Does David Allen pre-choose what to do the next day?

[Suelin23]

I like to have some tasks predefined, so I can just get into work and start working straight away, and after they're done I'll go to my lists and choose using the 4criteria model. But not many, maybe one long task and a few little ones, usually no more than 5 predefined for a day.

I put actions on my calender but distinguish between guideline dates and deadline dates. Guideline dates are the wishful thinking - it would be great to have done it by this date. I feel free to renogotiate them with myself depending on what is happening.
Deadlines are dates I have to renegotiate with others if I want to change them.

 

[TesTeq]

Scanning NA list like a grocery aisle.

When I'm scanning for something to choose? No, I don't make myself read the whole list before deciding every time. Most of the time I'm just choosing based on what stands out. Kind of like scanning a grocery aisle. I don't look at every box of cereal before deciding. I'll see which one calls to me and go for that.

Scanning NA list like a grocery aisle.

What a great metaphor and great quote to use!

 

[debbieg]

Thanks Myriam for Sharing

hi Debbie,

sure, I don't see why not. It's not a very complicated spread sheet, I'd be glad to share it and receive comments about it!

I'm writing down a NA right now: clean out spread sheet (I don't feel the need to post a spread sheet with all my items in it) and post it on gtd-forum :grin:
That'll probably be something I'll do on friday evening (I've got an evening of "small administrative NA's" planned as my husband will go out to watch a football game)

Myriam

Looking forward to exploring your great idea.

 

[Myriam]

spread sheet in Excel

Hi Debbie (and others),

I cleaned up the file a little bit (I put NA instead of the real next actions and removed some older stuff from the beginning, when I didn’t have all the columns yet)... when I wanted to post it, I discovered it was over the limit allowed here (it's 2MB). So I printed to a pdf file. If any one would like to receive the file by mail, just let me know and I'll send it to you.

The columns are the following:
- “now”: an empty column I write a little x whenever I feel the need to extract some specific actions that I can’t reach with my usual filters, I almost never use this
- “Project”: the project associated with the NA (Konsilo = the name of my company, i'm self employed, so this means "internal stuff")
- “ok”: when I finish the NA, I type OK here, when I decide that after all I don’t want to do that NA (project has changed or whatever other reason), I write “del”, standard I filter these for “blank” and get all my active NA (usually around 120)
- “do-date”: the date I completed the NA (so all my completed NA are still in there)
- “NA”: explains itself
- “Context”: my contexts aren’t really “classic” (except for printing and calls), they are more guided by the type of work (author, development, study, …). Don’t worry about the language, it’s in Dutch ;-)
- “time”: estimation of the time needed to complete the NA (this way I can filter for the quick ones)
- “due date”: due date, if there is one = hard date = when does it need to be finished
- “wish date”: this is a soft date = when would I like it to be finished, I play around with those during the weekly review, and often immediately when I add a next action to the list

About the colours: that is done with conditional formatting
- pink = date is less than 3 days from now
- orange = date is between 3 days and 1 week from now

I have other tabs in that file that cover:
- my project list with client, project, deadline
- my private NA (separate list, same file...)
- A-Z: I’m in the process of building my reference files, so I keep a list of the files I make, so I can check fast if I already have a file I can use when I have to put something away
- wish list: those are my SDMB items (but I don’t really use it enough yet)

This works great for me, it’s simple enough, but it allows me to filter in all sorts of directions. Throughout the day this file is always open on my PC.

I hope it’s all clear,

Any comments are welcome and would be much appreciated…

Greetings,
Myriam

Attached files image_640.pdf (15.7 KB) 

 

[Myriam]

just wanted to add...

You'll probably notice there are several next actions for most projects. They are all independant actions, as they should be

Myriam

 

[debbieg]

Calendar

Two different but (hopefully!) equally valid answers to the question:

1) the key distinction you need to make with your calendar versus your lists is between things that MUST be done on a particular day (they have to be done that day or not at all) and things that would be NICE to get done on a particular day (it would make you happy/fulfilled if they got done that day, but nothing is going to fall apart if they don't). If you start pre-choosing actions to work on it can be easy to blur the distinction between those two types of actions. If you're going to pre-choose, you need to make sure that you do it and record it in a way that makes the distinction clear. I personally like to think about 2-3 "most important tasks" -- things that don't HAVE to be done that day but that, among the things on my lists, seem like the most important ones to work on if I get to, but I record them on my calendar in a different way (different label and marking color) from the calendar items that MUST get done that day.

2) As I've gotten better at developing and maintaining my next actions lists, I've found that it matters less and less which specific action I choose at an given point in time -- all of the actions on my list are going to get dealt with on a relatively short cycle (in my world, no more than 2 weeks) and I find that as long as I'm looking at my lists regularly and keeping them up to date I can pick just about anything in the moment of choice and feel pretty good about it.

--Marc

Marc--
Could you expand on your commet about labeling and coloring differently on your calendar? Thanks

 

[Mtk8]

calendar labeling/coding

Sure -- this is a screenshot of what my calendar looked like earlier this morning. The all day section (at the top) has a couple of "must do today" tasks. For example, the data collection computer has to be moved today because we're starting a new study on Monday, and it got put on the must do today list instead of the task list because the new space wasn't available prior to today.

The two things that are color coded are the tasks that, all things being equal, I'd most like to get done today. I've found the pre-identification of 2-3 tasks overall and 2-3 writing tasks to work well for me (I label the general tasks MIT for "most important tasks" -- I think I picked that up from a blog post somewhere, although I can't remember where).

I actually pre-identify at the end of the work day the day before, because I've found the ability to "hit the ground running" in the morning to be very beneficial. The color coding makes it very clear that the MITs and the writing tasks aren't "MUST DOS". I should also mention that these are just notes of things that are on my tasks list -- the tasks list is the full capture of what needs to get done; the MIT/writing tag on the calendar is just a convenient way of reminding me about the decision I've made about which ones to focus on.

I've found that the real key to my system not getting muddled up is to make sure the distinctions are clear between: must do at a given time (the stuff that is in the timed section of the calendar), must do today (all day events), and would be nice to do, maybe today (other tasks, including but not limited to the MIT and writing list). The MIT/Writing identification on the calendar only works because it is crystal clear that those are different than must be done things and because, if they're not done at the end of the day, I don't lose any sleep over it -- they're on the tasks list and they'll stay captured there until complete.

I hope that helps -- if not, let me know and I can try to explain further.

--Marc

Attached files