Newbie Q: Priorities issue - too much junk in my Next Actions list

[Ship69]

Hi

What should I do about things that I DEFINITELY need to do... (which means that they shouldn't be on the "maybe" list)... but which are not (yet) urgent. I seem to have low priority stuff seriously cluttering up my system!

Background
I have about 60+ Projects and 80 Next Actions. As David Allen suggests, my Next Actions are grouped into contextual lists. But my problem is that each contextual list (done by Tag in GTDNext) is horribly cluttered with horrible non-urgent stuff that just gets in the way!
[Aside: I should explain that the problem is made *much* worse due to the fact that I am semi-dyslexic and find reading slow and painful (!) so skim-reading isn't something I can really do. ]

Frankly I'm sick of looking at low priority stuff as other things are more way urgent and often more important. But nonetheless these things MUST get done at some point. Should I just allocate them to a random time in the future purely on the basis of them being not urgent enough yet? i.e. Is this the real purpose of the Tickler file (and the use of Start Date)?(!)

PAPER
On a paper system I guess I would could use the physical Tickler folder system... but that completely hides things for however many days which may not be so clever. OR I could use a highlighter pen, with increasing shades of colour as it gets more urgent. (e.g. underline lightly ==> more firmly ==> twice ==> brighter coloured pen etc)

DIGITAL
On something like GTDNext you can give "Focus" to things - but it is binary and is more designed for the "immediate tasks for today".
You can also drag and drop things in the Next Actions window, thereby using sort for priority. Useful but still clunky and only operating at the today level.
But sorting the outline list of Projects is much more painful, simply because there are so many of them. And worse if I show Projects AND All actions open at once (at least 60+80 ==> 140+!)
So esp being somewhat dyslexic, I am soon finding these lists swimming in front of me with no immediate way of visualizing priorities.
I am a very visual guy. My brain is wired for shapes and colours more than words.

Are you with me on this problem? If so do you have any answers?

J

 

[Folke]

What I do is a color mark my next actions (and other actions, too, for that matter) into three classes depending on how often I must contemplate them:

Red marker: will contemplate every single time I visit my next actions list (regardless of whether I am in a suitable context etc or not)
Blue marker: will contemplate at least once per day (usually in the morning)
Turquoise marker: will contemplate at least once per week (part of the weekly review)

In addition I also look at tasks of all colors when I stumble upon them during day, e.g. when filtering for particular contexts or focusing on particular projects etc.

I use the same color coding for Waiting and Someday (but for Someday the colors represent longer time intervals). The app I use has a built-in feature for this color-coding. They call it Priority (for better and for worse; it is word that often causes conflict and misunderstandings).

 

[marcia]

I would consider moving those actions from the action lists to Someday/Maybe because the actions will be done someday but not in the near future. Think of it as Someday *or* Maybe.

The important thing is that Someday/Maybe gets reviewed each week to see if anything needs to move to an action list or needs to become an active project, or if anything inspires new ideas.

 

[Oogiem]

What should I do about things that I DEFINITELY need to do... (which means that they shouldn't be on the "maybe" list)... but which are not (yet) urgent. I seem to have low priority stuff seriously cluttering up my system!

Ditch the concept of priority. If you have things that take less energy or that can be worked on when braindead them perhaps a braindead context is more appropriate. Just because it's not urgent now doesn't mean it won't become urgent with time so keep it on the list of actions and try to knock them off as soon as you possibly can. One goal of GTD is to work the non-urgent things so that you are never stuck in the trap of immediate urgent gotta get done stuff cluttering your life. If you have something that you really hate to do, so it stays on the lists forever until it blows up in you face maybe you should look at whether you can delegate that task to someone else.

Also realize that when you first get started you will almost always have more items on your lsits and more projects than you can realistically work on or finish in a reasonable timeframe. It's because the whole reason you are drawn to GTD is that you in your heart know that you are over committed. That's actually good, the first step to solving the problem is bounding it. So until you know how many hundreds of projects you have agreed to do and how many actions you have waiting you cannot hope to decide which ones you will have to let go of or pass on to someone else.

And don't get caught in the trap of I really "want" to do a project or task and take on more than you can work on. Know your own limits. I tend to do that a lot with my hobby projects. I spin, knit, weave, do scrapbooks, sew and quilt. Plus I dabble in other art forms like sketching and drawing. I've learned that even if a really cool idea comes to me for a project in one of those areas I really need to have only 1 or at most 2 active projects in each hobby area or I never finish them. SO I stash the really cool next project idea in my Someday/Maybe list for that AOF and move on. Now I don't fear that I'll lose the information but my brain can relax that it's safely captured and when I have finished my project X in that craft I can pick the next one from the list that appeals to me.

