Calendar and dedicated writing time

[Tim]

What is the recommended approach for projects that require dedicated, regular work towards a distant deadline? My understanding of GTD is that the calendar is only used for actions that must be done on that day. In the absence of any firm deadline on a particular day, choice of tasks depends on context, energy, intuition, etc.

This would seem to exclude, for example, a calendar entry that an author makes for a non-negotiable one hour per day of dedicated writing time. Or would it?

 

[mcogilvie]

What is the recommended approach for projects that require dedicated, regular work towards a distant deadline? My understanding of GTD is that the calendar is only used for actions that must be done on that day. In the absence of any firm deadline on a particular day, choice of tasks depends on context, energy, intuition, etc.

This would seem to exclude, for example, a calendar entry that an author makes for a non-negotiable one hour per day of dedicated writing time. Or would it?

The calendar is for scheduled events and information relevant to that day. If you do not put due dates on items on your action lists that must be done on a given day, then you must also use your calendar for this. Some people do one or the other, and some do both just to be sure. However, an appointment to work on a project is not a must-do item. If you make an appointment with yourself to work on a project, it's a scheduled appointment with someone very important- you. Like any other meeting or appointment, it might be rescheduled if something more important or urgent arises. However, the default should be to keep the commitment you made.

 

[Dave Edwards]

I typically don't put specific project items on my calendar....but because my calendar can too easily fill up with meetings I do carve out some time each week for "Work In Office." There's also a standing "Weekly Review" on my calendar every Friday afternoon.

 

[Folke]

I do not make appointments with myself for anything. I regard my lists and calendar as reminder tools, not as "enforcement tools". If my level of interest in a given thing is not high enough to make me get on with it and do it, then I know I would not "obey" a calendar entry about it either - and I actually think my natural disobedience is justified; I do not see it as a flaw. The gut rules.

 

[Cpu_Modern]

Several things.

First, the "standard GTD" way of approaching this would be to have the project plan - if not in writing, then in head-knowledge - with the items: a) purpose b) success outcome d) milestones and next actions etc. The natural planning model!

In that chapter, DA writes:

"Your principles created the boundaries of your plan. You probably
didn't consciously think about your principles regarding going out
to dinner, but you thought within them: standards of food and
service, affordability, convenience, and comfort all may have played a part. In any case, your purpose and principles were the defining impetus and boundaries of your planning."

So point c) would be principles. What OP statest is: one of my principles for this writing project is that I want to write during dedicated time. Because: reasons. Maybe: it's the best way to get the project done, whatever. I am not OP.

"require dedicated, regular work" OP writes: required. It is true? Maybe.

So scheduled writing time would be defined as a principle in the project plan and also further details like the amount and the best clocl times and whatnot: all ges into project plan. AND also REVIEW it regularly if it is really true what was assumed.

And from project plan it naturally wanders as REMINDER to calendar or/and tickler file.

So: this can be implemented, but NOT on SYSTEM LEVEL, but on PER PROJECT BASIS. I am with Folke on that one.

Second Thing.

Goal setting, like for example say, I write 1000 words per day. You should be very clear, if you set such a goal, how it relates to the items on your higher level Horizons of Focus. If 1000 words per day is your 20k or 40k level expression of "I life my life as a writer" then suddenly your writing project becomes a subordinated project in support of that 40k level item. You should be clear with yourself what role this goal plays in your life. Because if you realize the priorities of your goal to each other, then your daily schedule becomes easy to manage and you will need less reminders.

 

[mcogilvie]

So: this can be implemented, but NOT on SYSTEM LEVEL, but on PER PROJECT BASIS. I am with Folke on that one.

Second Thing.

Goal setting, like for example say, I write 1000 words per day. You should be very clear, if you set such a goal, how it relates to the items on your higher level Horizons of Focus. If 1000 words per day is your 20k or 40k level expression of "I life my life as a writer" then suddenly your writing project becomes a subordinated project in support of that 40k level item. You should be clear with yourself what role this goal plays in your life. Because if you realize the priorities of your goal to each other, then your daily schedule becomes easy to manage and you will need less reminders.

