Managing recurring chores in GTD

[ianfh10]

I've recently implemented GTD in my professional life and am finding it works really well. The aha! moment of moving from categories to contexts was a real psychological release.

I recently saw a tip by David Allen that suggested one should go the whole hog and include one's personal and professional life within the system 100%.

However, I've hit a stumbling block with mundane chores and tasks. For example, something like 'wash dishes' or 'fold laundry'.

These tasks seem ingrained enough in the everyday that they don't really seem to warrant being captured and organised, but aren't habits (like 'brush teeth' certainly is) that are established enough to be done outside of a system. They're not particularly linked to a certain day or time, but are next actions. They are, however, endless in a way. I can complete "vacuum" this week, but it's likely I'll do it next week, and the following week, and so on.

Even though they don't seem to warrant being inputted into the system, they still regularly turn up in my mindsweep, meaning they're taking up bandwidth in my mind and causing me enough stress to warrant me posting here.

How do you reconcile the two?

 

[mcogilvie]

What you do depends on you and on the tools you use,but the goal is always to get something off your mind, into a place you will trust when you need to see it. If you have a usual laundry day, or grocery shopping day, you could put it on your calendar. If you use a digital list tool, you can give something a due date. Because I use a morevsophisticated app (Things 3), I can have Grocery shopping appear every Sunday with no due date, but have bill-paying appear a few days before the end of the month, with a due date. I have other actions that repeat every two weeks after completion. You can do this manually, but it is nice to have the app do it for me.

 

[Gardener]

Maybe a checklist? I could imagine a monthly checklist, broken up into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks.

 

[FocusGuy]

For regular stuff I use checklists. These are for all things I want to review at regular time
I made them on word, I could do it on apple note or whatever... They are outside of my tool (Omnifocus) on my mac...

 

[TesTeq]

something like 'wash dishes'

@ianfh10 I'm washing dishes IMMEDIATELY after the meal. Two minute rule.
Some of my recurring actions are scheduled on specific weekdays (for example Monday: paying bills online).
I tried to use Things for shopping like @mcogilvie but my grocery store visits are not as regular as his.

 

[mcogilvie]

@ianfh10 I'm washing dishes IMMEDIATELY after the meal. Two minute rule..

Also, the scuz factor. David Allen talks about this in the old live seminar recordings. We get used to a certain condition holding, and we act to maintain it. I get out of bed, my mouth feels scuzzy, I brush my teeth. I heard an interesting bit of history about this. It seems toothpaste was around for some time before it was widely used. Then a marketing genius added mint flavoring to toothpaste, and people quickly associated that minty sensation with a clean mouth. This probably explains why email is such a problem- no minty fresh feelings from processing it.

 

[Tammie]

The only "chore" I have in my calendar is vacuum, every Sunday at 4.35 pm - yes, that's a random time, but I make a cup of herbal tea at 4.30 pm and let it cool whilst I'm vacuuming lol

I don't put wash dishes because after I've eaten I wash the dishes, dry with the tea towel and put away. Yes, that's probably a project but it's on autopilot for me since I took over doing it Same with the cat litter tray, it's an autopilot thing.

 

[TesTeq]

Same with the cat litter tray, it's an autopilot thing.

@Tammie My cat litter tray is equipped with the Odor Alarm™. I can smell if there's something interesting left there by my cat...

 

[Tammie]

@Tammie My cat litter tray is equipped with the Odor Alarm™. I can smell if there's something interesting left there by my cat...

 

[ianfh10]

@ianfh10 I'm washing dishes IMMEDIATELY after the meal. Two minute rule.
Some of my recurring actions are scheduled on specific weekdays (for example Monday: paying bills online).
I tried to use Things for shopping like @mcogilvie but my grocery store visits are not as regular as his.

Perhaps 'wash dishes' was a poor example. Do you have these recurring actions on your calendar alone? You say you have 'some' of them scheduled on specific weekdays? Where do the others live?

 

[Julie Jones]

I use recurring actions for many of what you would consider chores. David Allen might have them in the tickler file.
I also use recurring actions for things that I want to make into a habit. All my daily recurring actions should eventually become habits.

Most chores do not have a true deadline, but rather need to be done with some periodicity. What I want is to reschedule from the completion date. For example, trim my cat's nails weekly. If I am a couple days late it is not a problem but then I would like to reschedule in a week. The same for changing the air conditioner filter monthly. For chores that have a periodicity of greater than a week I will never make them habits. It is just easier to have them scheduled. (I use Nirvana and it doesn't reschedule from due date so I have to manually adjust for this.)

Recurring task should show up in next actions on the start date, which for chores is also the "due" date. They should be somehow identifyable, perhaps at the top of the list. In Nirvana they show up on the focus list.

