Get Everything Done

The original AUTOFOCUS method - the rule-set known today as AF1 - was a huge progress in overcoming procrastination, getting in touch with one’s subconscious, simplifying self-organisation overhead to an absolute minimum and avoiding having tasks assembling dust on lists that have fallen off attention. It had, however, its shortcomings: Urgent tasks were in constant peril of being attacked too late, for example. New versions of AF tried to correct this, and AF4 at last seems to work for a lot of people quite well - but unfortunately not for me, although I was fascinated by its concept from the very first moment I learned about it.

A few weeks ago, I have found a tweak to the original AF1 that finally eliminates its shortcomings in a (at least for me) better way than AF2-4 do. For those not 100% satisfied with AF4, I’d like to share it here.

Testdriving is easy: You don’t have to start a new list, you can start with your existing one. Only that – if you’re in AF4 - a page is a page again here, and considered as a closed list on its own.

ALL YOU NEED IS 2 BOOKMARKS AND 3 ADDITIONAL RULES.

One of the bookmarks you put on your active page, the other on the last page of your list. (Technical detail: If you use a spiral-bound notebook, it’s best to have ribbon page marks knotted to the top of the spiral, in order not to loose them. In an X47 - that I use - two ribbons are integrated.)

The basic concept is that YOU CONSTANTLY BOUNCE BETWEEN THE LAST PAGE AND THE MAIN BODY OF THE LIST. Therefore the name „Ping-Pong-AF“ (although I'd welcome a more poetical one).

Here’s how I handle it:

1. In the morning, the first thing I do is to open the list on the last page and to write down all tasks that are in my head for whatever reason. (I don’t care whether any task I may already have noted somewhere else.)

2. I check the calendar: Tasks I have noted there some time ago („this week, call X“) go on the AF list now. For anything time-related („10:00 meeting“) I create reminders in the computer.

So far standard AF1.

RULE 1: YOU BEGIN THE DAY ON THE LAST PAGE.

3. As described in the original AF rules, I scan the page a first time „intentionless“ and then in order to pick the first item that „speaks to me“. I work on that task as long as I feel like, and I carry it forward should I not finish it.

Still almost standard AF1, with the exception that in AF1 you begin where you left off the other day. But if there are urgent tasks, it feels better if your system allows you officially to take care of them immediately.

4. I have worked on one task from the last page: Now I pull the other bookmark and jump to the active page. I treat this page as described in the AF1 rules - scanning, attacking something, dismissing the page if nothing „stands out“ and so on. I keep on going until I feel like returning to the last page.

RULE 2: AFTER EVERY TASK YOU ATTACKED ON THE LAST PAGE YOU JUMP TO THE ACTIVE PAGE, AND YOU MAY NOT RETURN TO THE LAST PAGE UNLESS YOU HAVE TOUCHED AT LEAST ONE TASK OR DISMISSED AT LEAST ONE PAGE.

5. Back on the last page, I allow myself to go back from there up to 2 or 3 pages in order to find something that „stands out“. I don’t dismiss pages when „going reverse“ like this, in fact I don’t force myself to do anything from the last pages if I don’t feel like.

RULE 3: YOU MAY TOUCH A TASK ON THE LAST PAGE(S), BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO – YOU MAY RETURN TO THE ACTIVE PAGE AT ANY TIME YOU FEEL LIKE DOING SO.

So, if nothing’s really urgent, you basically work in original AF1 mode.

Some explanations and details:
- The basic idea is that you are not allowed to stay the whole day with your most current tasks, but you have to jump again and again into the older tasks.
- One of your bookmarks is wandering through your whole list in exactly the way you would walk through it in original AF1, the other bookmark is always on the current last page.
- Having urgent tasks create a sense of pressure to get back to the last page, so what I have noticed is that I am more easily ready to dismiss a page than before. And being a „page clinger“, I consider this a good thing.
- As usual in AF1, the highlighted tasks on dismissed pages become a „maybe/someday-list“ automatically and without any additional effort or re-writing.
- Common sense may be applied: If there are an overwhelming amount of urgent tasks (maybe it’s an emergency), you will do what is needed. If you have 3 phone calls to do today and are on the phone for the first one, it’s most probably the best idea do the others, too, instead of jumping back after each to tasks like „clean closet“, „buy a new suit“ or „think about marketing concept“.

