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Autofocus: Differences Between Versions 1 and 2

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I’m really enjoying working with the Autofocus (AF) method by Mark Forster. It has allowed me to complete a greater volume of work each day, and it helps me focus on my most critical tasks. AF has been updated, so now there’s a version 1 and a version 2, which I’ll refer to simply as AF1 and AF2.

To summarize AF1:

  1. Enter your tasks, with 25 to 35 tasks per “page.” (I use the term “page” because, if you do this electronically, especially in Microsoft Office Outlook, it’s a challenge to define the start and end of each “page.” Oh, and if you’re curious, I use a paper Moleskine notebook with 30 lines per page. I also very occasionally use Outlook to turn e-mails with lengthy e-attachments into e-tasks, but this list has never grown beyond 25 to 35 tasks – usually 10 tasks or less.) There are no notions of categories, groups, symbols, or the like.
  2. When you’re ready to work on a task, simply visually scan the list and pick a task that “stands out” to you at the time. Put a dot next to the task so you don’t lost your place, and begin working on that task.
  3. When you’re done with the task, draw a line through the entry. If you don’t finish it, re-write the task at the end of the list, and draw a line through the old entry.
    Stay on the same page as the task just crossed off and look for the next task to work on. If no task stands out for you, dismiss all of the unactioned tasks on that page by highlighting them in some way (use a highlighter pen or similar, anything except crossing them off). These dismissed tasks become candidates for serious decisions about whether you really should do them, break them into smaller tasks that have a greater chance of being completed, or similar.
  4. If all of the tasks on the page are crossed off (except for the page with the most-recently-entered tasks), put a cross at the top corner of the page. Circle the cross if there are crosses on all of the previous pages before that page. This helps you find the last page with unactioned tasks on them.
  5. When you come back from an extended break, start looking for tasks beginning with the oldest dismissed task.

AF2 changes the following AF1 guidelines:

  1. There are no “pages.” There’s just one long list.
  2. At the beginning of each day, go to your oldest active page (the page with the oldest unactioned task on it), and draw a line after the first block of unactioned tasks (in other words, the oldest tasks that are still awaiting action). All unactioned tasks that are before where the line was drawn are now candidates for dismissal.
  3. At the beginning of the following day, all unactioned items before the line are dismissed.
  4. After re-drawing the line and dismissing any items, you should read through the list from beginning (oldest tasks) to the end (newest tasks), paying particular attention to tasks which are in danger of being dismissed in the next few days.
  5. When looking for your next task to work on, always look to your most-recently-entered task, and then work backwards.

In my next post, I’ll describe why I think that AF2 is better than AF1.