Ad Hoc Work vs. Doing Defined Work

[gtdstudente]

Any Tips-&-Tricks to be more Proficient in Doing Defined Work vs. Ad Hoc Work? Thank you!

 

[cfoley]

Is there a specific aspect of this that you are seeking to improve?

What works for me is engaging with my lists regularly. When I do this, I am able to make a more informed decision when work shows up.

Things that help me to engage with my lists:

• Use a tool that I find visually attractive and easy to use.
• Weekly review
• Reading my lists as often as I need to -- sometimes several times a day.
• Keeping automation to a minimum. (e.g. no repeating next actions.)
• Keeping my lists clear and up to date.
• Keeping my lists as short as they can be.

Let me elaborate on the last point. Hypothetically, if I think I can do about 20 things in a week, I will put 30--40 in my list. This gives me room to exceed my expectations but also forces me to be proactive in deciding what goes into Someday/Maybe and forces me to renegotiate commitments rather than letting things fall through the cracks.

Anyway, this is what works for me. If my lists are clear and attractive to me then I will engage with them, and this facilitates making decisions in the moment for me.

 

[gtdstudente]

Is there a specific aspect of this that you are seeking to improve?

What works for me is engaging with my lists regularly. When I do this, I am able to make a more informed decision when work shows up.

Things that help me to engage with my lists:

• Use a tool that I find visually attractive and easy to use.
• Weekly review
• Reading my lists as often as I need to -- sometimes several times a day.
• Keeping automation to a minimum. (e.g. no repeating next actions.)
• Keeping my lists clear and up to date.
• Keeping my lists as short as they can be.

Let me elaborate on the last point. Hypothetically, if I think I can do about 20 things in a week, I will put 30--40 in my list. This gives me room to exceed my expectations but also forces me to be proactive in deciding what goes into Someday/Maybe and forces me to renegotiate commitments rather than letting things fall through the cracks.

Anyway, this is what works for me. If my lists are clear and attractive to me then I will engage with them, and this facilitates making decisions in the moment for me.

Thank you very much . . . all appear very helpful. Thank you

 

[gtdstudente]

Is there a specific aspect of this that you are seeking to improve?

What works for me is engaging with my lists regularly. When I do this, I am able to make a more informed decision when work shows up.

Things that help me to engage with my lists:

• Use a tool that I find visually attractive and easy to use.
• Weekly review
• Reading my lists as often as I need to -- sometimes several times a day.
• Keeping automation to a minimum. (e.g. no repeating next actions.)
• Keeping my lists clear and up to date.
• Keeping my lists as short as they can be.

Let me elaborate on the last point. Hypothetically, if I think I can do about 20 things in a week, I will put 30--40 in my list. This gives me room to exceed my expectations but also forces me to be proactive in deciding what goes into Someday/Maybe and forces me to renegotiate commitments rather than letting things fall through the cracks.

Anyway, this is what works for me. If my lists are clear and attractive to me then I will engage with them, and this facilitates making decisions in the moment for me.

Actually, this one escapes me: "Keeping automation to a minimum. (e.g. no repeating next actions.)"

 

[cfoley]

When I was new to GTD, I tried using the features of my chosen list manager to automate as much as I could. I thought it would make me more efficient. What actually happened is that I became more disorganised and out of control. Here are some examples:

Taking the Bins Out

In one house, there were several bins, each with their own collecting schedule. I created repeating tasks for each kind of bin, with the appropriate start day and a deadline on the same day.

What went wrong?

• This was an unhelpful view. It was difficult to look at my lists and understand how bin collection was scheduled.
• It was unnecessarily complex. I didn't have a problem taking out the bins before GTD.
• It was difficult to update. Sometimes the council would alter the schedule, and making temporary adjustments was awkward.

Now the bin schedule goes in the Calendar.

Daily Tasks

There are some things we do every day. In the interest of having a complete system, I added daily recurring tasks to the calendar: Check email, clean kitchen, feed cats, etc.

What went wrong?

• End-of-day tasks were flagged as "due today" all day.
• Nothing bad would happen if I skipped these sometimes but I felt compelled to fit them in, even if other things were more urgent.
• I felt like a robot. No longer did I enjoy the empowering sense of being the master of my own time.
• I didn't want to look at my lists. This meant that all the tasks were several days overdue when I did look at them.
• I missed deadlines. With my software reporting 10 missed "deadlines", it was easy to miss the one that was actually important.

None of these are on my lists any more. Don't worry about the cats. They remind me it is feeding time with uncanny precision every day.

I have more examples but the overall effect is that the more automation I tried to put in my lists, the less I was willing to engage in those lists. The only place I allow automation these days is my tickler file. One example:

• Does the grass need cut? (repeats every 2 weeks)

Notice that it is a question, not an action. If no then I just click 'Done' and I will be reminded two weeks form now. If yes then I add an action to my list.

 

[gtdstudente]

Thank you for your excellent GTD analysis, thank you very much