Discussion Forum > AF - best practice one item per line?
You can technically put just about anything you want into an AutoFocus system as long as it's something that helps you take action.
However, putting some more practical constraints on things, the smallest "unit" in AutoFocus is something that represents an idea that you can "do" in some sense. Every "unit" that you put into your autofocus list is supposed to be able to be either highlighted or crossed out. Pages are supposed to eventually go "dead" and you aren't supposed to go back to them (dismissed items on a dismissed page will eventually go dead after you have considered the highlighted information at some point in the future, but that may take a very long time).
With these things in mind, I don't think it would be a generally good idea for you to put any information onto an AF list that you might want to keep, or that you wouldn't feel comfortable crossing out. Practically speaking, this means that I personally wouldn't put notes, journal entries, or other long form archival information or potentially long lived reference information into my list with the intention of referring back to it over time. That would just impede my flow through the list.
I would put an idea that I want to consider, or a question, or a bit of reference information that represents an actionable item (support ticket #) that I will consider, work through, and that will be "done" at some point or dismissed. These ideas and the like will all be crossed out at some point. As I am working on an idea, I wouldn't write up project or idea "data" into the AF list, but rather, into a separate daily wastebook or journal. If something actionable or something that I want to do comes out of that, I'd put that back into the AF list.
As an example from my day job, I might have a particular functionality I want to implement in a piece of software, so I put something like "Feature X" into my AF list. When i get to it I start thinking about how I would do that and spend some time jotting notes and ideas around the implementation into a journal. That in turn reveals to me that there are a number of things I have to do and a number of open questions or problems I have to solve to make Feature X work. So I end up putting a task/item for each of these things back into my AF list so I can start thinking about working over each of them individually. Depending on whether I felt like my break down and taskification of "Feature X" was good enough or not, I'd either re-enter "Feature X" at the end of the list or I would simply cross it out.
When I reach those "sub-tasks" or ideas that I put in as a result of working "Feature X", then I'd pull out my journal and refer to my notes on this topic and start going from there.
For something like this, I could easily have pages and pages of notes and code and sketches and the like in another journal. I wouldn't want that sitting in the middle of my AF list, as none of that data is what I would think of as a "valid item" in an AF list because I wouldn't be crossing it out or potentially re-entering it at the end of the list. It's not data that I "work" but instead data that I reference.
AF is very flexible in the "form" a task can take, because it could be a high level "what is life?" question or a simple next action like "Enumerate dependencies for integrating library X into Software package y" or a nebulous prompt to action such as "Dinner plans" or anything like that, but under the flexibility is the structure that an item should represent a "task" or some sense of "actionability" that can be "worked" and that you can then change the "state" of that item to "worked on" by crossing it out, and potentially re-entering it.
To give another example, you could write a phone number down with a name next to it in AF. I'd say that this could work well if this were a prompt that you need to call this person and having the number there and at the ready would make sense. But if you just collected this data up and want to have it to refer to it at some point in the future but you don't actually want to do anything with it, then this isn't really a "task" of any kind, and rather, a piece of reference information that you would be better off putting into some sort of information management system.
AF is a time management system to help drive what you are working on at any given moment during discretionary hours of your day. It assumes that you have an information management system that is separate from it to handle information and reference materials.
See http://markforster.squarespace.com/final-version-faqs/projects-and-commitments/
However, putting some more practical constraints on things, the smallest "unit" in AutoFocus is something that represents an idea that you can "do" in some sense. Every "unit" that you put into your autofocus list is supposed to be able to be either highlighted or crossed out. Pages are supposed to eventually go "dead" and you aren't supposed to go back to them (dismissed items on a dismissed page will eventually go dead after you have considered the highlighted information at some point in the future, but that may take a very long time).
With these things in mind, I don't think it would be a generally good idea for you to put any information onto an AF list that you might want to keep, or that you wouldn't feel comfortable crossing out. Practically speaking, this means that I personally wouldn't put notes, journal entries, or other long form archival information or potentially long lived reference information into my list with the intention of referring back to it over time. That would just impede my flow through the list.
I would put an idea that I want to consider, or a question, or a bit of reference information that represents an actionable item (support ticket #) that I will consider, work through, and that will be "done" at some point or dismissed. These ideas and the like will all be crossed out at some point. As I am working on an idea, I wouldn't write up project or idea "data" into the AF list, but rather, into a separate daily wastebook or journal. If something actionable or something that I want to do comes out of that, I'd put that back into the AF list.
As an example from my day job, I might have a particular functionality I want to implement in a piece of software, so I put something like "Feature X" into my AF list. When i get to it I start thinking about how I would do that and spend some time jotting notes and ideas around the implementation into a journal. That in turn reveals to me that there are a number of things I have to do and a number of open questions or problems I have to solve to make Feature X work. So I end up putting a task/item for each of these things back into my AF list so I can start thinking about working over each of them individually. Depending on whether I felt like my break down and taskification of "Feature X" was good enough or not, I'd either re-enter "Feature X" at the end of the list or I would simply cross it out.
When I reach those "sub-tasks" or ideas that I put in as a result of working "Feature X", then I'd pull out my journal and refer to my notes on this topic and start going from there.
For something like this, I could easily have pages and pages of notes and code and sketches and the like in another journal. I wouldn't want that sitting in the middle of my AF list, as none of that data is what I would think of as a "valid item" in an AF list because I wouldn't be crossing it out or potentially re-entering it at the end of the list. It's not data that I "work" but instead data that I reference.
