Get Everything Done

The following are my personal “amendments” to the basic AF rules as defined by Mark Forster. I developed it in order to overcome some difficulties I had with the original rules: I regularly have too many active pages to make it through all of them once a day (in fact, even once a week is the exception), so I happened to oversee rather urgent tasks or to start them too late. Small tasks that would have been easy to accomplish in short time got written at the end of the list, but because my active page was far away, I got them done rather late - and appeared as being a slow guy :-(

Several “work-arounds” have been suggested to overcome this kind of difficulties: Have an index card with the task you absolutely have to accomplish today as a bookmark. Read your whole list every morning. If something has to be done immediately, do it immediately. Trust the system blindly. And so on. Obviously, none of these work-arounds have satisfied me, otherwise I would not have started my own “method lab”... from which I return now with a slightly adapted AF method that, finally, works for me.

In the following, I present what I call REVERSE AUTOFOCUS, with the sole purpose to serve others as an inspiration. Whether one adopts it or not is up to everyones own decision. I only would like to suggest that one should TRY it before judging it, because like AF itself, AF REV works different in real life than it appears from reading alone.

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The FIRST DIFFERENCE:
I go through the pages in REVERSE ORDER.

That means, I start on the last active page and work myself (according to the rules about attacking at least one task from each page or otherwise dismissing all remaining tasks on that page, about attacking the task that's “standing out” etc.) towards the first active page. Once I arrive there, I start again on the (then) last active page, and so on.

To go through the pages in reverse order was the first thing I've tried, but I found it to make actually no difference. It just felt better, so I stuck with it and added something else:

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The SECOND DIFFERENCE:
Every time the last page gets closed, I jump back to it and start from there again.

One always has several active pages plus the last page that contains some tasks and room for more. From time to time this last page gets filled up with new tasks, so one has to close it and start a new last page. This event serves as a trigger for me to jump back from wherever in the AF lists I might be at that moment and to start from the end again. This way - so the idea behind this rule - the urgent tasks have a bigger chance to show up before me, because urgent tasks are more likely to be found at the end of the list .

This actually worked, as far as urgent tasks were concerned: I better kept up with actuality. But - now it became difficult ever to arrive at the first and oldest pages again! In fact, in contemplating about this “jump-back-mechanism”, it became obvious that it creates an implicit limit for the number of pages you are able to maintain this way: Supposed one AF page has 30 lines, supposed you work backwards by touching only 1 task per page, and supposed for every task one picks a follow up task has to be created on the last page, it is clear that - even if no new tasks come up! -, you will have your last page filled up after 30 pages and have to jump back again. Every page before that becomes unreachable.

To fix this, I had to come up with something else:

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The THIRD DIFFERENCE:
After a jump-back, I DO NOT DISMISS pages until I arrive at the page from where I came. After that, I follow the standard AF rules again.

This has to be explained in more detail:
- As soon as I have to close the last page, I draw a special sign before the task I am working at. Personally, I draw a small arrow pointing backwards.
- I stop working on the current task as usual (when I feel like stopping), after that I jump to the last page.
- I continue to work from here as usual - I read all entries, then I go through them until one task “stands out”; I draw the committment sign; I work on it, as long as I feel like; if it's not finished, I write it again at the end of the list; I look for another task or go to the next page (here: the page before!), and so on.
- BUT - I DO NOT DISMISS pages! This means I can simply skip pages without working on any item on them.
- Finally, I arrive on the page I came from. I strike out the “jump back sign” (as a signal to myself) and continue according to AF standard rules, only going further backwards towards the first pages.

The idea here is to make it easier and faster to get back to the point from where I jumped. My experience is that lifting the “work-on-anything-or-dismiss-the-whole-page”-rule creates a tendency to have rather the urgent tasks stand out – which is exactly what was intended. After I while, I work backwards after a jump in a kind of FAST REWIND MODE, looking out for tasks that have become urgent or otherwise “hot”, and I arrive back where I was before with the calming feeling that everything that might have become a problem due to deadlines is taken care of and I can dive back into the flow.

Thank you, Mark, for commenting. In fact, I am more confident now that AF will still work for me in five months now than I was before I adapted it a bit. But I'll let you know! (This would be in october, then...)

The most important point is, I think, to face the experience. This was not only the case with AF itself, it's also *within* the system, because AF encourages you to attack tasks, even when the way that is to go is not yet absolutely clear. You try something, and that gets you over the first hurdle... and then again... and again... and while working on something, you finally find a way. That was what I learned thanks to your system, and that was a big achievement (after almost 25 years following another time/task management system that was not bad already).

The rest is, let's say, a matter of personal preferences...

Sounds very interesting
I am off to try this!

