Archiving next actions

B

blair_one

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What do other people do with completed next actions? I keep mine on an electronic list. When I have done the action I move it to the bottom half of the list below a divider that signifies it is done.

I'm interested to know how others are archiving completed next actions, if at all? In some cases, like next actions for a project, they need to be kept for a record, particularly in my day job.

All suggestions appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
I keep my completed next actions only from one weekly review to the next. I feel it is important to review them in the weekly review since I've occasionally discovered some follow-up next actions that were inspired while reviewing my list of completed next actions. After I've reviewed them, I don't have any need to keep them though.

If I wanted to keep a list of completed actions for a particular project, that would just go with my project support material. If there are other similar projects that come along later, these can easily be turned into checklists.
 
I've been noting completed work on sheets of paper, one per day (along with other notes about the day). Each sheet is three-hole-punched and put in a binder.
 
Do you use Outlook?

@blair_one, do you use Outlook?

I'm using Outlook and any completed tasks are generally deleted at the end of each day - unless I need to keep them to track progress etc.

However, they are not deleted permanently, they’re still in Outlook’s Deleted Items folder, which I’ve set NOT to automatically empty when you close Outlook.

This in turn builds up a history of all the tasks/next actions that have ever been in Outlook. As I use tasks to define projects too, it also creates a history of all the projects too.

There’s some neat tricks this can lead too – if you view the Deleted Items by Timeline, you get a complete timeline of everything you’ve done.

Or by category and it’ll show projects with all their associated next actions.

It also can show as a line graph the time between the creation of the next action and it’s completion! So you can look back and see which tasks that dragged on!

It also allows you to search for tasks, projects, time periods etc.

It’s a neat way of keeping everything, without it clogging up the present items and without any additional system processing. Just delete it – but its there still if you ever need it.

Just make sure no one ever empties the Deleted Items folder!!!

Best regards,

Andy.
 
I'm using an outliner tool "ActionOutliner" and I just created a folder called "Completed Items" and I flagged it green. As I complete items, I just move them into the "Completed Items" folder, so they don't get mixed up with the other stuff. I'm a digital packrat and never trash the completed items.
 
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