Confused about Next Action list

[Glitch]

If it works for you, who am I to say you shouldn't use it
All I'm saying is why I use it as less as possible.
If prepping things like dominos all ready to go relieves you from stress and makes you productive, then it's the way to go!
Me, it makes me anxious, so it is obviously not the way to go for me.

Don't get me wrong, I have a number of projects that are very well outlined, but for the majority of my day to day projects, the next action's result will influence what the next action will be, so thinking in advance is counter productive in these cases.
I'm trained to know what I have to do in either case, just have to formulate that case into an action and put it in the system.

At first I planned everything with it's possibilities and all.
But I soon realised that it pushed me more to the "control" part of the system and I needed more "perspective" to better manage myself.
I was becoming a control freak, so I speak from experience.

Lastly, I just want to mention that the system was designed to think less about the system and do things. It was designed to think a little more about stuff then you thought you had to, but not as much as you feared to. It is to have a fast system that requires almost no effort to maintain and that supports you on your hectic work day. Seams to work for me that way anyhow...

 

[Pablo]

If it works for you, who am I to say you shouldn't use it
All I'm saying is why I use it as less as possible.
If prepping things like dominos all ready to go relieves you from stress and makes you productive, then it's the way to go!
Me, it makes me anxious, so it is obviously not the way to go for me.

Don't get me wrong, I have a number of projects that are very well outlined, but for the majority of my day to day projects, the next action's result will influence what the next action will be, so thinking in advance is counter productive in these cases.
I'm trained to know what I have to do in either case, just have to formulate that case into an action and put it in the system.

At first I planned everything with it's possibilities and all.
But I soon realised that it pushed me more to the "control" part of the system and I needed more "perspective" to better manage myself.
I was becoming a control freak, so I speak from experience.

Lastly, I just want to mention that the system was designed to think less about the system and do things. It was designed to think a little more about stuff then you thought you had to, but not as much as you feared to. It is to have a fast system that requires almost no effort to maintain and that supports you on your hectic work day. Seams to work for me that way anyhow...

Hey Glitch,

Just dropped the additional actions from all my projects. This reminds me of a quote.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
-Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

Can I get some tobasco sauce to go with this crow?

Pablo

 

[Glitch]

Hey Glitch,

Just dropped the additional actions from all my projects. This reminds me of a quote.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
-Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

Can I get some tobasco sauce to go with this crow?

Pablo

Wow, never thought that my post would make such an effect!

As for the quote, I think it should be in the book!!!
Good Job, here's some sauce

 

[Gardener]

3. I thought I understood the next action list - is it was a way of recording what next to do in a project when moving away from the project to do something else - is that correct?!

That's one function for it, but I'd say that it's also a tool for starting to make progress on a project where you're stalled. For me, a Next Action is something that I know how to do - or it's the actions required to find out how to do it. That's how I "size" the action.

So let's say that my Next Action is "Get access to department file server.". But I realize that I can't just do that, because I don't know what to do - who do I talk to, what forms do I fill out? So the action isn't properly defined, and it might sit there forever, because I don't know how to do it. I need to change it to something that I can just do.

So I change my Next Action to "Ask Judy how she got access to department file server." _That_, I know how to do.

Though we could imagine that even that isn't quite right, because I don't have Judy's phone number any more, and she's working in another office. So the Next Action changes to, "Ask John for Judy's phone number." John sits next to me, and he'll be in tomorrow, so now I have a Next Action that I really can just do.

Now, once I get access to that server, I'll have learned where the forms are, and how to submit them. So next time I need access to a server, the task "Get access to other department file server" may really be a properly defined task, because now I know how to do it.

So, to use another example that I may have used before, I can have "Make fried chicken for picnic" as a next action, because I know just how to make fried chicken. But if I didn't, I might need to narrow the action to, say, "Find my copy of Joy of Cooking." (And then, "Look up fried chicken recipes". And then "Make shopping list for fried chicken." And so on.)

Gardener