How to deal with daily to-dos?

[AlexanderChow]

Now I know, you don't schedule them.
You pickup them based on the context, energy, etc.

But how should I keep those items? Where should they go?
You see, you can't simply check them as done, as you don't want to create a simliar one again and again. Meanwhile, you don't want to keep it unchecked forever, as that
will create psychic burden and eliminate the chance where you could celebrate yourself as you check them off.
For example. . . things like reading bible.

 

[pxt]

Now I know, you don't schedule them.
You pickup them based on the context, energy, etc.

But how should I keep those items? Where should they go?
You see, you can't simply check them as done, as you don't want to create a simliar one again and again. Meanwhile, you don't want to keep it unchecked forever, as that
will create psychic burden and eliminate the chance where you could celebrate yourself as you check them off.
For example. . . things like reading bible.

I have two things:

A checklist of things I do each day that are not completely automatic yet. I make a fresh copy each day and check them off as i go. My current list includes taking a multi-vitamin and getting my GTD collector to zero once a day.

Reminders - which is a calendar I have created that is hidden but emails into my inbox. This is for behaviours I want to reinforce but are not timetabled. An example is a reminder to always copy my accountant when I receive a letter from the tax office. Another is to write up good days in my personal journal *. These are scheduled either weekly or monthly and as soon as I see them I delete them. They exist to re-inforce behaviours, rather than as hard actions to be checked off.

* The issue here is that when I'm having fun, I forget to write in my journal. So my best days used to get lost. The nature of the issue was that having a fun day was the opposite of a trigger, and so I have a regular reminder on other days to re-inforce the behaviour

 

[Paper Ninja]

Alexander:

I put these on a Daily Checklist that I go through when processing each morning.

I do then put it on my NA list, and yes, it gets crossed off when done. Then the cycle repeats itself. It works.

Keep in mind. There will be days when "Go jogging" sounds like a terrible idea, and it feels terrific to leave it off the NA list!

 

[TesTeq]

Daily to-do ≠ Next Action.

Daily to-do ≠ Next Action.

 

[pxt]

Alexander:

---

Keep in mind. There will be days when "Go jogging" sounds like a terrible idea, and it feels terrific to leave it off the NA list!

Yes - it's like a menu you can select from each day.

My daily checklist is the should-do's, but I also have a menu list which is mostly things for fun breaks when I'm busy. It includes some things that are essentially endless, such as rating another track in my music collection.

 

[pxt]

Now I know, you don't schedule them.
You pickup them based on the context, energy, etc.

But how should I keep those items? Where should they go?
You see, you can't simply check them as done, as you don't want to create a simliar one again and again. Meanwhile, you don't want to keep it unchecked forever, as that
will create psychic burden and eliminate the chance where you could celebrate yourself as you check them off.
For example. . . things like reading bible.

I think there's a similar issue with actions that are singular but cannot be accomplished in a single session. In one of my projects, the next action was to read a book through from cover to cover to get an overview, before returning to get into it properly. The action served its GTD role as the placeholder for the project, I needed to keep doing it, but could not check it off.

In the end I used a trick in my GTD software, where I create a Person called 'Reading", assigned the action to Reading and then it appeared in a different format that showed me it was not a normal action and was assigned to reading. I could then also see the list of what I'm currently reading across projects by clicking the person called reading.

 

[bradenchase]

Routines

I use routine lists for stuff like that. I have a few routine lists. They change periodically but my daily routine list typically contains things like scripture reading, exercise, reading with my son, practice typing, leave a kind note for my wife...etc.

It could be called a checklist but "checklist" to me is for multi-step processes that I don't do frequently. So I need a "checklist" to walk me through the steps and make sure I don't forget anything. For example, I have a weekly review checklist because I always want to make sure I do all the steps. I don't have a checklist for "scripture reading" because I already know how to do that.

Hope that helps!

 

[Mike L]

I have several tasks like this. To my way of thinking they are next actions because I plan on doing them, although they are a funny kind of action because they expire at the end of the day. I use software for managing my action items, and so I have these things scheduled to repeat daily. I also assign them a low priority so when I look at my to-do list I see more pressing things first.

 

[moosie]

Daily next actions

I have several tasks that I need to do everyday as part of my responsibilities. (Check bank balance, enter invoices, receive payments, etc.)

It sounds really stupid, but I have them set up in OmniFocus as their own project and each task is set to repeat daily. I'm still trying to figure out if I can make them sequential, but I haven't had enough time to really hack OF to best fit my needs. It was a fair bit of work to set them up just as they are, BUT I win several times a day and that keeps me going. With the amount of companies I handle the finances for, the high level stuff that never goes away and the amount of junk covering my runway, I'll gladly take the 5 seconds it requires to check off "check bank balance".

Like everything else GTD, it comes down to what works for you. I like stupid little wins... they make the crappy stuff a little more tolerable.

 

[ellobogrande]

Now I know, you don't schedule them.
You pickup them based on the context, energy, etc.

But how should I keep those items? Where should they go?
You see, you can't simply check them as done, as you don't want to create a simliar one again and again. Meanwhile, you don't want to keep it unchecked forever, as that
will create psychic burden and eliminate the chance where you could celebrate yourself as you check them off.
For example. . . things like reading bible.

I recommend creating a daily checklist under your reference lists that you review as often as you need. These are simply regular routine things that show up in your life.

My end-of-day checklist includes simple things like:

Lunch packed for tomorrow?
Dishes washed and drainer emptied?
Ad-hoc items gathered?