Why am i still in the same reacting to (vs. attacking) what needs to get done?

[GettingNothingDone]

Why am i still in the same "reacting to" (vs. "attacking/facing") what needs to get done?

1. Not sure if my issue is with "methodology" or "software" (in terms of which forum I should be in. This is my first time on this site)

2. I've been muddling through the book and the David Allen podcasts - and started using Nirvana task management software.

3. I'm good at capturing everything (and there is so much!) into the Nirvana Inbox and slotting time/day-specific items in calendar.

4. But I struggle with creating/assigning Projects. I also feel that I already have so many Projects, and my list of Projects (as well as my Inbox!) just keeps growing and I can't see everything at once, so I can't asses what is priority among the various projects. And this makes me not trust the system and therefore remain stressed.

5. I also find it difficult to define, label and attach "areas" and "tags" (Nirvana's lingo) to each to-do item that pops into my head; I spin my wheels which area and tag does each item need.

I wonder if my issues would be resolved by switching to Omnifocus? I am not very tech-savvy - but want to be. I wish I had a trusted system.

any insight would be appreciated.

 

[triciaho]

I have found the 2 Minute Rule to be a great way to get started and to start training myself to think in terms of the Next Action. I use Outlook Tasks for work and Wunderlist for personal. Like many GTD-ers, I've tried Omnifocus earlier this year and it is very powerful - if you can get it to work. Unfortunately, I struggled as it was an overkill for my simple personal tasks. Ended up spending too much time tweaking the configurations than "getting things done".

If you feel that you have too many projects, maybe some of them should be relegated back into Someday/Maybe? I believe Projects are meant to be things that you would like completed in the next 12 months. Also, do you do your Weekly Reviews? It's a great way to "reset" and "clean the decks".

I have found keeping the system as simple as possible in the beginning is the way to go. Only start adding more context, tags etc when needed, rather than introducing them earlier on "just in case".

From one newbie to another - I hope that helped!

 

[Oogiem]

Just a few quick notes:

It's normal for the capture habit to overwhelm your system. Be sure you are spending enough time processing, as in really processing the inputs. Plan on between 1.5-2 hours a day just getting the inputs handled properly.

Use someday/maybe. I personally like long lists and I have projects that can span years, decades or even multiple lifetimes but that is an anomaly in teh GTD world. For me I'm perfectly happy moving projects in and out of someday/maybe as needed. Perhaps the projects' next action can only be performed in early spring. Why see it now in the fall? So I'll dump it into hold (someday/maybe and I'll catch it up again at my spring equinox review. For many people only keeping active the projects you plan to work on in the next week or 2 can help deal with overwhelm.

I have no idea how to handle the tags etc of Nirvana. I use Omnifocus and love it. It did take a while to get set up in a way I like. The GTD set-up guide is a good start but I didn't like the recommended set-up once I tried it. It can take a while to get comfortable with a system that works for you. You might try paper as that might be easier to corral projects into someday/maybe that way. I found, especially at the beginning, that an electronic system made it so easy to capture that I didn't spend nearly enough time processing and got overwhelmed. It took a while to get a system that is really working for me. I first read the GTD book in 2008. I am still learning and fine tuning. It's a practice and a system and a set of behaviors, not a software package.

 

[trmikie]

"It's a practice and a system and a set of behaviors, not a software package."

It is a practice. I have been as long as you Oogiem. The capture and processing are a small part of what GTD is. They are on the horizontal. Then there is the vertical. It is a process not a destination. Develop mind like water

 

[TesTeq]

4. But I struggle with creating/assigning Projects. I also feel that I already have so many Projects, and my list of Projects (as well as my Inbox!) just keeps growing and I can't see everything at once, so I can't asses what is priority among the various projects. And this makes me not trust the system and therefore remain stressed.

How many Projects are on your Someday/Maybe list versus your Projects list?

I wonder if my issues would be resolved by switching to Omnifocus?

No. Omnifocus is great but - like Nirvana - will not analyse your stuff for you.

 

[triciaho]

It's a practice and a system and a set of behaviors, not a software package.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[mcogilvie]

From the way you describe things, it sounds like you want to prioritize your projects, and are not sure you have them all under control. In GTD, the control part relies on the weekly review to make sure each project has one or more next actions that will move each project forward. It also builds awareness of the often subtle forces that willl influence our moment-to-moment decisions choosing one next action over another. Prioritizing projects in a highly structured way is usually not that useful, and GTD emphasizes making good choices in the moment about next actions. Once you have a good list of next actions, as complete and do-able as you can make it, you will find it is relatively easy to start doing things.

