Lots of people talk about relating Next Actions to Projects. Lots has been written about it, and I don't really have anything to add to that discussion.
I don't think I've seen much about moving in the other direction -- relating Projects (10,000 foot level) to the next higher level of Areas of Responsibility (20,000 foot level).
I only recently got around to drafting up my Areas of Responsibility, which was a useful process. But I thought it might be more useful to connect it back to the Project level.
In short: it was. I made a page for each Area of Responsibility. Then I churned through all my Projects (and then my Someday/Maybe folder) and wrote the relevant projects on the Area of Responsibility pages. I broke each page down into three parts: Active Projects (things I'm actively working on right now), Inactive Projects (projects that are technically alive but that I'm not really working on, sometimes due to delegation or scheduling), and Someday/Maybe.
It's interesting. Some projects covered more than one AoR, and I think those are the sorts of projects I need more of. A few projects didn't really fall into any AoR, which gave me a pretty good reason to think about why I was doing them at all.
From the AoR perspective, some areas had lots of Active Projects. Some had lots of Someday/Maybes, which made me think about whether I shouldn't activate some of them, or at least think about what was happening with the balance. And some AoRs had very few projects at all, which was also a wake-up call.
Of all the things I've done with GTD, I found this one the hardest on an emotional level. It's just hard to take an objective look and see that, yep, being a Good Husband is one of my Areas of Responsibility, and nope, I'm not really doing anything to make that happen. So if you're trying this at home, be ready for it.
Just thought I'd share my experiences with everyone. If you've tried this yourself, please let me know how it went.
Cheers,
Roger
I don't think I've seen much about moving in the other direction -- relating Projects (10,000 foot level) to the next higher level of Areas of Responsibility (20,000 foot level).
I only recently got around to drafting up my Areas of Responsibility, which was a useful process. But I thought it might be more useful to connect it back to the Project level.
In short: it was. I made a page for each Area of Responsibility. Then I churned through all my Projects (and then my Someday/Maybe folder) and wrote the relevant projects on the Area of Responsibility pages. I broke each page down into three parts: Active Projects (things I'm actively working on right now), Inactive Projects (projects that are technically alive but that I'm not really working on, sometimes due to delegation or scheduling), and Someday/Maybe.
It's interesting. Some projects covered more than one AoR, and I think those are the sorts of projects I need more of. A few projects didn't really fall into any AoR, which gave me a pretty good reason to think about why I was doing them at all.
From the AoR perspective, some areas had lots of Active Projects. Some had lots of Someday/Maybes, which made me think about whether I shouldn't activate some of them, or at least think about what was happening with the balance. And some AoRs had very few projects at all, which was also a wake-up call.
Of all the things I've done with GTD, I found this one the hardest on an emotional level. It's just hard to take an objective look and see that, yep, being a Good Husband is one of my Areas of Responsibility, and nope, I'm not really doing anything to make that happen. So if you're trying this at home, be ready for it.
Just thought I'd share my experiences with everyone. If you've tried this yourself, please let me know how it went.
Cheers,
Roger