Deadlines: Due by rather than due on

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TaxmanUK

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I implemented GTD on my email a couple of years ago, and I'm about to fully implement over Easter.

Maybe I haven't looked in the right places, but I searched, and I can't figure out how GTD handles deadlines.

I have to complete assessments on clients, and have 15 working days to do each one. .I can have, sometimes, ten assessments on the go at once (starting and finishing on different days). I then have to do plans and reviews, but the principle would be the same.

I don't want to do each one on the 15th day, and the GTD principle is not to block book time that doesn't have to be used at that particular time How can GTD remind me that the deadline is approaching in, for example, five days time. Is that part of the weekly review?
 
Almost all of my deadlines are like this--that is, "due by."

I don't think that GTD has a definite opinion on how to do this. If you're using a software tool, that tool will probably support due dates and the ability to see which deadline are coming up soon. But to actually get the work done, you'll probably need to develop some sort of structure, with interim tasks.

You could have a specific review of assessments, where you evaluate your workload and write next actions for each assessment. You could do this as part of your weekly review, or if it's useful to do it more often, maybe twice a week, maybe even a quick evaluation every day. Maybe you have a daily checklist that, among other things, has you identifying all assessments due in less than three days, and maybe those are your priority tasks, outweighing all other tasks until they're done.

There are many ways to handle this, but I don't think that GTD really tells you which one to pick.
 
Thanks for some useful thoughts.
I think the daily checklist would be closest thing to a solution, but it would still mean that I have to remember “in the moment” (albeit for less than a day) what my priority tasks are for the day.
I wonder if there would be any usefulness in adding “due by” to my next action lists. If there is no specific “due by” date, I would be happy to leave it blank.
In a way, I’m surprised GTD doesn’t tackle this issue, as it’s such a common one. In the book, for example, some really basic and obvious questions are answered very patiently: “What if the pile is too big to fit in the In-Basket?”
 
What I would do in this kind of case is:

I would definitely enter the deadline date (the "due by" date) as a task characteristic, such that I can see it easily in my next actions list (along with context, project etc). It is an objective date that has been laid down by someone for you (not just some personal "target" date etc), and it needs to be taken into consideration when choosing what task to do next.

I always review my next and waiting for lists every day, and always keep an eye open for things that are getting dangerously late or dangerously close etc. I mark these with a red line on the left to make them easier to find next time I look (if I do not do them right away). Many of these do not have a deadline, but they can be dangeously late anyway, e.g. if I promised someone a few days ago to send them a report and I haven't even started writing it yet. By having a red line for all of these, regardless of whether they have a deadline or not, makes them easy to spot in a consistent way, and I still have the deadline listed for additional detail.

I avoid timers etc, but my app also has a reminder feature. Some people like to use this for pre-programming reminders, say, three days before the deadline, but I never do that. I have no need for it, and also get irritated by it..
 
TaxmanUK said:
I don't want to do each one on the 15th day, and the GTD principle is not to block book time that doesn't have to be used at that particular time How can GTD remind me that the deadline is approaching in, for example, five days time. Is that part of the weekly review?
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A couple of comments:

First off there is nothing in GTD that says you can't block time on your calendar to accomplish critical tasks. An apt. with yourself for protracted doing time is just as impportant as one with an external focus. If the projects are ones that require a certain amount of time or a specific mind set to finish then I'd go ahead and say block out the first hour of every morning to work on them.

Second is checklists. It sounds like you have a series of repeating projects all with the same basic tasks and things to do. SO creating a template or checklist would be helpful. Then as each new one comes up you can make a copy, edit the details that are project specific and then work on it. I'd certainly use the deadline or due by feature of SW if you have it.

I have lots of these sorts of things. I have projects that can't be started until some time in the future, but once started must be finished by some other time. I use Omnifocus and set them up with start and due by dates. Many of those are a result of templates I created to copy to adjust for those projects.
 
Oogiem said:
First off there is nothing in GTD that says you can't block time on your calendar to accomplish critical tasks.
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Yes, there is. GTD contradicts itself about this. GTD says not to put something on the calendar unless it has to get done that day. But then somewhere else GTD says you can make an appointment with yourself. Maybe an appointment with yourself is considered in GTD to be something that has to get done that day? But then GTD contradicts that by saying you can renegotiate your agreements with yourself at any time.
 
TaxmanUK said:
I wonder if there would be any usefulness in adding “due by” to my next action lists. If there is no specific “due by” date, I would be happy to leave it blank.
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Absolutely. Sorry, I assumed that you were already doing this. OmniFocus offers a start date and a due date field for actions. Since OmniFocus has been criticized as following GTD too slavishly, I'm assuming that this isn't seen as incompatible with GTD. I admit that on a quick scan of the book, I can't find a lot about due dates.
 
Re:

"Yes, there is. GTD contradicts itself about this."

(Sorry, quoting is misbehaving for me.)

I see a nuance of difference here, though I don't know if that's actually what's behind the apparent contradiction.

If I have sixteen things that are alarmingly late, and I add them all to my calendar for Tuesday because I really really ought to do them, and then they slide to Wednesday, and then Thursday, then that is the kind of thing that I think that GTD tells you not to do.

But if I say, "Wow, I sure have a lot of problem report updates to do," and I block off four hours on Tuesday afternoon as an appointment to myself labelled "Update problem reports", that seems somehow different. Even though it's re-negotiable, it's an actual concrete plan, instead of just an "Ack! Ack! Make 'em due soon!"
 
TaxmanUK said:
[...]and I can't figure out how GTD handles deadlines.[...]

How can GTD remind me that the deadline is approaching in, for example, five days time.
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In the plain vanilla GTD setup this would be the Tickler! Create a Tickler item which reminds you of the deadline, put that into the Tickler pocket for the fifth day befofre the deadline. Then tickle it each day, getting a fresh reminder every morning when cheking in the Tickler file.
 
Cpu_Modern said:
In the plain vanilla GTD setup this would be the Tickler!
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Caution!

I disagree with this in principle, although it might perhaps work well enough for you in practice.

When you put things in the Tickler file it is no longer on your Next list. And I assume that all these actions that we are talking about in this thread are in fact next actions - you can do them anytime from now onwards. Nothing is stopping you. So there is no valid reason for you to hide them in the tickler file and thereby prevent yourself from doing them sooner.

The tickler file would be an excellent choice, say, if you still lack some key information about the task, and this info is expected to reach you only on a certain future date. But I did not get the impression that this was the case here.
 
Sorry if I was unclear about it!

I didn't meant to say to create the Tickler item only. That you have the entries on the @Projects and @Next_Action lists is a given. The question was how to remind oneself of the deadline, not the existence of the Project and respective Next Actions per se.

Together all three+ reminders would cover every aspect: the outcome, the next action step(s) and the deadline driven urgency.
 
I see. Sorry for misinterpreting. Yes, I agree. You can make use of the tickler feature to implement timed reminders of any kind, and some apps even have a separate such reminder feature built in. Mine does. I hardly ever use it, but I gather it is quite a popular feature.
 
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