Happy Friday! We know what time that is? Our weekly review. I am starting to get my GTD flow on and want to know how you handle "Next Actions." This seems to be the first step of the weekly review. These are suppose to be tasks that are not related to a project. However, do we do anything in life that is not project related? I group all my Projects by Area of Focus. These groups include Career, Financial, Physical, Mental and six other ones... Anyone do anything similar? What are yours? Under these I have my Sub-projects. For instance, Physical > Fitness > Handstand. So, any Next Action I am sure to find a sub-project for. Otherwise, is it even worth doing? Does anyone else structure like this and just forgo the dedicated "Next Actions" list? Thoughts? Have a good weekend.
Removing Next Actions into Projects?
- Thread starter mnygren
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Most Next Actions are indeed tied to a project. In fact, I believe that one definition of a project is something that requires more than one action.
Now when you put an item (a stray thought, or a piece of paper, or an object that serves as a reminder) in an Inbox, it's not necessarily tied to a project at that moment. But part of processing that item is, often, either putting it in a project or creating a project for it.
Once in a while you may have actions that don't need the structure of a project. For example, if you just need to, say, order more printer paper, you may just put "Order printer paper" in the Inbox, and then, rather than create a project or choose a project for it, you might just go online and, in two minutes, order it. Done.
But that's an exception.
ivanjay205
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In my world I would say I am about 70% projects and 30% independent next actions (when I properly clarify). If I get lazy I get more non project next actions on my lists and I regret it later. I used to group my projects by Areas of Focus but I found that what it did was hide overcommittment from me. So now I have three folders.... Projects Active, Projects Routines, Projects On Hold
I put all of my repeating projects in the project routines folder as they are going to sit there for eternity and will pop up automatically based on repeat rules in omnifocus when I need them. All of my projects I am working on go on Projects Active and the rest on Projects On Hold. What i find this does is let me scan my Projects Active and if I see too many.... I know I am overcommitted. Lots of folders hides that from me. I am finding that being ruthless about picking 5-10 projects to be active max vs all of my real projects allows me to get a lot more done and the right stuff.
I do maintain a separate areas of focus mind map that I look at periodically to ensure everything is inline.
I put all of my repeating projects in the project routines folder as they are going to sit there for eternity and will pop up automatically based on repeat rules in omnifocus when I need them. All of my projects I am working on go on Projects Active and the rest on Projects On Hold. What i find this does is let me scan my Projects Active and if I see too many.... I know I am overcommitted. Lots of folders hides that from me. I am finding that being ruthless about picking 5-10 projects to be active max vs all of my real projects allows me to get a lot more done and the right stuff.
I do maintain a separate areas of focus mind map that I look at periodically to ensure everything is inline.
FocusGuy
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Hereafter I will push a bit you question...
Yes for most of them. DA consider as "project" every result of more than one task which can be obtained within one year.
Every actionnable project must have at least one next action ie the first very next action to make it happens...
Some next action has no projects relatives. For example a single action list of task : for example Buy some bread, sort papers
However the answer is not obvious. Theses given tasks could be part of a project for example : "Buy some bread" could be part of a project call Go shopping on Saturday and "sort papers" could be a very next action of : tidy up the entire office for 2024... It depends on your Horizons thinking... As David said how much do you have to take altitude to be quiet if I remember well and formulate with my own word.
So as you see and as David said We dont have problems we only have projects and most of the time a next action can be part of a project. An average people has about 50 to 200 projects. Some have much more. I confess I have for now 44 projects I have to finish until December 31. But I also have 120 in a someday folder and 150 cleaned project to remember, I have finished...
Be aware that the very next action can be an actionnable task (a call, a mail, something to do o your computer = what GTD call a context)
Or a non actionnable stuff you have to follow it and make it happen later; for example Waiting for Paul 2024 budget (attending 2023 Dec 15th)
This is why some software like Omnifocus or Nirvana has a project list on one hand and on the other a list of next action which can seems to be confusing sometime. This is why they are so well made for GTD
These very next action are nothing but choices you make using GTD criteria (context, time, energy, priority) and Horizons of focus.
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Dear FocusGuy, thank you for your great examples. Last 3 weeks I created more projects, before I did put allot of my tasks into my "single action project" but now that I use the natural planning method (clarify the projects) for the projects I get a better feeling of why I have the project first and it motivates me more to work on these projects compared to "single next actions".
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2097
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I've started using larger goals (like "maintaining relationships") and in that sense, yes, all NA is supposed to fit one of those larger goals, but, I have the "project" level and on there I only have a handful of projects. Instead, most things I do is single-action at the level of granularity I record them.
Broomscot
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I have lots of next actions that derive directly from my Areas of Focus without being attached to a project. As I understand it, projects are outcomes that we want to achieve in a year or less, so they have a beginning and an end. Areas of Focus are "Important spheres of work and life to be maintained at standards to “keep the engines running”", and it is that need for maintenance that gives rise to half of my next actions. Most of these actions are repeating tasks so I handle them using my tickler file, but once a task pops up in the file, it becomes a next action.
So supporting research students is part of my work Area of Focus, and marking the second assignment from a cohort is a project, but emailing Fred every 2 weeks is not part of a project, just part of maintaining an ongoing level of support.
I hope this makes sense!
2097
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That's right, I should've written "Areas of Focus", not goals. So to rephrase, right now I have very many single-action, non-project NAs that fall under my areas of focus and only very few bigger projects. In the past I've had many more projects but the more I use GTD, the more I simplify my life.
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mcogilvie
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To get maximum value from GTD, you need to understand that David Allen’s defines a project as an outcome desired within a year that requires more than one next action. Fitness is not a project unless it more or less meets that criterion. For me, “Headstand” would be an item in a recurring checklist of exercises, one in which I stand on my head. I would have a recurring next action “Do daily exercises” with a checklist of exercises attached.. The point of having lists of next actions is to make it as simple as possible to get things done. GTD is more bottom-up than top-down in recognizing that our projects and values are often revealed by what we want to act on. It’s common to construct a top-down hierarchy and have trouble executing on it. I’m not saying your approach won’t work for you, but in my opinion GTD is simpler, easier and more effective.