Thanks

This is interesting. I tried always starting with the last page and then returning to the last active page and working AF forward normally. What I found is that early pages languished and last pages were much smaller when closed out. I was keeping up extremely well on tasks that needed doing frequently. I decided to go back to standard AF to finish/dismiss earlier pages. I have always done tasks that are on a deadline by just comparing them to tasks on the current active page and doing whichever task stood out more. That aspect isn't a problem for me.

My next experiment is going to be using my 12-minute break per hour (great idea I got here) to do whatever I want to do. I am not going to look at the list, but if one of the tasks on the last page comes to mind, I will do it. I think it will work because one of my problems is with the delayed gratification that standard AF requires of people with long lists.

For example, let's say I am listening to the radio while working my current active page and hear about a great website to check out. I will add that task to my last page. I will keep working the list until my break time. If I remember the website and am keen to look it up then, I will. When break is over, I'll return to the page I left off with. I think this method will prevent me from going down rabbit trails unless they are particularly appealing. Do let us know how you fare with your modifications.

Andreas, This is very intriguing. I have found AF the most satisfying and USABLE system I've ever seen, but reading your proposal sounds like it may just be the solution to the one lingering frustration I feel with the system. For me, the key thing is to have CONFIDENCE in the system, so that you'll use it, and so that you won't be continually stressed that you're missing stuff.
I suspect your mods won't be necessary for many 'users', but those with certain word-load profiles may find them useful. I'll let you know if I'm sticking with your mods or back to Mark's definitive model in a while.
Ben.

Having not really tried it yet (so apologies to Andreas for butting in)...the third rule is precisely the thing that made me think this is worth trying!

The value of the third rule seems to be that it keeps the CONFIDENCE factor that I mentioned above in play. I don't need to stress about heading back to the end (ie. start) of the list and therefore never seeing earlier tasks, because I know that if I really need to, I can work very swiftly back to where I was, but if anything does now standout, I can quickly find that.

I don't think Andreas' mod would work at all without the third rule (i.m.h.o).
But I probably should be quiet and give it a proper go now...

Ben.

Mark:
I just tried to find out... I experimented with going backwards alone (first rule) in March, found out it makes no big difference, then around April, 9th I started applying the second rule as well. I believe I introduced the third rule about a week later - with a certain "click" that told me this might have been "the missing piece" to make the whole thing round.

I should mention that before coming up with the third amendment, I spent an afternoon or so scribbling little "simulations" on large sheets of paper, trying to find a rule that would (a) provide the balance between actuality/urgency and completeness I was looking for and (b) would fit organically into the original AF system (translate as: "feels good"). I experimented with a lot of crazy things before I had the idea for amendment number 3.

I am curious about the experiences of others. I imagine maybe it's not for everyone; people are different (which is OK). On the other hand, I'm a rather average guy, so my little idea might help some others as well.

AndreasE - I'm new to AF, but I immediately took to your idea. However, I'm having trouble with understanding step 2 & 3. Should you ever get the bug, a YouTube video or screencast would be so very helpful.

Hi all, At the very beginning of using AF i made a mistake. I did,nt understand the way to pass from one page to the other. So for monthes it semms for me natural to go on the last page then to go backward. For me it was logical. If something was on the first pages it was surely not an essential item cause when i work on AF i repport all unfinished task at the end. So if i didnt it was because ti doesnt matter or because it was dissmmissed... Then i discovered the right way and as i wanted to respect absolutly the method i did like MF does
Well today i prefer do go backward. Its much easy for me and as i read the all list once or twice a day i never missed anything, my urgent and important tasks are always done and there is no problem at all. It workes perfecly well, excep that i go backword may be it a question of brain and feelling about tasks. To be honest i must tell you that every list begin with a date whih is today. It help me to go backward giving me a focus on what happened the days before...

Being an average guy myself I'll experiment with it for a week then report my results. I've been wanting to try going in reverse anyway. Thanks for the suggestion Andreas.

Mark, what do you mean by "sequence" in this context?

I'm also not sure if one had only 4 pages how it would make much of a difference if you went backwards or forwards?

Also, if you're just starting a new list, and doing as Andreas does in his #2 mod, it means you're jumping back regularly - I only start a new page every 3 days or so. But perhaps you didn't follow this rule. The reason that I can imagine this working well for me is that I would be more tempted to put everything on the list (vs. the many things that I just "do it now") because I wanted to be able to "close" a page with new tasks and jump back to that page.

I am experimenting with only working on the last 2 + the partial page during the week and going back on the weekend and starting with the first active page. Just because my discretionary time is far more on the weekends with my home book.

Mark,

What are the rules you're referring to ?!?!?

"started experimenting with some new rules (not the same as yours) which worked remarkably well."

