Deferred actions - for me or for others - how to follow

Sebastien.pi

Registered
Hello to all,

I'm an experienced user of the GTD method, even if I'm not always disciplined enough ^^, I have, like everyone else, my hybrid solution which works quite well.
How do I know? roughly speaking, because I am serene ;-) so it's not bad ^^
I use Evernote overall to keep track of my tasks and resources (I combine GTD with the PARA filing method).
That said, I can't find a solution that satisfies me for some cases, especially when I leave a meeting, I write the minutes and there are several types of actions :
- some for me to do in next action: easy => to do list
- some actions to be done by others: already less easy, but it fits in follow-up (I put my note with the minutes in the followup folder). But I still have this annoying thing that my note is no longer in its proper project folder. And I don't want to retype all the actions in Excel, but should I?
- some for me but that will be done after others. And here, frankly, I can't find a dynamic solution.

What do you do on your side to track your projects that include deferred actions?
Do you have for example a "global" list of actions including everything (Excel example or other) and you feed from there your next actions? but it seems heavy to me.

Thanks for your feedback,

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 

ivanjay205

Registered
I personally have never been able to understand how people use Evernote and other notetaking items for GTD. I know a lot of people do it but your struggle is exactly what I would have a hard time understanding. My personal recommendation would be to consider a more robust task based system. Some of them have built in abilities to handle such things such as defer dates so they are hidden from review until they should show up.
 

Cpu_Modern

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- some for me to do in next action: easy => to do list
- some actions to be done by others: already less easy, but it fits in follow-up (I put my note with the minutes in the followup folder). But I still have this annoying thing that my note is no longer in its proper project folder. And I don't want to retype all the actions in Excel, but should I?
- some for me but that will be done after others. And here, frankly, I can't find a dynamic solution.
These belong onto the @waiting-for list.
 

Sebastien.pi

Registered
I understand your position @ivanjay.
I know this tool is not 100% fit for GTD but the biggest advantage is that I only have one unique tool, and Evernote is a big part of my professional and private life.
I also have the advantage that I don't have a job with +100 next actions pending :) More of them are essentially short terms actions, easily handable.

@Cpu_Modern Indeed, I'd probably can put a copy of this "meeting minutes" note in the @waiting-for folder.

I'll try it, thanks.
 

ivanjay205

Registered
These belong onto the @waiting-for list.
Glad you corrected me. I read the original post wrong and thought by differed he meant out in the future. Waiting for is the right way to go!

That being said sometimes in a sequential project you cannot move it forward without the waiting for being processed. I do think that is a strength of a task manager if you have the right one
 

cfoley

Registered
I understand the feeling. You want to enter things "properly" so that you trust the system but copying the Waiting-Fors over seems like wasted effort.

How about this?

1. Put any critical stuff into your system the "proper" way.
2. Highlight any other delegated actions in the original meeting notes.
3. Throw those meeting notes into a tickler file on your weekly review day (or whenever you want to see them again)

I bet that when the meeting notes resurface, that some of those actions will be done already, others will have become irrelevant and maybe a few will need a follow up.
 

schmeggahead

Registered
That said, I can't find a solution that satisfies me for some cases, especially when I leave a meeting, I write the minutes and there are several types of actions :
- some for me to do in next action: easy => to do list
- some actions to be done by others: already less easy, but it fits in follow-up (I put my note with the minutes in the followup folder). But I still have this annoying thing that my note is no longer in its proper project folder. And I don't want to retype all the actions in Excel, but should I?
When working on a particular (using PMI definition) project I was managing, I always kept a consolidated actions list with description and a single primary owner. Making this consolidated list was a way to reflect to the team what was expected.

So taking the time to load Excel or some list tool was not just for me personally, it was a public communication tool that I kept current as actions were completed. By the next follow-up event, everyone knew what was outstanding. And everyone knew the outcome of those actions if they needed to proceed or to connect with old decisions or discoveries. If someone was unsure who took an action, there was a place to confirm.

So whenever I would meet with anyone, all of my action lists were available and if I had anything related to that person that wasn't part of a project, I would have a waiting for on my agenda list: [Individual's Name] WF: [Action or Topic description]

Typically, the project site would contain these interactive components in the site structure.
I'd probably can put a copy of this "meeting minutes" note in the @waiting-for folder.
This is quite a distributed way to handle these actions and results. Do you review every meeting minutes document in any session as long as any actions are incomplete?

I think wading through lots of unprocessed meeting minutes to handle future situations would set me up to fail. Minutes have actionable results and reference items that may need to be obtained later. Taking the time to move things to a decision list and an action/results lists will help differentiate the intent of the results.

I would be rethinking each of those minutes documents over and over to get through each subsequent meeting and interaction. That seems heavyweight to me. Processing each makes future interaction light weight and each minutes process can be quite light as well.

There may be a way for you to atomize the minutes and tag next actions and decisions in Evernote so that you can create these lists dynamically without much effort. I'm not familiar with Evernote but that is where I would go.

Hope this rant helps,
Clayton.

You have to think about your stuff but not as much as you think. - David Allen (paraphrased).
 
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