I noticed this topic recently, while I didn't attend the session or watch the recording: it struck a chord. In refining my own system in the past few months, I realized the root issue: folks who implement GTD (or have been using it for a while) tend to "get in touch with their inner project manager" only to have it all backfire.
In my system, there were 3 key causes to having very long lists: capturing
WAY too much, not preprocessing, and over planning.
- Don't Over Capture
Since we never captured a lot before, folks using GTD tend to over correct and swing the pendulum in the other direction: we over-capture thoughts, documents, messages. We'll give a court reporter a run for their money ... and it'll be a close battle each time. Instead, be ruthlessly selective. Simply ask: Will this ever matter? If not, then we probably don't need to capture it.
- Preprocess Inputs
There's no preprocessing being done when we capture things. We treat everything as equal and potentially important. It's not. The inbox is a choke point since it's the gateway into the system; it needs to guarded. Handle inputs immediately unless truly important. The inbox is then only for true scrutiny.
Be honest and don't try to kid yourself into thinking you might care about the majority of useless inputs that come your way. Part of how we prevent big lists is by not allowing lots of stuff to get onto them in the first place.
- Avoid Over Planning
The longer someone uses GTD or gets really enamored with it, they fall into the trap of obsessing over the most miniscule of detail and sequencing out everything. Over engineering, over thinking, and over planning become an art form. "Clean the kitchen" (or the garage, basement, whatever) — do we really need over 60 micro-steps, a full WBS, Gantt chart, backlog, kanban board, agile/scrum artifacts, and critical path deviation simulation analysis? Avoid needless complexity and taking things to the nth degree of detail.
We're not building a rocket ship, we don't need the overhead of doing so. There's a fine line between "What's the next physical, visible action to move project X forward?" and "How can I further break down each of these sub-tasks of my sub-projects of the sub-tasks of my project's first milestone?".
However, let's say we've refined capturing, preprocessed inputs, and avoided planning humanity's colonization of Mars and yet we still have long lists.
We need more lists, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. We need
smarter lists. We need to sort, filter, group, and classify our items better.
- Fully Leverage Someday/Maybe
Funnel less urgent items to "Someday/Maybe". Something that David didn't mention in his books, IIRC, but if you ever look at his system over the years, guess what? He has many sub-categories of someday/maybe. You too can (and probably should) sub-divide "Someday / Maybe" into categories that make sense for you (e.g. "S/M - Travel," "S/M - Crazy," "S/M - Bucket List"). We rarely need to see these, especially day-to-day.
- Classify More As Reference
Some items are pseudo-reference material (i.e. checklists, routines, reading lists, movie/tv shows to watch, etc.). File them separately as reference, review occasionally. Don't clutter the more important lists/daily views of the system.
- Divide & Conquer
Create as many categories, labels, tags (whatever your system may have) to filter, group, and sub-divide your items as you need but as a few as you can get by with. Enough to effectively sort, not so many it's confusing. We want to avoid overly broad/general lists, but not have so many labels/tags that they have a whole taxonomy and sub-system unto themselves. If we can't instantly classify items using them and forget/have to ask "How's Label A different from Label T again?" then we probably have too many. About 25 items per list/category/tag is manageable.
- Focus On Today
Finally, if it's still overwhelming, create a daily to-do list / priorities. Review the smart lists from the labels/tags you made earlier, scan each smart list and flag must-do items or priority/important items (this is largely intuitive judgment and so forth). Filter the resulting list down to the "Top 10". Choose your top 3 to focus on, using any criteria you like (i.e. importance, most enjoyment, most painful if not done, least challenging, quickest to handle, most challenging, whatever) and put the rest as bonus achievements for the day.
Simplify and spotlight what matters now. Funnel items out of active lists/categories, Use as many sub-categories as we need but as few as we can get by with, and then use them to create a filtered daily to-do list to help us highlight and determine priorities. This is the key.
GTD aims for clarity, not project management. Refine inputs and tasks to their essence but no further. Keep it super simple.
Focus only on what truly matters. Use GTD practically, not pedantically.
