I'm wanting to change David Allen's main 'action status' lists in GTD

[Ship69]

Hello

The more I think about it the more I'm not happy with the action statuses in GTD.

From memory David Allen has the following main lists:

1. Active (i.e. "Do ASAP")
2. Waiting (i.e. "Waiting for someone to get back to me")
3. Scheduled/Tickler (i.e. "Don't start until [whatever] date")
4. Someday-Maybe (i.e. "May or may not do at some point")

...Something like that?

Well I am increasingly finding I want:

1. Active (i.e. "Do ASAP")
2. Do Soon (i.e. This is stuff to move it in and out of Do ASAP. This is all stuff I currently am planning to do)
3. Maybe do (i.e. I may or may not do this stuff)
4. Archive (i.e. possible longterm stuff I want to review maybe in a few months time)

5. (Future start)
Waiting is not use without knowing how long I'm going to wait! So I just move the start date into appropriate date in the future and it will appear again then.
So I conflate Waiting and Scheduled and Tickler. If I can be bothered use a tag field to identify who I'm waiting for.

My next problem will be finding GTD-friendly software that can cope(!), but do you think thinking is flawed?

J

 

[mcogilvie]

Well I am increasingly finding I want:

1. Active (i.e. "Do ASAP")
2. Do Soon (i.e. This is stuff to move it in and out of Do ASAP. This is all stuff I currently am planning to do)
3. Maybe do (i.e. I may or may not do this stuff)
4. Archive (i.e. possible longterm stuff I want to review maybe in a few months time)

5. (Future start)

I think that most major GTD software supports this sort of thing well, and most other todo list software can do ok as well. The map is
Active = Starred Next Action
Do Soon = Next Action
Maybe = Someday/Maybe
Archive = Someday/Maybe or Tickler
Future = Tickler/Deferred

I handle your "Archive" category by the devious and profound strategy of placing question marks on deferred tasks, as in "Clean Front Porch Roof?" This is something I need to check on repeatedly this time of year, but don't need to do if there are no leaves accumulating on the flat roof.

Although you say you are "not happy with the action statuses in GTD," I don't think this is a term David Allen has ever used. He has mentioned his occasional use of a hotlist in addition to context lists, and has interviewed experienced GTD practitioners who have permanent hotlists. He and his staff have also spoken about the value many find in multiple kinds of someday-maybe lists. So I'm afraid you're not offering radical GTD heresy. I hope you find a software package soon that brings you happiness.

 

[Ship69]

I think that most major GTD software supports this sort of thing well, and most other todo list software can do ok as well. The map is
Active = Starred Next Action
Do Soon = Next Action
Maybe = Someday/Maybe
Archive = Someday/Maybe or Tickler
Future = Tickler/Deferred

I handle your "Archive" category by the devious and profound strategy of placing question marks on deferred tasks, as in "Clean Front Porch Roof?" This is something I need to check on repeatedly this time of year, but don't need to do if there are no leaves accumulating on the flat roof.

Although you say you are "not happy with the action statuses in GTD," I don't think this is a term David Allen has ever used. He has mentioned his occasional use of a hotlist in addition to context lists, and has interviewed experienced GTD practitioners who have permanent hotlists. He and his staff have also spoken about the value many find in multiple kinds of someday-maybe lists. So I'm afraid you're not offering radical GTD heresy. I hope you find a software package soon that brings you happiness.

Interesting... Yes, Starred Next Action would work, but how then do I do my "has focus today" list? Being as that is what I currently have been using Stars.

I am currently experimenting with MLO which:
- Has a "Hide the branch in To-do" field which acts as quite a good Someday/Maybe field.
- I use folders for each Area of Responsibility (/Area of Life)
- Long term archive I can just drag into a different folder
- Active is effectively the default.
- Stars is good for "give focus today".

But if I make the default mean "do soon" and stars mean "active" there is then a slight problem with using Stars is larger projects. i.e. I would need to Star all of the items that I add to any Active Project. Possible, but feels slightly inconvenient, no?

 

[Oogiem]

1. Active (i.e. "Do ASAP")
2. Do Soon (i.e. This is stuff to move it in and out of Do ASAP. This is all stuff I currently am planning to do)
3. Maybe do (i.e. I may or may not do this stuff)
4. Archive (i.e. possible longterm stuff I want to review maybe in a few months time)
5. (Future start)

In general I don't see a major problem with that structure but I do have one question. You call Archive long term stuff. In my worldview Archive means reference not potential future actions.

