About Projects

[LongV]

Hi all!
Yesterday I had finished to reading Book "Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" and I'm impressed! This is best book about productivity that I read ever! Thanks, David!

But I don't understand project concept fully. Projects are list with step-by-step actions or not? I have frustration this it.
E.g. I want improve my professional skills (I'm software engineer). I think: "What is next action?
I need learn technologies X, Y, Z, read books X,Y,Z etc". But this elements may be complex and if I decompose all items I get big list of actions (100-200 items). It's demotivate me and not help to achieve this goal. I don't know what the next action.

 

[Folke]

Well, since you just read the book, I will not repeat it exactly, so let me express it in my own words and see if that helps:

What David essentially describes as the most common case for most people is what I would call "dream it up as you go". Only write one or a few things that you could start with now. Leave everything else out - dream it up later.

What David also describes as a less common case is where you have in fact identified lots of actions, perhaps all the necessary actions. This list then constitues a project plan, and David classifies this as "project support", which is something you keep outside your regular GTD lists. You transfer actions from this project plan to your next actions list when you review your project. Review is something you normally do on a weekly basis and/or whenever you have worked on the project during the week.

What you can also do, which many apps permit, is to enter the future "project support" actions (the "project plan") straight into your task manager app (instead of entering it in some other document). For this approach to be workable, though, your app needs to have some suitable mechanism for preventing that the future actions show up prematurely as next actions. Not all apps have features suitable for this, but many do. You then "transfer" actions from "project support" to your "lists" simply by somehow "reclassifying" the action within the app itself (using whatever mechanism the app has available that you have chosen to use; or some apps even have built-in features specifically intended for this purpose, even partly automated).

 

[LongV]

Thanks for answer, now I understand how it works!

 

[Oogiem]

But I don't understand project concept fully. Projects are list with step-by-step actions or not? I have frustration this it.
E.g. I want improve my professional skills (I'm software engineer). I think: "What is next action?
I need learn technologies X, Y, Z, read books X,Y,Z etc".

Improve professional skills is an area of focus. You will always be improving or maintaining. Learn a technology may also be an area of focus but might also be a project or you might have several projects in that area.

I'd store the information about the AOF separately. Or actually in my case I use my GTD list manager to group projects into folders that correspond to each of my areas of focus. So for example I have an AOF for LambTracker, the program I am writing for sheep management. Within that are several projects. One of them was learning Android Java. Within that I had as a next action, "Search for a kindle book discussing Android implementation of Java" When I got one I then had an action to read the book and run the sample programs. The reason for the project was to get LambTracker going but at the same time I had projects in that AOF on desiging the database for the sheep data, researching tablet hardware to use chute side, testing electronic ear tags with my husbands EID reader design, writing the user manual as my NaNo Novel and more. Now that AOF is focused on adding features to the various modules and implementing the desktop side of the program so the projects have chnaged but the AOF is the same.

When I looked at my actions lists I'd only see the single small next action related to each project in the context where I could actually work on it.

All the additional information was project support, located either in the notes on the project in my GTD list manager tool or in files or paper folders depending on the source of the material.

 

[bcmyers2112]

Projects are list with step-by-step actions or not?

Not the way David Allen uses the term. A project is simply an outcome that will require more than one physical, visible action to complete. Many projects require little or no planning, others can be adequately mapped out with "back of the envelope" planning, and for most of us only a few need to be fleshed out using the full natural planning model.

Unlike Oogiem I think "improve professional skills" is a project as long as you've got a clear idea of the endpoint. If the number of possible actions you've generated from planning is sapping your motivation, you've probably over-planned. You know when you've planned a project enough when it's off your mind.

Yes, it's true you can keep the non-actionable stuff in project support and that helps. But I'm going to suggest you go one step further and loosen up on the planning unless it is truly necessary. If you have a few ideas in mind about professional development, jot them down, pick out those that are actionable and list those as next actions. You may find as you get into the project that you'll discover new potential actions that don't match your plan anyway.

 

[TesTeq]

Unlike Oogiem I think "improve professional skills" is a project as long as you've got a clear idea of the endpoint.

If you've got a clear idea of the end-point - write it down. How can you name the end-point "improve professional skills"? How can you know that you've reached this end-point?

 

[LongV]

If you've got a clear idea of the end-point - write it down. How can you name the end-point "improve professional skills"? How can you know that you've reached this end-point?

​My overall point is to become a good professional in my job.
I think I was blending "Projects" and "Area of focus" concepts. Is a good projects like this: "Learning basic algorithms", "Learning programming language X"?

 

[Folke]

I think the main point is that you yourself understand what you mean.

I myself am often a bit sloppy and sometimes write things that no one else would understand, like "Food". What's that? An action to buy food? Or to cook food? Or an Area of Responsibility for the family's nutritional intake? Or a goal (super-project) to start a farm? As long as I myself never hesitate about what it represents it is OK, but whenever I notice that I feel unclear it is important to clarify it.

As for Area of Focus I personally prefer the alternative term Area of Responsibility and to interpret this as a fictitious job role rather than as a type of action (answer the question "who" rather than "what"). David gives examples of both types, if I recall correctly.

 

[TesTeq]

Is a good projects like this: "Learning basic algorithms", "Learning programming language X"?

Project #1 - successful outcome example: "Basic algorithms described in 'Mastering Algorithms with C' by Kyle Loudon learned."

Project #2 - successful outcome example: "'Understanding C programming fundamentals' course at lynda.com completed."

Be specific!

 

[LongV]

Thanks to all for great advices!