How do you plan?

[Travello]

Hi friends

There seems to be no mention in the book about planning.

You do the weekly review. You look at all the items and put them in the appropriate category. But then how do you plan the ones that are still there?

Thanks

 

[Longstreet]

Hi friends

There seems to be no mention in the book about planning.

You do the weekly review. You look at all the items and put them in the appropriate category. But then how do you plan the ones that are still there?

Thanks

I have an added weekly planning component in my review. It is comprehensive and I block time on my calendar for important project and personal items.

 

[mcogilvie]

Hi friends

There seems to be no mention in the book about planning.

You do the weekly review. You look at all the items and put them in the appropriate category. But then how do you plan the ones that are still there?

Thanks

What does planning mean to you? If you have good lists of Projects and next actions, and your calendar is up to date, then you can just do. If a project needs more planning, you can put that on a next action list too.

 

[Longstreet]

What does planning mean to you? If you have good lists of Projects and next actions, and your calendar is up to date, then you can just do. If a project needs more planning, you can put that on a next action list too.

I disagree here too. It is important - if it works for you - to plan and block time on your calendar for important projects.

 

[mcogilvie]

I disagree here too. It is important - if it works for you - to plan and block time on your calendar for important projects.

Planning means different things to different people, and often has a lot of job-specific and personal preference aspects. On the other hand, GTD is a systematic process that anyone can use to make their lives better. I don’t think there's a conflict here.

 

[Longstreet]

Planning means different things to different people, and often has a lot of job-specific and personal preference aspects. On the other hand, GTD is a systematic process that anyone can use to make their lives better. I don’t think there's a conflict here.

I don't either. Cheers!

 

[Gardener]

I think that this depends heavily on you and your projects and your preferences. And I think that it's circular--your GTD lists will drive planning, and planning will drive your GTD lists.

Can you clarify what you mean by planning? For example, do you mean figuring out what you'll do, or figuring out when you'll do it, or making sure that you do it...?

I'm going to offer a long many-paragraph example:

Let's say that I think, today, "Yikes! Almost September! Time to plan for taking advantage of the fall rainy season in the garden." And I put "Fall garden stuff" in my Inbox.

Then in a weekly review I make that a project in OmniFocus. I call it "Exploit Early Rainy Season", which is a weird name, but it helps me to keep my focus in mind. The precious resource I'm trying to take advantage of is the early still-warmish part of the wet, fairly mild Pacific Northwest winter. A point will (probably) come when the ground is wet enough to be workable but not yet sopping, and the temperature is not yet too cold for planting certain perennials. I want to be prepared for that point, and act on it when it comes. That's the focus of the project.

I add a first action, "Make an ideas list".

But to really flesh out ideas, I need a current garden "blueprint". I add a second action, "Make garden sketch."

The first action is easy to do anywhere, so I don't bother to schedule it in any way. If I find in a week or two that I haven't done anything about it, I might make some effort to schedule it. But it's fun, so odds are I'll just do it.

The second action requires that I be in the garden to note what's growing everywhere. (I shouldn't need to be in the garden--my records should be sufficiently complete that I know that at all times. But changing my habits to make that true is a different project.)

We travel a lot, so garden time is precious. In fact, that's the only reason that the project even has two actions--I prefer to have one and only one action per project, but when there's a risk of missing an opportunity, I'll break that rule.

Because garden time is precious, I have a list, "Next Garden Session" that I carry in Reminders in my phone. So I add, "Update garden sketch" to the Next Garden Session list, so that I'll at least see it, even if I decide that there's some other priority next time I'm in the garden.

It occurs to me that I would make best use of that precious garden time if I have a nice template all ready to go, showing the 12 rows/120 beds of the garden. So I break my rule again and add a THIRD action (OMG!) to the project. And I re-order the actions:

Project: Exploit Early Rainy Season
Next Action: Make garden sketch template.
Next Action: Fill in garden sketch template.
Next Action: Make an ideas list.

And I decide that that's enough planning, for that project, for now. I could add a calendar item "Garden Session" for this coming weekend, but my habit is to go out to the garden the first weekend morning that weather allows, so there's really no need.

There will be more planning later. After I finish the ideas list, and then make a plant list, I may decide to plan a two-hour drive to that really good nursery with the astronomical shipping costs. I may order a partial truckload of compost, and need to show up to meet it, or put a tarp on the driveway so I don't have to meet it. I may ask the friend who often helps in the garden when she might be around to help me plant ten rosebushes. But all those details will be set by the ideas list and the plant list, so it would be a waste of time for me to go too deep into them now. A waste of time for me--I get burned out quickly on excessive detail. Someone else might find that planning valuable despite the need to make changes later.

So, enough planning, for that project, for now, for me.

 

[Longstreet]

I think that this depends heavily on you and your projects and your preferences. And I think that it's circular--your GTD lists will drive planning, and planning will drive your GTD lists.

Can you clarify what you mean by planning? For example, do you mean figuring out what you'll do, or figuring out when you'll do it, or making sure that you do it...?

I'm going to offer a long many-paragraph example:

Let's say that I think, today, "Yikes! Almost September! Time to plan for taking advantage of the fall rainy season in the garden." And I put "Fall garden stuff" in my Inbox.

Then in a weekly review I make that a project in OmniFocus. I call it "Exploit Early Rainy Season", which is a weird name, but it helps me to keep my focus in mind. The precious resource I'm trying to take advantage of is the early still-warmish part of the wet, fairly mild Pacific Northwest winter. A point will (probably) come when the ground is wet enough to be workable but not yet sopping, and the temperature is not yet too cold for planting certain perennials. I want to be prepared for that point, and act on it when it comes. That's the focus of the project.