I find this to be a very confusing approach. Many people who do a lot of writing as part of their jobs (this includes me) have found value in writing a little very regularly. It doesn't matter what level you attribute this to, if you need to write, then you need to find what works to help you write. This is where the power of habit and of commitment comes in to play. If it helps to make an appointment with yourself to write, that's what you do. Some writers write two hours a day, others two pages. It's all ok.

 

[Cpu_Modern]

Commitments gain strenght when we achieved clarity about their connections to the HoFs.

If it helps to make an appointment with yourself to write, that's what you do.

The point is to show how we can do this without violating the principles of GTD. That was the question of the OP.

 

[notmuch]

...a non-negotiable one hour per day of dedicated writing time...

Based on this definition, I would absolutely (non-negotiably?) create a calendar entry... especially, if I'm trying to establish the habit. Once the habit is established, and the inevitable contingencies worked through, I would most likely get rid of the calendar entry. My apologies to anyone whose GTD principles have been violated.

 

[Folke]

If this is all about forming new habits, I just wonder whether action lists and calendars are really the way to go?

Presumably, a person would not want to form new habits for more than a precious few things at any one period of time (say this spring), and is probably totally aware of the need/desire to form these new habits. There would be no real need for written "reminders" and no real power in written "commandments".

How about just keeping a logbook instead (e.g. diary notes or a table), where you simply make a note of how much of the "thing" you did do that day, and can see how your habit has changed over time? I suppose that would be my approach, anyway. I have already done that with a few things. I probably would not put these things either on my action lists or on my calendar, because I would consider it part of my habit forming training to learn to remember them by heart and eventually do them automatically. I also would prefer to avoid the clutter on my lists and calendar.

If I did put them on my lists I would put them down as a daily repeating tickler. This is particularly useful if there is a long checklist that goes with it. Your habit will then be upheld (to at least some extent) no matter how sleepy pr braindead you feel that morning.

 

[Tim]

Good responses everybody. Thanks.

In the book, the calendar example provided is the "meeting with Mioko", in which the co-worker is only available to meet on one specific day due to travel. The unstated consequence of failing to connect with this meeting would be great inconvenience, insult, and implied lack of commitment to company goals. Thus, the calendar records that firm commitment.

What I still wonder is if "the company" deserves this sort of commitment, how much more do our own personal goals deserve the same?

Like any other meeting or appointment, it might be rescheduled if something more important or urgent arises. However, the default should be to keep the commitment you made.

I think I agree, but this doesn't seem to be a big part of how the GTD system provides the energy and will to accomplish tasks. Folke's use of the term "habit" and suggestion of the tickler is useful here, but, again, this method doesn't seem that prominent in GTD.

However, I would be interested to experience how a clear mind might help to establish good habits per se.

 

[Gardener]

Well, if you skip writing for one day, there will be no substantial consequences.

However, if you skip lunch, or brushing your teeth, or changing your socks, for one day, there will also be no substantial consequences. For that matter, if you skip sleeping for one night, there won't be substantial consequences, at least if you don't drive to work.

You usually do all those things anyway, and you do them at fairly specific times of day. They don't have to pass some sort of "priority gate" to get done--they just get done. You don't have a calendar entry for the teeth or the socks or sleeping, but you might have one for lunch, to ensure that you block off enough time to eat every day.

I would probably treat the writing time like lunch. Now, you can't do that for all of your goals, or your day will be full of calendar commitments that you may or may not fulfill. Putting writing on the calendar assumes that the writing is special, a need rather like food and grooming and sleep are needs, one that in the long term is a very high priority goal.

 

[Folke]

... if "the company" deserves this sort of commitment ...

I know the term commitment is used quite often, and I cannot say you are wrong, but I simply do not see it that way myself. I think it is simply a matter of "hard landscape" vs "myself" i.e. "external" or "internal" to myself. In my case I put only "external" (hard landscape) things on my calendar. The reason is not the strength of the "commitment", nor the "importance" of the task etc., but simply the fact that I need to renegotiate the "external" ones with others if I want to change them.

