do you separate between work projects and home projects?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious what you all think about this one -- i.e., whether it is wise to separate between work outcomes and life (non-job related) outcomes on one's projects list. I do separate the two on my projects list so my projects are divided between my work outcomes list and my personal outcomes list. But I wonder if doing this only furthers the disconnect I feel between those two areas of my life. Sometimes I think if I just drop the pretense that my job and my life are different, and just combine the two project lists into one master life project list, I could better perform my duties both at work and at play. Of course my fear is that this would lead the job into my personal life to too great a degree. Thanks in advance for any insights.

 

[Anonymous]

I keep them separate for the most part- but I think balance is the key. Sometimes there is overlap and the project cannot be purely work or home. (for me an example would be continuing education credits to keep by license up to date)

Separate is good at one level because boundaries are important - but combining is sometimes a necessity.

If combined- you may run the risk of enmeshment- which is the blurring of the boundaries- which is not good in my opinion. That tends to lead to taking "work" home....or taking "personal baggage" to work....or taking time away from "home" having such long work hours.

Not much wisdom here perhaps- just my 2 cents.

~ kross (username)
Site will not keep me logged in....)

____________________________________________

kross1026@hotmail.com

 

[emp]

Actually...

I would enjoy some replies about this as well, because this is right what I am running into at the moment.

I am trying to get my work-environment up to GtD - Speed as well, but this involves a lot @waiting for... when it is actually not me waiting for something, but the whole department.

How do you people handle this?

::: emp :::

 

[randystokes]

Let me chime in here. All my projects go on one list. Personal, professional, doesn't matter. And I don't rank them or prioritize them. They just go on one list. That list then serves as my inventory for my weekly review. I see everything on that list at least once a week, and I update it, add next actions, delete completed things, etc.

I also have my context lists. There's @Office and @Home, among others. Those tend to separate themselves more along the personal/professional dividing line, but even there, there's a lot of "personal" stuff that goes on the @Office list, and a lot of "professional" stuff that goes on the @Home list. But it's ALL stuff I want to get done as soon as possible -- otherwise, it wouldn't be on the lists.

Someone may say "Well, I can let the personal stuff slide, but I HAVE to get the professional stuff done." OK, assuming for the moment that is true -- and be careful about letting all the personal stuff slide -- that's part of looking at your lists, given your context, and making an intuitive choice about what to do next.

Don't overthink this. Remember, one of David's favorite sayings is "You have to think about you stuff more than you think will, but not as much as you're afraid you will." (Rough, from memory.) Just capture everything you have any commitment (external or internal) to do, organize it by context on your lists, and keep moving. You'll be amazed how much you get done in all contexts, on all fronts.

Randy Stokes
randystokes@cox.net

 

[kkirksey]

Re: do you separate between work projects and home projects?

I'm curious what you all think about this one -- i.e., whether it is wise to separate between work outcomes and life (non-job related) outcomes on one's projects list.

I've been doing GTD since the book first came out, and I've gone through a number of different ways of handling my projects list. I've been using my current system for close to a year now, and I think it's the one I'll be sticking with because it works for me.

I have a single list of projects, each project being one memo record - with a category of "Projects" - in Palm Desktop. The project list is subdivided into four categories: work, home, clients, church. Since the projects are all in one list, I can see at a glance all the projects I'm committed to. Since they're are subdivided, I can see how my life is balanced among those areas. I have an intuitive feel for how many projects I can handle at one time in each of those areas. If I see that I'm at my limit in work projects, for instance, any possible new project goes to my Someday list. If I see only a couple of projects in my Home list, I know it's time to go to my Someday list to find new Home projects.

HTH!

Ken

 

[CosmoGTD]

I keep Personal and Professional projects separated.
I also organize the projects in a way that makes sense to me.

I tried the random all-in-one project list, and that is not the way my brain works.
That is the way DA recommends though.

So I would suggest....

Experiment.

Separate them, and play with it, until it feels natural for you.
Like i said, i tried the Project list the way DA recommends it, and looking at that random list was like standing naked and lost in a rainforest.

Coz needs ORDER!
:wink:

Coz

 

[JLamp]

I keep the lists separate with two different palm categories;

PROJECTS WORK
PROJECTS PERSONAL

I rationalize that they are still in the same system just two different categories. I feel a greater sense of clarity and focus this way. Additionally, I can close the details of the other categories and print out a list of work projects that I feel comfortable sharing with my boss, direct reports, internal customers, etc.

I can also do a complete chunk of a weekly review by attending to the project list and next actions from either. I do co-mingle next actions by context irrespective of being projects work or personal.