Sorry, I just need some enthusiasm back after working 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. all weekend and I find switching things up - even temporarily - can make a difference. :-)

Mark, it will be interesting to see which new or changed rules you're experimenting with. Do you anticipate updating or changing the original Autofocus instructions soon? Or will there be some sort of proposed "beta" instructions that we can all test and give you feedback on?

So do I ! would be very interested to test the new rules wich seems to be working well
Mark could I ?

as you see Mark everyone is very interested indeed with yours experiments. AF is such a great method !!! Thanks for sharing when you will be ready if it does.
Best regards.

I wonder if it isn't a good idea just generally to try on / adopt a new set of rules every once in awhile when you're not feeling enthusiastic about working through your lists and don't even want to look at the book at all?

Hi Jacqueline

I can't help but feel that if I got my lists down to your "minimalist" level I would feel somewhat bereft - and would also get bored by too little choice. I think that we do hit points when our enthusiasm wanes, but thinks that in my case it is when (a) I don't feel I am making progress, or (b) I get too bogged down in "must do" items. I think the tendency is to try to work around those frustrations and the tweak I mentioned a while back got me completely out of that scenario. I seem to be fairly static as far as number of active pages is concerned but the number of items is reducing significantly as a result of clearing them more quickly. My frustration now is that I want to keep clearing items and almost have to force myself away from my lists - which is how I was in the early days of AF. I am actually really loving having so many pages - weird huh? Think I'll go and post my updated stats now :-)

But maybe in your experimentation with things you would find - as Andreas did - that you stumble upon the "formula" that works perfectly for *you* and your life circumstances? (Sort of like the perfect diet that you can stick to without feeling deprived.)

For example, on a highly motivated weekend morning, as an experiment, I started at active page #1, put "walk the dog" on the last active page ~ p. 9 I think (ordinarily this seemed to me to be time dependent, so it wasn't something that ever went on the list before) and used the knowledge that the dog would drive me berserk if I didn't get through the list to be able to walk him. Much to my surprise, instead of doing just one task per page as I'd planned, I actually did two or three and had the dog out the door by 11 a.m.

Hi Jacqueline

The just do 1 task per page option is one thing that actually causes me problems with AF. It makes me feel that I am not doing it properly and feels somehow forced even though I see the real benefit of that approach as a tool to speed up the cycling process.

If we think back to the early days of AF, when there was the real novelty of "doing what we want" and the feelings we had when tasks stood out, it seems that that is what we start to lose, almost as if it becomes too familiar. When I started getting less enthusiastic about my lists I realised that to be the case. The tendency had become, almost without realising it, to start choosing tasks rather than letting them stand out. I am still working through that to some extent because of the number of deadlined items I have, but increasing the number of items I put on my lists has regenerated that early sense of progress and is getting me well back on track.

Hi Mark,

I know you don't want to reveal what you are doing, but this is killing me!! Would you please share with us your new Beta rules? Your comments about how it is taking care of urgent items is surely striking a cord with so many here as that has been one of the most discussed concerns with AF.

Please, please tell us your new rules!

Thanks,
-David

Hi All,

nice to hear that people are tweaking and improving AF.
In fact, i have noticed (despite of original AF rules) that i work in "ping-pong"-mode,
i.e.
1.) i write actions/items as they come
2.) i work on items that stand out as long as i like (if incomplete => then move it to end of list)
3.) i do not dismiss any page
4.) when reaching final page, i'll start to go backwards towards to first page (and work steps 1,2,3), and fromthe first page again towards final page like "ping-pong"

And so far this has worked fine!

Vp

Hmmm - are *we* allowed to say TRUST THE SYSTEM? I am just getting AF to work properly with two out of my three lists, and this is down to more liberal dismissing of pages (after feedback from Mark), which are down to four and six in number. However my third list, the Home one, is still too large and I was thinking of moving it to paper, or combining it with my Work list, but perhaps I will use the forthcoming amendments. It would not surprise me if the original rules are the best. But patience - and months - are required for them to click in.

Hi Laurence

I think the "Trust the System" answer is an excellent point. I have developed a "tweak" which has been working excellently for me BUT it is working because I Trust the System.

Hi Mark,

You say everything will get done. Does that imply that a page could remain open indefinitely if one simply does not want to do the task of if the time or place is and remains wrong for a long while?

How would one get inappropriate items off of the list?

Mark,

O.K. I'm happy to wait until you have it all worked out and are ready to present it. Asking further questions at this point is just nagging ;-) It should be fun to see how the changes accomplish the changes ... as it were ;-) I've got to admit, however, that I'm intrigued that what seemed to be the corner stone ... the unique thing ... of AF (pages within a list) might turn out to ultimately not have been the best solution. You seem to be unique, within the collection of writers on (inventors of) time management systems in that you keep experimenting to find better ways of doing things.

Humm very interesting ! we all wait impatiently what you discovered Mark !!!!
Thanks gain !

