How I Build In My Areas of Focus in Todoist

[@Glenn.Cooper]

Carl - I just want to thank you sincerely for this massive series of videos. I've been in search of a solid, workable time management system for a very long time. Todoist seems to check off all the boxes for me. And your videos are THE way that I'm learning how to use this tool effectively in my life. So thanks a ton!!

[@Carl_Pullein]

Glad to have been of help, Glenn.

[@Adya_shan]

YES ⚡

[@devarni]

I think I understand your system and it makes more sense to me than GTD. In another (newer?) video, you additionally prioritized and had a corresponding filter to show these tasks as "today's focus" (and tomorrow's focus)?

[@devarni]

Gave me a different view how to organize with Todoist, great!

[@Carl_Pullein]

You're welcome, Frank.

[@fotomania79]

Hi Carl, do you use flags to tasks of Areas of Focus?

[@bardak81]

Same question

[@Ben-xk8xz]

Hi Carl, by any chance do you track on another application the amount of times you must do you AOF (exercise for example) and then note down once you have completed it - for ex 6/7 for the week. Doing it in todoist is not possible as its not designed for tracking. Its almost like setting performance goals which im not sure if you do / how you would do it? Kind Regards

[@Carl_Pullein]

Hi Ben, I keep an exercise journal in my journal and I have a weight tracker in my note app where I add my current weight to the list for the year.

[@e.f.kotlinski1658]

Hi Carl 😊. Doesn’t the time sector requires a huge amount of work to keep the folders organized? Like, every week passing all your next week tasks to this week folder and so on?

[@Carl_Pullein]

Quite the reverse actually. To move next week’s tasks to this week takes 0.25 seconds (well it does in Todoist) and if you add a quick review to make sure the tasks you are moving are relevant then perhaps 10 seconds. How much time you spend reviewing your projects list in your notes app will be different on an indivudual basis, for me that takes around ten minutes but it does depend on howm any active projects I have at any one time. When I practiced GTD, my weekly review took nearly 90 minutes. Now, I can do a complete weekly planning session in around 20 minutes.

[@e.f.kotlinski1658]

@@Carl_Pullein thank you for answering ❤️. I didn’t put on that perspective and it makes totally sense. Viewing each project and thinking when, in what context, etc.. takes a lot more time. Thank you again.

[@markmodesti4054]

Is the "THIS WEEK" folder the only one where this "Recurring Areas of Focus" lives?

[@Carl_Pullein]

That's right. It's only place it needs to be.

[@mulroydm]

@@Carl_Pullein What if you have tasks relating to an area of focus that recur on a monthly basis rather than daily or weekly? Do you still keep them in the THIS WEEK folder?

[@Carl_Pullein]

@@mulroydm I do. Once you have your recurring areas of focus set up, you rarely need to review them. So, I don't worry too much about the recurrence. These will pop up when they need to pop up.

[@justfelicia6671]

@@mulroydm I think the idea is that *some AOFs will be weekly, biweekly, monthly, even quarterly or yearly.* The idea is, *different tasks/areas will come into focus at some point in the current week.* It's the best place to list them *rather than another Project Folder.* It keeps the workflow clean. Like Carl said, with this management system, *everything starts with AOFs.* We get them listed down *_One Time_* and that's it (though it's not thoughtless, it requires deep thinking)... we'll rarely have to change or update that list or delete tasks because we don't have to try to remember when they need attention.

[@Gorillakilla304]

@@Carl_Pullein So you use your 202- planner to set up your areas of focus, and then move them over to your Weekly project?

[@ofernandojorge]

Saitama