Tag Archives: productivity

AutoFocus is such a simple system that I think some people find are finding it difficult to get started. When I wrote my review of the system I thought about including some pictures of my set up, but decided against it because after all it is just a list. However after several requests, here is a description of my AutoFocus set up, which is pretty close to following Mark Forster’s instructions.

The book

My book is an A5 hardback wide ruled notebook. This is a book I already had in the house and from the notes on the inside cover appears to be a book from work that I previously used to track progress as part of my management diploma course. My bookmark was a gift from my sister from Japan and is a cat that clips to the cover of the book and the tail marks the page with my current task.

On the first page I have the date I started the list.

Note:When this book is full, my second book will be a soft backed, spiral bound narrow ruled notebook. I prefer narrow ruled notebooks, but they are difficult to find in the UK so I have already bought this when I saw it a few weeks ago.

I’m a big fan of Mark Forster and have all three of his books (pre-ordering two of them). Mark has lots of tips for increasing productivity that do not involve a complex system like Getting Things Done. I have found many of his ideas beneficial particularly rotating through tasks implementing little and often, the concept of a closed list and minimising distractions by not working on incoming tasks until tomorrow.

Before giving birth I developed a new organisation system that incorporated many of Mark Forster’s ideas, as well as some from Getting Things Done. However, I soon realised it was not going to work because of the time it took to set up each day. Fortunately Mark issued a request for Beta testers for his new system AutoFocus in January 2009 just as I was looking to spend time on things other than baby.

AutoFocus

The best way to understand AutoFocus is to read the instructions on Mark’s site and to watch the video of Mark demonstrating how it works.