How do you do The Do part of GTD?

[kewms]

Okay, here's my question, Katherine. I am also finding that I use my NA lists when I'm not embedded in a project; when I'm working through a project I do NAs as they come or sometimes have them listed in project planning materials. How does this square with DA's advice to put a next action on the NA list for every project?

Do Mi

Well, I can't speak for DA, but I don't see a contradiction. When I leave a project, I note the NA on my NA lists. As others have said, it's a bookmark to help me find my place and get moving again.

Maybe it's because I've been using GTD for a few years at this point, but I'm always surprised by the degree of rigidity expressed in some of the questions here. As I understand it, being able to trust your judgment and go "off list" when appropriate is a key goal of the GTD system.

For instance, suppose your NA list has "@phone: call Frank about FrozzBozz quote." But your intuition tells you that calling Frank is no longer the most important FrozzBozz project task. Maybe you need more information first, maybe you need to rally support from others before you talk to Frank, maybe you ran into Frank at the water cooler and sorted things out, whatever. (Presumably you would have caught this and updated your list at weekly review time, but your weekly review is Friday and you have time to spend on the project today.) That's *fine.* Dive into the project, do what you need to do, and update the NA list to reflect the new situation when you're done.

Katherine

 

[Longstreet]

Thanks for all of the posts...

HI Folks,

Well, I thought this post might result in a few replies....

Thanks to all that took the time to give me advice. Here is what I am doing. I still follow most of the GTD principles with the five phases, but have modified the doing part. I applaud those of you out there that not only can function well on continually scanning long next action lists each and every time you need to decide what next to do, but some of you thrive on it! I am just one of those people that likes to create a daily plan and try to follow it. I do like the closed list approach of Mark Forster, but do not practice it rigidly at all. Remember, folks, since many of you quoted what David Allen has said about daily to-do lists, here is what he said on page 40 of GTD about daily plans: "Having a working game plan as a reference point is always useful, but it must be able to be renegotiated at any moment". I do believe this, but I also see the power in creating a working daily and weekly plan as a template. I just function better this way versus simply scanning next action lists and choosing what to do by the seat of my pants.

So, I create a daily focus list of actions -- from my next actions list -- and work hard at getting these done. If something comes up that is very urgent and important, then of course I embrace this new work coming in -- the great flexibility of GTD.

My philosophy...my way of doing things.

Best to all,
-Longstreet

 

[Brent]

I'm glad it's working for you! Thanks for the reply. It helps to get feedback on our commentary.

I just want to make one little comment/challenge:

I applaud those of you out there that...can function well on continually scanning long next action lists each and every time you need to decide what next to do

If your Next Actions list is "long" -- so long that you feel you can't glance at it many times a day -- you need to move a few Projects to Someday/Maybe. Don't worry; they're going to get done. They're just not going to get done soon (which will hold true anyway, if your list is very long).

 

[sdann]

Longstreet, I think the way you stated using a daily focus list is pretty much the way many do on this forum. Me included. I don't think having such a list goes against GTD in any way. (As an aside, in my case, I refuse to use a closed list.) In fact, in my case my daily focus list is derived from GTD. I agree also, flexibility is key, particularly for the biggest part of the day. A day can only be rigid for particular times. And, GTD works within both.

 

[ggoldman]

I am actually experimenting with using a daily task diary (ala Mark Forster) as part of my GTD system. I have my projects, waiting for, areas of focus, but I now program in the next actions I think need to get done into the task diary. I don't really need context lists since most of the time I have a phone and email with me. Part of why I am doing this is to see what I am actually getting done in a day. Yes there is some re-writing of things that don't get done. I find it brings some urgency and pushes some things to completion since you want to get them done and not re-write things.