Two lists work for me!

 

[w_i_t_n_a]

I'm a bit like Cosmo I need to keep the two separate, I tried the
all in one Project List approach but separating them works better for me

NA's are organized by context so I kind of think Business and Personal
as two separate contexts within which you manage Projects and to be
honest there are sometimes when I just want to think about one
context or another.

For me its all about balance, at the moment the ratio of Business v
Personal projects is running at about 50/50. This varies but if it starts to
get too heavily weighted in one context or another I look a bit closer at
what I'm doing at that particular point in time and try to resotre the
balance. Sometimes the balance defies restoring but it's usually only
temporary.

Its important though that in the 'context' of your weekly review that
both your project lists (if thats the way you go) get reviewed

This is my $0.03017 aussie cents worth, its an exchange rate thing

 

[andmor]

Time is an essential component of context for me. I am a home-based professional single parent / homemaker, so, if i followed strict location contexts, almost everything would be @Home. But unless I treat my job as my job, I would find myself doing whatever I thought was important or easy at any time, and the more complex business work would be procrastinated. As a result, I have to distinguish between @Office and @Home, even though they are the same location, and try to restrain myself from looking at my @Home list between 8:30 and 12:30 and between 1:30 and 5:30.

I have tried separate Projects lists by areas of focus and found them to much busywork. There's too much overlap between areas of focus. I can look at an area of focus and pick a Project and then suddenly that Project becomes relevant to everything else. Botrtom line is if it doesn't contribute to Mental/Emotional Health, it will never make my Projects list. Importance flows down from a the level of Life, and I am hopeful that if I do the important things in my life I will feel better about things than if I simply achieve what somebody else would approve as "Balance".

Andrew

 

[jmarkey]

I have two project lists, work and personal. My next actions are organized by context, so a personal call will show up on my @calls list with my business calls. It works for me.

 

[kglade]

Using outlook and the add-in with a palm device, I keep one project list and separate home from work projects by putting a "z" at the beginning of home project names. For example "z Lawn mower is fixed." This puts all home projects together at the bottom of the list. It is easy to ignore them while I am at work, but scroll down to see them during weekly review or while at home.

Ken

 

[jrdouce]

work projects and home projects

After attending a GTD seminar last year, I combined everything into 1 projects list - Following David's example. I have a Home category NA category and a Work NA category. Unconsciously over time, all work projects migrated off the @Projects list and onto the Work list. My @Projects list is 100% personal projects, my Home list is NA for home and my Work list has become a mix of actions and projects - stated as outcomes (i.e. publish updates, test new version, etc.)

I didn't fully realize this until reading this thread :idea: . Since work and home are absolutely segregated for me, this seems to be working well. My @Call and @Computer lists are a mix of personal and business actions, except for a few contacts that need to be conducted from work, which account for the mix of Actions and Projects on my Work list. I intend to run with the trend and set up Projects Work and Projects Home. Then my Work list will be purely actions.

Lastly, it is possible for an action from a work project to end up on my @Home list. I'm putting together a presentation for work, but I have a lot more resources at home than I have at work - that's another issue entirely.

That's just my experience.

 

[Ambar]

I keep everything together in Life Balance. I can choose to view the resulting context lists in a number of ways, though. Often I am looking at !Work Actions, which is literally everything that I can do at work. Sometimes I need to cut the distraction factor, though, so I instead switch to @Office, which is just the things I must be at the office to do.

 

[Jason Womack]

How many "Projects" lists?

I have two project lists, work and personal. My next actions are organized by context, so a personal call will show up on my @calls list with my business calls. It works for me.

I have two:

Projects to Deliver; and
Projects

I've gone back and forth over the past 6 years. I've had Projects-Personal, Projects-Work, Projects-Delegated, Projects to Deliver, Long-Term / Short Term projects.

I would say try it any way you want, just review the projects list(s) in your weekly review to keep it all current.

When I have a next action, I get it on one of just a few lists (@home, @computer, @calls, etc).

 

[mochant]

Re: How many "Projects" lists?

I have two:

Projects to Deliver; and
Projects

I've gone back and forth over the past 6 years. I've had Projects-Persona, Projects-Work, Projects-Delegated, Projects to Deliver, Long-Term / Short Term projects.

I would say try it any way you want, just review the projects list(s) in your weekly review to keep it all current.

When I have a next action, I get it on one of just a few lists (@home, @computer, @calls, etc).

Excellent points Jason. If your NAs are getting reviewed regularly and they're in an appropriate context, they should not fall through the cracks. I've been most successful when keeping my lists to a minimum as well.