Asking for some help on a "project?" or on an "area of focus and interest"

christophe.portier

christophe.portier

Registered
Hi there,
I'm a bit stucked with a topic I named "Learn flowers of Savoy (this is the region where I live in France) with my sons"
The output is not easy to define (or should be something like "Become able to name 90% of the flowers we meet" for example, which looks weird), and this does not really look like a project, as a consequence. Probably more like an "Area of focus and interest", but I'm always facing difficulties with this board until now. Should this "area of interest" figure with such a title, sounding like a project? Or should this be part of my "Share my interest into nature with my sons"?
Threads I can find on these forums on this (like this one) don't help me a lot, as they look not very organized for GTD-ers (as if tasks and projects were THE 2 horizons, and other ones kind of optional staff). Even in the books of David Allen, I feel like the higher horizons are not described a lot, not helping to structurize things.
Maybe because they are more and more personal, so more and more "up to you, body"?
Well, anyway, I'm sure your help on the way you would manage such a "Learn flowers of Savoy with my sons" topic will bring me elements; thanks a lot for your feedbacks!
Cheers,
Christophe
PS: And happy new year, by the way :)
 
christophe.portier said:
I'm a bit stucked with a topic I named "Learn flowers of Savoy (this is the region where I live in France) with my sons"
The output is not easy to define (or should be something like "Become able to name 90% of the flowers we meet" for example, which looks weird), and this does not really look like a project, as a consequence.
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@christophe.portier How the lessons will look like? Will you wander around and learn or will you search Wikipedia, or will you browse the "book of flowers"? I see nothing wrong with the "Become able to name 90% of the flowers we meet" Project outcome.
 
TesTeq said:
@christophe.portier How the lessons will look like? Will you wander around and learn or will you search Wikipedia, or will you browse the "book of flowers"? I see nothing wrong with the "Become able to name 90% of the flowers we meet" Project outcome.
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I agree, it’s a project. But is “90%” by number of species, prevalence in the region, or what? A desired outcome is a stopping point, right? So maybe your goal is “obtain proficiency” and you will know when you get there. Mastery of a subject is not part of GTD, but I like a three stage model: you can do it slowly; you can do it easily; you can do it easily while explaining it to someone else. Higher levels of mastery do not come on a schedule.

As to the larger point you raise: I think the Areas of Focus, or Level 2, is actually pretty clear. Only a serious flower person would have an area of focus based on flowers, but any good father would want to develop interest and activities with his children as part of an area of focus on family. Levels 3-5 are described pretty well in terms of frequency of review, and time horizon. For example, Level 3 might be 1-2 year goals reviewed quarterly. There is a lot of productivity and personal growth material on this sort of stuff, and honestly I think a lot of it is not very good. I appreciate David Allen saying that my goals, beliefs and principles are my own. Consider corporate mission statements: “We are committed to the growth of all our associates” just drips sincerity.
 
Four "Area's of Focus" that includes EVERYTHING: 1. DIVINE, 2. HEALTH (In addition to Physical, everything that contributes to "HEALTH" which would also includes All Relationships and Experiences, i.e., Language(s), Learning, Logic, Skill Development(s), GTD Methodology, etc. ), 3. UTILITY/TOOLS (Includes Home, Car, Computer, etc.), 4. FISCAL. Hope it helps anyone, thank you.
 
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TesTeq said:
@gtdstudente So where "Learn flowers of Savoy" Project belongs to?
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"Learn flowers of Savoy" / "Learn flowers of Savoy with sons" would [both] be a Project(s) under the "Area of Focus" of HEALTH, since with or without sons, while seemingly all the more HEALTH with sons, contributes to overall HEALTH in terms of Relationship and Learning. If, for example, hanging a new door in the house with sons would also be under HEALTH (since HEALTH Relationship(s) is/are in play with its own set of considerations and intuitively ranks higher than UTILITY/TOOLS) while if UTILITY/TOOLS is done 'SOLO' then the Project would then be under UTILITY/TOOLS
 
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The above brings to mind a paraphrased African proverb: 'If you wish to travel fast go alone, while if you wish to travel far go together'
 
christophe.portier said:
Well, anyway, I'm sure your help on the way you would manage such a "Learn flowers of Savoy with my sons" topic will bring me elements; thanks a lot for your feedbacks!
Click to expand...
If I insisted on an outcome-based title (I don't use them) I would probably start with:

Outcome: We all know a lot more about the flowers of Savoy
Next Action: Spend an hour rummaging through the web, reading about the flowers of Savoy.

That action would probably suggest the next action.

Maybe I repeatedly ran into a specific book or books, so my next action might be to get it.

Maybe I ran into a mention of a display garden nearby, so my next action might be to grab the kids and go visit it.

Maybe I decide to make a list of candidate flowers.

Maybe after that I give a subset of the list to each kid, and ask them to make a Pinterest page for their subset.

IMO, there's no need for a detailed advance plan--the idea is just to keep nudging the activity along.
 
Thanks for your answers gentle·wo·men.
They have helped me, mainly making me realize that whatever this "high-level" topic is... a next action to make it progress was missing in my system!
Have a nice end of year, and thanks again for your help in GTD.
 
Happy New Year to all!
I love the outcome clearly defined as being able to name 90% of the flowers of that region. As long as you know how many flowers that’s clear-cut! Knowing how many flowers may be difficult though.
I’m a reader so for me I’d handle this by finding a great book that covers what I believe to be all or lots of the flowers that grow in the region and study it. Next action being something like “Study 2 pages of book abc”. maybe it’s every other day. study is flashcard app on my phone.pic of flower on one side and what I wanna know on other so that I’d recognize it on sight. Once done with book see if you are satisfied with proficiency level. If not get another book, website or other source as previously suggested etc. it’s kind of a long term single next action project… maybe block time on calendar to chunk away at it so it stays on radar if it’s that important. That’s worked for me anyways. Hope this helps.
 
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