newbie, help with small items

[unstuffed]

Well, I avoid making them into projects because they will spawn yet more tasks. I already know the steps in my mind for simple things like that.

There's a fundamental misunderstanding here: in GTD terms, a project is anything that takes more than one step. GTD optimises your time and mindspace by taking advantage of the fact that some of those steps from different projects can be done in the same context.

A simple example is your shopping list: you don't go to the store every time you run out of something. Instead, you write them down and collect them all at once when you're at the store. The context-based NA lists are exactly the same: they take advantage of the fact that you're out in your car, or sitting at your computer, or in your office, so you can crank through a whole lot of NAs to move a lot of projects a little further along.

Remember, a context-based NA list is not a to-do list, and NAs are not tasks, they're actions. The reason for writing down all those simple steps is not to help you remember them, it's to have handy so that you can knock off a bunch of them when you're in the right context. If you're sitting at your computer, you look at your @Computer list just before you shut down: you see you need to write 3 emails (and all the details are there, you just need to type and send), google for 1 thing, and look up a website for a phone number. It takes just a few minutes, and you've managed to move 5 projects a little further along.

But if I convert them into projects, then I have 60 some new projects to manage, which seems like even more work. As it is, I have about 30 projects or so.

Most of the time, you should be working from your context-based NA lists, not your Projects list: you only need to look at that when you review, or when you finish one NA and you're not sure what the next should be. If you know what the next NA is, just write it straight onto the appropriate context list.

I've wound up prioritizing projects because of the huge number I have - that is, I not only defer tasks, I defer projects, so I don't have to check their tasks every time.

What I've found useful is to strip my projects list down to bare bones, so it contains only as many tasks as I can complete in a few days or a week or so, depending on how overwhelmed I'm feeling. You might find this post on how not to multi-task helpful; also this one on choosing a Most Important Task; this one on doing your Big Rocks first; and this collection of posts on Zen To Done, a variation on GTD. All are from the Zen Habits website.

 

[Paul@Pittsburgh]

I've wound up prioritizing projects because of the huge number I have - that is, I not only defer tasks, I defer projects, so I don't have to check their tasks every time. I don't remember seeing that in the book, but it's the only way I can think of to lower the task of just keeping track of everything.

Gene,

I don't really understand the bit I underlined. Sure you can defer a project by putting it on the someday maybe list, but strictly if you are doing GTD, you don't check your project list (even once they are active) to see which actions you have to do - the next actions are supposed to be on your context lists, i.e. @home, @phone, @office, and so on. So if you promote a project from someday maybe to active, then you would decide what the next action is really at that point.

So in order to simplify your projects at home, what I might suggest is to use the concept of chunking. Instead of having a project for each little thing, chuck up and have a project for each room. Then say for each project, make a check list to capture thoughts related to that room as and when they occur to you. Then gradually go through the rooms one by one making each one a project, finish it, move on to the next room and so on. Just an idea!

Paul

 

[unstuffed]

Oook, that was a long and wiffly one. I'll try again.

Shorter Alison: one of the reasons for the NAs and context lists is to deal with the overwhelm you're struggling with. Use them conscientiously and they'll help.

 

[sdhill]

I think I prioritize wrong. If I do the breakdown, I will surely have a couple hundred of projects. Most of those will go on defer forever, and basically not get done. But I find it hard to choose which projects to defer and which to take action on - same thing with tasks. If I have more tasks than I can do in a day, and I do the top-down approach, some never get done. If I defer more tasks, those never get done. I'll try tinkering with it more, but more suggestions are welcome.

Somewhere I read that you should scan all your NA's and deferred items (once a week?) This is becoming a huge chore. I go through agonizing decisions over which I should move from defer to NA. Often I just start by deferring everything, then picking and choosing from the defer list which to move to NA. But it is very time-consuming, and the choosing process is agonizing.

Hi Gene

My advice with your prioritisation concern would be to step back and assess your Horrizons of Focus. Your Next Actions (not tasks as someone has aleady pointed out) are at the runway level, your Projects are at 10000ft, your Areas of Focus are at 20000ft, your Goals at 30000ft and so on. If you look at what your current projects and next actions are and you can't see how they relate to an area of focus you have then I'd be asking why they shouldn't go straight to the Someday/Maybe list. If you do put them there, be comfortable that that is the right place for them, at this time.

And yes, if at all possible you should do a Weekly Review to make sure that you have at least one next action for every project on a context list. Priorities are always changing so it's important to have a mechanism to verify that you're still focused on the most important things. What I've learned very quickly is that far from being a chore the Weekly Review is a sanity saver!

Have a great weekend.

Simon