 

[Folke]

Just because it's not urgent now doesn't mean it won't become urgent with time so keep it on the list of actions and try to knock them off as soon as you possibly can.

This is an important point. And even if it will never be urgent it can still be important. And even if it is not very important either, then still, by definition, a next action is something you have decided that you will do, so it should be on the list.

This means beware of tricks and solutions that are based on hiding next actions away to some other place. Some of the popular "hiding" practices that I would caution you strongly against are:

- using the Tickler file (often called "Scheduled" in apps), i.e. assign a phony start date as a prioritization cheat (to get them out of the way for a while)
- using some other list, e.g. Someday or some special list, e.g. Nirvana's Later list
- using ABC prioritization (phony staging), i.e. deciding in advance that some tasks will be done first and are called A (etc), leaving B and C in a "pipeline"
- using sequentialization features to pretend that some tasks are dependent even if they are not (but this is not necessarily a serious mistake if used with good judgement.)

What these popular cheats all have in common is that they make you consistently miss situational opportunities to get these tasks done as soon as convenient/possible. And that is not the way to treat a committed next action even if it happens to be of relatively low importance and urgency.

Ditch the concept of priority.

Yes, well, at least be very, very cautious.

1. ABC prioritization (staging) is bad, as all of us on this forum think (and DA is also firmly against it)
2. Situational prioritization, i.e. decide some tasks to do now and decide in what order, is something so fluid that it is totally pointless to even attempt to have any form of fixed prioritization for it (and DA says so, too)

What I do (as I described above) is potentially dangerous for someone who misinterprets it and uses it as an ABC staging, which is not what I do. I use the so-called "priority" colors to guide my eyes differently on different kinds of occasions (weekly review, morning scan, frequent checks during the day). They refer to how often as a minimum I will review (contemplate) the task, and saves me a lot of time navigating my long lists. (It also happens to correlate well with importance and urgency, which is nice.)

DA emphasizes prioritization at higher levels as a fruition of your higher aims, and even recommends a simplified equivalent of ABC prioritization at the project level - selecting a few projects for the week and forgetting the others for now. So it is not crystal clear what the GTD take really is on priority all in all, especially at the today and next-few-days levels.

A very concrete case is if you do a morning "scan" and an initial selection of tasks. You then obviously check your calendar for appointments etc, and those actions will then strongly impact what contexts etc you will find yourself in today (venues, persons, energy and time left etc). DA points that out. But what he forgets to point out is the fact that even if you do not have any calendar actions or deadlines you will probably pick some other important or urgent tasks, in other words "high priority" tasks in some sense, as a "skeleton" for the day, and then add further tasks that match the resulting situations (contexts etc). So, having these important and urgent tasks pre-marked with a color etc makes these candidates easy to find and at least honor with a thought. I like it.

 

[Ship69]

Yes - I get the point about over-commitment - esp for Newbies like me.

Yes - I also get the point about the risks of prioritisation. i.e. That if you live something a low level of priority you may never get on to it, whereas what you should have done is been more honest with yourself and should have cleanly decided not to do it. Yes, fine - I get the concept of how this is a trap.

But I have been through my list of Projects and list of Next Actions and yes I am committed to doing them all AT SOME POINT. i.e. I absolutely need to do all of these things. This is quite different from things that I MIGHT do at some point. But all these things that I genuinely need to do at some point over the next month or 6 months are cluttering up my much more URGENT things that really need to be done within then next day or week.

And that's the other point. None of these things have firm actual deadlines.

Let's take some examples:

e.g. I need to write a condolence letter (task but may take a couple of sitting ==> 'project??'. Urgency: Over next week
e.g. I need to invest my savings better ==> Project. Urgency: Over next... month?
e.g. I have decided to take up a new type of dance. ==> Project: Urgency - low. So there is a risk that it never happens
e.g. I need to find a better place to keep my new labelling device ==> task. Urgency - low
e.g. I need to find a new cleaning person for my house ==> Project. Urgency... increasing!
e.g. I need to do my deepthought/ meditation on a project to clear my head ==> Action Urgency - low. Importance: Crucial !
e.g. I need to do something about household insurance - may have lapsed. ==> Project Urgency not sure
e.g. I need to plan a 2-week vacation some time this year... if definitely needs to happen by maybe not for 3 or 4 months...

