Weekly Prioritization or "Big 3" Target Areas

[ivanjay205]

Hi everyone,
I am loyal to GTD and have followed for many years. I find sometimes within a week I tend to drift and loose focus on the big picture things I need to do as a priority each week. I am just curious if anyone prioritizes 2-3 major goals per week or just follows GTD in its pure form to ensure you are doing what you can do when you can do it according to contexts, time, and energy?

I have looked at full focus planner on and off and wonder if it might work well to complement my GTD setup in Omnifocus to help me stay focused on my priorities for the week.

 

[cfoley]

I find myself looking at my higher horizons more and more. The one that attracts me the most right now is "Vision". I want to know if my day-to-day projects represent me living that vision, or at least are taking me towards that vision.

I don't see anything anti-GTD about choosing three goals to prioritise in the coming week. The only anti-GTD thing would be to keep it in your head instead of writing it down.

 

[ivanjay205]

I find myself looking at my higher horizons more and more. The one that attracts me the most right now is "Vision". I want to know if my day-to-day projects represent me living that vision, or at least are taking me towards that vision.

I don't see anything anti-GTD about choosing three goals to prioritise in the coming week. The only anti-GTD thing would be to keep it in your head instead of writing it down.

I find that I do my weekly review on Friday which is great and I am very clear on priorities. The weekend comes and goes and my mind is a bit softer in terms of having those important things front and center. Wondering if maybe I need to do a mini reset or prep on sunday night or monday morning to get me back into my laser focused mode for what is important

 

[Claudia Volkman]

I use the Full Focus Planner and I find that it does harmonize with GTD. The weekly preview, along with GTD's weekly review, keep me on track. And I also love the weekly and daily big three. Happy to answer any questions you might have . . .

 

[bcmyers2112]

I am just curious if anyone prioritizes 2-3 major goals per week or just follows GTD in its pure form to ensure you are doing what you can do when you can do it according to contexts, time, and energy?

I can't say that I've done it this way. But I can say I've had a tendency to get lost in non-value-added activities and lose sight of the bigger picture. I can't see why choosing to focus on a few major goals each week would be a bad thing. In fact, I would say the opposite: it sounds like a really good thing if it would help you.

If the idea of "pure GTD" is important to you, you could always find some way to review some of your higher-level horizons like AOFs more often than the book suggests. You could even do it weekly if it helps. That might help you keep your next action lists oriented to the things that matter the most, with the rest going into Someday/Maybe.

Or you could do it differently. I don't know what a "full focus planner" is. All I can say is that even if it's not the sort of thing suggested in the GTD book, if it helps you choose the best actions to focus on during the week it sounds like a great thing to do. Try it. If it works for you, I would hope you'd share that in the forum so the rest of us can learn from you. Maybe it's something the rest of us might benefit from.

The only thing I'd caution you on is getting so focused on the big goals that you ignore seemingly little things until they blow up and become "latest and loudest." David Allen likes to remind us that at some point you have to fill your stapler.

David Allen once posted in this forum to say that anything that works for you and not against you is "canonical GTD." I think you should feel free to experiment with anything. And again, I hope you'll share what works for you and what didn't. Then we can all learn from your experience.

 

[bcmyers2112]

I don't see anything anti-GTD about choosing three goals to prioritise in the coming week. The only anti-GTD thing would be to keep it in your head instead of writing it down.

You know what? I absolutely love how you hone in on the big ideas and express them in the most succinct way possible. You said a lot in just a few words. As someone who can get lost in the details I really appreciate people like you who remind me of the big picture. I really look forward to your posts.

As an aside, I had the privilege of recording a "Slice of GTD Life" interview with John Forrister last week that will be posted on GTD Connect in a few weeks. I mention this because during our discussion we talked about tools and I referred to your index card system as an example of how people could do powerful things with the simplest of tools.

I guess I'll give a little plug to GTD Connect here. Yes, it's a monthly expense but I am finding it immensely valuable.