 

[Gardener]

4. But I struggle with creating/assigning Projects. I also feel that I already have so many Projects, and my list of Projects (as well as my Inbox!) just keeps growing and I can't see everything at once, so I can't asses what is priority among the various projects. And this makes me not trust the system and therefore remain stressed.

I think that OmniFocus would definitely be worth trying. For some people, it just clicks; for some people, it doesn't make sense at all.

It sounds to me like you have too many active projects. On an hourly or daily basis, there's no need to look through ALL of your projects; it's best (IMO) to hide the ones that you aren't likely to work in the near future. And OmniFocus makes it pretty easy to make projects appear and disappear.

For example:

- You can set up your lists to hide On Hold projects and their actions.

- You can then set projects to be On Hold so that they don't clutter up your lists.

- If you use the Review capability in OmniFocus, your projects will show up to be reviewed, so at that time those projects will appear in the review list and you can decide whether to leave them On Hold or take them off for the coming week.

- And you can set the review frequency of projects. The default is one week, but you can set it to review every month, or every three months, or even every year. So you can reduce the effort of the weekly review--if you want to.

Of course, you can do all of these things with any system, including paper. My view is that your top priority should be to reduce the number of currently active projects, making the prioritization decisions once a week rather than every day. A project that is high priority and high urgency will be worked this week; a project that is low priority and low urgency will be moved to Someday/Maybe, and projects that are in between can be evaluated one by one, though I would always recommend erring in the direction of having fewer active projects. If you run out of work, you can always go pull a project out of Someday/Maybe.

And "high" priority/urgency should be in relation to other projects and your capacity. Even if your boss insists that three weeks' worth of work is ALL high priority and high urgency, you can't get all that work done in one week. So you may as well hide a lot of it so that you're not distracted by it.

Sometimes, a project will appear in the list because it may have a single time-dependent action that is more important than the rest, and you don't want to forget it while it's On Hold. For example, the software for the Widget Project has to be ordered by the end of May, even though you won't have time to start the code until August. In that case, I always think it's better to break out the higher-urgency item into its own separate project, so that you don't have the whole Widget Project staring you in the face months before you can do anything about it.

 

[TesTeq]

Sometimes, a project will appear in the list because it may have a single time-dependent action that is more important than the rest, and you don't want to forget it while it's On Hold. For example, the software for the Widget Project has to be ordered by the end of May, even though you won't have time to start the code until August. In that case, I always think it's better to break out the higher-urgency item into its own separate project, so that you don't have the whole Widget Project staring you in the face months before you can do anything about it.

Isn't it a perfect example of a tickler item or a date-specific action on May, 25th?

 

[Gardener]

Isn't it a perfect example of a tickler item or a date-specific action on May, 25th?

Yes, but a tickler action would usually be part of a project, and in OmniFocus if it's part of an On Hold project, it won't appear. If the project is not On Hold, then the whole project, probably containing some un-dated items that will appear, will clutter up the lists.

(I may have misunderstood your question, though?)

Edited to add: Also, it might not be a single action. If there are several actions to buy the software, and they have to be done by May, and the whole rest of the project doesn't start until August, then I would consider that two projects based not on the content of the project, but on the large date difference.

 

[TesTeq]

Yes, but a tickler action would usually be part of a project, and in OmniFocus if it's part of an On Hold project, it won't appear. If the project is not On Hold, then the whole project, probably containing some un-dated items that will appear, will clutter up the lists.

Great example of the GTD implementation problems! Something that is perfectly reasonable within GTD cannot be done with TMAGTDTITW (The Most Advanced GTD Tool In The World ;-) ).

If you use paper you simply put a Someday/Maybe Project on the Someday/Maybe list but write a note to buy the software in your calendar or throw it into the May folder in your Tickler File. And - magically ;-) - nothing will prevent it to appear when it should appear!

 

[Jodie E. Francis]

Is 'GettingNothingDone' still reading? I'll chime in anyway, because I really relate to their concern about having a Project list that is too long. It was a problem when I started GTD years ago, and every time I get back on the wagon and am faced with processing a large backlog, it rears its ugly head again. I tend to shut down when my Project and Action lists are very long. I stop reviewing my lists, processing my inputs, then eventually stop mindsweeps... until eventually I'm off the wagon again!

