Total, Relaxed Organization, The Blog

Client Question: Should I try Mark Forster’s new “autofocus” time management system?

Answer by Kevin Crenshaw, Priacta Head Coach and co-author of The TRO Field Guide:

Mark Forster’s new “autofocus” system is interesting, and Mark is a great time management experimenter, so we’re paying attention.

We believe even great systems can be improved, so we constantly look at other methods to enhance Total, Relaxed Organization. For example, TRO is based largely on David Allen’s GTD principles, and TRO uses some ”closed lists” like Mark Forster’s prior system, Do It Tomorrow. (TRO’s “Do Today” list is a closed list, and TRO relies on closed lists even more with certain tools like Remember the Milk.)

Overall, we see both good and bad in Mark’s new “autofocus” system. It could be great for some people but would probably fail in the long run for anyone feeling a lot of time management pain. Here is our reasoning.

Benefits of “Autofocus”

“Autofocus” handles important issues like intuitive prioritization, working in “little and often” chunks, eventually eliminating things that shouldn’t grab your attention, and separate lists for each life area.

One big advantage of Mark’s new “autofocus” system: it doesn’t make you “process” your tasks up front. Just add tasks to your lists and work from there. This is probably the main attraction for most folks. It’s very easy to get started. (Similarly, TRO training teaches you to do “triaging” instead of full “processing” in most cases. If you have enough to do, you work mostly off your “Today” lists and the remaining Unprocessed tasks become de facto Someday/Maybes. This happens naturally because TRO is self-adapting, depending on your workload.)

Another great advantage of “autofocus” is automatic purging of unimportant items. We are enhancing the 5-minute TRO weekly review and Trog Bar auto-prioritizing software to allow that benefit. Thanks, Mark, for identifying this principle!

Disadvantages of “Autofocus”

Unfortunately, if you have a heavy workload, we are concerned about the “autofocus” system. (Sorry, Mark!) Specifically:

1. Scanning Stress. If you to scan a long list twice daily (on a page-by-page basis), it puts a lot of not-yet-done tasks in front of your eyes. That can become stressful. TRO, on the other hand, delivers a short, closed list of critical daily things and an optional auto-prioritized list of may-do tasks. Future lists appear automatically WITHOUT scanning long lists. In fact, the only list scanning in TRO happens once weekly (5-10 minutes) and once monthly (5-10 minutes) for non-time-sensitive items.
2. Deadlines: “Bad Things May Happen.” Mark’s new approach has no clear provision for tasks with deadlines–things that must be done at some point OR BAD THINGS MAY HAPPEN.  Those tasks need to be scheduled (but without cluttering your calendar) since stress comes from the fear of missing urgent or time-critical things.
3. No Focus on Next Actions. David Allen (GTD) focuses on the “single next action” for each project. Mark’s “Autofocus” lacks this, though it could be added by writing your tasks in “Project – Next step” format. You need this to overcome resistance to larger projects.
4. No Time Budgeting = Procrastination. “Autofocus” has no provision for budgeting time for large task steps—the “big rocks” in the heap that we avoid because we know they will take a long time. This is critical to avoid procrastination.
5. “Everything” vs. Strategic. When you have too much to do, you need to focus on your strategic Most Profitable Activities–whatever gives the biggest bang for the buck. But how often will you work on your MPA’s if 1) you have to work all task list pages in sequence and 2) you have hundreds of tasks? 400+ is very common! By contrast, TRO keeps less-important stuff out of your face.

Who Should Consider “Autofocus”?

All considered, Mark’s system could work well for someone with just a few time-sensitive, strategic, or critical “big-next-step” tasks–say, someone who is retired with a lot of ideas but few real deadlines. For them, the system would be extremely easy to pick up and master. Almost no learning curve!

However, if you feel a lot of time-management pain, if you have more than a few time-sensitive, strategic, or 30+-minute tasks, “autofocus” is probably going to break down quickly. Try TRO instead. TRO delivers what “autofocus” promises with less work for heavier workloads, and it has measurable results that get better with time.

All comments are appreciated.

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