How I Use My PDA With Autofocus
Posted on January 24, 2009 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Productivity
Two readers were gracious enough to leave comments asking for the details on how I use my PDA with Mark Forster’s new system, Autofocus. (see the previous article, Mark Forster’s New System) I am going to give you my current set-up, but please bear in mind that this is a work in progress, much as Autofocus currently is.
At this point, everything on my Palm task list comes from two sources: my project tracking in Bonsai (see “Using Bonsai with GTD”), or tasks that are set up to recur every day. These second tasks have to do with things that I want to do to keep myself in balance, such as crafting, music and spiritual activities. Please note that I also do not have a backlog at this point. I used the paper-based Autofocus system to clear that out, and shelved many items.
I am currently using an old version of Agendus on my PDA, which allows me to group my tasks by priority. I am using this to keep my list going.
All of my Most Important Tasks are prioritized as #1. This includes only exercise and writing my book.
All my tasks that I would like to do today are marked as priority 2. All the repeating tasks are priority 3, along with undated tasks that come from Bonsai. All future-due tasks are priority 4, and anything I am waiting for is priority 5.
Every morning I move anything overdue to today’s date. If it has been overdue more than once, its priority gets bumped up to 1 (thereby “moving” up the list as things “get crossed off”). Any tasks that are due today are moved from priority 4 to 2.
As I do things, I cross them off, and things naturally sort the way they would in the paper-based system.
I hope that this gives you some idea of how I am using it. The software involved is Agendus, the built-in task list (because re-prioritizing in Agendus is a pain), Bonsai and Redo (to put in the recurring tasks).
If you enjoyed this post, please buy me a cup of coffee!
Comments (4)
Thanks for your description! I look forward to hearing more specifics once Forster’s system is out of beta and can be discussed more clearly. You could also post more specifics in his blog forum.
[...] did have to implement my own electronic version of the system (see How I Use My PDA With Autofocus) because I just don’t deal well with paper. I did find that I got a lot more done while using [...]
This isn’t done according to the autofocus system. You have priorities. Autofocus does not!
I simply use the priorities to sort the list. The things that remain on the list will get set to a higher priority and thus float up to the top. It has exactly the same effect as crossing off items and seeing what is left.