action vs someday

[cwoodgold]

Jens asked: "What does ASAP within GTD mean?"

I think it just means that you can do it right now if you decide to,
though you can have many actions you're able to do ASAP and
you can only decide to do one at a time.

"How do you distinct if an item goes to the someday or the actionlist?"

I think according to GTD, the action list is for things you're definitely
intending to do, while the someday/maybe list is for things you might or might
not do, or are intending to do but not in the near future.

One criterion I use is: do I want to keep seeing this item on my
list every day (or every week)? When I get tired of seeing an item
or consider it a waste of time to read it over and over again because
I'm not likely to do it soon, then I move it to a less prominent list.
Some of my someday/maybe lists I only intend to read once a month
or even less often. I can also just delete items from my lists.

"Do you have an limited amount of action items per list - everything else to "someday"?"

Sort-of. I don't have a specific limit, but I try to keep the lists short
enough, and composed mainly of things I'm likely to do soon, that
I'll be motivated to look at them. I have my lists on paper, and will
sometimes change the heading at the top of the page and move selected
items to a new page as a way of demoting most of the ones that
aren't done yet.

"Do you have always your workload (timewise) in mind, so that you can decide by "feeling": oops, this has to wait - put it to "someday"?"

Sounds like a good idea. The stage I'm at, I'm just trying to develop a vague realistic feeling
that I have a lot of things to do already and therefore probably should
be very careful about taking on any more.

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Some members were discussing whether to put actions on Someday/Maybe lists.
I don't see any reason not to put individual actions there; although there is
a good reason not to list a whole vague project on an action list: you wouldn't
know where to start and wouldn't do it.

Like some other members of the forum,
I usually don't list projects but just list actions on my context lists, and when
I finish an action, if there's a logical follow-up action I'll immediately list it
on my context lists. If I want to move something to someday/maybe I usually
just copy the same words, describing the next action. I'm thinking I might
need to do more with projects. I can put reminders in my tickle file which can
be just names of projects, in case I forget to write down a next action for them.
I'm thinking of maintaining a list of major projects as a way of getting a feel
for how much my workload is. And for some projects I write out plans and stuff.

David Allen says a next action should be a single, physical action, and he
gives as an example making a phone call (though he advises writing the
phone number next to the item on the action list ahead of time, so you're
more likely to do it). I've realized that he doesn't literally mean a single
physical action. If so, the first action wouldn't be making a phone call;
it would be picking up the phone or pressing the button to dial the first
number in the phone number. I think the key criterion isn't really that it's
a single physical action, but that it's a doable action that feels conceptually
like a single action to the person doing it.

If you can look at an action
on your list and think "I know how to do that!" and not feel any hesitation
about starting if you have the time, and are able and likely to complete
it in a single session, then I think it can count as a single action.
It's whether you feel that it's doable for you. I like to refer to actions
as "doables" and am grateful to David Allen for his system which
has helped me greatly increase the doability of the stuff I'm intending to do.

I agree with others about dividing things into smaller steps when
your motivation is low. I've sometimes planned to get out my papers
for my income tax one weekend, briefly look at them and put them
away, and actually fill out the forms the following weekend.
I find it makes it much easier to start.

 

[pxt]

To me, a single action is something that I fully understand, that I'm equipped to do and that I can do in one work session without a break. I think that it's the "fully understand" and "equipped" that may differ drastically between people.

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And, yes, for tasks where I need some morale help, I am likely to divide the task into tiny bits, even if I fully understand it and I'm fully equipped. For example, if I just need to call a coworker, "Call Joe" will do fine. If I need to call someone scary, I might turn the call into a project that starts with "Look up number".

Gardener

I was interested by the aspects of next action that you mentioned there.

The quality of my clarification step determines the quality of my workflow as a whole and one of the results of that is a high quality next action. So I like your first definition of a next action above.

Sometimes we break a next action into pieces to beat procrastination and this can result in next actions that are not fully formed and leave the project in a funny state, eg: chlorine cup is lying around but the real action is incomplete and your other head knows it.