But wait, I also need to
- got to register for a business conference ==> damn I may have just missed it (places all filled)
- plan my transport for this weekend ==> damn, I didnt plan well enough/early enough, damn the train I wanted is cancelled, damn now I'll have to drive
- put the washing on for this weekend ==> damn, now I don't have enough clean socks
- get back to a friend about an invitation for a last-minute party ==> damn now it's rudely late to reply

Worse:
- I also need to get back to someone about a possible work project ==> damn now I've lost the business
- I need to get the car serviced before it hits XXX,000 miles, and now ==> damn it has missed the service target, and this will be devaluing the value of the car.
- I need to do something really important on an work project ==> damn now it's catastrophically late. Incredibly unprofessional. Absolute disaster!

Do you see my point?
I am new to this so probably doing it all wrong... but my really urgent/ really important stuff was getting lost in a (VERY) long list of stuff that I definitely need/intend to do at some point within this year

Conclusion
Some things DO need doing earlier than others, even if there is no actual fixed deadline.

* * *

Also I'm not sure what is actually wrong with using priority if it an be done very fast, very fluidly so as to keep up with the rapidly changing priorities life throws at us. For example I have been using a fluid form of priority in the form of *relative* priority by simply dragging and dropping projects up and down a list in my mindmap software. (in fact its's much faster than that because I do it with hotkeys). What's wrong with relative priority? e.g. "Whoops this is now much higher priority let's drag it up the list (of c 60 ) by about say 20 rows.

ALSO are we talking about priority of Projects or Next Action being frowned on. And should the Priority of Project be reflected in the priority of the Next Action? Or not... Personally I (think I) would like to see the priority of the Project made visible in the Next Action - even if I execute them in different order in the Next Action list... no?

* * *

Please can someone explain to me what is the point/correct use of the tickler system if not for 'hiding'?

(PS Yes I definitely like the idea of using colour for projects even if I'm 'not allowed' use the colours in a structured/automated prioritisation system because it will help me SEE what's what visually)

 

[Folke]

I get the impression you are not a "newbie" at all; it's just that you did not read this particular author until recently, but you seem to have a very good grasp of the difficulties and possibilities. I understand and agree with just about everything you are saying.

Committed to doing vs might do: I totally agree with you. I also keep all the committed ones on my Next list, not in Someday, even if I realize it may take quite some time until I get around to them. In Someday I only keep those that I am not certain whether I should ever bother with, i.e. literally only "Maybe". (But some people also keep low priority committed stuff in Someday, i.e. "later next" stuff, and I am actually not quite sure what DA's position really is.)

Point and correct use of Tickler: The Tickler is indeed for "legitimately hiding" things that are impossible etc and would not be of any relevance for you to see even if all of a sudden you had a whole day free with absolutely nothing to do. But it is not intended for hiding perfectly possible Next actions (or Waiting or Someday actions). I have dozens of repeating Ticklers, for example reports to expect and reports to write starting on the first every month (and perhaps with a deadline a week later if explicitly agreed), annual review of contracts (renew/terminate) and many other things. And once-off ticklers, too, say to take a vaccine shot 2-3 weeks prior to a trip.

Why priority is frowned on: Priority is a simple word at first, but it can mean a lot of different things when you look closer. What Oogie and I tried to point out earlier is that it is inappropriate to brutally stash away perfectly possible actions just because they are not of high importance or urgency. The philosophy of GTD is more the carpe diem, carpe horam approach - to make the best use of your current circumstances (context, energy etc) which means you will do whatever tasks you can do right there and then. DA quite forcefully argues that no particular tricks are necessary for such situational prioritization. He has also expressed strong opinions against using priority in the sense of ABC staging, which sabotages the carpe diem GTD approach to situational decision making by inappropriately "hiding" perfectly possible tasks. Many people seem to have construed the intensity of DA's messages such that anything for which the word priority is used must by necessity be something bad, whereas if the exact same thing is called by some other word it can be perfectly OK. I'll bet you that if you would stick out your neck and refer to the next actions list as your "priority list" (as opposed to Someday) you would hear a lot of GTD adherents saying fervently that priority is not allowed - but all you have done is changed the title of that sheet; of course, you are allowed to have next actions whatever you choose to call them.

My own opinion and advise to you as regards priority and ticklers etc is: Never hide perfectly possible tasks that you have committed to doing. If your app allows you to mark or color your tasks in three levels (Normal/default and a higher and a lower level) this will help you find the critical tasks every time you revisit the list, and will help you ignore a big part of them when you do your routine daily scan.

