Get Everything Done

Hi Mark and all

I have made a strange but interesting experience. From all MF system the one which was the best for me was AF4. The treatment of the close list made me very productive and indeed efficient. A let it down for a while because I wanted to test others system but I am back with it now but I made a little change which has changed a lot of the system

Rule 1. The idea is respecting AF4 rules http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2009/9/5/preliminary-instructions-for-autofocus-v-4.html except that if something stand at you just dot it and go to the end of the backlog list. Then do the dots in a normal way from up to down.

Rule 2. if something is a someday task put it on a specific list

Rule 3 if something must be done in the future put it on a tickler list at the date

Rule 4 If you plan do do something in the future put it in an agenda's list

Rule 5 If something on the active list is indeed urgent or you feel you must do it immediatly, write it on the active list do it first and now.

Nothing else is changed except that each time you do something put the date in front and the hour

Does it make any sense for you ? Have you tested this ? What do you think about it ?

Chears :-)

"the important change is Rule 1. The other rules are only about supporting material"

Absolutly. Using AF made me realizing that I had many difficulties managing the list due to the number of items. The problems were about futurs items (non actionable), waiting for items in a real future ( I mean over a week) Someday tasks (also non actionable) due tasks a certain day non actionable now BUT in the future. So I decided to put them on a specific list to manage them easily and stay concentrated on what IS REALLY ACTIONABLE

The result is a huge increasement of the data's treatement which are on a paper note book for a better control and feeling about the tasks but it could be digital too.

"So what you are doing is pre-selecting your list of tasks in the Backlog, and then doing them as a batch in order. Is that right?" Treating the backlog was a priority for me. Backlog are really a mess. They kill my concentration on the now tasks. The purpous is to stay concentrate ON THE NOW actionnable tasks. The result is that that at the end of the day stay, on the backlog only 2 or 3 items which are dismissed, erased or reported...

The active list is also most of the time treated for all which is urgent.

"What do you see as being the advantages of doing it this way? I'm not clear in my mind what huge difference this would make, or maybe I'm not understanding it correctly"
The advantage made for me a better control about my stuff and a huge increasment of my activitivities. The key is my daily review where I plan my projects of the day, list my urgencies, see what I absolutly must do today (my agenda list) AF list is reserved for collecting and discretionnal time.

I admit that before using this system I was fully GTD but GTD made me a lot of problems for acting. Except that I found the process very interesting and efficient. Using AF4 retreated gave me a real sense of feeling things by the stand out process and by the mix of actionable tasks

I hope that it cleared what I explained before. I am still testing the system which could be more in the general forum that the FV forum (sorry about this)