I do something similar though in terms of sorting projects.

I have current active ones that are in my Omnifocus system with actions that I can do now. I also have in my Omnifocus system some projects that are either like checklists for recurring things that happen on some schedule or projects I started but for whatever reason had to put on temporary hold. That is like our Active and Do Soon. My Future start must do are corralled into groups by the season when they can be done and are also in OF. These are actions that I am planning on doing or ones that can only be done in a specific season or whose current next action can only be started at some foreseeable future time point.

Where we separate is that I don't call the entire population of possible projects, bucket list items or any other potential item Archive but instead just call them all Someday/Maybe. Those items are now all contained in a bunch of individual DEVONThink text notes because it's faster to review them by reading a single page of paper compared to reviewing in OF a bunch of projects. It's easy to put move them once I decide to do one or more of them.

In terms of filing though I do mix my archive or reference materials with action support for projects that got started but are on hold and with notes for possible future projects. For example, I have an idea for sewing a specific historical garment. Just in the course of my normal reading I discovered something that would be useful if I decide to actually make the project. SO I saved it into a folder for that project. Now I haven't committed to actually sewing that item, but when the info came into my inbox I decided that I wanted to safe it as potential reference. It may stay there forever, it may become an active project and that folder will move into my active projects file drawer or I may decide to cull the thing entirely with a not in this lifetime decision at some point. In any case I rest easy knowing that the info I found is saved in a place where it will be easy for me too retrieve when/if I decide to move forward with the project.

As to software, I think just about everythign will do what you describe, you could even do it as simple text files if you wish. Remember GTD isn't about the software or the tools it's about how you think and act with the things that come at you daily.

 

[acc.mcpherson]

"Interesting... Yes, Starred Next Action would work, but how then do I do my "has focus today" list? Being as that is what I currently have been using Stars"

I struggled with the same thing and now that's what I use paper for.

 

[devon.marie]

"Interesting... Yes, Starred Next Action would work, but how then do I do my "has focus today" list? Being as that is what I currently have been using Stars"

I struggled with the same thing and now that's what I use paper for.

Same! I bullet journal along with my GTD setup in Trello and it's PERFECT. And by bullet journal, I mean I pretty much just do the daily entries. [Link to the Bullet Journal website]

 

[Ship69]

Same! I bullet journal along with my GTD setup in Trello and it's PERFECT. And by bullet journal, I mean I pretty much just do the daily entries. [Link to the Bullet Journal website]

Can you say more about that?

Trello is amazingly useful in various ways and still makes me smile occasionally when dip into it. However I gave up using Trello as I didn't find it so good when you have several hundred task.

 

[mcogilvie]

Starred Next Action would work, but how then do I do my "has focus today" list? Being as that is what I currently have been using Stars.

So you really want "Has focus today", "Active" and "Do Soon" to represent actions which are available now? It seems to me that you might just as well use a list tool that has conventional priorities 1,2,3,4. This has the added advantage that when you want to change the meaning you assign to the priorities, you don't need to do anything. Saves time!

 

[devon.marie]

Can you say more about that?

Trello is amazingly useful in various ways and still makes me smile occasionally when dip into it. However I gave up using Trello as I didn't find it so good when you have several hundred task.

Sure! So essentially my main task board has lists for active projects and each of my contexts. The higher priority items are towards the top of the lists. Every weekly review, I go down each list, making sure everything is still actionable, has the resources it needs, etc. I then review my project list and make any new tasks for them I need to and putting them in their context list.

Every day, I come in and open my bullet journal, starting a new daily entry. I first add events from my calendar. Then I browse the tops of each list in Trello for the items that I really should work on today, adding them to my daily entry as tasks. I only put dates on cards in Trello if it's a deadline; I always check the board's calendar, too, to make sure I don't have any deadlines that day or in the vicinity. If I do, I put it on my bullet journal entry to work on the task.

And then I mostly work from my bullet journal during the day. I take notes on things that happen or info I need to keep track of. I often move around the building so it's nice when I can take my tasks for the day with me. And then I have a work journal I can look back on months down the road. It's super handy. Oh, I also write and then immediately cross off any tasks I do that I didn't copy down beforehand (spontaneous tasks, quick ones I grabbed straight off my Trello lists, etc.). It makes the monthly progress report I have to write for my supervisor much easier.