April Perry, GTD influencer and creator of the STEP program (learndobecome.com) suggests keeping only 7-8 projects on the Current Project list. The rest go to 'Next in Line' projects, or depending on urgency, to 'Someday' as was already suggested. Her intention with Current Projects is that we are committed to advancing (and completing) them within a month. Similarly, Next Actions will be completed this week. During the Weekly Review, Next in Line Projects and Actions are promoted to Current as the existing ones are completed, or are demoted as needed to make space if something more urgent must be moved to Current.

While it is an adaptation that not everyone will agree with, tightly focusing my lists this way helps me keep the overwhelm under control.

 

[mcogilvie]

Yes, but a tickler action would usually be part of a project, and in OmniFocus if it's part of an On Hold project, it won't appear. If the project is not On Hold, then the whole project, probably containing some un-dated items that will appear, will clutter up the lists.

(I may have misunderstood your question, though?)

Edited to add: Also, it might not be a single action. If there are several actions to buy the software, and they have to be done by May, and the whole rest of the project doesn't start until August, then I would consider that two projects based not on the content of the project, but on the large date difference.

I know several ways to 'solve the problem' in OmniFocus. Probably the easiest is to make the project sequential rather than parallel and have the tickler as the first entry. This is a good example of why I am less enthusiastic about Omnifocus than many who use it. It seems to me that it often leads to more time spent thinking about doing and less time doing. This particular problem just goes away with flat lists. You have a project on the list, and the tickler is the reminder for the next action. Possible future next actions go in project support as they arise.

 

[bcmyers2112]

GettingNothingDone: Regarding whether a change of software will help, Oogiem hit the nail on the head. GTD is a set of behaviors and practices. It sounds like you need to focus how you're applying the principles. In my experience, switching software won't help.

If you feel that you are overwhelmed with projects, I agree with Oogiem and Gardener that you may need to shunt some of them over to Someday/Maybe. In my experience there is no one formula for the right number of projects/actions to keep active. Trust your intuition. You'll know when you have the right mix when you feel your projects and actions are off your mind.

I use a simple rule of thumb: if I am committed to doing something as soon as possible, it goes in my active lists. Otherwise, it goes into Someday/Maybe.

What does "as soon as possible" mean? Whatever you want it to. They're your lists, it's your work, and your life. In my case, I trust my gut to help me define "as soon as possible." It's not precise but it works for me. If something in my active list goes stale, or something in my Someday/Maybe list heats up, my intuition will tell me when I encounter those things in a weekly review or if some external circumstance warrants an ad-hoc "promotion" or "demotion."

One other thing that concerns me is that you're resisting entering actions because you're having trouble deciding on the appropriate "areas" and "tags" for each in Nirvana. It's been a while since I've used Nirvana, and I don't remember what "areas" and "tags" are for. But GTD recommends organizing actions solely by context, i.e. the person, place or tool needed to get the job done. That should be a pretty easy decision. If you're trying to classify your actions by more than just context, you may have created a system more complex than is useful. Your GTD system should be easy enough to update that you can do so when you have the flu; otherwise you'll resist using it and your brain will reclaim the job of keeping track of your stuff. I'd suggest just organizing actions by context (and linking them to projects if you're using that Nirvana feature).

 

[TesTeq]

April Perry, GTD influencer and creator of the STEP program (learndobecome.com) suggests keeping only 7-8 projects on the Current Project list. The rest go to 'Next in Line' projects, or depending on urgency, to 'Someday' as was already suggested. Her intention with Current Projects is that we are committed to advancing (and completing) them within a month. Similarly, Next Actions will be completed this week. During the Weekly Review, Next in Line Projects and Actions are promoted to Current as the existing ones are completed, or are demoted as needed to make space if something more urgent must be moved to Current.

Very similar to my way of thinking. Small set of Active Projects for the week and huge Someday/Maybe. I must think about this 'Next in Line' concept...

 

[Longstreet]

In Nirvanahq, one can have a category called "Later", which I use. I put projects "next in line" here -- above Someday/Maybe. I am definitely going to do them, but just not this week and may move them to active projects upon my weekly review.

 

[Oogiem]

Great example of the GTD implementation problems! Something that is perfectly reasonable within GTD cannot be done with TMAGTDTITW (The Most Advanced GTD Tool In The World ;-) ).

Or it indicates that some people implement their system differently. I never have had the problem of putting a project on hold but losing a dated item in it because I always split out that sort of thing into many small projects. If I need too I put the whole project in with a start and a due date but only very rarely will individual actions have any dates associated with them.