Although I will warn absolutely everyone that unless John Forrister edits some of this stuff out, I veered into territory that was absolutely bonkers. I am pretty sure this is the only known recording about GTD that includes a discussion about how people feel about toilets and includes multiple references to Spongebob Squarepants. So... listen at your own risk.

 

[bcmyers2112]

I use the Full Focus Planner and I find that it does harmonize with GTD. The weekly preview, along with GTD's weekly review, keep me on track. And I also love the weekly and daily big three. Happy to answer any questions you might have . . .

I have no idea what a "Full Focus Planner" is. Would you mind sharing a bit about that and how it's helping you? I'm really curious about it. I have a tendency to get lost in the weeds and I'm wondering if it's something that could help me.

 

[cfoley]

You know what? I absolutely love how you hone in on the big ideas and express them in the most succinct way possible. You said a lot in just a few words. As someone who can get lost in the details I really appreciate people like you who remind me of the big picture. I really look forward to your posts.

As an aside, I had the privilege of recording a "Slice of GTD Life" interview with John Forrister last week that will be posted on GTD Connect in a few weeks. I mention this because during our discussion we talked about tools and I referred to your index card system as an example of how people could do powerful things with the simplest of tools.

Thank you for the compliment. I will look forward to listening to your Slice of GTD life interview.

 

[cfoley]

I find that I do my weekly review on Friday which is great and I am very clear on priorities. The weekend comes and goes and my mind is a bit softer in terms of having those important things front and center. Wondering if maybe I need to do a mini reset or prep on sunday night or monday morning to get me back into my laser focused mode for what is important

My finances were out of control in my early 20s. The main thing I did to sort them out was to log into my online banking every day and just look at the balance and recent transactions. I did this every single day without fail. Simply bringing the reality of my monetary situation to my attention every day gave me the impetus to make all sorts of habitual changes and embark on all sorts of projects to sort things out.

 

[bcmyers2112]

I will look forward to listening to your Slice of GTD life interview.

John seemed to be cool with it but I have to confess I have a bit of trepidation about how it will be received. When I get nervous I talk a lot. I tried to put aside my nerves for this but I don't think I was successful. I talked a lot, but I'm not sure I know how much I actually said, if you catch my meaning. I guess we'll find out.

I think one of my biggest stumbling blocks in the ten years I've participated in this forum has been a tendency to show off how much I think I know. It's been said that true knowledge starts with the admission, "I don't know."

I think I know a few things, and it's OK to share them. But I think I have a lot to learn and always will. So I'm trying to approach this forum now with an emphasis on learning from others as much as anything else. I had hoped that I conveyed that at least a little bit during the interview but who knows? Hopefully something I said might be of value to someone, somewhere. But for my part I'm trying to open my ears more and more for what others have to say.

 

[bcmyers2112]

Simply bringing the reality of my monetary situation to my attention every day gave me the impetus to make all sorts of habitual changes and embark on all sorts of projects to sort things out.

See, that's why I keep coming back to this forum. That's a really powerful thing you shared and I'm going to think about how this could apply to my own life.

 

[DKPhoto]

My finances were out of control in my early 20s. The main thing I did to sort them out was to log into my online banking every day and just look at the balance and recent transactions. I did this every single day without fail. Simply bringing the reality of my monetary situation to my attention every day gave me the impetus to make all sorts of habitual changes and embark on all sorts of projects to sort things out.

Interestingly, in his book Creative Calling, Chase Jarvis advocates checking your bank balance and your calendar to determine your priorities.

Doing it daily without fail is a great idea.

 

[Popeye]

I have no idea what a "Full Focus Planner" is. Would you mind sharing a bit about that and how it's helping you? I'm really curious about it. I have a tendency to get lost in the weeds and I'm wondering if it's something that could help me.

Here is a link to Full Focus Planner

Achieve More While Doing Less | The Full Focus Planner

The Full Focus Planner allows you to focus on the work that matters so you can achieve your goals.

fullfocus.co

 

[gtdstudente]

Hi everyone,
I am loyal to GTD and have followed for many years. I find sometimes within a week I tend to drift and loose focus on the big picture things I need to do as a priority each week. I am just curious if anyone prioritizes 2-3 major goals per week or just follows GTD in its pure form to ensure you are doing what you can do when you can do it according to contexts, time, and energy?

