Struggling with single tasks

[Stuart Rudner]

I'm sorry because I'm sure this has been asked before, and I have seen some discussions that touch on the issue briefly but I am still struggling. Maybe I am not using a true GTD system but I have a lot of individual tasks that are not related to a project, such as

• pick up bread
• call financial advisor to confirm instructions
• send latest statement to accountant

I use Asana. Currently, I have a few projects, such as "General" and "Company Management" (for my company), and within each I have section, such as Medical, House, Financial, etc.

I think that the GTD method would involve many more projects, but I struggle with what to do with so many single actions that are not part of a project. I would welcome any suggestions.

 

[DKPhoto]

I'm sorry because I'm sure this has been asked before, and I have seen some discussions that touch on the issue briefly but I am still struggling. Maybe I am not using a true GTD system but I have a lot of individual tasks that are not related to a project, such as

• pick up bread
• call financial advisor to confirm instructions
• send latest statement to accountant

I use Asana. Currently, I have a few projects, such as "General" and "Company Management" (for my company), and within each I have section, such as Medical, House, Financial, etc.

I think that the GTD method would involve many more projects, but I struggle with what to do with so many single actions that are not part of a project. I would welcome any suggestions.

Think of a project as an outcome. General and Company Management aren’t outcomes. What does done look like?

Pick up bread is an errand that may be part of a bigger project (host dinner for in-laws), or may be a simple chore.

What instructions are you confirming to your solicitor and what do they achieve? What’s the final outcome? That’s your project.

 

[René Lie]

I also use Asana.

Note that 'projects' in Asana are what we use for contexts in GTD!

I strongly advice you to buy the GTD setup guide for Asana, this was a great help for me, and maybe the best 10 dollars I've ever spent!

As @DKPhoto says, a project title should be descriptive of a desired out come, and includes everything that takes more than one action step to complete.

 

[fooddude]

I have a list called projects. It is a list of tasks that have more than one next action. The title has what done looks like. If i need to pick up bread, it could go on my grocery list. or it could go on errands. That all depends on how urgent it could be. If i have to have bread in the next day or two I would put it on errands. Otherwise, it would be on "Grocery List" so I would see it there.

 

[Stuart Rudner]

Thanks for the help. I think I may be using projects in the wrong way; I am setting up a project with a series of actions to get to complete. Do you do that? If not, where do you put future tasks? For example, my project is "Buy new Car", and actions would include determining my budget, researching types of cars, contacting a dealer, negotiating price, etc.


I don't really use contexts - I guess that would be a huge mind-shift for me.

@fooddude in your example, what is "Grocery List"? It can't be a project based on the advice above, so it is a context? I guess this is my struggle and I would have to change the way I do things if that is the case.

 

[Stuart Rudner]

@René Lie I also use Evernote to store information. What do you use in addition to Asana?

 

[René Lie]

Thanks for the help. I think I may be using projects in the wrong way; I am setting up a project with a series of actions to get to complete. Do you do that? If not, where do you put future tasks? For example, my project is "Buy new Car", and actions would include determining my budget, researching types of cars, contacting a dealer, negotiating price, etc.


I don't really use contexts - I guess that would be a huge mind-shift for me.

@fooddude in your example, what is "Grocery List"? It can't be a project based on the advice above, so it is a context? I guess this is my struggle and I would have to change the way I do things if that is the case.

Context lists are one of the corner stones of GTD. Usually when we deal with projects, we have one "projects" list that contain all outcomes (e.g all the different projects) that we are working on. From there, we identify only the first next action that moves the project towards completion, and park this on the appropriate context list (office, computer, errands, etc). Some like having a link between the two, but this is not crucial.
The reason behind trying to have only one next action per project, is that if you have 50 projects with 10 tasks on each, you'll wind up with 500 next actions, most of them not being actionable in the moment. If this is the case, try having a separate project note (or use the notes field of your project title) to store possible future actions - beware that these may change along the way...

 

[René Lie]

@René Lie I also use Evernote to store information. What do you use in addition to Asana?

I use Notion. I believe that both of these may work well for holding project notes!

 

[Stuart Rudner]

I use Notion. I believe that both of these may work well for holding project notes!

I was reading the guides and it seems like it may actually work well to store my Projects in Evernote and just use Asana for next actions (and context lists). Does that make sense?

 

[René Lie]

Sure - that's possible!