Edit:

Relative priority: Sorry, I forgot to comment on manual dragging of things into priority order. I see nothing wrong with that, and have even used it myself. I personally find it a little bit clunky - not only do you have to do a lot of dragging, but it also forces you to read every line (no natural borders) and it does not always combine too well with automatic grouping (by, say, context or project), but there is nothing wrong with it as it does not hide anything. Developers often implement that approach, perhaps partly for "diplomatic"/marketing reasons. It allows them to offer at least something for managing priorities without ever using that taboo word.

I agree with everything I have heard DA say about priorities, but I very often disagree strongly with the overly rigid interpretations of it that I hear from other GTD adherents. I obviously could not claim to be more right than they are, but I think they are often throwing out the baby with the bath water, reading too much into what DA is saying. It is a well-known fact that we perceive some tasks as more urgent or more important than others, and I see nothing wrong or un-GTD with marking or arranging your tasks and projects accordingly - if you think you have any use for this additional step. In my opinion, it becomes truly un-GTD only when it is done in such a way that you do not even consider perfectly possible tasks that should ideally have been dealt with now that you happen to be in this "favorable" situation (context, energy etc). But if it is only an aid for your reviewing or scanning or navigation etc I cannot understand what could possibly be wrong with it if it helps you.

Projects vs actions: The strange thing is that DA does tell us to hide (inactivate) entire projects, though. This would seem to contradict the general rule for actions. I honestly cannot claim to know what he means, but I personally deal with projects in the same way as actions - if they are committed and possible I keep them visible. If they are committed but subsequent (dependent; not yet possible) I keep them as Inactive (both Nirvana and Doit have this feature; or GTDNext has a Sequential checkbox); if they are not committed I keep them as Someday/Maybe.

 

[Oogiem]

But all these things that I genuinely need to do at some point over the next month or 6 months are cluttering up my much more URGENT things that really need to be done within then next day or week.

And that's the other point. None of these things have firm actual deadlines.

Let's take some examples:

e.g. I need to write a condolence letter (task but may take a couple of sitting ==> 'project??'. Urgency: Over next week
e.g. I need to invest my savings better ==> Project. Urgency: Over next... month?
e.g. I have decided to take up a new type of dance. ==> Project: Urgency - low. So there is a risk that it never happens
e.g. I need to find a better place to keep my new labelling device ==> task. Urgency - low
e.g. I need to find a new cleaning person for my house ==> Project. Urgency... increasing!
e.g. I need to do my deepthought/ meditation on a project to clear my head ==> Action Urgency - low. Importance: Crucial !
e.g. I need to do something about household insurance - may have lapsed. ==> Project Urgency not sure
e.g. I need to plan a 2-week vacation some time this year... if definitely needs to happen by maybe not for 3 or 4 months...

But wait, I also need to
- got to register for a business conference ==> damn I may have just missed it (places all filled)
- plan my transport for this weekend ==> damn, I didnt plan well enough/early enough, damn the train I wanted is cancelled, damn now I'll have to drive
- put the washing on for this weekend ==> damn, now I don't have enough clean socks
- get back to a friend about an invitation for a last-minute party ==> damn now it's rudely late to reply

Worse:
- I also need to get back to someone about a possible work project ==> damn now I've lost the business
- I need to get the car serviced before it hits XXX,000 miles, and now ==> damn it has missed the service target, and this will be devaluing the value of the car.
- I need to do something really important on an work project ==> damn now it's catastrophically late. Incredibly unprofessional. Absolute disaster!

Do you see my point?
I am new to this so probably doing it all wrong... but my really urgent/ really important stuff was getting lost in a (VERY) long list of stuff that I definitely need/intend to do at some point within this year

Two statements jump out at me from your message:

Things I need to do in the next month or 6 months and things to do in the next year.

When you are first getting going with GTD it's often really critical that you limit the number of projects to be only those that you really can work on in the next week to 10 days. Otherwise you will have overly long lists.

Put everything else on hold. Call it not yet or next or someday/maybe, whatever term seems to let you know it's not gone just moved and really focus in your weekly review on what you will or must get done in the next 7-10 days. Even if it means carving out a fixed apt. time plan on a really good weekly review every 7 days so you don't lose stuff like the critical items you mentioned. Keeping your calendar handy for the review will be critical.

At this review time make sure you really read and look at each and every on-hold project to see if it will become important/critical/urgent in the next 10 days and if so get it planned and actions defined or at least the next action. Your weekly reviews will probably take a lot longer than an hour for a while, I'd take a WAG and allocate 3-4 hours a week to the rewview until you get comfortable with the process and how to manage what you review each time.

