Findings must be captured as next action or be lost?

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ArcCaster

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Sometimes I discover things that really resonate.

For example, today I was listening to David's talk with Arianna Huffington, a prodigious writer. She dictates all her first drafts, then edits them later. Furthermore, she dictates them to a person, allowing the reactions of that person to influence whether she goes deeper, explains more, moves on, whatever. What a great methodology for any writer!

Must I translate that accidental incidental resonance into an action item? Or is there something in the GTD system that allows me to just capture and 'compost' an idea until a later more appropriate time to convert it into something actionable?
 
The latter. Note it on a tickler and throw it in for a month from now.

I do this often with my notes from nonfiction books.

You can also create a checklist and put it in your project support materials.
 
I think this is what DA is referring to when he talks about 'incubating'.

My suggestion... Create a folder named 'incubating', throw this kind of stuff into it, and review it quarterly-ish. Eventually, you'll either (a) figure out what to do with it, or (b) decide it no longer resonates.
 
What jknecht said. Lots of creative people keep some kind of idea file for odd bits of things that resonate but haven't attached themselves to a particular project yet. My filing for this kind of stuff treats it more like reference material than like a GTD-style Action or Project. The important thing is that you review the file at some semi-regular interval, rather than having it be a black hole from which nothing ever escapes.

Katherine
 
The regular review is the key

I agree with all of the thoughts above and would only add tha committing to a regular (not necessarily frequent, just regular) review of these incubator notes is the key. Quarterly is too infrequent for me. I tend to review the Ideas category in my junk drawer app and paper notebook no less frequently than once a month and more often (every other week) if time permits.

My reasoning is that the work I do evolves quickly and that I tend to collect with relative abandon. So I try to be pretty ruthless in my pruning if something I've tossed into one of the capture points is no longer relevant.

As I don't have someone to dictate to, I tend to work in reverse mode to what Ms. Huffington describes. I dictate into my Tablet PC and then listen (w/o looking at the screen) to what I've written by having the computer read back to me after I've taken an appropriate (to the project time line) break. For a weighty blog post, that might be an hour later. For an essay or book chapter or white paper with a longer time line, I'll usually wait at least a day or two.

HTH,
Marc
 
Great tips! Marc's is esp. important - have a scheme to review.

I use a plain text file with macros to separate "items," grab URLs and titles, and tag items (e.g., BlackberryClientToolIdea).

For review, I don't have anything regular yet and tend to do it opportunistically. If I run across a need, I search for a tag or keyword and notice other hits. I also use the "blog to recall" approach - I tag ideas to blog about (1500 at last count), and when considering my (mostly weekly) post I review them (not all, alas) searching for one that resonates. While writing it, I search for relevant info elsewhere in the big file, which also motivates a review.

Great topic! Hope that helps.
 
Great replies -- thanks.

Marc, sounds like you are using some kind of speech recognition software. Care to comment on how accurate and usable such things are?
 
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