Myself, I have a separate projects list in Asana. From there, I create a sub-task of this project (task) and assign to the proper context. This results in the next action on the context list is marked up with what project it belongs to. Not important - but I like it!

I had my projects in Notion for a while, but personally, I prefer having them in Asana. Note that a "project" in the GTD sense is stored as a task inside a project list. Easy to get mixed up as Asana uses the word "project" for every entry in the left pane...

 

[fooddude]

Thanks for the help. I think I may be using projects in the wrong way; I am setting up a project with a series of actions to get to complete. Do you do that? If not, where do you put future tasks? For example, my project is "Buy new Car", and actions would include determining my budget, researching types of cars, contacting a dealer, negotiating price, etc.


I don't really use contexts - I guess that would be a huge mind-shift for me.

@fooddude in your example, what is "Grocery List"? It can't be a project based on the advice above, so it is a context? I guess this is my struggle and I would have to change the way I do things if that is the case.

Actually, it is in my checklist "context". I use iphone notes for GTD capture and implementation. I have a heading "lists" with different list notes. One is Grocery list. Unless something is urgent i put it on my grocery list. When i'm at the store i un check all the items as i put them in my cart. I have an at store context for things i may need to buy outside the grocery list. and an @Errands list for thing I need to do around town. But my project list looks like this.
1.Sign up for Social security.
2. Buy a lap top
3. Paint threshold back door
4. Renew Passports
5. Replace power steering pump on the...
etc.

 

[Stuart Rudner]

Actually, it is in my checklist "context". I use iphone notes for GTD capture and implementation. I have a heading "lists" with different list notes. One is Grocery list. Unless something is urgent i put it on my grocery list. When i'm at the store i un check all the items as i put them in my cart. I have an at store context for things i may need to buy outside the grocery list. and an @Errands list for thing I need to do around town. But my project list looks like this.
1.Sign up for Social security.
2. Buy a lap top
3. Paint threshold back door
4. Renew Passports
5. Replace power steering pump on the...
etc.

Thanks for helping to clarify this. You said "Unless something is urgent i put it on my grocery list." What would you do if it was urgent or more time sensitive?
Put another way, what do you do with single action items?

 

[fooddude]

Thanks for helping to clarify this. You said "Unless something is urgent i put it on my grocery list." What would you do if it was urgent or more time sensitive?
Put another way, what do you do with single action items?

I would put it in errands context. I probably shouldn't have used urgent. But I might put it on my calendar. I have a tendency to run out of a certain vitamin. It's on my grocery check list that should pick it up when we shop for groceries. On the occasion I'm out, i will just put it on my errands list and get it as I'm out. Single next actions or project next actions go on a context list. I keep it really simple @Phone, @ Computer, @Store, @ Errands, @Home, @ Work, @ Waiting for. And to answer the dilemma of phone and computer, I use the following thoughts. Call or text goes on phone. Email, search, research, even though i can do it on the phone too, goes on computer list. I also keep next project actions really simple. One next action on my lists. I don't have a place where i keep a project with all the next actions associated with it. I just put the very next action. If i block out time on a large project, I start with the next action and may do 8 actions. When i stop i put the very next action on my list and pick up from there. Hope that helps.

 

[Stuart Rudner]

I would put it in errands context. I probably shouldn't have used urgent. But I might put it on my calendar. I have a tendency to run out of a certain vitamin. It's on my grocery check list that should pick it up when we shop for groceries. On the occasion I'm out, i will just put it on my errands list and get it as I'm out. Single next actions or project next actions go on a context list. I keep it really simple @Phone, @ Computer, @Store, @ Errands, @Home, @ Work, @ Waiting for. And to answer the dilemma of phone and computer, I use the following thoughts. Call or text goes on phone. Email, search, research, even though i can do it on the phone too, goes on computer list. I also keep next project actions really simple. One next action on my lists. I don't have a place where i keep a project with all the next actions associated with it. I just put the very next action. If i block out time on a large project, I start with the next action and may do 8 actions. When i stop i put the very next action on my list and pick up from there. Hope that helps.

Thanks - that is helpful. I like to have an idea of the sequence of actions to complete a project, but I guess I can put that down as a note associated with the project, and as you say, just have one next action.