For example right now I am preparing to be gone on travel for 5 days. I started my weekly review yesterday by getting all my inboxes clear so that I only have a small amount of stuff to process during review time later today. I have a checklist I go through to be sure I don't miss any critical items. Because of the travel about 100 of my projects will get put on hold (Omnifocus Someday/Maybe) until I return because there is no way I can even do any of them when I am not in town. I will also be activating several new projects that are not necessarily more important, but that can have actions done in spare bits of time, like on the plane or waiting at the airport. When I return I know that I need to schedule at least 4 hours for a full review of all e-mails, paper mail and other inputs that have arrived in my absence and probably 2+ hours for a review of project to see what has come up. So I am already blocking in my calendar that time. I am paying special attention to the calendar and verifying that nothing is going to come due while I am gone. I have already discovered a few bills that will need to get paid in my absence and a few other items that have deadlines or due dates when I am gone. I am either doing those tasks in advance, or delegating those tasks to someone else to finish. I also have to plan for some actions that usually take 2 people, like moving hay into the sheep pens. Normally I move the sheep and set the fences and my husband drives the tractor and delivers the hay bales. (We feed 900 pound big squares.) So I am looking now at how much hay each group of sheep are eating and deciding whether they will need more while I am gone. If the answer is yes the I am either figuring out if we can put it in early, before I leave, or arranging for someone to come up to help my husband on sheep feeding day. Some projects are absolutely critical but have timing issues, like wormer for the lambs. We need to do 2 doses exactly 10 days apart and it has to be after several hard freezes. If we get 2 more hard freezes before I leave we can do the first dose but if not then all of that has to wait until I get back.

What I see from your list is that I'd put the dance, new spot for labeler (Part of an implement GTD project perhaps), plan vacation (what a concept, I haven;'t had a vacation for 8 years ) finding a cleaning person and investing savings on hold. Deal with the really critical things first, find out about the household insurance, that is absolutely vital. Then deal with the lost work problem, either give it up, call the client and say you won't be doing it or fix the project or otherwise deal with it. Then tackle the next most important stuff. Sit down and write the condolence letter, pick up the phone and call the person about the party invitation right now, call the car place and looking at your calendar get an apt. to get it in, put a load of laundry in the washer right now and set an alarm so you come back and pull it out and either put it in a dryer if you have one or hang it on a line. Those are simple niggling tasks that can be done easily and will get things off your mind. Acknowledge that you've missed the business conference, no problem if it's important and useful there will be another so make a note that you need to check on future conference and move on, we all miss opportunities. Mark it done, learn from it and move ahead.

The really long term important stuff can't even be tackled until you get the runway stuff under control so focus on clearing the runway first and then add back the more long term and higher horizon projects.

 

[mcogilvie]

Let's take some examples:

e.g. I need to write a condolence letter (task but may take a couple of sitting ==> 'project??'. Urgency: Over next week
e.g. I need to invest my savings better ==> Project. Urgency: Over next... month?
e.g. I have decided to take up a new type of dance. ==> Project: Urgency - low. So there is a risk that it never happens
e.g. I need to find a better place to keep my new labelling device ==> task. Urgency - low
e.g. I need to find a new cleaning person for my house ==> Project. Urgency... increasing!
e.g. I need to do my deepthought/ meditation on a project to clear my head ==> Action Urgency - low. Importance: Crucial !
e.g. I need to do something about household insurance - may have lapsed. ==> Project Urgency not sure
e.g. I need to plan a 2-week vacation some time this year... if definitely needs to happen by maybe not for 3 or 4 months...

But wait, I also need to
- got to register for a business conference ==> damn I may have just missed it (places all filled)
- plan my transport for this weekend ==> damn, I didnt plan well enough/early enough, damn the train I wanted is cancelled, damn now I'll have to drive
- put the washing on for this weekend ==> damn, now I don't have enough clean socks
- get back to a friend about an invitation for a last-minute party ==> damn now it's rudely late to reply

Worse:
- I also need to get back to someone about a possible work project ==> damn now I've lost the business
- I need to get the car serviced before it hits XXX,000 miles, and now ==> damn it has missed the service target, and this will be devaluing the value of the car.
- I need to do something really important on an work project ==> damn now it's catastrophically late. Incredibly unprofessional. Absolute disaster!

It appears to me that the issues you face really have more to do with basic GTD principles than with any high-level issues about tools or priorities. Let's look at some examples:

Check household insurance. How do you do that? Do you check a document at home, make a phone call? If your insurance has lapsed, what's the next action? Is this really even a project? There's a good chance you could be done with this easily in 10 minutes total if you see the right actions at the right place.

