I've been using a slight modification of this "autofocus" system for a bit over two months now. It's not my first try with it - I used it for a few weeks a couple of years ago but I think at the time the type of tasks / priority structure I was trying to deal with worked less well with it. Two months in, I could definitely still be in the period where any change of system works really well for a bit before ceasing to work. I do think its effectiveness has declined a little bit since the first couple of weeks. However, subjectively it seems to have stabilised; I'm certain I abandoned it earlier last time; and I don't envisage giving up on it in the near future.

It feels like my motivation to keep using it is affected substantially by my choice of a very slim notebook with blocks of different-coloured pages. "I only have to fill in four more pages of tasks and I'll be into the green section!" Pretty soon I'll be more than halfway through the notebook and motivation to fill it completely is quite strong!

I've toyed with various higher-tech methods over the years, but for to-do lists I always keep drifting back towards good old paper, for the simple reason that I find it really motivating to browse back through long-crossed-off stuff and go "Hey, look at all this that I accomplished!" I've been through couple of digital approaches that sort-of worked for this, but none of them quite did it. (One of them did last ~18 months though, which is definitely my record for use of any organisational/motivational system. Let's see if the current iteration can beat it!)