 

[bcmyers2112]

Context lists are one of the corner stones of GTD. Usually when we deal with projects, we have one "projects" list that contain all outcomes (e.g all the different projects) that we are working on. From there, we identify only the first next action that moves the project towards completion, and park this on the appropriate context list (office, computer, errands, etc). Some like having a link between the two, but this is not crucial.
The reason behind trying to have only one next action per project, is that if you have 50 projects with 10 tasks on each, you'll wind up with 500 next actions, most of them not being actionable in the moment. If this is the case, try having a separate project note (or use the notes field of your project title) to store possible future actions - beware that these may change along the way...

I have to quibble with this. It's a common misconception that a project "should" only have one next action. It's late and I don't have the energy to find the page in the book that discusses this, but DA actually recommends that if you have multiple next actions you could be working on in parallel for a project -- because they are not dependent on something else happening first -- you list them all in your next actions lists. If a possible action is something you can't act on now, you can park it in project support.

Since the majority of projects tend to be simple enough to have only one next action at a time, I don't think there is a lot of danger in overloading your NA lists by including all of the immediately actionable steps for those few projects that will be more complex.

 

[René Lie]

I have to quibble with this. It's a common misconception that a project "should" only have one next action. It's late and I don't have the energy to find the page in the book that discusses this, but DA actually recommends that if you have multiple next actions you could be working on in parallel for a project -- because they are not dependent on something else happening first -- you list them all in your next actions lists. If a possible action is something you can't act on now, you can park it in project support.

Since the majority of projects tend to be simple enough to have only one next action at a time, I don't think there is a lot of danger in overloading your NA lists by including all of the immediately actionable steps for those few projects that will be more complex.

I see that I may have been a bit "strict" in my wording here, using the word "only". Let't put that on the "not being a native English speaker" account...

The only "set rule" when it comes to projects, is to have at least one next action for every project, in order to make meaningful progress towards completion - keeping in mind that a project has a time frame of 12 to 18 months, hence the need for reviewing weekly.

I have encountered quite a lot of people in my courses that feel the need to "think through" their projects, with potential overload as a result. You (@bcmyers2112) and I have the "GTD mind set", but for someone starting out, the concept of doing just enough thinking to get stuff off of your mind can seem a bit radical.

I follow you when it comes to next actions in parallel projects. I don't think I have any parallel projects at the moment, but for me, this has the most value if the parallel actions reside in different contexts. If all actions are to be executed on a computer, for example, I prefer having only one at a time as if it was a serial project - again, not to overload my list. This of course depends on the number of projects you have. At the moment I have 41 active projects.

Also, I was talking about actions that are allocated to the different context lists. I have heard in several GTD podcasts and also from different coaches that the recommended practice is to rather store future actions either in the notes field of your project list or in a separate project note, for later "activation". By flushing out a number of next actions for a project, you also run the risk of either not identifying ALL next actions (missing one or more), or that the nature of the project changes over time. Just a couple of days ago, I had to replace a next action in a project with another, because I was given new information...

So: Nothing wrong with having more than one next action for a project, but beware of the potential pitfalls! Personally, the value of GTD for me is more "relaxed, focused control" than "get as much done as fast as you possibly can". A possible way to deal with the issue in question, is also making a habit of revisiting your project list every time you complete an action tied to a project. Speaking of "rules", there is no one saying that reviewing you project lists only happens during the weekly review; this is just a safety net for making sure that you review it at least once a week!

 

[David Parker]

I'm sorry because I'm sure this has been asked before, and I have seen some discussions that touch on the issue briefly but I am still struggling. Maybe I am not using a true GTD system but I have a lot of individual tasks that are not related to a project, such as

• pick up bread
• call financial advisor to confirm instructions
• send latest statement to accountant

I use Asana. Currently, I have a few projects, such as "General" and "Company Management" (for my company), and within each I have section, such as Medical, House, Financial, etc.

I think that the GTD method would involve many more projects, but I struggle with what to do with so many single actions that are not part of a project. I would welcome any suggestions.

If you don't want to use Contexts to hold single actions, then create a Project called Single Actions and put the individual tasks into that Project.

I use a similar approach (in OmniFocus) but I have several Single Actions Projects, each assigned to one of my Areas of Focus. So, for example, your two tasks "call financial advisor" and "sent statement to account" I would include in a Single Actions Project called Financial. I can then tag them to Contexts if I wish - tagging the call to the financial advisor to "Calls" and the sending of the statement to "Email".

Hope this helps!

A true GTD system is one that follows the guidelines but works for you.

 

[Stuart Rudner]

That's really helpful - thanks.