ForumsTime ManagementMark Forster's Autofocus

Mark Forster's Autofocus

Author	Message
mike_de_bruyn	Posted: Feb 08, 2010 Score: -1 Reference mike_de_bruyn Posted: Feb 08, 2010 Score: -1 Reference The main difference between GtD and any version of AutoFocus (including DWM) is that with GtD you do your planning up front and then execute the plan throughout your day. With AutoFocus, you simply dump everything into it and use your intuition to decide what to do when. Very different philosophies which appeal to different mind sets. I am just learning Toodledo and accessing it from the iPhone via Personal Informant. My question is how I can use it with DWM, yet another version of Mark Forster's time management system. You can read about it here: http://www.markforster.net/blog/ (You'll have to go down a few items, I just could not get the link to insert correctly. Sorry.) The basic idea is that you enter new tasks a month from today but work on them any time you like. If you don't complete a task, you RE-enter it a week from today. Any tasks remaining undone on today's page are discarded. It seems as if it is simply a matter of setting the default due date to 30 days and manually changing the date on incomplete tasks to a week from today. A simple sort by due date should show all tasks which can be done, in order by the time they will expire. Do I have that about right? Is there any compelling reason to get the iPhone Toodledo App, or will PI on the iPhone give me what I need? (If anyone is familiar with PI, that is ;-) Thanks for any input. I've gotten a lot of good reports about Toodledo and will use it for this purpose if I can. I also plan to add the normal kind of calendar/task events that are used in "normal" time management systems. (Birthdays, renew driver's license, etc.) I'll distinguish those with a tag, or a star or something. I've not decided yet. This message was edited Feb 08, 2010.
jml575	Posted: Feb 11, 2010 Score: 1 Reference jml575 Posted: Feb 11, 2010 Score: 1 Reference Hi MIke, NIce to see someone else from the AF forum over here! Your description of setting the weekly and monthly dates sounds right to me. If you haven't already noticed, the calendar window that opens when you click on the due-date setting, shows quick dates, including one week and one month ahead, so that is very handy for DWM. To view your tasks, you can sort by due date, as you say, but this will give you one long list, not the series of closed lists that Mark advocates. There isn't a setting in TD to view lists by separate days, as such, BUT there is a work-around: if you use calendar view and then click on each date for the next 30 days in turn, you will see the list for each day, without anything else. I think that will give the effect Mark describes. Sorry, I don't have an iPhone, so can't comment on the merits of TD's native app vs PI. Also I don't know if the work-around I just suggested is possible on the iPhone - apologies if it isn't - in that case I think you would have to work from one long list.
akingbfd	Posted: Feb 13, 2010 Score: -1 Reference akingbfd Posted: Feb 13, 2010 Score: -1 Reference I too am getting bogged down, but I think I need to move the "someday list tasks" to a -1 priority and hide them until I have a little "woulda coulda shoulda" time. Don't they make medicine for people who can't let things go:-)
mike_de_bruyn	Posted: Feb 14, 2010 Score: 1 Reference mike_de_bruyn Posted: Feb 14, 2010 Score: 1 Reference Posted by acedia.acedia: Hi MIke, NIce to see someone else from the AF forum over here! Yeah. This has promise ;-) Your description of setting the weekly and monthly dates sounds right to me. If you haven't already noticed, the calendar window that opens when you click on the due-date setting, shows quick dates, including one week and one month ahead, so that is very handy for DWM. Yes, that is very nice. Just two clicks to move a task where I want it. To view your tasks, you can sort by due date, as you say, but this will give you one long list, not the series of closed lists that Mark advocates. There isn't a setting in TD to view lists by separate days, as such, BUT there is a work-around: if you use calendar view and then click on each date for the next 30 days in turn, you will see the list for each day, without anything else. I think that will give the effect Mark describes. Is there a way to turn off "importance" for all views and have it stick? It is not that I don't like "importance" but it works against this way of doing things. As you indicate, it would be nice to have tasks aggregated by day but it does not bother me that it is done this way. Sorry, I don't have an iPhone, so can't comment on the merits of TD's native app vs PI. I am starting to see problems with the "slim" version that I pull up in Safari on the iPhone. One context is showing one item in it, and when I click it it says "empty" but on my PC I see the item there. Very odd. Also I don't know if the work-around I just suggested is possible on the iPhone - apologies if it isn't - in that case I think you would have to work from one long list. I don't even mind working from one long list. It is not that much of a bother. Thanks for your response. I'm new to this product and it has great promise. But DAMN, the web interface is way too busy! LOL ;-)
mike_de_bruyn	Posted: Feb 14, 2010 Score: -1 Reference mike_de_bruyn Posted: Feb 14, 2010 Score: -1 Reference Posted by akingbfd: I too am getting bogged down, but I think I need to move the "someday list tasks" to a -1 priority and hide them until I have a little "woulda coulda shoulda" time. Don't they make medicine for people who can't let things go:-) ROTF ;-) For the moment I set a "context" for "someday" but I'm not focused on it that much so I probably have not noticed that those things keep showing up. But I'm sure you could construct a "saved filter" or "saved search" or whatever to screen things out any way you needed to. One thing I wish they would add is the ability to color the text anyway we like. That would give up yet another way of marking things.