorough processing of major tasks and projects

Christine, I think you might also add something about insights (and hopefully resolutions) into our various reasons for resistance or procrastination? Or, as the beta is now complete, would Mark or others add to this list as to what AF rules are intended to achieve?

(As an aside, I had "lost the magic" of AF a couple of weeks ago, when I felt unmotivated to do ANYTHING, but all of a sudden the magic/flow returned when I HAD to meet a deadline. I'm still trying to figure out what happened!)

FWIW, and probably a big DUH! to some who are swifter than I ;-)

I've noticed how AF manages to help reduce procrastination and break log jams. I put a bunch of things into my AF originally ... a really bad idea as many of us have found out. The reason (as I see it) that it was so bad is that tasks tended to "group" according to project. For example, if I have a big project that I'm dreading and I'm dumping into AF, a bunch of really nasty tasks get added at the same time and that whole page (or section of the page) is really intimidating. Enter the magic of AF. ;-)

If I go through the list a few times I will get the easy things done. IOW, I will work on things that are RELATIVELY easy ... easy relative to the other things on the page. Once those are done, I have that big slug of nastiness that I don't really want to deal with. But I know I really need to so I start on one of them, so I pick one (the relatively easiest one). It gets worked on, crossed off, and re added to the bottom of the list. I have done something on that page now so I move on to other pages. <time passes>

I return to the page with those hard items on it and work on the next most relatively easy item ... and cross it off and add it to the end of the list. BUT ... in the mean time, I've added some other items to the end so I have one hard item on that last page, followed by several newly added ones (some of them probably easy ones), followed by a second hard one. As this continues, it has the effect of breaking up that big block of hard tasks and distributing them across the pages at the end of the list. They are mixed in with other types of things ... both easy and hard. The easy ones keeping me moving and giving me energy and the hard ones allowing me to work on that old item because it is relatively easier.

So now when I see one of those items it is not so intimidating because 1) it has been started and, 2) it is mixed in with other different things.

AF provides a kind of mixing effect that shuffles and moves things around so they are continually seen in new and different contexts.

As I said, probably not big news to anyone here, but I found that it explained to me how the list was working ... in one way, at least.

Hi Bev

Before Mark released his original instructions and was stating on his blog that he had this new system the one thing that jumped out for me was the fact that it "virtually eliminated procrastination" I therefore took that to mean I would be able to get everything done without procrastinating. What I did not anticipate was the fact that the way it achieves that is by identifying the reasons for procrastination. Some of those reasons are not easy to deal with.

Jacqueline says above "It was definitely love at first sight for me. Only now it's revealing the flaws in myself and I'm trying to figure out how to get around that." That is exactly what I found happens and it is that point that we try to get around the issue. I'm not sure that what is revealed are necessarily flaws but just preconditioning or even just preferred methods of work. If it is work methods, tweaking the guidelines will normally produce the results appropriate for our way of working. However if it is preconditioning, or something that it would benefit us to change, then I think we will be more likely to try to experiment with the rules - which will unfortunately just leave us in the same situation. I know I am shelving a few decisions for now, but I have made that a conscious decision - that is far better than pretending a situation does not exist, which is what I would probably have done in the past.

I have actually spent a fair bit of time writing about some of my experiences with AF which in itself has helped to clarify my thinking.

When you talk about "losing the magic" I have found this to an extent when I have had a deadline to meet and was resisting the tasks. It was sort of a reverse procrastination in a way - I think I was indirectly sabotaging the system by a reluctance to allow the relevant items to stand out - and of course the easiest way to do that is by avoiding the lists and doing all sorts of busy work :-) Once the deadline becomes critical so that you have to act, then there is no longer the reluctance to listen to AF and we're off and running again ........ Does that make sense?

Mark you are my hero! That might be the solution to my "problem". You don't have to rewrite anything - just send me the secret privately... :-)

Mike, my #1 rule is "don't dump". And that's not a guideline, it's definitely one of *the commandments*.

Hi Christine,
Yes, I think that makes sense! I was "stuck" for a while there, not really working off my AF lists and yet not wanting to dismiss everything en masse either ... But then my deadline came up and and I had identified the "next step" I needed to do (more a la GTD) but I was even having a problem making the 'brute force'/ coffee shop method work. AF to the rescue! The "next step" I thought I had identified was actually just ONE thing I needed to do by the deadline (was part of a larger project) and in fact, once I started working more on this deadlined project "a la AF" the "next step" I had identified turned out to be one of the LAST steps I actually did! While I was working on the other steps, I did feel a return to that familiar "AF flow/magic" which I found quite fascinating (and reassuring, actually. I worried it had gone forever!)

I was beginning to think I needed to try DIT and just "brute force" my way through certain projects, but now I'm not so sure. Interesting to see that Mark may (or may not) come up with a way to combine the two.

I think maybe part of the problem was that I had just put the actual project on my AF list (ie "work on Project X") and in my head had identified what I THOUGHT should be the next step (which resulted in my getting stuck). Maybe a better solution would have been to have created a "Project X AF list" so that I could have more clearly seen all the tasks related to the project and done them "AF style." Maybe next time I will try that, instead.

