I tried Autofocus as a replacement for my current system for getting stuff done, and so far it works a lot better than GTD (though I can’t say that I was using GTD properly, for example, I couldn’t bring myself to do regular reviews). The main benefit for me was its ability to handle long-term thinking / gestation tasks, mostly due to not treating them as enemies to be crossed off the list as soon as possible. And it requires very little willpower to run.
I just had an extremely simple but promising theory of why work is aversive!
Work is the stuff you tell yourself to do. But sometimes you tell yourself to do it and you don’t, because you’re too tired, engaged with something else (like playing a computer game), etc. This creates cognitive dissonance, which associates unpleasantness with the thought of work. (In the same way cognitive dissonance causes you to avoid your belief’s real weak points, it causes you to avoid work.) Ugh fields accumulate.
The solution? Only tell yourself to work when you’re actually going to work, with minimal cognitive dissonance.
Autofocus helps accomplish this by helping you avoid telling yourself to work when you’re not actually going to work, which means cognitive dissonance doesn’t accumulate.
Designated work times, etc. might also help solve this problem.
Well it’s only a descriptive theory; it doesn’t actually tell you what to do about the fact that accumulated cognitive dissonance is making you procrastinate. Still, I think there are some practical applications:
Consciously try to minimize cognitive dissonance when you tell yourself to work and don’t.
Develop some sort of unambiguous decision rule for deciding when to work and when not to.
If you set out to do something, try to actually do it without getting distracted, even if you get distracted by something that’s actually more important. (Or if you get distracted by something that’s actually more important, make a note of the fact that you are rationally changing what you’re working on.) (Now that I think of it, this rule actually has more to do with avoiding learned helplessness due to setting out to do something and failing.)
I somehow completely missed this when it was discussed earlier. Looks really interesting. My problem with TODO lists is that they rot into uselessness when I neglect them, and then the batch of weeks-old items makes me not bother with the whole thing. Autofocus seems to be built around the TODO list as a mental scratch space instead of a list of things that actually need to get accomplished at some point, and has garbage collection of uninteresting items built in to the algorithm, so having a spell of low productivity will end up with nothing done and an empty TODO list with a lot of dismissed items in the history instead of nothing done and a depressing list full of items whose context you’ve forgotten.
depressing list full of items whose context you’ve forgotten
It really helps to word todo items properly, as complete sentences. For example, instead of “Widget!!!!”, you should use “Decide which Widget to buy.” I often add more context or next actions as I process the task, so it may gradually evolve into “Decide which Widget to buy. Red ones seem to be better. Bob may know more—call him.”
It’s more about forgetting why it was supposed to be so important to buy a Widget to begin with, given that the item has sat inactive in the todo list for weeks with no widgetlessness-related catastrophes ensuing.
Then it’s a perfect candidate for garbage collection. I just drop items like this, or, if an item has accumulated too much contextual info I don’t want to lose, I postpone it for a month or so and decide later, or move it to non-actionable notes.
I tried Autofocus as a replacement for my current system for getting stuff done, and so far it works a lot better than GTD (though I can’t say that I was using GTD properly, for example, I couldn’t bring myself to do regular reviews). The main benefit for me was its ability to handle long-term thinking / gestation tasks, mostly due to not treating them as enemies to be crossed off the list as soon as possible. And it requires very little willpower to run.
I just had an extremely simple but promising theory of why work is aversive!
Work is the stuff you tell yourself to do. But sometimes you tell yourself to do it and you don’t, because you’re too tired, engaged with something else (like playing a computer game), etc. This creates cognitive dissonance, which associates unpleasantness with the thought of work. (In the same way cognitive dissonance causes you to avoid your belief’s real weak points, it causes you to avoid work.) Ugh fields accumulate.
The solution? Only tell yourself to work when you’re actually going to work, with minimal cognitive dissonance.
Autofocus helps accomplish this by helping you avoid telling yourself to work when you’re not actually going to work, which means cognitive dissonance doesn’t accumulate.
Designated work times, etc. might also help solve this problem.
Holy crap, it might be true! Will definitely try that.
Well it’s only a descriptive theory; it doesn’t actually tell you what to do about the fact that accumulated cognitive dissonance is making you procrastinate. Still, I think there are some practical applications:
Consciously try to minimize cognitive dissonance when you tell yourself to work and don’t.
Develop some sort of unambiguous decision rule for deciding when to work and when not to.
If you set out to do something, try to actually do it without getting distracted, even if you get distracted by something that’s actually more important. (Or if you get distracted by something that’s actually more important, make a note of the fact that you are rationally changing what you’re working on.) (Now that I think of it, this rule actually has more to do with avoiding learned helplessness due to setting out to do something and failing.)
I somehow completely missed this when it was discussed earlier. Looks really interesting. My problem with TODO lists is that they rot into uselessness when I neglect them, and then the batch of weeks-old items makes me not bother with the whole thing. Autofocus seems to be built around the TODO list as a mental scratch space instead of a list of things that actually need to get accomplished at some point, and has garbage collection of uninteresting items built in to the algorithm, so having a spell of low productivity will end up with nothing done and an empty TODO list with a lot of dismissed items in the history instead of nothing done and a depressing list full of items whose context you’ve forgotten.
It really helps to word todo items properly, as complete sentences. For example, instead of “Widget!!!!”, you should use “Decide which Widget to buy.” I often add more context or next actions as I process the task, so it may gradually evolve into “Decide which Widget to buy. Red ones seem to be better. Bob may know more—call him.”
It’s more about forgetting why it was supposed to be so important to buy a Widget to begin with, given that the item has sat inactive in the todo list for weeks with no widgetlessness-related catastrophes ensuing.
Then it’s a perfect candidate for garbage collection. I just drop items like this, or, if an item has accumulated too much contextual info I don’t want to lose, I postpone it for a month or so and decide later, or move it to non-actionable notes.