Write a condolence letter. As someone who has recently written many replies to such letters, I know this is no fun. However, writing such a letter is usually simple: get stationery if needed; plan what to write; write it; mail. Once you know what you have to do, it can be done in half an hour or even ten minutes.

You're very late on a work project. What's the next action? Apologize, find the quickest way to get the work done, pretend you forgot?

Prioritizing projects is almost always a waste of time if you do not identify what the next actions are for those projects. You also have to look at the lists. Many people, myself included, want priorities so they can "focus on what's important." A common pattern is then to resist working on those priorities, either because the priorities are not accurate or because no real next actions are present. If you have a good list of next actions, you will be able to act. You may take five minutes to start the wash, or to check on your insurance, and you will then be able to turn to that late project with a clear mind. You even may find yourself spontaneously taking time to think about another project, something that is really hard to schedule: "Urgent: make time to think deeply." I use software that has due dates and flags as a single priority level. Due dates are necessary, but with flags, less is more. The more often you look at all your next actions, the more comfortable you will be with what you are doing and not doing.

 

[Ship69]

Wow. Thank you all for your coaching - much appreciated.

This needs more time to digest, but for now a couple of points:

A. I wasn't looking for advice on how to recover my position and get back on top of my GTD, so much as illustrating how things can easily go wrong when there is just too much darned stuff to look at. (Thanks for the specific coaching just the same tho' )

B. BlackSheep: The point about only allowing stuff you plan to tackle "in the next 10 days" does NOT get me 'out of jail'. This simply means that things that I have about a year to do I will never put into my live list until there are only 10 days to go.

C. The condolence letter is harder than you imply. It is a very delicate one and will take at least 3 sittings ... Now does that fact *really* make it a Project not a Next Auction ?

D. Fwiw, household insurance is also much harder than you imply because I have lost the key documentation and will also need to scrabble around trying to source a new company... (==> "Important" Project but also a bit of a nighmare "high resistance" project) This may take a 2 or 3 sittings... So this may be a Project too. The first action would be "Look for paperwork". The following action would be "Give up if necessary (!) "

E. I remain rather unconvinced about being unable to store anywhere the fact that I have actually committed to doing any given task. And putting them back into the Maybe list seems unhelpfully inefficient to me.

I am away for the w/e but will give this deeper thought later.

 

[Folke]

What Oogie just described underlines the fact that GTD (DA) strongly supports and even advocates ruthless A-B prioritization (hiding things) but only down to the project level and for about a week at a time. I personally do not use this ploy (and maybe that makes me a non-conformist), but keeping all my committed, possible projects fully visible has never stopped me from focusing on whatever projects I deem more interesting or important right now. I prefer it that way, for the reasons explained by both me and Oogie earlier in this thread (perhaps mainly relating to actions at that time). I prefer consistency.

What mcogilvie just described is the fact that it is important to define tasks and projects clearly. I think we can all agree with that, in principle. But even if or when you have it all clearly defined, the question still remains whether you need or do not need special "priority tools" ("attention tools") for the medium-to-long-term perspective. Some people love them (I do, if they are nicely implemented) and others hate them (regardless of how well they are implemented). It is neither recommended nor advised against nor even mentioned by DA, as far as I know. He generally, and correctly, holds that it is advisable not add more parameters than you need, but that if it really works for you then you should add it.

 

[Oogiem]

A. I wasn't looking for advice on how to recover my position and get back on top of my GTD, so much as illustrating how things can easily go wrong when there is just too much darned stuff to look at.

Ah but the issue is that those things will go wrong no matter how much you have to look at or not. The problem is overcommitment. You can avoid the problem of too many things on a given list by fine tuning the contexts and then just moving between them often enough but not too often.

B. BlackSheep: The point about only allowing stuff you plan to tackle "in the next 10 days" does NOT get me 'out of jail'. This simply means that things that I have about a year to do I will never put into my live list until there are only 10 days to go.

I assume you mean me, I raise black sheep but am not one You are again missing the point. Say I have a project that won't be completed for a year or 2 or decades. I'm odd in that I have GTD projects that will take decades or even multiple lifetimes to finish. So the initial definition of the project might be Retirement income sufficient to meet my needs at age 65. Now unless you are almost at 65 that is really an Area of Focus. So you refine it, Research options for improved performance for my savings account and the first action might be find phone numbers for 3 local banks. That is something concrete you can do. When you get the phone numbers the action becomes call banks and get current interest rates on savings accounts.

