Areas of Focus - Clarification Needed

[timjamesbrennan]

I have come to the realisation that my omnifocus software needs better organising because I have things on my project list that don't belong there.

Specifically, I have decided that Areas of Focus are going to be recorded in a separate document and not in omnifocus.

Even though I have read davids books numerous times, I decided to recap on the definitions of Areas of Focus and Projects.

I found the following:

20,000 foot - Areas of Focus

This level represents the the agreements you have with yourself about your responsibilities, interests and areas of focus. You can think of it as the job description for your life and work. Typically this list is about 7-10 areas. Your commitments at 20,000 ft tend to change when your life or job changes in some meaningful way. "Responsible for leading company strategy" might be the 20,000 ft component in our running example.

10,000 foot - Projects
What relatively near-term outcomes are you committed to for which you are taking many of the next actions on the runway? The answers to this question essentially create your project list, or 10,000 ft. "Growth strategy for 2009 presented to management team" could be the project for the previously mentioned next action. Projects are typically outcomes that can be completed within about a year.

Then I listened to this podcast: http://www.davidco.com/audio/project_list.mp3

Which stated along the following lines (0:46):

A project is something that can be checked off as complete, and is more than an action. Areas of focus cannot be checked off as done, for example home maintenance, personal finance, any children you have, health and recreation.

I made a list of areas of focus as follows:

• Write up all tennis match notes
• Back up important all non digital work with photos e.g. diary, notebook, progress sheets on wall at home, mindmaps, etc
• Give work tools back to dad
• Distribute Photos To Friends & Family
• Clean computers
• Check up on fire safety for all family
• buy food
• build and maintain a system for easily finding stored stuff in storage boxes
• Socialise with Friends and Family
• get all the furniture that we don't want out of the house (active because I would like to know how much the furniture is worth)
• Investigate all the apps recommended by Mac Power User Podcast (area of focus) (active because I need to learn to use my mac as best as i can)
• Investigate these things recommend by leo laporte (Active because it might help me do my work)
• Keep the house dust free, clean, and organised
• Learn Greek
• Look into All Things Recommended by Friends
• learn to play the guitar (on hold until the house building work is done)
• Make home safer from Fires, hazardous substances, sharp corners, finger traps
• Monitor what's in my Rucksack
• Take part in regular GTD meetups
• Replenish GTD supplies
• Research Days Out & Holiday Ideas
• take care of your teeth
• TV shows and films to watch
• Burning Questions Related To Internet Marketing
• Maintain house
• House Chores
• My wish list

Having made the list, I can now see that some items (perhaps most of them) are not really Areas of Focus, but are repeating projects. They actually could be ticked off as done, but would come back again after a while. For example, I could create a project called "Write up all tennis match notes from the last 2 weeks" and set it to repeat 2 weeks after completion.

Having said that, perhaps with the aid of Omnifocus, all Areas of Focus can be made into into repeating tasks/projects. For example, "Maintain house" could be made into an automatically repeating project, "Brainstorm all potential projects relating to house maintenance arising in the last 2 weeks".

Other items perhaps could be made into checklists/mindmaps. For example, "TV shows and films to watch".

[TesTeq]

I made a list of areas of focus as follows:

• Write up all tennis match notes
• Back up important all non digital work with photos e.g. diary, notebook, progress sheets on wall at home, mindmaps, etc
• Give work tools back to dad
• Distribute Photos To Friends & Family
• Clean computers
• Check up on fire safety for all family
• buy food
• build and maintain a system for easily finding stored stuff in storage boxes
• Socialise with Friends and Family
• get all the furniture that we don't want out of the house (active because I would like to know how much the furniture is worth)
• Investigate all the apps recommended by Mac Power User Podcast (area of focus) (active because I need to learn to use my mac as best as i can)
• Investigate these things recommend by leo laporte (Active because it might help me do my work)
• Keep the house dust free, clean, and organised
• Learn Greek
• Look into All Things Recommended by Friends
• learn to play the guitar (on hold until the house building work is done)
• Make home safer from Fires, hazardous substances, sharp corners, finger traps
• Monitor what's in my Rucksack
• Take part in regular GTD meetups
• Replenish GTD supplies
• Research Days Out & Holiday Ideas
• take care of your teeth
• TV shows and films to watch
• Burning Questions Related To Internet Marketing
• Maintain house
• House Chores
• My wish list

In my system some of the above mentioned items would be Projects - for example:

• Write up all tennis match notes - a recurring Project in the "Sport" Area of Focus
• Back up important all non digital work with photos e.g. diary, notebook, progress sheets on wall at home, mindmaps, etc - a recurring Project in the "IT" Area of Focus
• Give work tools back to dad - a Next Action in the "Family" Area of Focus
• Distribute Photos To Friends & Family - a recurring Project in the "Family" Area of Focus
• Clean computers - a recurring Project in the "IT" Area of Focus

[ero213]

I have come to the realisation that my omnifocus software needs better organising because I have things on my project list that don't belong there.

Specifically, I have decided that Areas of Focus are going to be recorded in a separate document and not in omnifocus.

Even though I have read davids books numerous times, I decided to recap on the definitions of Areas of Focus and Projects.