Hi Bev

I tried a few ways around "the system" myself, none of which worked and although I got stuff done it felt like the "brute force" method. Isn't it a great feeling when the old AF magic comes back? :-) The best option I came up with was to write the "urgent" items out on a mindmap and just stick it up where I can see it, complete with little drawings to keep my creative side happy:-) I had intended to use it like an index card but haven't needed to - just creating it switched off the panic button and everything is being done from AF without the need to leave the system. I highlight items when completed so it is getting quite colourful now - and I can just see three more items than I can colour in ..... :-)

What I have found is that AF is enabling me to redefine my project system and my project work is so much more organised as a result. That has included project AF lists although I keep finding that by the time I complete them half of the items have already been done .....

Thanks, Christine. I did actually try the colourful mindmap index card for a bit ... but for me at that time, it just became part of a 'brute force' attempt.. It seems I have too many aversive things I want/need to do compared to the emotional energy I have to tackle them! ONWARDS though! Once I get certain things off my list once and for all, I think life will become more serene. :o)

Hi Bev - sounds like you're in the same boat as me when you say "Once I get certain things off my list once and for all, I think life will become more serene. :o)" - that's just what I feel too!

Thought I'd better clarify my comment above when I said "I highlight items when completed so it is getting quite colourful now " I was referring to my MindMap not my AF lists - just in case anyone thought I now had a multi coloured notebook!

Yes, Christine, I am also dealing with elderly parent / deceased parent issues ... some of which haven't even made it onto my AF list yet! For some things, "delegation" has caused more problems and expense than it has solved, so I found no good answers in that direction. I muddle along as best I can. I DO hope that *someday* more serenity will be in my future!

Hi Bev

When I used to travel in the States a lot, I stayed with a lovely lady in Dallas, who would often just say "honey, this too will pass". That's great thought to hang onto . You (and I) will get there so just hang on in there ..... :-)

Mark, you wrote earlier in this thread
"I am looking at a way of combining the best of DIT and AF. I'm hoping I won't succeed - or I'll have to re-write everything!"

This sounds really interesting - and there may be a few of us who hope you do succeed! Are you interested in feedback from forum users on what aspects they find combine well, and how? Folks who post here have such enthusiasm and creativity that it could be useful to you. (Or maybe you can garner what you need from posts which already covering some aspects.)

Anyway, good luck, I shall look forward to hearing your conclusions.

Jacqueline wrote: "And right now I am breaking them at home because I have 14 pages in that home book with only 1-4 items on them where some of them are time/light and weather dependent."

Jacqueline, you should just dismiss those items. If the only item left is "wash the car", but it hasn't jumped out because it's been -10 and snowing all week, then just dismiss it. One day you will wake up on Saturday morning, it will be sunny and 15 outside, and one of the first thoughts that pops into your head will be "a perfect day to wash the car". So ... write it down on the list, and provided you're cycling through all of your pages every day, at some point during that Saturday you will hit the "wash the car" page, and away you go.

I know what you mean Simon. I thought of doing that as well - but that's the thing - because I DO have so many pages, my worry is that I won't hit it on a cycle through and hit it at all at a time that's good. The common sense thing to do with these kinds of things is to just do it at the first available opportunity, in which case it doesn't matter if I do it off list, hop around to another page it's on or keep it where it is. It is somewhat urgent due to salt on our roads where it might not be normally. Fortunately, we've got the right weather to do it in now, so guess what I'm doing as soon as I come home from work today?

Jacqueline

Why don't you just treat it like a shopping list? Create a "things to do when weather changes list", then, when you add those tasks to your AF list add them as "add xyz to weather list", action them by putting them on the "weather" list and keep a recurring task in AF "has weather changed?".

Christine,
Today is supposed to be the first day of spring, right? I think we're getting into the season here in Chinook country so I won't have to put off things due to the cold anymore. I will definitely keep this idea in mind for next year though - oh wait - I'm supposed to be going south next winter - good idea anyway if I ever have to come back up here!
But you've got me thinking about all the outdoors projects that I want to do that I don't get around to doing, specifically yard work and making some type of other list off the AF list for that and just adding "Yard Work" to the AF list. Some people manage to do this stuff automatically, I wish I knew their secrets.

Mark Forster wrote:

"In fact at the moment I am looking at a way of combining the best of DIT and AF. I'm hoping I won't succeed - or I'll have to re-write everything!"

Is there much demand for an AF/DIT hybrid?

That said I'd like to hear if anyone is using their own combination, or is interested in one.

