High Priority Self-Imposed Deadlines but not true deadline Next Actions - How to Handle

ivanjay205

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In my role I need to sign off on all proposals that are submitted to clients. My general rule of thumb is that I will turn these around within 24 hours of my team submitting to me so as not to hold up the progress. This is very important to me as if I hold up the process it breaks down the process of getting through these approvals.

That being said they are not "hard" due dates and if I go a day late, the world does not end. But it is a strong preference of mine.

What is the proper way to organize these things? I use Omnifocus. I used to stick due dates on them for tomorrow. However, in the effort of not overdoing due dates I stopped that. I now flag them and have a "focus" perspective which pulls in things due today, flagged tasks, and items in my client management area of focus this way these proposals come up top of mind.

Any other suggestions or is that appropriate?
 

Gardener

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Is there usually at least one of these waiting for your attention, or do they just turn up, say, once every couple of weeks?

If they're near-daily, you could perhaps schedule a meeting with yourself for these reviews. Or if they're compatible with some other work that is near-daily, you could schedule that meeting for the two categories of work, and do any pending reviews first.
 

ivanjay205

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Is there usually at least one of these waiting for your attention, or do they just turn up, say, once every couple of weeks?

If they're near-daily, you could perhaps schedule a meeting with yourself for these reviews. Or if they're compatible with some other work that is near-daily, you could schedule that meeting for the two categories of work, and do any pending reviews first.
They tend to show up daily. Occasionally 0, often 1-2, sometimes as much as 7-8. It really depends on what is going on with each of the teams.

I do not necessarily have a problem getting them done. I just find that where to place them appropriately is sometimes a bit confusing as I cannot anticipate if I will need 15 minutes or an hour.

For example, yesterday I got 2. Today I have gotten 9 so far today.
 

ianfh10

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Agree with @Gardener that scheduling a meeting with yourself to get through them is a good solution.

What's the maximum number you could estimate receiving on any one day, and how long do you think the max number would take you? If for example an hour would do, but you only get 2, you get the rest of that hour back and get a little win in the process.
 

ivanjay205

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Agree with @Gardener that scheduling a meeting with yourself to get through them is a good solution.

What's the maximum number you could estimate receiving on any one day, and how long do you think the max number would take you? If for example an hour would do, but you only get 2, you get the rest of that hour back and get a little win in the process.
I do have 1 1/2 hours of “focus time” every morning in my calendar. That is always plenty of time to handle them. Occassionally it will eat up so much of that time I cannot do anything else but that is rare.
 

mcogilvie

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You’re doing this all the time, and apparently doing ok with it. To me, it looks a lot like the hamster wheel of email: something you have to do every day so the wheels don’t fall off, but without the useless crud of email. And we know that there are many ways to handle email: scheduled times, special context, et cetera. When I have a queue of similar tasks, I sometimes use a pointer next action which tells me to process the queue. You could also fiddle with OF 3’s “Today” tag. But really you seem to be doing okay. Maybe you should look at this from a higher level to see if there is some larger issue bothering you.
 

ivanjay205

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You’re doing this all the time, and apparently doing ok with it. To me, it looks a lot like the hamster wheel of email: something you have to do every day so the wheels don’t fall off, but without the useless crud of email. And we know that there are many ways to handle email: scheduled times, special context, et cetera. When I have a queue of similar tasks, I sometimes use a pointer next action which tells me to process the queue. You could also fiddle with OF 3’s “Today” tag. But really you seem to be doing okay. Maybe you should look at this from a higher level to see if there is some larger issue bothering you.
Thanks. Yea I think more to I am in the midst of re-reading GTD right now so trying to fix any "departures" from the system and return to it. I do it every 2-3 years. This is one of those things that is not a set example per se in the book so just looking to ensure it is being handled properly. Sounds like I am on the right path so I will let it be.

I do think what might help me save some time is to research how to do an OmniFocus automation to automatically clarify these tasks. I do spend a bit of time every day moving them from my inbox to my lists etc. That time x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year adds up for sure.
 

Gardener

Registered
Thanks. Yea I think more to I am in the midst of re-reading GTD right now so trying to fix any "departures" from the system and return to it. I do it every 2-3 years. This is one of those things that is not a set example per se in the book so just looking to ensure it is being handled properly. Sounds like I am on the right path so I will let it be.

I do think what might help me save some time is to research how to do an OmniFocus automation to automatically clarify these tasks. I do spend a bit of time every day moving them from my inbox to my lists etc. That time x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year adds up for sure.
Since this is a standard repeating task, I don't think I would have it in my lists as a task per proposal, but instead have a daily repeating task or checklist item for "review today's proposals". This assumes that it's easy to find the day's proposals in your email.
 

ivanjay205

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Since this is a standard repeating task, I don't think I would have it in my lists as a task per proposal, but instead have a daily repeating task or checklist item for "review today's proposals". This assumes that it's easy to find the day's proposals in your email.
Ah that is not a bad idea. It is very simple as our work tool has them all listed on my dashboard.
 

GTDengineer

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I case you don’t have a set time in the day to perform this action, most digital calendars permit creation of an “all day” appointment.
 
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