It also depends on how you view your lists in Omnifocus. There are many options. My preferred method is to have the default for project be sequential (a difference from the set-up guide which suggests parallel as the default) and set most of my views to be all available. That combination prevents any cluttering of my lists without losing track of important looming deadlines like that described by Gardener. In my current system I have 135 active projects but only 12 are set to be parallel.

Examples of a parallel project include Deworm all sheep with actions for deworming each class/group of animals. We are currently running 4 classes, adult ewes, adult rams, ewe lambs and ram lambs. It doesn't really matter what order I do the groups but experience tells me that it is only rarely that I can do more than one group in a day. Deworming has to happen when the sheep are hungry, a full rumen means you lose some of the effectiveness of the drug. That project is set for parallel so that as each group of sheep runs out of hay and we are preparing to put out a new bale we can run them in and deworm the animals that need it. Since they eat the hay at different rates, the bales are slightly different sizes and we put the last bale in on different days I can't predict what order that will happen. Plus I need to factor in weather too. I hate to work wet sheep so if it's been rainy I avoid doing anything where I have to hold a sheep. Deworming requires I hold each sheep head securely to give them the drench and make sure they swallow it. Doing that to a bunch of wet sheep isn't fun and takes longer too.

 

[Gardener]

Great example of the GTD implementation problems! Something that is perfectly reasonable within GTD cannot be done with TMAGTDTITW (The Most Advanced GTD Tool In The World ;-) ).

If you use paper you simply put a Someday/Maybe Project on the Someday/Maybe list but write a note to buy the software in your calendar or throw it into the May folder in your Tickler File. And - magically ;-) - nothing will prevent it to appear when it should appear!

Belatedly returning to say that it's not that you can't do it in OmniFocus, you just have to pick a way. If you put a lot of projects On Hold, as I do, and if you hide all sign of On Hold projects in your list, as I do, then you need to keep that in mind when you create items with firm important deadlines. You could put those deadlines in a single parallel "Deadline Ticklers" project, or you could give them their own projects, or you could defer the project until that date rather than put it On Hold, or you could create a Coming Due view that shows everything including On Hold, or I'm sure that there are other solutions. But you do have to keep it in mind when deciding how to configure your system.

 

[PTKen]

Another approach is to try and keep both your active list and your Someday list shorter. The truth is many people add many projects to these lists that will never get done and just keep creating stress as we see in this thread. I recommend the book "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. It's a fantastic way to view your commitments and to simply not commit to the things that will not provide the highest contribution to your goals. This will help keep things off of your lists in the first place.

 

[GettingNothingDone]

I'm still processing all of the responses (so, yes, I've been reading... and digesting.) I will say I found that reading the reply posts encouraging; comforting to know that my struggles are "reasonable"... Anyway, I found the following ways to alleviate some of my issues: 1. Every night, I make jot down on letter-size paper the following boxes which happen to suit my "home-maker and job-seeker" roles for the following day: the times where I HAVE to be somewhere (appointments, pick up kid, etc.); any actions that i MUST take care of; the top 5 or 10 (in terms of priority) "next actions"; a few more actions for "in case i have extra time or energy"; a box of stuff i need to remember to talk to kids about when they get home..... So this way, I never have that feeling of dread I typically have of "I should be doing something more important, more worthy of my time/effort....." - i've already prioritized the "worthiness". Problem is finding the short window of time the night before to do this. 2. Someone on a GTD podcast interview i listened to recently (about balancing life/family) said something I also find reassuring: to fully embrace the gtd metholodoggy, one shouldn't shy away from putting "family" stuff as projects. Whether I like it or not, my main job right now is as a parent/homemaker. So, bit the bullet and have each kid as an area of focus and also projects such as "Be a Parent to X" (where i'll park a Next Action such as Buy more Shel silverstein books bc one day X said she'd like more or Go for a bike ride with X) and "Keep Track of X's School" - i didn't want to admit to myself that I needed to write things like this down - but I do. 3. I like the posts regarding "it's the methodology, not the software, that's relevant." I'm sticking with Nirvana for now..... 4. The post from JodieFrancis about "shutting down" is exactly what I feel, and then I stop looking at them. So far, I find my 3-day-long habit of making a daily "cheat sheet" list of the most important next actions and the mandatory appointments really helpful. Not that I get the next actions done necessarily - but i have the peace of mind that i just glanced at each project last night so my dread that something is falling thru the cracks is significantly less. 5. I don't have many Projects on Someday/Maybe list bc most seem to be ongoing like "be petter parent" or "find a job" and bc I don't trust that I'll EVER look in there. Anyways, thanks for all the responses!