C. The condolence letter is harder than you imply. It is a very delicate one and will take at least 3 sittings ... Now does that fact *really* make it a Project not a Next Auction ?

Yes that could be a project not a next action. However, as the recipient of condolence letters it's far, far better to get something heartfelt out to the person sooner rather than a perfectly crafted letter that is months late. Trust me, at times of loss having the exact correct words is not nearly so important as knowing your friends or relatives are thinking of you. So for me writing a condolence letter is really a next action. And I know that I just have to sit down and do it. I have paper handy, a simple handwritten note is better than waiting so I'd grab my pad of paper and think about the reason for the letter and write maybe 1-3 sentences of support, How the person or animal that is gone affected me, or a lesson I learned from them or if not close then an offer of support to my friend. If the reason for the condolence letter is that you have to, well rethink that. If you are not close enough to write a simple message from your heart then perhaps the letter doesn't need to be written at all. Maybe buying a card and sending that is enough and that is a quick action, stop at drug store, pick up the least sappy or most generic sympathy card, sign it, put a stamp on and drop at post office. Harsh but something to think about.

So take that project and run through the natural planning model with it. What is the outcome you want? How will you know when it's done? Is the next action to outline the letter? Do you need to collect some photos or something to go with it? Do you need to verify some items with the estate lawyer or executor first? I really don't know what your issues are with it but you do. If writing the letter is too big to tackle at once then you need to turn it into a project and get it down to the one single step that moves the project forward. All the rest can go into project support or be hidden actions until that one is done.

D. Fwiw, household insurance is also much harder than you imply because I have lost the key documentation and will also need to scrabble around trying to source a new company...

Another clear project. If you are paralized by actions then they are probably not actual next actions but instead are lurking projects. In this case the project is Household Insurance sorted and a possible next action could be find phone number of old insurance company. Followed by call insurance company and get copies of my old policy.

I've found that whenever I have either actions that are old and stale and haven't gotten done or actions I am resisting it's because they are really whole projects that I haven't planned out well enough yet. So see if those things are really projects and if that helps.

E. I remain rather unconvinced about being unable to store anywhere the fact that I have actually committed to doing any given task. And putting them back into the Maybe list seems unhelpfully inefficient to me.

I don't understand this at all. Putting things back on Someday/Maybe is not unhelpful it's the key to getting things done that matter in time. If the term Maybe is throwing you as in Maybe I'll climb that mountain, then call it Later or Not Now But Soon. Someday maybe is a huge collection of all the dreams, aspirations, possibilities and have to do projects that invade your world. Some people are fine with one huge list, Some people split the potential actions into their areas of focus. (This is what I do) and some people have multiple lists, Bucket list, work things, home things, within next 2 months or however it works for you. It's not big deal to have projects go in and out of someday maybe several times before they are finished. Happens to me all the time. I tend to like to have all the possibilities I might be able to work on in this season available to me. A season is about 3 months. So my lists tend to be big. I may get to the end of a season and haven't finished projects that can only be done then. So I put them on someday maybe until next year. Or I may have work as it appears that affects my ability to do any of my predefined work for a while, like during lambing. I am not in control of my schedule when we are lambing, the ewes and lambs are. So many things that require uninterrupted time or deep thought just don't get done then. No biggie, I put them into someday/maybe and when lambing slows down or is done I re-activate them and move on.

 

[Folke]

E. I remain rather unconvinced about being unable to store anywhere the fact that I have actually committed to doing any given task. And putting them back into the Maybe list seems unhelpfully inefficient to me.

I believe I understand and agree with this statement:

- I do not like to mix committed and uncommitted actions in a Someday pile (or other pile) because it took me quite some effort to process or review the item and decide whether I am committed or not and I do not want to have to go through that process again unless I begin to have doubts about my previous decision. Commitment is a serious decision for me, and I want to keep a record of it (be able to remember what I decided last time I considered it).

- I do not like to put these low-urgency or low-importance committed actions in a separate pile such as Later (away from my other next actions) because I want them fully visible and conveniently available when I select tasks that will match my present context, energy etc, for example get some low-priority errands in suburb A done since I will be going there anyway for some more important reason.

For me, "low priority next" in the sense "compulsory routine review only necessary weekly" is the most practical and intuitive way to deal with these.

 

[mommoe436]

Ship69 - good info in this thread but as I read through, I"m wondering if you are doing weekly reviews. I had similar concerns about "hiding" things from daily view until I got the purpose of the weekly review. The fantastic thing about GTD is that it is mostly best practices rather that rigid set of rules. If in your world priority is a bigger deciding factor for some projects, then by all means use that filter.

