Those of you who have followed my previous postings before, know that I have been playing around with different task list systems. I basically use the principles of GTD, but the way I process my task list tends to follow Autofocus. It seems to work quite well for me, most of the time. I sometimes find I either end up doing too much backlog, or too much immediate/urgent type stuff, but I am sure I am not alone in trying to get the balance right.
Since late last year, Mark has introduced Autofocus, and then two revisions before coming to the current version, which is now AF4. Here is a link to the latest AF4 news, with a demo pdf "animation" which shows how the system works, and here are Mark's initial instructions. I think the notes for version 4 are not as obvious as his previous versions, but I also get the impression there is a clearer version to come, and the one posted at the moment is a quick draft to get the system out there.
I am going to move over to AF4 and then report back how it goes, because it might just fix my balancing problem between urgent and backlog/long term tasks.
If you want to give it a go, work your way through Mark's web site, but if you are completely new to AF, I suggest you read through the earlier versions too, so that you understand the background as to why it is reported to work. The forums are also very good reading, as you will come across many others who are using the system, the problems they have experienced and how they got around them. It might save you a fair bit of time and effort, but at the same time, like any productivity system, you do in the end need to make it work for your own specific situation, which will be different from anyone else's.
What is also impressive, is that Mark publishes this for free. Despite having written and successfully sold books in the past, he seems happy to put this out there for everyone's benefit at the moment, which is admirable to say the least.
Later.
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