THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED: See Remember Everything with Autofocus 4
I’m in awe of Mark Forster’s Get Everything Done Autofocus System. As a longtime user of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I have encouraged project managers to read and adopt GTD. Until now, I believed that this was the most effective system around to manage the hundreds of active tasks and projects on most of our plates.
While I still would encourage you to purchase and read either Getting Things Done or Making It All Work, Autofocus may be an effective alternative. I’ll be testing it over the next weeks, and will let you know how the experiment goes.
So far, here are some wonderful advantages I see of Mark Forster’s Autofocus time management system:
- Only 8 steps to follow. You can do this!
- Everything stays in front of you.
- The system itself gets out of the way very quickly.
- Your intuitive part gets a say in what you do.
- Your logical part gets a say in what you do.
- It’s a trusted system. Things will not get lost.
- Recurring items are handled elegantly in the system.
- More rapid review of open items. With my personal implementation of GTD, some actions items can sit for days without review or progress.
Take a look at Lifehacker’s Review of Autofocus for other comments. Better yet, go directly to Mark’s website and take a look at the active forum.
How are you doing with getting everything done?
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Photo credit: aheram)
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Hi Alec,
Very nice post. I’m intrigued. Thank you for always staying up on new ways of being organized!
Your friend and wife,
Lori
Lori Hammel´s last blog post..Lori’s February News
I appreciate the recommendations, Alec. I have found that having a repeatable process around getting things done makes getting things done a bit easier. I will have to check out the Autofocus system.
-chris
Chris Hall´s last blog post..I support more effective Project Management in America
Twitter: alecsatin
Hi Chris,
I can’t imagine what it would be like to keep on top of a huge number of tasks and email without a clearly defined, repeatable system. When I moved to GTD a few years ago, my productivity and follow through (which I had thought was pretty good) increased significantly. Autofocus seems to be taking care of the “hole” in my GTD system in which “eats up” those resistance-filled projects and task that I just don’t seem to want to do. Already a number of these have started to move.
It’s a fantastic system. Here’s avideo of Mark Forster demonstrating Autofocus.
Thanks for the comment!
Alec
Alec´s last blog post..Get Everything Done – Mark Forster’s Autofocus System
Hi Alec,
nice to see Mark Forster’s AF here, too. I have been with it since the Beta testing days (Jan 09), and I must say I really love this system. Before using AutoFocus, I managed my life using a self-cooked version of Getting Things Done, but AF is so much better, one reason being the incredible simplicity of the system. It’s almost as if it was hard NOT to follow the system as opposed to struggling with following the system.
Looking forward to your reports over time.
Joshua
Twitter: alecsatin
Joshua,
Wonderful feedback on AutoFocus. It’s good to hear that you continue to find the system workable after using GTD.
I keep asking myself, “can it really be this simple”?
Thanks for your comment.
Alec
Alec´s last blog post..Get Everything Done – Mark Forster’s Autofocus System
Alec,
I remember that question. It seems – at least at first sight – as if it could not work. Too simple, and, where’s the catch? But so far I am finding that it works great. Looking forward to hearing you report back on your experience with AF.
Joshua