Fans of Mark Forster’s popular organisational system, Do It Tomorrow, may be interested to hear that he has a completely new system in the works called “Autofocus.” While it is still in the testing phases, Autofocus may prove to be even more intuitive than DIT— in a nutshell, it works by combining the rational and intuitive processes we use when deciding to complete a task.

Capitalising on our need to trust our intuitions, but also on our need for order, the system encourages users to keep coming back to tasks they truly feel must be done, while allowing things they cling to (but know deep down they won’t do), slip away and stop dividing their attention.

Using Autofocus

Using Autofocus is very simple. Anyone who would like to really try it should visit Forster’s web-site to get the full instructions, but to give a brief summary: The user is asked to keep a list of tasks they wish to complete. The list is in any format that allows for many pages (though a notebook probably works best.) The order of tasks, their magnitude or where they appear on the list is irrelevant. The list is worked on page by page in chronological order. The user first reviews the first page from the top. Allowing a first reading to let the contents of the page sink in, on second reading, the user reads down until a task stands out, for whatever reason. Once found, they work on this task for as long as they feel comfortable doing it. When they stop, if the task is not finished, it is added to the very end of the list and crossed off from where it last appeared. The user now starts the process all over. If nothing stands out on a page, the user moves on to the next page and after getting through all pages, starts again at the oldest page still containing unfinished tasks. Because the list is not ordered in any way, Forster claims this encourages us to sift by intuition—something most people do anyway when selecting tasks to complete, but not in a systematic way that records rolling tasks, new ideas and ongoing projects. (Note: This system is NOT to be used for time-sensitive tasks, such as specific appointments, etc.)
Any tasks repeatedly ignored on the list are to be reviewed, and then struck off by the user. (A struck task can be re-added to the list after a hiatus, if the user finds themselves still coming back to it.) Ideally, this method allows Autofocus users to stop wasting time on tasks they (intuitively) know they will not get to work on and focus instead on the things they are driven to finish. This discourages procrastination and encourages smaller and more frequent, effective bursts of work on projects.

Click here to view the instructions on Mark Forster’s website.

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