GTD at Home

[alex143]

I have read GTD several times, and I have implemented it at work much more than I have at home. This may be due to feeling tired after work and wanting to rest while at home. Any tips for implementing the GTD principles at home?

Here are some specific questions I have:

1. How often do you review your "At Home" list? I have a hard time reviewing this list more than a couple of times per week and it seems to get away from me.
2. What do you do for your "inbox" when it comes to larger items like getting packages? I have a difficult time knowing what to do with stuff I've ordered that doesn't have a place yet or may need to get returned. I have a small apartment so I'm not working with a lot of space.
3. If you work away from your home, do you do your weekly review at work and later a separate one at home? Or do you do them together? I work in an office so these feel separate to me but I can't seem to get into a rhythm of doing the weekly review at home. It's hard to find time at work, but easier than at home.

Thank you!

 

[Tom_Hagen]

I use a system in which I store both personal and professional projects. I use Evernote and if necessary, I can use tags to easily separate one project from another area.
I review personal projects (in fact next actions list) every day. Of course, the list is so long that I can't do everything. I rather think of it as a menu. When I give up on certain projects on a given day, I feel calm because I know what I'm not doing. If I kept it in my head, I would never have such inner peace.
Regarding point 2 is: either you can designate a place, e.g. in the garage / basement or shed - whatever you have - and determine that this is your inbox, or you can use cards with the name of the package / item symbolizing a given package.
I do my weekly review at home, but it covers both professional and personal projects. You must independently determine where and when you work most effectively in terms of weekly review.
You wrote that you don't have enough strength for personal projects. Perhaps this is the period when you can only pursue professional matters. In such a situation, it is good to know what you are not doing and live with it (renegotiate contracts with yourself).

 

[gtdstudente]

I have read GTD several times, and I have implemented it at work much more than I have at home. This may be due to feeling tired after work and wanting to rest while at home. Any tips for implementing the GTD principles at home?

Here are some specific questions I have:

1. How often do you review your "At Home" list? I have a hard time reviewing this list more than a couple of times per week and it seems to get away from me.
2. What do you do for your "inbox" when it comes to larger items like getting packages? I have a difficult time knowing what to do with stuff I've ordered that doesn't have a place yet or may need to get returned. I have a small apartment so I'm not working with a lot of space.
3. If you work away from your home, do you do your weekly review at work and later a separate one at home? Or do you do them together? I work in an office so these feel separate to me but I can't seem to get into a rhythm of doing the weekly review at home. It's hard to find time at work, but easier than at home.

Thank you!

alex143,

For what ever the following might be worth to you and my GTD development:

1. While very often falling short, looking "at Home" list before doing anything would seem to be a GTD ideal in order to "know what I'm not doing"

2. Know where the item will go before/during/after ordering before arrival . . . upon any package arrivals: "open package and place item in predetermined place"?

3. Would do Weekly Review for Work at Work via 'Yellow [Weekly Review] Tape' [no idea if appropriate/possible for you], however, would have a "figure out how to somehow do Weekly Review at work" Project for the 'luxury' of Weekly Review done at work . . . so home is more "homey"?

Thank you very much

As you see GTD fit

 

[cfoley]

1. How often do you review your "At Home" list?

I also don't check off things from my @Home list as quickly as some of my other lists. It's not that I don't do things at home. It's just that it is mostly stuff that doesn't make it onto my lists: cooking, cleaning, washing clothes. After work, and after all of those things there isn't much time for anything else, and relaxing and spending time with the people you live with is important too.

One distinction that I make is that my project and action lists are not aspirational in nature. They are for things that I am actually going to do. Periodically, I sit down with my lists and get really honest about what I have time and energy for. If I know I won't get to something in the next week, I move it to Someday/Maybe. I don't view this as a dangerous move. I can always bring those items back in the next weekly review.

2. What do you do for your "inbox" when it comes to larger items like getting packages?

It is often part of a larger project so I cross off the @Waiting For entry and write the next action.

Sometimes obtaining the large item is the end of the project, so I cross off the @Waiting For, put the item away and cross off the project entry.

If it really is a new input, I write it on a small piece of paper and put that piece of paper in my inbox.

3. If you work away from your home, do you do your weekly review at work and later a separate one at home?

This does not apply to me any more but I tried splitting the review between personal time and work time. I found it much more satisfying to do it all at once. If you can create a ritual around it that feels like a treat, then it may feel less like working from home. For example, I used to take my laptop to a coffee shop for my weekly reviews.

 

[TimBourne]

alex143,

For what ever the following might be worth to you and my GTD development:

1. While very often falling short, looking "at Home" list before doing anything would seem to be a GTD ideal in order to "know what I'm not doing"

2. Know where the item will go before/during/after ordering before arrival . . . upon any package arrivals: "open package and place item in predetermined place"?

3. Would do Weekly Review for Work at Work via 'Yellow [Weekly Review] Tape' [no idea if appropriate/possible for you], however, would have a "figure out how to somehow do Weekly Review at work" Project for the 'luxury' of Weekly Review done at work . . . so home is more "homey"?

