Hi! New here! / You have a trick to handle deadlines?

[J'aimeGTD]

Hi!

I'm Jean-François from Montreal Québec Canada, francophone, father of three, elementary school music teacher and GTD super enthusiast. PLeased to meet you!

I discovered GTD 15 years ago or so. Though I could see how I could benefit from it and tried to apply it the best I could, I encountered certain limits: globally I was pretty adept at generating projects, someday maybes and stuff, but less prone to actually getting more done than I would have pre-GTD.

Now a few years later, few week back,, I felt overwhelmed about my workload and responsibilities. Got the GTD setup pdf from the GTD store (which I liked a lot) and rebooted my system. And then, ZANG! I don't know precisely what happened/ what changed during those years, but now I get effectiveness results I could'nt have hoped for. I'm amazed. This stuff works big time.

There is something I would like to handle more gracefully, though: "managing deadlines". I don't feel like priorising anything, as I rather spend my time doing stuff that pondering comparative project importance, but I'd like to find an efficient way to "get ready for project delivery". As a music teacher, sometimes preparation involve some kind of repeatable practice por myself and other.

If I put stakes in the ground of my agenda, it crowds it pretty fast (concert in two weeks/ evaluations due of the x of x). Yeah of course I do weekly reviews, but I feel I have too many projects going to keep a sense of priorities. I do little daily reviews, but I fear it would get prettu heavy if I looked at my projects every day.

Gotta go! Thanks for reading, ciao!

Jf

 

[J'aimeGTD]

Yeah, if you have a trick for me, don't hesitate to share!

 

[nickmay]

Possibly fewer projects might help. And including the deadline in the project title so you can get awareness during your weekly review that it's upcoming.

 

[mcogilvie]

I put the deadline where I will see it when making choices about what to do. I also look at a list of all deadlines, digitally generated, to build awareness,

 

[GTDengineer]

Actions which must be complete on a certain day/time go on your calendar.

Do you really need to use GTD for repeatable practice? This could be habitual, and I personally don’t add my habitual actions to my GTD system. Every day I wake up and immediately begin to exercise. Every day after work I begin to cook dinner. There’s no need for GTD for these habits. But if it’s not habitual and you need to reserve time, and/or you have to coordinate time with another person, I’d suggest using your calendar.

And yes, it’s possible that you have over-committed and you may need to renegotiate those topics.

 

[J'aimeGTD]

Thanks for your input! Makes me reflect.

I sifted through my project list yesterday while waiting at the ecocenter, and I did find several projects that would have been tremendously difficult to move this week. In the future, I'll try not to open project pandora's box needlessly.

About project delivery/ deadlines, I'm still looking for a wording I like. It's not all about the deadline, or habits. A lot of my pedagoartistic projects have to move constantly, along with class opportunities among other things. I'll explore the notion of project outline, a flexible course of action plan with some stakes in time. I'll keep the readers of this thread posted.

Have a great day!