AF is very flexible in the "form" a task can take, because it could be a high level "what is life?" question or a simple next action like "Enumerate dependencies for integrating library X into Software package y" or a nebulous prompt to action such as "Dinner plans" or anything like that, but under the flexibility is the structure that an item should represent a "task" or some sense of "actionability" that can be "worked" and that you can then change the "state" of that item to "worked on" by crossing it out, and potentially re-entering it.
To give another example, you could write a phone number down with a name next to it in AF. I'd say that this could work well if this were a prompt that you need to call this person and having the number there and at the ready would make sense. But if you just collected this data up and want to have it to refer to it at some point in the future but you don't actually want to do anything with it, then this isn't really a "task" of any kind, and rather, a piece of reference information that you would be better off putting into some sort of information management system.
AF is a time management system to help drive what you are working on at any given moment during discretionary hours of your day. It assumes that you have an information management system that is separate from it to handle information and reference materials.
See http://markforster.squarespace.com/final-version-faqs/projects-and-commitments/
September 29, 2021 at 1:57 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
Mark H:
The video at http://youtu.be/qF1ngJAyD_s should give you the look and feel of an Autofocus notebook.
The video at http://youtu.be/qF1ngJAyD_s should give you the look and feel of an Autofocus notebook.
September 29, 2021 at 13:34 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
One line per task is good practice.
I agree with Aaron that short reference material is good to add on the task lines, for example a phone number to contact someone - saves time and makes it easier to take action right away. I also use square brackets to make reference to a particular email message by its timestamp, such as [11:53 Tue 28 Sep].
For other notes, I recommend using a split bound notebook. Number all the pages, reserve the first page for a table-of-contents/index, use the first part of the notebook for your long AF list, and add pages in reverse order from the back for any other notes, with a title at the top of each notes page indicating the topic. That way, you can use up the whole notebook without wasting pages, and your long list is contiguous. If you need to refer to any of the notes pages in your task descriptions, you can just put the page number down.
I agree with Aaron that short reference material is good to add on the task lines, for example a phone number to contact someone - saves time and makes it easier to take action right away. I also use square brackets to make reference to a particular email message by its timestamp, such as [11:53 Tue 28 Sep].
For other notes, I recommend using a split bound notebook. Number all the pages, reserve the first page for a table-of-contents/index, use the first part of the notebook for your long AF list, and add pages in reverse order from the back for any other notes, with a title at the top of each notes page indicating the topic. That way, you can use up the whole notebook without wasting pages, and your long list is contiguous. If you need to refer to any of the notes pages in your task descriptions, you can just put the page number down.
September 29, 2021 at 20:32 |
ubi
ubi
Thank you for the good replies. I have thought to put AF on the left pages and the corresponding notes on the right pages. What about short lists such as Next Hour? Should they just be added to the long list? I have been putting my shortlist on a Memo Pad. But often there is an item I did not complete and I end up either trying to save the pages and they accumulate or I write them instead in my notebook and my notebook gets longer.
September 30, 2021 at 2:57 |
Mark H.
Mark H.
I can see from the video that Mark Forster uses contiguous pages, and fills up each page.
He looks like he is using a spiral notebook. If it is a long list, and doing "little and often", this seems to be most effective way to select and execute and repeat tasks.
Years ago, I was using AF1 for about a year. I was using a Moleskine notebook 5 x 8.25. I had used these notebooks for several years consistently, but because they were so expensive, and my eyesight is getting poorer, I switched to black and white composition books, which are cheap, and I can write larger in them. I stopped using AF1, and did more like bullet journal, free form. I like this a lot, and is very good for short lists. Everything is in chronological order. However, once the notebook grows beyond the halfway point, it gets harder and harder to find items more than a few days old.
Dividing the notebook into sections, like ubi suggested, might be a good idea. Some use a bullet journal and do exactly that, and have several sections.
I was experimenting with writing the short lists on one page of a memo pad at a time, but I like have all the pages together in one notebook. It keeps it neat.
I've used a spiral notebook, but often pages start to get accidently ripped out. A composition notebook keeps all the pages sewn together.
He looks like he is using a spiral notebook. If it is a long list, and doing "little and often", this seems to be most effective way to select and execute and repeat tasks.
Years ago, I was using AF1 for about a year. I was using a Moleskine notebook 5 x 8.25. I had used these notebooks for several years consistently, but because they were so expensive, and my eyesight is getting poorer, I switched to black and white composition books, which are cheap, and I can write larger in them. I stopped using AF1, and did more like bullet journal, free form. I like this a lot, and is very good for short lists. Everything is in chronological order. However, once the notebook grows beyond the halfway point, it gets harder and harder to find items more than a few days old.
Dividing the notebook into sections, like ubi suggested, might be a good idea. Some use a bullet journal and do exactly that, and have several sections.
I was experimenting with writing the short lists on one page of a memo pad at a time, but I like have all the pages together in one notebook. It keeps it neat.
I've used a spiral notebook, but often pages start to get accidently ripped out. A composition notebook keeps all the pages sewn together.
September 30, 2021 at 3:40 |
Mark H.
Mark H.
I have a notebook where I mix notes, ideas, short lists, and long lists. But my notebook grows into so many pages, that the long list is much longer, and it is hard to find where the long list is.