 

[TesTeq]

C. The condolence letter is harder than you imply. It is a very delicate one and will take at least 3 sittings ... Now does that fact *really* make it a Project not a Next Auction ?

D. Fwiw, household insurance is also much harder than you imply because I have lost the key documentation and will also need to scrabble around trying to source a new company... (==> "Important" Project but also a bit of a nighmare "high resistance" project) This may take a 2 or 3 sittings... So this may be a Project too. The first action would be "Look for paperwork". The following action would be "Give up if necessary (!) "

You wrote: "will take at least 3 sittings" and "This may take a 2 or 3 sittings".

It is an extremely dangerous way of thinking. Why? Because of the Parkinson's law:

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

For every task I apply the Horstman's Corollory to the Parkinson's Law:

"Work contracts to fit in the time we give it."

The condolence letter? Just sit and do it. I'm sure that - unfortunatelly - nobody will appreciate the perfection of your letter... ;-)

 

[Ship69]

The condolence letter? Just sit and do it. I'm sure that - unfortunatelly - nobody will appreciate the perfection of your letter... ;-)

Maybe, maybe not. As it happens there is a lot more to this particular letter than mere condolence ...!

But I mention it because I was looking more for coaching on the deeper underlying principles. i.e. Tasks (Actions) that take more than one sitting of doing exactly the same thing.

 

[Folke]

Ship, there have been several discussions on that topic here in this forum in the past, but I cannot find them. Anyway, the opinions on this forum seem to be roughly equally divided:

Some people, myself included, have no problem at all with simple leaving the action as incomplete no matter how many sittings it requires. Other people prefer to treat it as a project or repeating action, and check of every sitting.

It appears that those who prefer it one way are quite firmly set in their ways and preferences, so I do not think you will be able to get unambiguous advice from this forum, except possibly in the form "Do as you like".

What I think you might be able to get as concerted advice is to break things down as far as you really need to, but no longer, in order to understand the task as clearly as you need to. If "write a letter" is clear enough for you, then leave it at that. If it is not clear, then break it down further - at least identify the very first step.

 

[TesTeq]

But I mention it because I was looking more for coaching on the deeper underlying principles. i.e. Tasks (Actions) that take more than one sitting of doing exactly the same thing.

My coaching advice is:

Do not convert Next Action into Project just because you think it is difficult or tedious. Just do it.

 

[cfoley]

Oh my goodness, if it takes one sitting or ten you need to begin by writing something down.

You can't fix the past. Accept you may have missed the conference, business opportunity, insurance date, etc. Focus on how you can improve your current situation. You have some firefighting to do and you won't be able to tackle the more strategic parts until the critical stuff is out of the way.

Here is one strategy to bring your list under control in about an hour. Once it is under control, you can focus on the more strategic parts.

Some things require no decisions or immediate action:

* You'll have to drive. Either do nothing or make a tickler to check your oil, etc.
* Don't agonise over the labeller. Just put it somewhere. You can always move it later.

Next your biggest bang for buck seems to be making some calls and emails.

* Call the conference organiser or check the online ticket system. 2 minutes to find out, 5 more to book.
* Call the missed business opportunity. If you think they'll keep you for more than ten minutes email instead.
* Call the garage and book a service.
* Call/email your friend about the party.
* Call/email your line manager about work project. Renegotiate commitments and expected dates.

That's maybe half an hour of calls and most of the crisis situations will be dealt with.

Next do some quick tasks

* Put a wash on even if it won't dry in time (30 seconds) Add "buy socks" to @Errands if you need to.

* Is the condolence letter still the best action or would a call or visit be more appropriate? If you still want to write one then give yourself five minutes and write ten versions. Condolence letters are short. Just crank them out and review them later.

* Decide what to do about your insurance. One option is to just take out new insurance with an online comparison site with a view to cancelling your existing insurance later the same day if it has not lapsed.

Your list is now under control, which frees you up to do some brainstorming and medotaion:

I need to invest my savings better
e.g. I have decided to take up a new type of dance. ==> Project: Urgency - low. So there is a risk that it never happens
e.g. I need to find a new cleaning person for my house ==> Project. Urgency... increasing!
e.g. I need to do my deepthought/ meditation on a project to clear my head ==> Action Urgency - low. Importance: Crucial
e.g. I need to plan a 2-week vacation some time this year... if definitely needs to happen by maybe not for 3 or 4 months...