I found the following:



Then I listened to this podcast: http://www.davidco.com/audio/project_list.mp3

Which stated along the following lines (0:46):



I made a list of areas of focus as follows:

• Write up all tennis match notes
• Back up important all non digital work with photos e.g. diary, notebook, progress sheets on wall at home, mindmaps, etc
• Give work tools back to dad
• Distribute Photos To Friends & Family
• Clean computers
• Check up on fire safety for all family
• buy food
• build and maintain a system for easily finding stored stuff in storage boxes
• Socialise with Friends and Family
• get all the furniture that we don't want out of the house (active because I would like to know how much the furniture is worth)
• Investigate all the apps recommended by Mac Power User Podcast (area of focus) (active because I need to learn to use my mac as best as i can)
• Investigate these things recommend by leo laporte (Active because it might help me do my work)
• Keep the house dust free, clean, and organised
• Learn Greek
• Look into All Things Recommended by Friends
• learn to play the guitar (on hold until the house building work is done)
• Make home safer from Fires, hazardous substances, sharp corners, finger traps
• Monitor what's in my Rucksack
• Take part in regular GTD meetups
• Replenish GTD supplies
• Research Days Out & Holiday Ideas
• take care of your teeth
• TV shows and films to watch
• Burning Questions Related To Internet Marketing
• Maintain house
• House Chores
• My wish list

Having made the list, I can now see that some items (perhaps most of them) are not really Areas of Focus, but are repeating projects. They actually could be ticked off as done, but would come back again after a while. For example, I could create a project called "Write up all tennis match notes from the last 2 weeks" and set it to repeat 2 weeks after completion.

Having said that, perhaps with the aid of Omnifocus, all Areas of Focus can be made into into repeating tasks/projects. For example, "Maintain house" could be made into an automatically repeating project, "Brainstorm all potential projects relating to house maintenance arising in the last 2 weeks".

Other items perhaps could be made into checklists/mindmaps. For example, "TV shows and films to watch".

Er, this doesn't sound like "high-level" checklist. Many of these are projects or recurring tasks that could be groupled into larger "areas."

Based on your list I can probably guess some of your areas of focus:

-Friends
-Family
-Home
-Health
-Personal development (ie learning)
-Stuff (eg computers, digital archives,etc.)
-Self-management (everyone who follows GTD should have this a category)

Anyways, you get the idea....one key is that AOF don't usually verbs associated with them.

[Suelin23]

A lot of what you have identified are not areas of focus, but responsibilities or habits.
eg:
AOF - Home
Responsibilities -
* Keep the house dust free, clean, and organised
* Maintain house

From these responsibilities you will identify two types of work
* habits or routine work (eg clean computers)
* projects (give work tools back to dad)

Habits often do well on checklists or on the context lists as standalone actions, projects are well defined in GTD.

[mattsykes]

perhaps with the aid of Omnifocus, all Areas of Focus can be made into into repeating tasks/projects

Be careful about this. Areas of focus are a very key part of the GTD methodology. They are a key part of the review process - to focus your mind on each key area of your life. If you push everything down into tasks/projects and dispense with AOF, you will find you increasingly have blind spots and miss things.

[timjamesbrennan]

Really helpful posts - thanks.

So, I have created a few AOF as follows:

• Sport/Fitness
• IT
• Friends
• Family
• Health
• Personal development (ie learning)

Now I am thinking I could create my responsibilities as either:
a) repeating projects in omnifocus
b) put them on a checklist

I am leaning towards a) since it might save some time.

Have I missed the point?

Anyone have any experience of this?

[mthar1]

Really helpful posts - thanks.

So, I have created a few AOF as follows:

• Sport/Fitness
• IT
• Friends
• Family
• Health
• Personal development (ie learning)

Now I am thinking I could create my responsibilities as either:
a) repeating projects in omnifocus
b) put them on a checklist

I am leaning towards a) since it might save some time.

Have I missed the point?

Anyone have any experience of this?

If it is truly a repeating project, I'd also put it in OmniFocus. But whatever isn't a recurring project but rather a checklist that functions as Area of Focus support, I'd prefer have in a separate checklist to have better overview.

[mcogilvie]

Now I am thinking I could create my responsibilities as either:
a) repeating projects in omnifocus
b) put them on a checklist

I can see putting them in a separate list or as folders containing projects.
I don't see the point of areas of focus as repeating projects.

[Suelin23]

For most of mine I use a checklist, and that has been working well. There are a few I use in my list manager Pocket Informant, like 'fertilise plants every 2-4 weeks'. I only put these in PI because I like to include notes on when I last did it, and my checklist app doesn't have a notes field. Alternatively I could have used Word or Excel to keep record of when I fertilised the plants.

Your revised AOF looks much better, much more manageable.

[Tom.9]

In my system some of the above mentioned items would be Projects - for example:

[...]
Back up important all non digital work with photos e.g. diary, notebook, progress sheets on wall at home, mindmaps, etc - a recurring Project in the "IT" Area of Focus

What is a "recurring project" ?

I too am still struggeling with AoF vs. projects.
I have a lot of recurring work. The precise action is doable, but there will always be some similar task.
How to define that?