Making It All Work- Areas of Responsibility

[debbieg]

What I'm really liking about the book is that has helped me better understand the "whys" behind the first book. Recently did a mindmap of my Horizons of Focus. What I've noticed is that right now I have alot of projects around my areas of responsibility.

Now that I have my areas of focus on one list, there are multiple projects for each area of focus. The ones I am committed to now are on my project list.

For those area of focus projects that I'm not committed to now, but have some brainstorming ideas I don't want to loose, where do I capture and store those thoughts?

For projects, once you have a master project list, where do you capture all the steps or ideas about the project that come to mind at the oddest times?

 

[steveinbristol]

I have an area of focus called "Planning" (not very inspiring I know, but I know what it means) and I'd put any brainstorming around AOF, goals and also checklists under that section.

As for project steps, I use Omnifocus which allows future actions to be entered but to only appear when actions above them in the sequence has been completed. If your list manager doesn't permit that, then just make a note of any brainstorming in the notes area of the project. When you do a weekly review you can move the next action on the project plan onto your lists.

 

[Oogiem]

For those area of focus projects that I'm not committed to now, but have some brainstorming ideas I don't want to loose, where do I capture and store those thoughts?

For projects, once you have a master project list, where do you capture all the steps or ideas about the project that come to mind at the oddest times?

I use omnifocus so I keep all projects and someday maybe projects in there.

For the brainstorming ideas I put them in the notes section of my projects which are set to be on-hold or if they are notes I took on paper I put them in the paper folder for that project or class of projects. I have a few paper folders that cover several someday/maybe projects. Knitting Patterns is one. All my future knitting projects paper patterns are in there. Notes about what yarns I want to use or spin for a particular project are often in the OF notes for that project. For example, Cardigan Sweater for me is a project and my note in OF says use the Badgerface 2 ply sport weight I already spun for it.

I also put all the steps and info about projects, whether active or not into the OF file. I don't worry about creating true next actions for my on-hold someday projects, just put them in as action steps and when I make a project active I really fine tune the plan.

 

[debbieg]

Thanks for your replies

I'm not familiar with Omnifocus but sounds interesting. Do you use it in combination with MS Office Products?

 

[Oogiem]

No MS stuff here

Do you use it in combination with MS Office Products?

I do not use any Microsoft products at all.

I use Open Office for word processing, spreadsheet and presentation documents and am starting to learn how to use it for databases.

I use Apple Mail for my mail, Address book for contacts and iCal for my calendar.

Safari is my browser.

Omnifocus is my GTD list manager.

Evernote for some general notes I need on my handheld.

1Password for secure password management.

 

[debbieg]

Area of Focus

I have an area of focus called "Planning" (not very inspiring I know, but I know what it means) and I'd put any brainstorming around AOF, goals and also checklists under that section.

As for project steps, I use Omnifocus which allows future actions to be entered but to only appear when actions above them in the sequence has been completed. If your list manager doesn't permit that, then just make a note of any brainstorming in the notes area of the project. When you do a weekly review you can move the next action on the project plan onto your lists.

I have an area of focus called GTD and a project called "operationalize GTD" which sounds like your Planning area of focus.

 

[steveinbristol]

I'd probably re name it to GTD but I've had a "Planning" key area (as I used to call AOF) for many years, before I'd heard the term AOF!

 

[ellobogrande]

Now that I have my areas of focus on one list, there are multiple projects for each area of focus. The ones I am committed to now are on my project list.

GOOD.

For those area of focus projects that I'm not committed to now, but have some brainstorming ideas I don't want to loose, where do I capture and store those thoughts?

Any project that you are not committed to doing right now belongs on your Someday/Maybe list. Capture any thoughts that you may get about a S/M project and them to project support materials for that project. When you activate the project, review your support materials and decide the next action.

For projects, once you have a master project list, where do you capture all the steps or ideas about the project that come to mind at the oddest times?

Capturing can be done on anything (napkin, notepad, voice recorder, etc) but it has to get into your inbasket for processing later. When you process those items, you might file the article in a project support folder or you might perform an action like updating the project plan with the information on that note.