I am drifting in favour of fully formed next actions. Beating procrastination is about identifying the mental barrier and learning to go through it, which may be a feeling of boredom, or resistance to authority or anxiety or whatever. So if someone gets nervous before making phone calls, they may start the action by writing down the number and taking a break to calm down but, ultimately, they need to learn that they have the confidence in them to ride the wave of anxiety and make the call. This is between them and the phone and has nothing to do with the status of the project. So they may need to start the same next action five times before building the confidence to complete it. In a way, breaking a resistive next action into manageable pieces may instead avoid the lesson and perpetuate procrastination.

 

[cwoodgold]

breaking actions into manageable pieces

pxt said, "In a way, breaking a resistive next action into manageable pieces may instead avoid the lesson and perpetuate procrastination."

That's an interesting point. I don't think it tends to work that way for me,
but I'll think about it.

A big part of what I really like about GTD is the way David Allen deliberately
designed things to make actions more doable.

When I was first starting GTD I composed the following and wrote it
on my whiteboard:

1. I'll do it.
2. I'll make it easy and fun.
3. I'll do it whether or not it's easy and fun.

The point here is that when deciding what to do now or actually doing
the thing, I try to push myself and do actions even if I'm tired or the
actions seem difficult; but when processing and setting up the lists of
actions, I try to frame the actions so as to be easy to start. (Once I
start, I tend to continue.)

In other words, I try to set the actions up ahead of time to be, as
far as possible, easy and satisfying; but when doing them, I don't
rely on an expectation that they will be easy and satisfying.

 

[pxt]

A way of turning my argument around could be to say that solving procrastination issues is a GTD optimisation.

Next actions can either be designed to be self-contained steps that progress a project to its next most meaningful state, or they can be designed to overcome resistance to getting started, and there are compromises when making this choice.

Perhaps just being aware that a compromise is being made has some value.

 

[pxt]

---

When I was first starting GTD I composed the following and wrote it
on my whiteboard:

1. I'll do it.
2. I'll make it easy and fun.
3. I'll do it whether or not it's easy and fun.

---

I like this.

 

[Gardener]

I am drifting in favour of fully formed next actions. Beating procrastination is about identifying the mental barrier and learning to go through it,

In principle, I agree with you. In practice, I see my mother (for example) never, ever doing scarey things because she has no system for getting them done, and I see myself generally getting them done because I do. So while I'd agree that it would be worthwhile to make a policy of weaning myself off the system for repeated tasks, I wouldn't want to go cold turkey, because then they might never get done.

By "system", I mean that I look at the scarey action and slice off every bit of it that _isn't_ scarey, and get that done ahead of time in a not-scared frame of mind, making the "scared" period much shorter. It's sort of like doing all sorts of prep work for ripping off the Band-Aid, so that I can rip it off fast instead of slow.

For example, I hated starting papers in high school - I don't know why, because I wrote great papers, though perhaps that's why? Excessive expectations? Anyway, I split that action into "prepare to start" and "start". "Prepare to start" involved getting my notebook (this was in the caveman days, pre-student-computers) and books and pencils and pencil sharpener and every little thing that I could imagine needing, and getting them all arranged on the tabletop. _That_ task, I didn't mind - in fact, it was almost enjoyable, getting nice clean pencils, sharpening them, squaring up the supplies, and so on.

Then I would wait for my brain to be willing to "start", and I might do a bunch of other things meanwhile. "Start" was the part that I didn't want to do, and I would find any excuse whatsoever to delay it. But by putting all my supplies together and having a work space ready to just sit down and work, I had eliminated most of the excuses. So the instant that my brain groaned and agreed, "OK, fine, fine, let's start and see if we fall over dead" I was ready to actually start. If I had needed to so much as sharpen a pencil, I probably would have delayed.

Now, I agree that it would be better to train myself to just write the bleeping paper, without needing to wait for my brain to be in the mood. But this method got the papers written, when the stricter method probably wouldn't have.

And the same is true now for scarey phone calls. If I have to find the phone number, or scan my calendar for an appointment time if it's that kind of call, then I'll use that to delay. If I do all that prep ahead of time, telling myself, "You're just checking the calendar; you don't have to call now", then the call is much more likely to get done.

I suppose, come to think of it, that the system is all about lying in wait for a courageous moment, so that I can take full advantage of it when it comes.

Gardener