If I did something like that (I have), working from a short, focused list, I would lose a holistic view of my task list, miss the opportunity to get many small things done easily and early, and have less satisfying and productive days. This is related to David Allen’s point about new tires: either you need new tires or you don’t. If you keep putting new tires off, the “new tires” project will become a crisis. Maybe you have a workaround, but I haven’t found anything like that which works well for me.
Yes, I've felt lost before when getting into the daily habit of just picking 3-5 tasks. My review habits have helped me look at things from different horizons.
My annual review sets my "theme" or "goal" for the year.
My quarterly review allows me to choose and check in on my 3 Big Rock projects that will help me get to my annual theme or goal (from the annual review).
My monthly review has me reviewing my progress towards my 3 Big Rocks (from the quarterly review). Did the target/goal change? Do I need to recalibrate my compass direction and adjust the next actions to re-align with the goal?
My weekly review focuses on what I am going to do next week to get to my 3 Big Rocks (from the monthly review). I choose my list of next actions that will get me closer to completing the 3 Big Rocks. I call this my weekly menu. It's like planning out the meals for the next week. Monday is chicken night, Tuesday is taco night, Wednesday is pizza night, etc. For next week's menu, I decided to prioritize my 1040 tax filing project and choose 4 next actions to add to the weekly menu. Then I add a couple of other less intensive projects/tasks to work on next week. Next week for me is to clear out my DEVONthink inbox and a home renovation project in the garden. I'll usually end up with 10-20 tasks for next week's menu.
My daily review takes a look at the weekly menu )from the weekly review) and choose the 3-5 tasks from the weekly menu and put them on my index card for tomorrow. I get to work on those tasks tomorrow. I choose only 3-5 tasks because I know that Life will interrupt me and introduce new tasks into my index card (oh honey, could you pick up some milk and eggs on the way home and don't forget that our kid has a dental appointment at 3:45 pm today).
I'm happy knowing that my higher perspectives have a check-in time starting from the annual review, quarterly, and monthly review. I do the weekly review check-in and the daily review check-in more often to make sure I'm still headed in the straight direction.
This was a serious of habits that took a long time for me to ingrain. I have to set calendar appointments to make sure I make time for all of them. Otherwise, I'll just as easily forget and I won't bother with the reviews.
For me, the secret sauce to making GTD or whatever workflow work is the review process. It sounds like a lot of work and it probably is. But when it's broken down throughout the year, quarter, month, weekly, and daily time blocks, it feels a lot smaller. My reviews for the the annual, quarterly, and monthly lasts about 30-60 minutes each. The weekly reviews lasts about 20-30 minutes each week. The daily review last about 15-20 minutes. That's a lot of time to spend but it feels smaller because I can handle 15-60 minutes during the review. I tried doing the whole Sunday morning weekly review that I thought I should be doing but I didn't like spending 4 hours in the morning for that. I was already tired after an hour and wanted to rush through it as quickly as possible.
Maybe when I simplify my life by retiring and sending my kids off to college, I'll be able to reduce the numerous projects and workload that is present. But for now, the review process is the glue that holds everything together.
