A simpler autofocused productivity system
Autofocus gives you a simple list and easy fun rules to guide your proces
I recently read about this system by Mark Forster. Autofocus is a todolist system based on simple rules, and an in-built trust in your own innate ability to sense the right thing to do right now.
The autofocus system will appeal to people with a fondness for paperbased systems, and particularly the Moleskine Crowd.
Here's how Mark Forster describes it himself:
1. Read quickly through all the items on the page without taking action on any of them.
2. Go through the page more slowly looking at the items in order until one stands out for you.
3. Work on that item for as long as you feel like doing so
4. Cross the item off the list, and re-enter it at the end of the list if you haven’t finished it
5. Continue going round the same page in the same way. Don’t move onto the next page until you complete a pass of the page without any item standing out
6. Move onto the next page and repeat the process
7. If you go to a page and no item stands out for you on your first pass through it, then all the outstanding items on that page are dismissed without re-entering them. (N.B. This does not apply to the final page, on which you are still writing items). Use a highlighter to mark dismissed items.
8. Once you’ve finished with the final page, re-start at the first page that is still active.
I like several things about the autofocus system:
1. it's compact
I love to be able to walk around with my system all the time. Capturing ideas depends on this. I must admit that my Iphone with Omnifocus is used a lot less, than I had imagined. My test-run of autofocus had me capture more stuff, and remembering more as well.
2. it's simple
It's not complicated. I tend to lose my perspective when everything is sorted in projects and contexts. Especially the context part of GTD makes less sense to me than ever. I don't really need anything besides @work and @home. Autofocus urges to have two lists. One for work and one for private stuff.
3. it gets rid of old todo-list garbage
The idea of dismissing old items when you look at a page without anything standing appeals to me a lot. The thing I get rid of this way, is the non-doable things, that seems to creep into every todo-list I make. In autofocus you highlight it, and then someday later you can review these dismissed items and totally forget them, put them on a someday/maybe list og or re-enter them in another form.
4. it's fast!
You can do this really fast. With 22 lines per page, you can quickly skim a page. Adding new items is lightning fast. And since you never grow your list to more than 10-15 pages, findign something is actually quite simple.
5. it's in a moleskine
Well... you gotta love a moleskine. I love touching them. I love carrying them. I love looking at them. Well... maybe it's just me :)
Anyways... that's it. A simple analouge system that you can check out at the blog of Mark Forster. The decribtion of the system is a mere 6 pages in the printer. So go ahead read about it. I have been using it for my home stuff for a week now, and I'm pretty happy. I am considering moving my someday/maybe lists into Taskpaper, but that's another story.
Oh... by the way... drawing on the top was made with wonderful children focused drawing app: Doozla.
- Jens Poder
Taking a break from Lifehacking
I have been trying to shift my focus away from lifehacking and productivity in the last couple of months. The reason for this was the obvious lifehacker trap: I simply wasn't relaxing enough. After a prolonged period of GTD'ing I found myself thinking about everything in a "get more done mode"
This, in my opinion, is a bad mode to be in. Because when everything serves the goal of efficiency a couple of other important parts of life is at risk. I often found myself anxious about thing I should be leisurely enjoying.
So, since new years eve I have been on a kind of productivity diet. No more fiddling with OmniFocus, at least for a while. Instead I have been trying to introduce a couple of new focal points in my life. These aren't projects that I am trying to achieve. There's no deadline to them. It's three ways of being that instills relaxation and enjoyment.
1. Thinking deeply
I love staring through the window. In my home in Copenhagen, I have an absolutely amazing view over the entire city. While looking at horizon I often float into a state af calm, pondering. It's one of the things in life I really treasure, being alone in deep thought. When doing this I often find that amazing things happen. Good ideas seems to hit in the back of my head out of nowhere.
I also find myself in this state when I'm writing in my journal, but ideas tend to be more related to the subjects I'm writing about.
BTW: I love this talk on deep thinking from google sessions on youtube.
2. Being Happy
This one became a goal of own after reading Tal Ben-Shahars book Happier. I hadn't been very good at just doing stuff that made happy. Benjamin inpsired me to mindmap all the things in life I knew would make happy doing more of.
I now carry this mindmap around with me in my notebook. And from time i'll look at it and get ideas for something that'll make me happy.
Reading novels instead of productivity literature or blogs has been one of the things I have introduced. I used to read several novels a month, but came out of the habit, reading business related stuff instead. Now I'm frequently relaxing with a novel and great coffee instead, enjoying the sound of a turned of telly.
3. Being Healthy
This one has been a troublemaker in my life since childhood. I don't like sports. Or... let me rephrase that... I like the idea, but I can't seem to get my butt from the couch after a long day at work. I just think sports are so amzingly time-consuming.
So I'm trying to do slowly take very very small measures towards a healthier way of living, and I'm doing it in a rather different mode than I used. No more putting ambitous goals into the calendar.
For me, it's all about removing hurdles and adding little incremental habit-changes, to become healthier. I have been bicycling to work for a month now, and I have been eating a lot healthier. I have found all kinds of gymnastics I can do without leaving the house.
Instead of focusing on my disability to turn myself into a marathon man, I focus on the small things I can do instantly, now and here.
So there you have it... This is the reason why I haven't been posting as frequently. All this computer time simply feels to much like work. Now I'm going to get myself a cuppa and a good long stare at the horizon before my loved ones return from work.
Please share you experiences below, if you have any, regarding lifehacking and relaxation.
- Jens Poder