I would like to emphasize that using physical page markers makes a big difference in how working with this rule-set feels. Before, I tried to get along with special signs of page tops etc., but it was only when I started using real bookmarks when it „clicked“.

Hi, Andreas - interesting tweak! When you start the day with Rule 1 (start on the last page), do you work that page as standard AF1, doing as many items as you feel like on that page, then moving on, or do you immediately follow Rule 2 (after every task you jump back to the Active page)? Reading point 4, I think it's the latter, but I'd be glad if you could confirm that. Best wishes.

I do only one item from the last page, then I jump. Usually. I try to stick to that rule, at least. Sometimes there are two or three little things urgent, then I do them at once. But I do definitely NOT stay as long as I wish on the last page, because otherwise the rest of the list would often stay untouched... :-)

Thanks, Andreas. It's amazing how inventive members of the forum can be in tailoring various versions of AF. I know that some people have jumped about between the various versions according to what suited them at the time, and often as a way of addressing urgent items. When I've been unable to follow the rules, using whatever version was current at the time, I've been attracted to the Will-Do List from DIT (Do It Tomorrow), Mark's previous system, and have found it really useful. Most of the time I use AF4, and I know that, if used properly, it can address urgent stuff, but it somehow seems easier to make a Will-Do List, and I often incorporate AF4 into that as one item on the list.

Thanks for sharing this, Andreas. Am seriously tempted to give this a try.

I think of it as being essentially AF3 with just another way to combine the Reverse and Forward Mode - a way that cares better for the "middle pages".

Recently, I've been seriously considering moving back from AF4 to AF1, because of one major advantage you mention: its procrastination-busting potential which was very real for me too. So reading this "AF1+" approach, I think this may just be what's needed to gain back the satisfaction of AF1 and add a more effective handling of urgent items... If I do, I'll report back with my findings.

P.S. I've already been using the 2 physical bookmarks you mention for months: one to mark where I'm currently working (active page) and one on the last page to easily be able to add new items at the bottom of the list.

[Recently, I've been seriously considering moving back from AF4 to AF1, because of one major advantage you mention: its procrastination-busting potential]

This was exactly my motivation. The "close-list-effect" of AF4 is too weak for me, and after a while I am finding myself carrying forward unactioned tasks that I have been forwarding already...

AF1 worked best for me, only that it did not handle urgent items efficient. Urgent items were handled efficient by AF2, only that my list simply grew... :-( I experimented a lot to find a way to combine these two in a way that works smoothly and feels good, and here it is!

Your method sounds interesting. Did you think about a way one could implement this using an application like Omnifocus, for example?

Roland:

As for as self organization is concerned, I'm addicted to paper. A computer telling me what I have to do: That simply doesn't work for me. So - no. I have no idea.

AndreasE

I've been trying this system (electronically) for a few days now and I like it. It reminds me just how powerful the closed list effect is with multiple shorter lists as opposed to the longer AF4 closed list. AF1 just *makes* you get started on the things you have been putting off. Time will tell how well it holds up over the long term.

I've really looked long and hard at the new DIT2/AF5 approach, read all the comments, and even reworked my electronic list into that format to get a feel for it.

But I'm already missing those short AF1 closed lists. They are just so effective compared to all the other approaches that I am going to stick with Ping-Pong AF for now.

I can't help thinking that the ultimate time management system (for actually getting things done) has really got to build upon AF1.

Ahhh - I am starting to see now.

Because I do things electronically, it all looks like one long list to me based on the initial instructions. I think if I actually use an electronic calendar for this (with a day per page as with paper), I will see that closed-list effect.

Will give it another try.

Thanks for clarifying that Mark.

Just wanted to add here that this "tweak" is complemented by my method of how to link goal setting and deadlines with AF: See http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/993079 .

Just for those interested. Others might ignore this.