If I did use the ploy of making appointments with myself (which I do not) I would probably put those on a separate calendar in a different color, such that I could easily see which ones are truly blocking my calendar (requiring renegotiation) and which ones I can change with the stroke of a pen without asking anyone. But as I said, I do not believe in making appointments with myself. If I want to do the task I will typically just do it, and if I do not want to do the task (something makes me shy away from it) then no lists or calendars or colors in the world can make me. In such cases I typically need to reassess the task - maybe it was poorly worded, or maybe it is not really all that important, or maybe there are some terrible risks with it. If the gut chooses to procrastinate it often has a very good reason.

Folke's use of the term "habit" and suggestion of the tickler is useful here, but, again, this method doesn't seem that prominent in GTD.

It is not prominent, for sure, but it does not go against GTD as long as it is OK to hide task in the "freezer" (tickler) again for another day or so once you have done it. But if you could equally well continue and do a second pass, or a third pass, that same day, then the method loses some of its value and validity. It would then need to stay as a next action.

My primary recommendation would be the "logbook"("journal") approach, and not write anything on your lists or calendars. That is not explicitly covered in GTD either, as far as I can rememeber, but it does not break GTD in any way that I can see.

GTD is actually quite simple, even simplistic at times. You may need to invent things on your own here and there. And David Allen actually encourages you to ;-).

 

[Cpu_Modern]

I find this to be a very confusing approach.

David Allen anticipated that, hence he wrote: "You probably
didn't consciously think about your principles regarding going out
to dinner".

Many people who do a lot of writing as part of their jobs (this includes me) have found value in writing a little very regularly.

In saying this, you state such a principle. Yeah, maybe even without recognizing it. All I did was pointing out, where in the GTD system these principles find their playce to be written down for review.

It doesn't matter what level you attribute this to, if you need to write, then you need to find what works to help you write.

I respectfully disagree. It does matter to what level attribute this to. For one, it is just part of the answer to the question of the OP. It matters inasmuch as you plainly want to understand what David Allen wrote in his book. Regardles how you deal with that subsequently.

And again, to say "you need to write" is exactly a statement of such a principle. That's what a principle is: a first thing.

I believe that David Allen's book is such a brilliant work that the old principle of first understanding the rules before breaking them is of specially high benefit.

I also postulate it leads to further understanding of you and your world, if you take the time to understand it right before you decide what to do with it.

This is where the power of habit and of commitment comes in to play. If it helps to make an appointment with yourself to write, that's what you do. Some writers write two hours a day, others two pages. It's all ok.

Of course it is all ok. Who said it wouldn't be so?

"To harness the power of habit by XYZ" could be another such princple or standard, btw.

 

[Longstreet]

If you need to have dedicated writing time -- and as a professor I certainly do -- then by all means block that time on your calendar! Protect it at all costs. This is NOT anti-GTD no matter what anyone tells you. It is perfectly okay to block your calendar in this regard. Of course, it it is your personal preference not to do this, of course it is fine. BUT....you can block your calendar and still proudly maintain your GTD membership card. Trust me on this....David Allen himself is fine with this approach.

 

[Longstreet]

I wanted to add that per Folke, I trust my gut the majority of the time. I do not schedule every waking minute. I follow the GTD standard practices of context, time, energy, and priority the majority of the time. But I have found that for many things in life, if you do not protect your time and put a stake in the ground that you will do this at a certain time -- hence, scheduling a major project, area of responsibility, or next action onto your calendar, it does not get done. But everyone is different and you have to do what works best for you.

 

[TesTeq]

This is NOT anti-GTD no matter what anyone tells you. It is perfectly okay to block your calendar in this regard. Of course, it it is your personal preference not to do this, of course it is fine. BUT....you can block your calendar and still proudly maintain your GTD membership card.

Totally agree. And you even don't have to put it in your calendar if it's your habit. For example I don't block time for sleeping. ;-) It's my habit to go to bed at 23:00 and get up at 6:30...