I add a first action, "Make an ideas list".

But to really flesh out ideas, I need a current garden "blueprint". I add a second action, "Make garden sketch."

The first action is easy to do anywhere, so I don't bother to schedule it in any way. If I find in a week or two that I haven't done anything about it, I might make some effort to schedule it. But it's fun, so odds are I'll just do it.

The second action requires that I be in the garden to note what's growing everywhere. (I shouldn't need to be in the garden--my records should be sufficiently complete that I know that at all times. But changing my habits to make that true is a different project.)

We travel a lot, so garden time is precious. In fact, that's the only reason that the project even has two actions--I prefer to have one and only one action per project, but when there's a risk of missing an opportunity, I'll break that rule.

Because garden time is precious, I have a list, "Next Garden Session" that I carry in Reminders in my phone. So I add, "Update garden sketch" to the Next Garden Session list, so that I'll at least see it, even if I decide that there's some other priority next time I'm in the garden.

It occurs to me that I would make best use of that precious garden time if I have a nice template all ready to go, showing the 12 rows/120 beds of the garden. So I break my rule again and add a THIRD action (OMG!) to the project. And I re-order the actions:

Project: Exploit Early Rainy Season
Next Action: Make garden sketch template.
Next Action: Fill in garden sketch template.
Next Action: Make an ideas list.

And I decide that that's enough planning, for that project, for now. I could add a calendar item "Garden Session" for this coming weekend, but my habit is to go out to the garden the first weekend morning that weather allows, so there's really no need.

There will be more planning later. After I finish the ideas list, and then make a plant list, I may decide to plan a two-hour drive to that really good nursery with the astronomical shipping costs. I may order a partial truckload of compost, and need to show up to meet it, or put a tarp on the driveway so I don't have to meet it. I may ask the friend who often helps in the garden when she might be around to help me plant ten rosebushes. But all those details will be set by the ideas list and the plant list, so it would be a waste of time for me to go too deep into them now. A waste of time for me--I get burned out quickly on excessive detail. Someone else might find that planning valuable despite the need to make changes later.

So, enough planning, for that project, for now, for me.

This is very good -- for this type of project. But for much more complex projects involving several people, I believe one must plan much more and come up with target dates for multiple items. I am developing and writing a 5-year NIH RO1 grant that involves human subjects at four different sites, a sub-contract with an Native American Tribe, colleagues here at my university and two others, etc. With so many moving parts, I find it necessary to do a lot of planning and blocking time on my calendar for dedicated work essentially every morning. Then during the afternoons, I am more in "standard" GTD mode in terms of choosing what to do moment to moment. My key point is that for some projects, a little planning and just working from your next action lists is not going to cut it. This comes from several years of experience in doing this.

 

[Gardener]

This is very good -- for this type of project. But for much more complex projects involving several people, I believe one must plan much more and come up with target dates for multiple items. I am developing and writing a 5-year NIH RO1 grant that involves human subjects at four different sites, a sub-contract with an Native American Tribe, colleagues here at my university and two others, etc. With so many moving parts, I find it necessary to do a lot of planning and blocking time on my calendar for dedicated work essentially every morning. Then during the afternoons, I am more in "standard" GTD mode in terms of choosing what to do moment to moment. My key point is that for some projects, a little planning and just working from your next action lists is not going to cut it. This comes from several years of experience in doing this.

Oh, I totally agree. That planning is going to be outside the GTD system--or in project support material, which I consider to be "outside." The time for the planning may be organized as part of your GTD system, but I would regard the primary product as being outside--though that's mainly a question of terminology and where you draw the conceptual boundaries.

To a smaller degree, that might happen in my example. If I form an elaborate plan involving forty raspberries and ten rugosa roses and a guy coming to install some stonework and a guy coming to drop off a few cubic feet of compost and a guy coming with a posthole digger to install plant supports and a carpenter to build those supports and and and...that's not going to be planned in my next action lists. It's going to be planned in separate lists and diagrams, and in my weekly review some items from those lists and diagrams will be inserted in my next actions.

As I see it, GTD triggers the planning, and absorbs some of the results from the planning, but it's not in charge of the planning, and the planning doesn't happen "inside" GTD.

 

[Longstreet]

Oh, I totally agree. That planning is going to be outside the GTD system--or in project support material, which I consider to be "outside." The time for the planning may be organized as part of your GTD system, but I would regard the primary product as being outside--though that's mainly a question of terminology and where you draw the conceptual boundaries.

To a smaller degree, that might happen in my example. If I form an elaborate plan involving forty raspberries and ten rugosa roses and a guy coming to install some stonework and a guy coming to drop off a few cubic feet of compost and a guy coming with a posthole digger to install plant supports and a carpenter to build those supports and and and...that's not going to be planned in my next action lists. It's going to be planned in separate lists and diagrams, and in my weekly review some items from those lists and diagrams will be inserted in my next actions.

As I see it, GTD triggers the planning, and absorbs some of the results from the planning, but it's not in charge of the planning, and the planning doesn't happen "inside" GTD.

Agreed! This level of planning and project management is "outside" of GTD but completely integrated into my GTD system.

 

[TesTeq]

There seems to be no mention in the book about planning.

Really? The whole Chapter 10. "Getting Projects Under Control" of the GTD2015 book is devoted to Project planning...