LT 2 Minute Rule - Processing or Collection

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furashgf

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I've been applying the "do the action you've encountered/come up with if it's less than 2 minutes" to BOTH processing (e.g., when I'm churning through my inbox) and collection (e.g., I'm working on a project and just "think" of a thing to do).

I think this is wrong - I think GTD applies the 2 min rule to just processing. Appling it to collection has not been good for me - it interrups the flow of my "doing".

What's the "official" rule here?
 
furashgf said:
I've been applying the "do the action you've encountered/come up with if it's less than 2 minutes" to BOTH processing (e.g., when I'm churning through my inbox) and collection (e.g., I'm working on a project and just "think" of a thing to do).

I think this is wrong - I think GTD applies the 2 min rule to just processing. Appling it to collection has not been good for me - it interrups the flow of my "doing".

What's the "official" rule here?
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It seems to me that anything that interrupts your flow is wrong for you, no matter what GTD says about it.

Personally, I keep a scratch pad handy for just this kind of thing. Scribble a note for later, throw it in my inbox, and get back to what I'm working on. Unless the new thing is related to what I'm doing, of course.

Katherine
 
Rule or no rule, I'm not going to let a good idea get away from me if it comes to me when I'm collecting, processing, or doing anything else. I'll take the time to jot down enough info to preserve it and toss it in my inbox.

I can't imagine that sort of thing ever taking longer than 2 minutes - 20 seconds would be more like it.
 
Rules? We don't don't need no rules!

Technically, if you're working on a project then you're "doing", not collecting. Nits aside, I agree with the posters above. Whenever an idea pops into your head, capture it the fastest way you can (note pad, OneNote Sidenote, scrap of paper - heck, even write on your hand if that works for you) and then get back to doing what you were doing regardless of whether that was collecting, processing, or doing.

When I'm using my Tablet PC, I pop open a Sidenote and grab all of these random ideas and thought when I do my next Collection run. If I'm out and about, I use my NoteTaker about 90% of the time - my Palm the other 10%. The only stuff I enter into my Palm is information that has digital value (e-mail addresses, URLs, etc.).

HTH
 
Yessss!!!!

kewms said:
It seems to me that anything that interrupts your flow is wrong for you, no matter what GTD says about it..
Click to expand...

This is one for the screensavers, bookmarks, quotation collections. YES!
 
Quote of the Day

Arduinna said:
It seems to me that anything that interrupts your flow is wrong for you, no matter what GTD says about it..

This is one for the screensavers, bookmarks, quotation collections. YES!
Click to expand...

I agree to a point. It depends on what just popped into your head. Realizing that you are due to have your tires rotated is one thing. Realizing that you left the tea kettle on the stove an hour ago and it is by now welding itself to the burner is something else entirely. In some cases you want your flow interrupted.

Generally speaking though, the fact that a thought about something else you have to do just popped into your head indicates that your flow has already been interrupted to some degree. I would agree with spectecGTD and mochant; capture (collect) it as quickly as possible and go back to what you were doing. Then process it later (applying the two-minute rule, of course).

To address furashgf's original question, I don't think there is an "official rule" for this situation. I use the two-minute rule in two instances:
1. During processing
2. When doing what David refers to as "doing work as it arrives."

In both of these instances, using the two-minute rule is accomplishing what it is supposed to accomplish, which is to keep you from deferring and tracking actions that would take about as long to do as it would to enter them into your system and track them. It does not allow the two-minute rule to be a source of derailing work that is already in progress. To do otherwise is just giving yourself a mechanism for engaging in "productive procrastination."
 
This gives me insight...

I can't seem to process much of anything without a stimulating a lot of thoughts of the shoulda, coulda, oh I better, or this would be really good on this project or sdma variety. All these I feela need to make note of and enter into my system. I thought this might run its course if I captured these in the system as I process, but it has not, it is worse than ever. My "creativity" and my ability to apply something learned in one situation to another gets in my way of "taking care of business". So perhaps I could process more efficiently if I just jot these stimulated thoughts and realizations down and put them in my in box and then process them in another processing session. Perhaps I could process faster if I just processed the existing stuff, then did the brain storm and processed that. maybe that is part of the system that I missed while I went off smelling the flowers.
 
Jamie Elis said:
So perhaps I could process more efficiently if I just jot these stimulated thoughts and realizations down and put them in my in box and then process them in another processing session. Perhaps I could process faster if I just processed the existing stuff, then did the brain storm and processed that. maybe that is part of the system that I missed while I went off smelling the flowers.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on what the brain storm is. Some will be directly related to something you're actively working on already, some will be far out in Someday/Maybe territory, some will be in between.

My approach is to rigidly separate "processing" from "collecting." I write ideas down whenever I have them, but only incorporate them into my Projects/Next Action system during my regular inbox processing sessions. (Usually twice a day.) That helps me focus on whatever I'm supposed to be doing. More important, the processing delay has a first level filtering effect that keeps me from wasting too much time on the really "out there" ideas.

I also keep an idea file, which is for ideas that aren't yet coherent enough to be Someday/Maybe items, much less active Projects.

Katherine
 
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