One of the big benefits of recurring actions is that you can look back and see how you did, did you do them late all the time, did you skip some, etc. This is especially true for my recurring weekly review.

 

[jwsamuel]

I have regular routine tasks that occur every week, every two weeks, or every month. I just enter them under the appropriate context, put the date of the next time I have to do it and then set it as a recurring task. Then I forget about it until it pops up in Todoist or on my Google Calendar. I use the recurring tasks more to keep myself straight on when to do something, not to remember if I have to do it.

 

[jwsamuel]

Most chores do not have a true deadline, but rather need to be done with some periodicity. What I want is to reschedule from the completion date.

I just learned that Todoist lets you do just that. If you enter a recurring task as "every 2 weeks," it repeats it two weeks from the first due date. If you enter it as "every! 2 weeks," it repeats the task two weeks from the date you completed it. That makes a big difference for me.

 

[Oogiem]

However, I've hit a stumbling block with mundane chores and tasks.

I have checklists in my system for daily, weekly and monthly tasks and projects and also recurring projects that start at specific times of the year based on when I have to do the recurring tasks in them.

 

[Eric Bowers]

I add them to Things, just like everything else. That particular app is great at hiding activities until they need to show up. If I did it in Reminders, or similar, I personally have used a Tickler list, so that I never have these items show in my other context lists, and they all have due dates on them. That way they "bubble up" to the surface only on the due date, at which point I probably can "Pay bills" anywhere...but if I need to "Vacuum the house", I know I need to be @home. If I am currently on vacation when that pops up, I can forward on to the next week, for example. It's a bit like having an item come back to you for the day so that you can decide what to do with it only on that date, which is important for those Tickler items.

 

[Robert5911]

I think the main thing is to get anything that has your attention on a list or if its a hard landscape item on the calendar. For me I wash the dishes every evening after my wife cooks. I do not need a next action for this. I do not have a next action for brushing my teeth, take a shower etc. When you are starting the process of GTD I think the initial response is to put everything you might do on a list. Once I spent time in the process I realized this was not about habitual things like washing dishes, brushing my teeth, etc. that wasn't on my mind anyway so why put it on a list? I do have some repetitive tasks that I do need to get off my mind. I am a pastor and I have to prepare a sermon every week which involves a number of steps. I block time through out the week on my calendar connected to a check list for the steps. This is the only way I can get this"off my mind." Don't put things on your mind that were not there to begin with. If they show up in your mind sweep I would suggest that it is just because you are now starting the process. If you need to put it on a list or calendar go ahead, but it will soon disappear as you execute your weekly reviews.

 

[jwsamuel]

I think the main thing is to get anything that has your attention on a list or if its a hard landscape item on the calendar. For me I wash the dishes every evening after my wife cooks. I do not need a next action for this. I do not have a next action for brushing my teeth, take a shower etc. When you are starting the process of GTD I think the initial response is to put everything you might do on a list. Once I spent time in the process I realized this was not about habitual things like washing dishes, brushing my teeth, etc. that wasn't on my mind anyway so why put it on a list? I do have some repetitive tasks that I do need to get off my mind. I am a pastor and I have to prepare a sermon every week which involves a number of steps. I block time through out the week on my calendar connected to a check list for the steps. This is the only way I can get this"off my mind." Don't put things on your mind that were not there to begin with. If they show up in your mind sweep I would suggest that it is just because you are now starting the process. If you need to put it on a list or calendar go ahead, but it will soon disappear as you execute your weekly reviews.

I totally agree with you about routine things not being on a list. When I am trying to develop a new routine, I do put it on my list until it has become automatic for me. When I reach the point at which I no longer look at my list to remind me to do that activity, I will drop it from my list. One example is the idea of getting some form of exercise every day. I had that on my list of daily activities for about three months. I no longer list it because it is part of my daily life.

 

[ianfh10]

Thanks for all your advice!

For now, I've created a "routines" list and separated it out from those projects/next actions I need to do @home etc. Not only has this helped separate chores out, but gives me a sense of whether having this list is even useful for me or not. I'll see how it goes!

I'm also in the process of creating checklists and trigger lists as part of my system, so may incorporate the routines list into that.

 

[jwsamuel]

Thanks for all your advice!

For now, I've created a "routines" list and separated it out from those projects/next actions I need to do @home etc. Not only has this helped separate chores out, but gives me a sense of whether having this list is even useful for me or not. I'll see how it goes!

I'm also in the process of creating checklists and trigger lists as part of my system, so may incorporate the routines list into that.

I do the same for routine chores. The biggest benefit to me is that it reminds me if a bi-weekly or monthly chore is due this month.

 

[Julie Jones]

I created a Repeating Tasks area in nirvana for the same purpose.