Mark,

Given the very impressive stats on actioned items, you seem to be making very liberal use of the "little and often" method - or you're working 24 hours a day, which I'm sure isn't the case! :-)

Part of me is almost hoping that it doesn't work too well... :-)

And the other part is hoping that you don't wait for a month before fully sharing like you did with Autofocus. To be honest, I don't see how it could get much better unless you could cure me of my tendency to "do it now" at work.

I Mark still make my proposal. Use it in real life I am Ok to test it for you and give you back the results. I have about 30/100 new tasks per day and believe it or nov i work about 10 hours per day and about a 79 projects !

If i could be of any help for you like for the french translation it would be a pleasure

Ok Thanks for the answer. Hope it comes soon !

Mark: Could you at some point let us know what your change is - even if you conclude in the end that your original rules were better? As is clear from this forum, what works for some people is less effective for others (and vice-versa). So even if you reverted to 'pure' AF, your findings might still be valuable to some of the rest of us.

Nick, I gave your method a try for two days and just couldn't keep with it for another day. As I've mentioned, I've switched to making each page a day. So far I am really happy with that. I'm using a digital approach, so this is simple for me. After two days with your method and having 33 pages, I could see that it would take a very long time for me to get to the center pages. I just wasn't moving quickly enough.

So I devised another approach that I am thrilled with so far. Since we're all waiting on Mark's new approach, I though I would share my tweak even though I've only been using it a day. :-) First of all, I think this tweak (like most of them) is only effective for those who have many pages and/or aren't getting through the whole list every day. I start with today's page. Lately there aren't that many items on that since I start with it right away, so I'm not getting stuck. If you're using paper and/or undated pages, start with the last page. I then work yesterday's page. For those of you again using a standard approach, you'd just move back one page. After that, I work every other page. doing my best to make it through the whole list. The next day, I will repeat the procedure and will find that I am doing the pages that I didn't do the day before.

This procedure effectively cuts the list in half. If you do not make it to the end of your list, you should have very little anxiety as the earliest pages are least likely to have time-sensitive tasks and are most likely to have tasks that will ultimately be dismissed. Using this method makes it highly likely that you will cover your whole list every two days. If you have a very long list or even less discretionary time, I think you could use the same approach to do every 3rd or even every 4th page.

Psychologically, the effect is that I'm moving very quickly and am covering the whole span of current, several days old tasks, and old tasks. If you're not satisfied with your current approach, you might give it a try.

Andreas, let us know how your method is working for you over the long haul. I haven't tried it myself, since my active pages aren't so many now, but I hope it's working well for you!

Jacqueline,

it's still working well, thank you. I plan to report every month or so whether I am still "going reverse" or not. (I am curious about the principles Mark is testdriving, too!)

In the moment, I am going through a time when far more new tasks are coming in than I am able to complete. So, my list is growing fast; therefore, I am "called back" to the last page more often. It has happened twice now that I am "called back" while I was still on my way to the page where I left off the time before.

Example:
First I was going pages 12, 11, 10, 9 - last page full, so I leave a "call back sign" here and jump to the last page, which is number 27.
I do the urgent things on page 27, then 26, on 25 there is nothing to do, so I go to 24, 23 - and again my last page full!
So, I draw another "call back sign", jump to page 28, work on it, 27, 25 etc.

Now I have 2 "call back signs" in my list: On page 9 and on page 23. How to deal with that? While going back through the pages in FAST REWIND MODE, where to switch to normal AF? In the moment, I am applying the rule that the FIRST "call back sign" I encounter shall be the signal to go back to normal AF rules, that is, from there on I am obliged to dismiss pages where no task is standing out in the given moment I am there.

I'll see how that works. Right now I am not sure whether it would make more sense to maybe go back faster, that is, until I am back at the first "call back sign" again. I will maybe test that, too.

Andreas, are the things on your last page really urgent or are you going to it simply because it's full? Last night I got through my whole list (using my last2-backward-every other page method with time to spare so I could do whatever I felt was most urgent or important.

Mel,

the urgent tasks tend to be on the last pages of this kind of list, because they usually stand out first ("OMG, I have to do this/call him/look for it IMMEDIATELY!") and so get handled first. Usually.

"Last page is full" (= a new one to start) is in my REV AF tweak the signal to go back to that last page. If nothings urgent or otherwise "right to act on it" on my way from there to where I jumped from, no problem: Because I don't have to dismiss pages on this way, I more or less automatically pick only rather urgent tasks and let the others.

I said I'd try Andreas's tweaks and report back. It's been almost two weeks and I have experienced the same results as Andreas. For me these tweaks have helped - especially returning frequently to the last page and working quickly backward. Given that Mark's AF upgrade is in the wings I won't go into detail. Thanks again Andreas for the suggestion!