Hi Jacqueline

I certainly think that some type of projects lend themselves more naturally to separate lists, particularly those with repetitive and/or ongoing tasks. Yard Work sounds as though that would fit into that nicely. I guess that some people find some tasks easier because they enjoy them - I love the thought of gardening but hate the practice - a number of my friends are keen gardeners and find it relaxing - to me it would be a chore - to such an extent that I prefer to live in an apartment so I don't have to do it! I can manage a balcony :-)

Hi Christine,

Yes, I do have a little chant that I use from time to time, which includes "Know it will pass." !! ;o)

Wanted to let you know that I have now brought out the BIG GUNS! Seeing as the brute force/coffee shop method wasn't quite working (part of this task I can't take to the coffee shop) I resorted to the 1-minute/1-corn chip method! (Not sure if corn chips are only a north american thing, but they are somewhat like potato chips, - what I think you call crisps? only corn chips are made from corn and are thicker ... and crunchier.). This method has been working to some extent, and I am *determined* I will someday get to serenity !! :o) Thanks for your support .. it sure helps! WHEN we get there, we should have a party! :o)

Hi Bev

I'm definitely up for the party! Champagne & Corn Chips? :-)

I have to admit that I've been trying a similar approach to some accounts work that I can't put off any longer. I really don't want to do it but have to - I know why I am resisting - and AF has reduced the resistance - but at the end of the day I know I need to deal with the root causes of that resistance - sigh. In the meantime it's sandwiching nasty tasks between what would be procrastinating - but as it's Saturday that doesn't count :-) I shall just feel very virtuous for clearing some "work" items off my list at a weekend :-)

I like the champagne part, I'll join for that! One glass of champagne, one minute of work - downside is I'd only be good for about 5 minutes of work...

Hmm ....... and I suspect we might lose our Auto"Focus" ........ :-)

Smileypete, I tried choosing one item from each page the night before to be on my will-do list. I felt like this was an AF/DIT hybrid. At that time I wasn't dismissing tasks. I resisted that. I found that my hybrid pushed me to get at least one task done per page per day; I could organize the tasks effectively by grouping them; and my productivity went up. However, when I started dismissing tasks and quit doing the task per page pre-planning, I was just as productive and I felt a LOT less pressure. For me, the problem with DIT is feeling like a failure when I don't do it ALL tomorrow. I don't feel that way with AF. I'd LIKE to get through every page every day, but it's no biggie if I don't.

Mel, I agree with you - dismissal of about half the tasks I had on my old pages on the list was essential. I had to face up to the fact that I simply didn't have time to do all this older, less important stuff AND focus on new priorities that had arisen that were sitting on my newer pages. What was important and I don't want to dismiss on those first 19 pages, I am polishing off this weekend. That will bring me down to 7 active pages, which will allow me to add another major home renovation project onto the list and be able to cycle through the pages daily once again.

Proving once again that Mark Forster is a lot smarter than I am.

LOL Jacqueline, that's wonderful! I can only dream of 7 active pages. :-) Maybe someday?

Well, Mel, I got it down to 6 active pages and am baking cookies now. :-) Fortunately, I felt motivated to do everything on the list, quite happily working away all weekend. Clearing up some of those items that I really knew weren't all that important made a huge difference in my attitude. Funny how those unimportant things can weigh on you.

I think part of the issue is the guilt at not doing something I said I was going to do. I think it was in a seminar I went to years ago where they emphasized that you have to stick to your commitments - no matter what. I think this is valuable in some circumstances - for example I never make promises to my kids that we'll do something on a specific day because the weather might not be right or whatever and little kids don't really understand things like that, but this rigid approach obviously doesn't work sometimes in real life. And definitely doesn't work with Autofocus.

One writer put it well when he said that you have to stick to your commitments BUT you have to learn to not make commitments that you will have a problem sticking to. This is all part of the "just say no to commitments" movement ;-) It used to be: "Can you bake cookies for the charity?" ... "Yes." It must become: "Can you bake cookies for the charity?" <pause for thought> "I'd loved to but I'm up to here with work this week. Have you asked Jane?"

We can drift into the "yes habit" and really need to learn to get into the "no habit" ... or at least weigh the consequences of "yes". I think commitments are good things ... but only if they make sense and support our progress to our big goals.

Laiken's book has that "what would you do if you only had six months to live" exercise in it to help refining goals. Surely baking cookies for the charity would not be on that list for most of us ;-) Hell, tell 'em to go to the bakery ... that is their business ;-)

Mel wrote:

"However, when I started dismissing tasks and quit doing the task per page pre-planning, I was just as productive and I felt a LOT less pressure."

That's interesting, the way I operate my AF/DIT hybrid SmileyPeteFocus? LOL! :) is as follows:

-Yesterdays items are a 'closed list/page'

-Everything below is an 'open list/page' comprising 'same day' items and (may wait until) 'tomorrow' items.

- Both lists are processed together in an 'AF way', eg scanning for items that stand out, doing a little and adding to the end of the list.

- Anything after tomorrow goes onto a calendar/reminder

- Anything past yesterday gets dismissed(!) for later review, and can also go onto a calendar.

- Review can be done in any way to best suit individual circumstances.

The best way to approach it I've found is:

- Little and often
- Use the rules creatively to best suit circumstances

It's not intended to replace AutoFocus in any way, but might give some helpful ideas to those who are doing their own hybrid of it.

It results in just 2 active pages, with the rest coming via the calendar or reviews. Personally I do a 7 day 'rolling review' and an end of month review too.