Keeping Daily Focus Tack Sharp with ActionMethod and the Pomodoro Technique
The ticking of the virtual Pomodoro timer on the iPhone helps reinforce and synchronize my commitment to get this task done. Looking at the log, I’m on my fourth Pomodoro for this activity and nearly complete. And this is lining up pretty well with my ActionMethod estimate. Opening up the ActionMethod desktop application, I don’t have the sense of dread l feel when I open up OmniFocus in any of it’s incarnations. So part of the daily ritual is to identify the Next Actions from GTD in OmniFocus and transposing these into ActionMethod. A manual step, sure, but I find ActionMethod’s views calming and reassuring - simplicity without being simplistic. I can meditate on my day in a way that OmniFocus’ views never allowed me to. Another plus is input capabilities that span Windows, Mac OSX and iOS. I’m using the free version of ActionMethod, limited to 50 Action Steps. So it’s the leaned out view for Now + 2 days out. Perhaps that’s another factor that engenders peace and focus. Should I feel sad that the $130+ investment in OmniFocus (iPhone, iPad, and Mac OSX) is slowly being relegated to higher horizons of focus? Nah - OmniFocus is well suited to handle the complexity of multiple hierarchies. I can see that the allure of ActionMethod’s interface clarity could rapidly diminish if I were to scale up towards a full data dump. So the runway yields to ActionMethod working together with the Pomodoro Technique™ to keep that focus tack sharp. Not quite sure if and when I take the plunge for a year subscription to ActionMethod. Time will tell.
