Captured 200 items.... most fall under "defer"

danrneal

Registered
I'm (re)implementing gtd. I went through the capture phase and captured 200 items.... and that is before by ~75 emails.

For some reason I had in my mind that 30-50 is typical, so 200 seems like a lot.... Also is it typical to have almost all of them fall under "I'm the one to do this and it's going to take more than 2 minutes."

I'm not sure I have a specific question. Just looking for support/reassurance that this is within the norm and I'm on the right track.
 

mcogilvie

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That’s not an unreasonable number. It would also be unsurprising if many of them were someday-maybe. Out of the ones that are not someday-maybe, some are probably projects and some are parts of projects. Some of the latter may not be next actions, but possible future actions belonging in project support. So your actual next actions from this capture exercise is not as big as one might think. Good luck!
 
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Oogiem

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I went through the capture phase and captured 200 items.... and that is before by ~75 emails.

For some reason I had in my mind that 30-50 is typical, so 200 seems like a lot.... Also is it typical to have almost all of them fall under "I'm the one to do this and it's going to take more than 2 minutes."
Perfectly within norms. I typically capture between 20-50 items a day. 1/3 are usually captured at night in my notebook I keep by my bed for when I wake up, like clockwork 5 hours after going to bed and am awake for about an hour. A percentage of the items captured, upon reflection, can be trashed, another chunk are parts of existing projects or things I thought were actions but are projects in disguise. Most of the rest are things that I add to someday/maybe. I would hve tocheck but my feeling is that I only add 2-5 things to my actual lists on any goven day aand I typically do at least that many as well.
 

FocusGuy

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Perfectly with norms too. I typically capture 50/80 items per day. Most of them go to my bujo (paper notebook) and are never implemented in my system (Things) there are eliminated or actioned.

Some of them goes into my software, clarified and organised for a later treatment.

Some of them goes into a someday list (projects or items) Things accepts both.

Collecting is indeed for me one of the most important GTD rule. I have so many engagements that I could get totally nut in case I would'nt do this.
 

Logan

Registered
The number doesn‘t surprise me much either.

One advise, though. Take care that your next action lists don‘t get too long. During work you have to decide what to do next. If your list is so long that you have forgotten what was at the beginning when you‘ve reached the end OR if it generally takes too long to scan it. Then I‘d say it is too long. For a start try to stay <= about 40. If you would have more than that amount for one of your next action lists, then park the ones you can delay the most or are not as critical on your someday/maybe list.
 
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