I have looked at full focus planner on and off and wonder if it might work well to complement my GTD setup in Omnifocus to help me stay focused on my priorities for the week.

ivnajay205,

What bcmyers2112 really resonates on this end: "caution you on is getting so focused on the big goals that you ignore seemingly little things until they blow up and become "latest and loudest."

Once the Goal/Purpose for say and Area-of-Focus had been 'durably/slowly/thoughtfully' established then it's all about cranking out Next Actions, smaller/more-micro* the better on this end [with 'double-checks'] for easy misstep 'clean-ups' . . . bam, bam, bam . . . which is what makes @Contexts so productive, simply plowing through the ''List" . . . appropriate engagement in personal leveraging/scaling . . . better than the golf course . . . like being on vacation while fulfilling one's commitments/obligations? LOL

*While I am 'constantly' doing my share of ad Hoc Two Minute or less Actions . . . have developed the GTD behavior of keeping the GTD System so streamlined that it often makes little difference whether a Two Minute Action is immediately done or using perhaps ten seconds to Capture the Action via a Capture Tool or writing it in a Next Action Context makes little, if any, difference on this end . . . it's all good

 

[mcogilvie]

My finances were out of control in my early 20s. The main thing I did to sort them out was to log into my online banking every day and just look at the balance and recent transactions. I did this every single day without fail. Simply bringing the reality of my monetary situation to my attention every day gave me the impetus to make all sorts of habitual changes and embark on all sorts of projects to sort things out.

I don’t have weekly goals, but I do have a few important projects which I label as “Significant”. These are distinct from projects and next actions which have real due dates. They run their course over a wide range of time spans, some over a year or more. These projects tend to have next actions which require more time and effort than other projects. Labeling them this way draws my attention and focus to them. These are the projects I turn to first when the time-sensitive stuff is under control (not necessarily done), especially when larger blocks of time are available. Like @cfoley, I have found that by putting focus on things which are important to me, I make better intuitive choices in the moment, without setting myself up for failure with artificial goals and deadlines.

 

[Claudia Volkman]

I have no idea what a "Full Focus Planner" is. Would you mind sharing a bit about that and how it's helping you? I'm really curious about it. I have a tendency to get lost in the weeds and I'm wondering if it's something that could help me.

The Full Focus Planner is a quarterly planner developed by Michael Hyatt. You can find out more about it here: https://fullfocus.co/planner/. I have found the Weekly Preview is a nice complement to the Weekly Review. It doesn't replace GTD for me, but it has helped me to better understand goal setting and break goals down into projects and next actions. It has some great features too, like creating daily rituals, thinking through your ideal week -- and there are lots of training videos and a lively Facebook community. If you do decide to try it, I'm a FFP certified pro and would be happy to offer some coaching. Here's my affiliate link for a discount: https://fullfocusstore.com?aff=608. Let me know what you think!

 

[Avatar-Knoll-Sage]

If I remember correctly in the book The Accidental Creative, the author talks about establishing a top three or top five major creative priority set that are things that need their action done against them first, then placing that in a supervisible place so when you are working on creative things, you know which of the top five are things that need to be fixed.

He frames the book as being for creatives such as novelists or programmers or musicians, but the way he described a creative task that needed to be done was pretty compatible with the standard definition of a GTD project.

 

[gtdstudente]

If I remember correctly in the book The Accidental Creative, the author talks about establishing a top three or top five major creative priority set that are things that need their action done against them first, then placing that in a supervisible place so when you are working on creative things, you know which of the top five are things that need to be fixed.

He frames the book as being for creatives such as novelists or programmers or musicians, but the way he described a creative task that needed to be done was pretty compatible with the standard definition of a GTD project.

Avatar-Knoll-Sage,

On this end, the title itself, The Accidental Creative, is 'ponder worthy'.

The beauty/mystery of random ideas . . . all good to capture: some might be good for Current Means . . . some might be good for Future Means . . . at least all worthy as an initial 'thought treat.'

Thank you very much