Michael Ramone
Registered
I express items on my lists in very specific ways. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, I've described my conventions below.
Next Actions
I express next actions as verbs in the imperative mood. For example,
Cover monitor light with black tape
Look up the requirements for playing Half Life: Alyx
Resolve morning routine
If a next action involves more than one physical action, but is more conveniently expressed as a single next action, I link the sequence of actions as if it were a sentence. For example,
Find a place for house key and put it there
Waiting For
I express Waiting For items as
Delegatee | Project or next action, begun with an imperative verb—Unpadded initiation month/Unpadded initiation date
For example,
Mark | Respond re: schedules—7/31
Postal Service | Deliver pool cleaner—6/15
Morgan | File tax forms for the company—2/1
Someday/Maybe
I express Someday/Maybe items as verbs in the imperative mood as is standard. For example,
Go to India
Understand String Theory
Learn to make animated bar graphs
Reference
I express items on my reference lists as the lists demand. For example, on my "Media" list, I never start entries with verbs. Instead of writing
Watch Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol
(the best MI movie, by the way)
I write
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol
since the name of the list indicates that it contains consumable media.
Projects?
I recently started trying to express projects as descriptions of my desired outcomes. For example,
Medicine drawer is stocked with bandaids
But I suppose that I could also write the following while not violating this convention:
Medicine drawer has been stocked with bandaids
Or I could write
Medicine drawer was stocked with bandaids
since that is equivalent—it still represents what will be true when the project is completed.
And if you were following the convention from the 2015 revision of Getting Things Done, you would likely write
Stock medicine drawer with bandaids
since David Allen starts projects on the partial projects list with imperative verbs.
Do any of you think that the tense of the verb—present tense "am"/"is"/"are", past perfect tense "have been"/"has been," simple past tense "was"/"were"—matters? "What's the desired outcome?" is too ambiguous to imply a certain tense. To make matters worse, "What's the desired outcome?" often produces project names different from those that "What will be true?" produces. Which do I use?
It may be too minor a detail to care for, but having specific naming conventions for entries of each category helps reinforce the very hard edges of my system.
Next Actions
I express next actions as verbs in the imperative mood. For example,
Cover monitor light with black tape
Look up the requirements for playing Half Life: Alyx
Resolve morning routine
If a next action involves more than one physical action, but is more conveniently expressed as a single next action, I link the sequence of actions as if it were a sentence. For example,
Find a place for house key and put it there
Waiting For
I express Waiting For items as
Delegatee | Project or next action, begun with an imperative verb—Unpadded initiation month/Unpadded initiation date
For example,
Mark | Respond re: schedules—7/31
Postal Service | Deliver pool cleaner—6/15
Morgan | File tax forms for the company—2/1
Someday/Maybe
I express Someday/Maybe items as verbs in the imperative mood as is standard. For example,
Go to India
Understand String Theory
Learn to make animated bar graphs
Reference
I express items on my reference lists as the lists demand. For example, on my "Media" list, I never start entries with verbs. Instead of writing
Watch Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol
(the best MI movie, by the way)
I write
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol
since the name of the list indicates that it contains consumable media.
Projects?
I recently started trying to express projects as descriptions of my desired outcomes. For example,
Medicine drawer is stocked with bandaids
But I suppose that I could also write the following while not violating this convention:
Medicine drawer has been stocked with bandaids
Or I could write
Medicine drawer was stocked with bandaids
since that is equivalent—it still represents what will be true when the project is completed.
And if you were following the convention from the 2015 revision of Getting Things Done, you would likely write
Stock medicine drawer with bandaids
since David Allen starts projects on the partial projects list with imperative verbs.
Do any of you think that the tense of the verb—present tense "am"/"is"/"are", past perfect tense "have been"/"has been," simple past tense "was"/"were"—matters? "What's the desired outcome?" is too ambiguous to imply a certain tense. To make matters worse, "What's the desired outcome?" often produces project names different from those that "What will be true?" produces. Which do I use?
It may be too minor a detail to care for, but having specific naming conventions for entries of each category helps reinforce the very hard edges of my system.