What do you do with monitoring?

[gtdbrian]

Hi All,
By way of introduction, I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. Been doing GTD since 2006, but I still waffle a lot (too much micro-controller).

One of the issues that I'd like input about is in a fast-moving role in a large corporation, there are a lot of short term (i.e 2-5 days) things that come up (issues, events, and excursions that need follow up and are getting a lot of group attention/discussion, Sr. Management directives that are developing, etc...) that I have to keep my attention on, and may or not need action on my part, depending on how they unfold. Sometimes I have input and then have to wait, etc... I've tried to make them "projects", but then they go on my 50-60 project list, and it gets hard to figure out how to keep them more "real time". I find myself not being able to trust the system.

Anyone have experience, either sympathetic and/or beneficial in this area?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[kelstarrising]

Hi All,
By way of introduction, I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. Been doing GTD since 2006, but I still waffle a lot (too much micro-controller).

One of the issues that I'd like input about is in a fast-moving role in a large corporation, there are a lot of short term (i.e 2-5 days) things that come up (issues, events, and excursions that need follow up and are getting a lot of group attention/discussion, Sr. Management directives that are developing, etc...) that I have to keep my attention on, and may or not need action on my part, depending on how they unfold. Sometimes I have input and then have to wait, etc... I've tried to make them "projects", but then they go on my 50-60 project list, and it gets hard to figure out how to keep them more "real time". I find myself not being able to trust the system.

Anyone have experience, either sympathetic and/or beneficial in this area?

Thanks,
Brian

Hi Brian,

What's worked well for people I've coached in similar situations to yours is to create a special projects list just for these kinds of things. Call it something like "Projects - Monitoring" or "Situations to Track." Something like that. Similar to the idea of having a special projects list for "Projects - Delegated." You could also use your Calendar for these. If this were mine, I might create a recurring, untimed event in my Calendar called "Watch this week" and have those items listed in the note field. Hope that helps!

Kelly

 

[gtdbrian]

Hi Brian,

What's worked well for people I've coached in similar situations to yours is to create a special projects list just for these kinds of things. Call it something like "Projects - Monitoring" or "Situations to Track." Something like that. Similar to the idea of having a special projects list for "Projects - Delegated." You could also use your Calendar for these. If this were mine, I might create a recurring, untimed event in my Calendar called "Watch this week" and have those items listed in the note field. Hope that helps!

Kelly

Thanks, Kelly. I'll go back to a project list type of item (easier to drill into than notes inside a calendar event for me). I was doing sort of that, but thought that it was violating some GTD principle and tanking my own capability. I tend to want to make too many segregated project lists, but then waffle back to "one" list of current projects....so I need to find the right level of segregating project lists to be actually productive.

your input is helpful!

 

[kelstarrising]

Thanks, Kelly. I'll go back to a project list type of item (easier to drill into than notes inside a calendar event for me). I was doing sort of that, but thought that it was violating some GTD principle and tanking my own capability. I tend to want to make too many segregated project lists, but then waffle back to "one" list of current projects....so I need to find the right level of segregating project lists to be actually productive.

your input is helpful!

How about the same Projects list as your others, but start it with a keyword (does your list manager sort in alpha order?). Like:
"THIS WEEK - Chicago client issue resolved"
"THIS WEEK - Dubai factory issue resolved"

Something like that.

 

[cwoodgold]

I hope you don't mind me commenting. What I would probably do is, for each thing, decide what my own next action will be. For example: if I don't hear anything back from anybody about this, then 2 days from now I'll send an email to X asking about it. (Reminder goes in tickle file.) I can decide on that next action even if I'm almost certain I will hear other things back before then. When I receive incoming information, I can then decide to leave my next-action as-is in my system, or change it to something else.

Re micromanaging: Just an idea. You can keep score. Every time you refrain from giving someone a reminder or instruction and just trust them to handle a situation, give yourself a point and also decide how many negative points you'll get if the person messes it up (not just does it differently from how you would!). For example, for something of small importance you might decide that being tactful is worth +1 and the job being left undone is worth -2. For more important things it could be -10. The object of the game is to keep your score near zero in the long run. If the other person considers the action unnecessary and you have no concrete evidence that your approach is better, you don't get the negative points. I just thought this up -- it may need tweaking and isn't necessarily a good idea.

 

[goncalomata]

Waiting for - next action in disguise

What I would probably do is, for each thing, decide what my own next action will be. For example: if I don't hear anything back from anybody about this, then 2 days from now I'll send an email to X asking about it.

Totally agree. Many Waiting For's are next actions in disguise, waiting to be cleared.

I find making a monitor list is not nearly as effective as making clear decisions as to exactly what I'll do and when if nothing happens. Then I add an alert for that specific time. This alert may well have become obsolete when it rings, but that's ok. It's like a safety net in a circus. The artists will not fall. But if they do, if everything else fails, it will be there to save it.

Gonçalo Gil Mata
www.WHATsTheTRICK.com

 

[cwoodgold]

Totally agree. Many Waiting For's are next actions in disguise, waiting to be cleared.

I can't imagine any that aren't.

 

[cfoley]

If I need to send out reminders, I can decide that in my weekly review when I'm looking over my waiting for list.

Occasionally, I know things need to move faster than that so I'll put a reminder in my tickler too.