David Allen on the Three Cs
- Thread starter John Forrister
- Start date
I suspect it’s more that people get used to the extra work and friction. Or maybe we just think we heard “Blessed are the cheese makers” and then we’re all making cheese.Interesting that he says "only a small minority" are able to make software applications that link tasks to contexts and projects work.
I'm assuming that good GTD connectors are all part of that minority
GTDAcademic
Practicing GTD in the academic world.
Because I'm still working from home, I'm left with very few GTD contexts when it comes to work. I'm basically always @computer (because even calls go via MS Teams) and the kind of projects I work on (research grant development) require a substantial amount of background information (or context), e.g. work breakdown, budget, goals, narrative, etc. to be kept "loaded" in my brain to be able to do the actions.
Instead of batching e.g. all emails, I try to batch the NAs for a particular project as much as possible (regardless of the tool/software needed) because the context switch between projects with all of their background information feels very expensive. It makes sense for me to have some way of grouping these as well.
Instead of batching e.g. all emails, I try to batch the NAs for a particular project as much as possible (regardless of the tool/software needed) because the context switch between projects with all of their background information feels very expensive. It makes sense for me to have some way of grouping these as well.
Longstreet
Professor of microbiology and infectious diseases
Another great video from David! I decided to go back to the standard contexts taught because they are ingrained in the way I work and I don't have to think too much about a new action and what context it should be in. And as an avid Nirvana user, it is very easy for my actions to be have contexts AND be linked to specific projects if they are indeed associated with a project. Best of both worlds!
Oogiem
0
I guess I fall into the small minority that REQUIRES a link between projects and tasks.
I have tried not linking them and it's upsetting to me to not know where the actions fall in my overall scheme. To the point htat I don't think I've made it more than a single day with only flat lists. The constant worrying about what this relates to, the inability to see the whole picture of a project, the inability to use what project an action belongs to in my triage of what to do in a specific context are all such huge drags on my productivity that I just cannot work that way.
But interestingly I didn't get the no link between projects and actions message from that video. Instead I got that you organize FIRST by context. That is the critical part for doing. But that for review you need to see them by Project. I also got that he felt that there were too many click and individual actions to handle a system that supports seeing those things the 2 different ways.
I'd argue instead that it all depends on you and your system. In Omnifocus I can create and action and immediately tie it to a project simply and easily. If I just think of something that I am unsure of in terms of what project it belongs to I can place it into my inbox for processing later. For me processing is where that connection is usually made and it's fast and easy to do. I process at one location, my desk with my main computer up and running. 99% of my stuff to process is paper because that is my preferred method of capturing items so I will have all the normal bits of paper but also a number of individual notes. Part of clarifying what the next action is is where the link to projects gets made for me.
Deirdre
Registered
As do I. As an HR director, I need the context AND the project. Because we are a MS shop, I find One Note is working well for that as it integrates with Outlook and To Do.
As we make our way from Notes to Microsoft, I'm leaning toward have my projects list and support materials in OneNote, and the next actions in To Do.
I will probably miss the "Projects & Actions" view in eProducitivity. It shows projects with their next action(s) nested below. And I can tell at a glance if a project does not have a next action, because of the sad-face icon next to the project.
Longstreet
Professor of microbiology and infectious diseases
I avidly use Office 365 and Outlook as my university has this as our system. However, I use Nirvana as my list manager. Much better for GTD.
May I ask why the projects list would reside in Onenote and opposed to within ToDo?
Good question. I'm still leaning into this, so not for sure yet. I'm thinking that when I'm in To Do that's the doing mode, and when I'm in OneNote that's the next horizon up, where I'm planning and reviewing projects. I realize this is a potential departure from having all lists except calendar in one app, sorted by category, where Projects is one of those categories. I probably won't know for a couple of weeks, as I try it out. I'm not yet sure if switching between apps will create more friction than switching between horizons in one app. I'm giving myself the option to think of Microsoft as an environment with various tools/containers, rather than as a set of separate apps. In a way that's similar to Notes, which is a container for different databases (now called applications). The databases can have very different appearance and functionality, but are all containers for documents that can be sorted and viewed in customized ways.
Deirdre
Registered
I can tell you why I use OneNote for my Projects and it's integration with To-Do. For a big project, I use the Natural Planning Model and write out/type out all the notes and summary and evening scanning our written notes to attach in OneNote. In OneNote, I use tags for next action, waiting for, someday/maybe, etc. OneNote has a feature that allows us to create a summary page of all the tags (my GTD notes). Some are a two minutes or less, or five minutes or less. What I don't get to may end up in To-Do or even in my calendar.
I prefer my Macs at home but since work is an MS shop, I want to make sure projects are captures and should I ever leave, there is a record for the person who takes my place. It's working quite well for me.