Thank you very much

As you see GTD fit

ITM where - is it written on allen's book about "at home" list ?- this thread is where first place herd this term." s

 

[jwsamuel]

ITM where - is it written on allen's book about "at home" list ?- this thread is where first place herd this term." s

It is one of the suggested contexts. @home = things you can do when you are home

 

[TimBourne]

It is one of the suggested contexts. @home = things you can do when you are home

ITM
in the 2015 version of the book he has a section in it where writes a series of things to do when you are at home? Which pages?' s

 

[gtdstudente]

ITM
in the 2015 version of the book he has a section in it where writes a series of things to do when you are at home? Which pages?' s

According to the Index from pages 303-317 in general and page 312 for "home" in particular, "home" topic pages include: 89 [88], 90, and 150

 

[alex143]

Hello, thank you all for your replies! What is the recommended maximum number of next action items per list? I am wondering at what point is a list so long that maybe you should break it down into more specific lists. Perhaps it's different for everyone but I wanted to know what everyone's thoughts were on that. I'm wondering at what point are my lists so long that it's difficult to skim through when I am in that environment and ready to work. I think that may be my problem so I've made the mistake of adding time reminders to my next action lists and those are the ones that get my attention. But it's not efficient nor the way I want to do things.

Perhaps this is the period when you can only pursue professional matters. In such a situation, it is good to know what you are not doing and live with it (renegotiate contracts with yourself).

Thank you for this! I think it's good to give myself permission to not do what I don't have time or energy to do.

If I know I won't get to something in the next week, I move it to Someday/Maybe. I don't view this as a dangerous move. I can always bring those items back in the next weekly review.

This is an interesting idea! If I do the weekly review at home consistently, then I think this could work. I'm curious - how many items are in your typical @Home list at the start of the week and how many items are on your Someday/Maybe list.

 

[Lucas W.]

I have read GTD several times, and I have implemented it at work much more than I have at home. This may be due to feeling tired after work and wanting to rest while at home. Any tips for implementing the GTD principles at home?

It is not easy and it is rather about self-control than GTD.

You can try to secure some quality time for your personal stuff – like early mornings or weekends.

Just two examples – I have moved my gym sessions from the weekend to the working week – I am usually highly motivated to keep fit so it is relatively easy for me to go to the gym after my working hours. In the other hand I have always struggled to study papers so now I do it only in the early mornings.

I have tried to study papers after work but it just not happened. I have also set my gym sessions on the weekends but it was very challenging for me to do something productive after work – I have just wasting this time.

There are some things which are easy to do for me even if I am tired: gym, planning and organizing, GTD weekly review, shopping, cleaning, laundry, relax time, calls to family. I have moved them all to do after my working hours to “free up” some quality time on weekends.

 

[Ariadne Marques]

3. If you work away from your home, do you do your weekly review at work and later a separate one at home? Or do you do them together? I work in an office so these feel separate to me but I can't seem to get into a rhythm of doing the weekly review at home. It's hard to find time at work, but easier than at home.
Thank you!

I've been doing 2 weekly reviews lately: for work on Fridays afternoons (@work) and a personal one at home on the weekends.
Before that I would do one weekly review at home on the weekends, but I would usually skip the work review because I didn't want to see or deal with work stuff at home. So, 2 reviews for me seems to work better now.

 

[gtdstudente]

I've been doing 2 weekly reviews lately: for work on Fridays afternoons (@work) and a personal one at home on the weekends.
Before that I would do one weekly review at home on the weekends, but I would usually skip the work review because I didn't want to see or deal with work stuff at home. So, 2 reviews for me seems to work better now.

@Ariadne Marques,

Agreed . . . much more accurately expressed . . . thank you very much

 

[Oogiem]

How often do you review your "At Home" list?

Home and work are the same for me so I review the lists multiple times per day.

2. What do you do for your "inbox" when it comes to larger items like getting packages?

I have a lot of these things. So in each major location context I have a space that is the "inbox" for that location. So the Red Barn has an area in the feed room where stuff that needs to move from the Red Barn to someplace else is stashed. In the house the cabinet by the front door has a space where I put stuff that goes to somewhere else, the new mineral box that came in mail and needs to go to the red barn, the skeins of yarn ready to go to the Shop building, etc.

What is the recommended maximum number of next action items per list?

I have a lot of lists. For me the maximum is about 1 screen full on my main computer with a large screen. Much longer and I need toeither move things to someday.maybe or split the list. I use my phone and tablet computers as working places where I only check off things done so I ma more willing to accept multiple screens of stuff in a given context there for some reason.

 

[Gardener]

Hello, thank you all for your replies! What is the recommended maximum number of next action items per list?

Do you mean per context list, or per project?

Per project, for me, one or two.

Per context, I don't like to have more than a dozen or so. If it's more than that for more than a couple of contexts, then I do a sweep to move more things to Someday/Maybe, or I make a more specific context, or I make a support list.

"Support list": For example, if I have three dozen things in a Reading context, I might create a Books to Read list and then replace those three dozen things with a structure of repeating actions for spending time reading the current book, and choosing another book when the current book is done or I decide I'm no longer interest.

 

[alex143]

Thank you all for your help! I recently watched the GTD video "Are Long Lists a Problem for You?" and found it to be helpful for this discussion. Thought I would mention this in case someone looks back on this post and has further questions.