Getting less important stuff done

[mcogilvie]

I do focus on next action items, but as I wrote, I found that a lot of less important actions that were pulling at my attention during reviews, were not getting done, but *in aggregate* were important, so I decided to knock some of these off periodically in an extra early work session. I've found it useful because knocking those kind of items off makes me feel more productive, and in particular, helps me focus on next action items.

I realize this is at best a stretch of conventional GTD, and maybe outside the guidelines, and am not trying to recruit anyone on my (hopefully temporary ) procedure that is working for me.

I appreciate your ideas.

I don’t think what you are doing is a stretch at all. Our work has rhythms, shaped by internal and external factors, which we ignore at our peril. Some people think of GTD as a collection of practices, and it is, but it is also much more than that. It empowers us to mindfully choose what we do when and why we do it.

 

[Oogiem]

Apparently you are choosing to not do those items. should they even be on a list?

I have LOTS of next actions that I choose not to do at any given time. Because context is only 1 of the criteria I use to work on things.

Here's a current example. We have a project to put a ditch in from one corner of our property across and then feed the water into a gated pipe to irrigate a part of our orchard. It's tail water that we have a legal right to use. The project when done is "Fire Mountain Tail water being used for our own irrigation". The main part of the ditch got done this spring up to the edge of the orchard. Then we had to take the excavator up to our other property and it's been in use there all summer working on getting the rental house installed and ready to rent. The next action is to install the pipe under the elk fence and set up the intake from the ditch. Well it's fall, bears are out in force and we cannot afford to have any openings in the fence or any pathway for coyotes or mountain lions to come in under the fence and attack our sheep. Plus the equipment we need to do the task is elsewhere. So the entire project is on hold. Now when the house is done we will move the excavator back to the main farm but I won't know until that happens whether it will be safe to do the next action on the piping project. It depends on weather. We need the bears to have gone into hibernation before we do it.

I found that a lot of less important actions that were pulling at my attention during reviews, were not getting done, but *in aggregate* were important,

Yes, this happens to me on occasion too. And I also tend to set a time to go through and get them all done. You do what works and that tactic also works for me.

To clean out or finish and clear up I also do a big quarterly review on the equinoxes and solstices. Much of my farm related work is also tied to seasons where it can be done and some things just don't get done in their proper season for lots of reasons. So when the season ends those projects go into hibernation until next year. That's one reason I have projects and next actions that can take months or years to complete.