Clarification about future projects and actions

[kewms]

First of all, thank you for getting back to this issue, and I really appreciate your comments. My main concern, if you recall, is about that rather simple kind of project plan consisting only of a sequential action list. Naturally, in such case, I would not stop working from the project plan until the project is completed (I might move on to another project for a period of time, but that's what I'd call pausing, not stopping). So, while your example kickstart action is certainly more motivating than is a vague reference to a project plan, I would prefer having a constant NA reminding me that I need to work from the project plan until the project is completed (and sure, the project plan need not be immutable, and that's what Review is for).

Still, the question of which context list to put that constant action into remains if the actions belong in multiple contexts -- I've seen mentions of @Anywhere context in another thread and I do like the idea in absence of a better one. I hope I've explained my concerns clearly and am looking forward to some comments.

The @Anywhere context only works if the action truly can be done anywhere. The "work from project plan" task is sufficiently vague that you can't know whether it's even possible to do unless you look at the project plan. That's extra overhead that I just don't need to deal with.

I also think the notion that you only "pause" action on such a project may be overly optimistic. Who knows what might happen during the pause? How long can the pause become before it's no longer a pause?

Now, you could certainly word the next action so that it reminds you that the project plan exists. But if you're not going to put a clear, immediately doable action on the appropriate context list, I think you're sort of missing the point of the Next Action concept.

Katherine

 

[TesTeq]

It is just an unprocessed stuff.

I would prefer having a constant NA reminding me that I need to work from the project plan until the project is completed (and sure, the project plan need not be immutable, and that's what Review is for).

Unfortunatelly in terms of GTD ""work from project plan for X" is just a new chunk of unprocessed stuff - not a Next Action. If you look at the context list and see such item you are not able to decide if you have enough time and energy to do it.

 

[CoffinDodger]

Completely agree about the NA not being specific.

One thing I'm trying to get my head round is the process of "stopping" doing something in terms of where this fits into the GTD approach.

When you get interrupted at a task you often only have seconds to "do" something about stopping it. Like when I'm working on a long document or piece of software code at work and a manager grabs me for a "quick chat" which could be any length of time in reality. I probably have time to hit "save" and not much more.

It's all very well saying add the next action to a list - but you might have several thoughts in your head because you've been working for half an hour.

I'm toying with jotting down what I think is the next action, or better still, which bit I was actually doing when interrupted, on a piece of paper and putting it in my inbox - i.e. I do an instant moment of "collect" rather than a longer moment of "process" to delve into which list I need to edit.

The metaphore I would use is of being interrupted when reading a book, popping a bookmark in, dropping the book on the table and walking off. You wouldn't really want to spend time writing out the line and page number in that case would you?

Then when I next process I will think "what exactly is this?" and word it properly and put it in the appropriate place.

 

[Oogiem]

One thing I'm trying to get my head round is the process of "stopping" doing something in terms of where this fits into the GTD approach.....

I'm toying with jotting down what I think is the next action, or better still, which bit I was actually doing when interrupted, on a piece of paper and putting it in my inbox - i.e. I do an instant moment of "collect" rather than a longer moment of "process" to delve into which list I need to edit.

Collect and process later is pretty much what I do when interrupted.

For example, I got a phone call interruption where I had to immediately go over to the guest house and get a meat order ready for pick-up. I was in the middle of researching some sheep for folks in Canada. I jotted down a few key words to remind me what I was doing on a piece of small note paper (Correct Eagle Creek to be Acel prefix re Macdonald lost flock) and tossed it into my in-box. In this case since I didn't need my desk to handle the interruption I left all my various reference materials I was looking at spread out on the desk. If I needed the desk I would have collected it, put the note on top with either removable scotch tape or used a post it note and stuck the entire mess into my in-box. I went out to deal with the meat order, got it ready and delivered to the buyer. Came back in and the only thing in my inbox at that time was the note. Grabbed it and was able to immediately get back to looking for the info on the Eagle Creek sheep.

Another example:

I was outside counting hay bales when I got an emergency phone call from hubby regarding a sick sheep in the upper pasture. (side note, a family cell phone plan is often more useful than you can imagine!) I stuck a rake in the hay stack where I was, wrote a quick note in my notebook and grabbed the crook to go off and catch the sick sheep. Dealing with that took quite a while, we had to catch her, decide what the treatment was going to be, get her down to the barn in a pen where she could be treated, collect the required medicine and other items, treat the sheep, get her food and water, check the spreadsheep data to see how old her lambs were to decide if I needed to catch them, back up to the pasture to watch for the lambs because they were on the edges of being old enough to wean. Discovered they are already stealing milk from an aunt so decided to leave them there. Emergency dealt with my next step was to ask where was I before this happened? First place to look is my little collection notebook. So I pull out my notebook and in it I saw the note "hay bales 756 rake". That prompted me to go back to the hay barn, find the rake, and start counting from there.

 

[dusanv]

Thanks Katherine and TesTeq.

Honestly, I've had the feeling since the beginning that the approach of having "work from project plan" as a NA was a bit awkward -- it seems I was hasty in trying to save some time on what I considered unnecessary redundant work. To quote Katherine's earlier post:

Your speedup -- working directly from the project plan -- is completely GTD-compliant already. When you quit working on the project, just remember to note the new NA on your NA list.

I can see now that I was confused about the notions of quitting, stopping and pausing, so here is how I'd interpret this process now:
1. I put a kickstart action on a context list, with such an action serving as a trigger to get me started working from the project plan -- this may well be the first action listed in the plan.
2. I actually work from the project plan while the time/energy/context constraints allow.
3. When I suspend the work on the project, I decide that moment on the next immediately doable action for that project -- again, I might be able to use an action listed in the plan -- and write it on a context list.
Please advise if this is correct, so I could fix my lists.

@TesTeq: I really couldn't have imagined you not displaying that "thumbs down" icon

Dusan

 

[kewms]

I can see now that I was confused about the notions of quitting, stopping and pausing, so here is how I'd interpret this process now:
1. I put a kickstart action on a context list, with such an action serving as a trigger to get me started working from the project plan -- this may well be the first action listed in the plan.
2. I actually work from the project plan while the time/energy/context constraints allow.
3. When I suspend the work on the project, I decide that moment on the next immediately doable action for that project -- again, I might be able to use an action listed in the plan -- and write it on a context list.
Please advise if this is correct, so I could fix my lists.

Yes, that's exactly it.

Katherine

 

[TesTeq]

Yes!

I can see now that I was confused about the notions of quitting, stopping and pausing, so here is how I'd interpret this process now:
1. I put a kickstart action on a context list, with such an action serving as a trigger to get me started working from the project plan -- this may well be the first action listed in the plan.
2. I actually work from the project plan while the time/energy/context constraints allow.
3. When I suspend the work on the project, I decide that moment on the next immediately doable action for that project -- again, I might be able to use an action listed in the plan -- and write it on a context list.
Please advise if this is correct, so I could fix my lists.

Yes! I fully agree with this interpretation!