
Autofocus time management system - tjpick
http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2009/1/6/autofocus-system-instructions.html?printerFriendly=true
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meej
Mark Forster's time management systems are interesting. Did you see Autofocus
version 4? Of all the ones I've tried, it's the one I like best, though his
"Final Version" system has been growing on me the more I try it.

[http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2009/9/5/preliminary...](http://markforster.squarespace.com/blog/2009/9/5/preliminary-
instructions-for-autofocus-v-4.html)

There's also a nice "animation" of AF4 in action:
<http://autofocus.cc/public/data/af4-demo.pdf>

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lopatin
Can someone explain why something like this is better than a simple to-do
list/app? I'm a fan of GTD apps because they're a place I can structure my
thoughts of what's next, and see some performance metrics to remind me when
I'm slacking.

However, this system seems like overkill to me. In the end, no matter what
kind of system you place your "Write end-to-end tests" to-do in, you're going
to have to sit down, forget about your time management system, and focus
completely on writing these the specs. Reading through his blog posts about
Autofocus, I get the feeling that he's sending the message that if you use
this system, the actual task of writing your end-to-end tests will be easier.
But it seems to me that you will just be wasting precious time maintaining
this time management system, and will have less time to do whatever it is you
actually need to achieve.

This is all coming from a person who hasn't tried it. Does anyone have
experience with this? Do all the complicated rules actually improve your
productivity?

