

This, says Forster, is your "autofocus" drawing you to what you should do. Then, on a second pass, you scan through the list until you feel a task pulling at you. You simply read through the list once, not looking for a task to do, but just taking in all the tasks available to you. This is where the name comes into play: "autofocus" is what the system's creator, Mark Forster, says you use to choose a task. When you're done, it's time to decide what to work on. Start by writing down everything you need to get done in one big list.

It's a single-list system with a super simple approach. If you hate having multiple projects, lists, inboxes, and folders to manage your tasks, Autofocus might be for you. Perfect for: a backlog of tasks that need to be chipped away at A couple of them have optional methods for handling events or tasks with specific due dates, but my general suggestion would be to use a calendar app for anything that's time-based, and rely on these systems for all the stuff you want to get done sometime. If simplicity is what you need to feel confident that you're keeping on top of your work rather than spending time organizing your task list, the methods below might be better options.īefore we get started, a note about due dates and recurring tasks: Most of these methods are so simple they don't deal with dates very well, if at all. When your work is more simple, with lots of one-off tasks to remember, rather than complicated projects and different types of work to manage, it's silly to spend your time maintaining a system you don't really need. For some of us, it's too much work and even overkill-sometimes you just don't have enough tasks or multi-step projects for a complex approach like GTD to be useful. Some people swear by the GTD method, but to make GTD work, you have to put in a lot of work. There's also a regular review process built into the GTD method, to ensure that you've followed all the essential task management steps. But the system also requires rethinking your tasks: everything in your GTD system should be actionable and broken down into the smallest steps. Getting Things Done® and GTD® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company.Įverything in your system also needs to be organized into the appropriate project (any multi-step task) and context (when and where you'll work on it).
