Next Action with deadlines

Folke said:
I have been breaking rules all my life...
Screwww scheduling ... haha ;-)
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Restrictive use of your calendar is obviusly one of the sacred cows of GTD (at least as it is presented in the GTD book). But now, is it not the one who uses the calendar liberally that´s the "rule breakers"?;)
 
"Screwww scheduling ... haha ;-)"

@Folke: Tell us how you really feel! Actually, belay that....I think your comment was pretty clear. ;)
 
Yes, I guess you are right :-)
At least if we look at the relatively small world of GTD adherents, the schedulers (except Longsteet, of course) would be seen as "rule breakers" ;) But in the larger world of "structured people" in general I am convinced the non-scheduling GTD adherents would still be "rule breakers" - refusing to schedule things in the "normal, orderly" way , what a heinous sacrilege ;-).
 
"...the massive hordes of intellectuals who put their faith in such routine scheduling". This one really made me laugh. And since I am a professor and amongst a horde of professors at our university.....I guess I am part of Folke's hordes of intellectuals. LOL.
 
On a more serious note, Longstreet, I think "the schedulers" constitute the vast majority of the "structured people" in this world. So you are probably quite safe. You will always have gurus and apps and plenty of fellow users who will support your take on this. And, if what you say is correct, you even have David Allen himself on your side these days - I really hope you are wrong about that, though, because he once had an important message to teach, but if he has changed his mind then there is one person fewer now in the camp that I am in. Lucky you!
 
David Allen p 171 First Edition said:
Your calendar can be a very handy place to park reminders of things you might want to consider doing in the future. Most of the people I've coached were not nearly as comfortable with their calendars as they could have been; otherwise they probably would have found many more things to put in there.

One of the three uses of a calendar is for day-specific information. This category can include a number of things, but one of the most creative ways to utilize this function is to enter things that you want to take off your mind and reassess at some later date. Here are a few of the myriad things you should consider inserting:

• Triggers for activating projects
• Events you might want to participate in
• Decision catalysts....
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For the record, each morning I pick a few next actions that I would like to get done that day, declare them "day-specific information" and comfortably put them on my calendar. It must be hell to be enslaved by some arbitrarily-strict definition of "hard landscape". :)
 
David Allen fights with fake scheduling. Next Action lists are the answer. Schedulers schedule too many things in their calendars and then they spent time rewriting tasks from yesterday to today. More and more tasks. Unscheduling tasks that can be unscheduled (ie. putting them on one of the Next Action lists) reduces this rewriting (or rescheduling).
 
Definition of fake: not genuine; counterfeit. It seems what appears genuine to one may not appear so to another. What I get from David and DAC is to do what is needed to get things off your mind. With electronic calendars and the ability to have 2 calendars that overlap, there is no rewriting needed. Blocking some things on a calendar does not eliminate the Next Action list....it compliments it (IMHO)

The ultimate tenent of GTD is "get it off your mind.". I'm not sure why Folke has so much invested in his opinion and personal methods, Or why, as he has said, that if David now 'allows' scheduling (as he clearly does by the message Longstreet shared) he would not be in the GTD camp. David is not saying that you *have* to schedule.... so do what works for you.

There has been enough info provided from the first edition of GTD and David himself that there is no need to debate what is 'permitted' by David. And since everyone's world and brain is different, accept what others do as what works for them and move on.

Maureen

Sent from my Lenovo B8080-F using Tapatalk
 
mommoe436 said:
Definition of fake: not genuine; counterfeit. It seems what appears genuine to one may not appear so to another. What I get from David and DAC is to do what is needed to get things off your mind. With electronic calendars and the ability to have 2 calendars that overlap, there is no rewriting needed.
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What do you do with a scheduled action that you haven't done?
  • Rewrite (paper) / reschedule (electronic) it?

or
  • Just leave it in the dark hole of the past in your calendar and forget about it?

People tend to put too many things in their calendars to make sure that these things will be done.

That's the reason why The Hard Landscape is so stricly protected in GTD.
 
@Tes Teq: I maintain ALL of my next actions on my context lists. Just because I may feel the need to schedule a 2-hr major next action (and it is truly a next action and not a project) does not mean that I have "left it in the dark hole of the past" because something urgent and important has come up. I simply remove it from my calendar or reschedule it. It really is simple. And MANY GTD coaches do not seem to have a problem with this approach. I am not sure why you are so adamant that it cannot work. David Allen himself does NOT have a problem with this approach as long as you are willing to renegotiate your commitments in this regard.. I DO know this.
 
mommoe436 said:
The ultimate tenent of GTD is "get it off your mind." ... so do what works for you.
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I sincerely hope this is what we are all doing, one way or another. This is true regardless of whether our system is more similar to the teachings of David Allen (GTD) or Franklin & Covey or Stephen Covey or Mark Forster or Michael Linenberger or any of the countless other gurus and management schools.

mommoe436 said:
I'm not sure why Folke has so much invested in his opinion and personal methods, Or why, as he has said, that if David now 'allows' scheduling (as he clearly does by the message Longstreet shared) he would not be in the GTD camp. David is not saying that you *have* to schedule.... so do what works for you.
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In part, it is a semantic issue. If we begin to use the term "GTD" to signify "whatever works for us" it loses any distinct meaning it may have had. For example, if Mark Forster's Autofocus method works for you, then Autofocus suddently is GTD, as per that definition. And if Franklin & Covey's prioritization system works for you, then that is GTD, too. Everything is GTD if we use such a definition. I find such a definition pointless. I have no need for a new synonym for "anything that works".

And I need no label for my personal system. My system happens to be very similar to GTD, but I feel no need to be able to declare it as such. You could call it HUE or MagicTrix for all I care. I simply have no understanding at all for why some people are so eager to call their system GTD at any cost. There is nothing inherently wrong about being non-GTD, if that is what works best for you. For example, I myself have some clearly non-GTD elements in my own system. One of these is my tri-color "attention level" to help me see which actions I need to review more often or more seldom. Another is I keep my projects list as short and clean as possible by treating smaller GTD projects as tasks with subtasks. I make no bones at all about using those tricks. On the contrary, I am happy and proud to have found those improvements. I do not care the least if people say that I do not conform with the GTD standard in that regard (which would be a perfectly true statement if they did).

Finally, I think it is a question of what David and GTD truly and consistently emphasizes (its "center of gravity"). Clearly, he needs to recognize and deal with all kinds of tastes and needs that people have. Hence the inevitable "do whatever suits you best" at the end of any recommendation he makes. What else could he possibly say? What else could anybody say? Do you know of anyone in the consultancy business who says "if you do not follow this to the letter you are dead"? Of course he must say that, and I think he also means it because there is no other way. Everybody must make the adaptations they feel are necessary. Saying this also serves as a last resort for all those people who do not fully buy into his core message ("center of gravity" message). In the particular case of scheduling I think it is widely known that the vast majority of "structured people" are very familiar with scheduling, daily todo lists, calendars etc, and are much less familiar with David's more heuristic-opportunistic method of choosing tasks in the moment based on context and energy etc. He has had some serious difficulty getting his own original message across to the vast majority. Don't get me wrong; the size of his following is impressive, but it is still just a minority. So it is perfectly natural and only human if he budges a bit. At the same time it is a pity, because it makes his main message lose some of its clarity. I personally would have preferred it if he had delved deeper into devising supplementary recommendations for how action lists can be further structured and more easily navigated, using more effective means than assigning phony dates. The problem with long lists (or too many lists), with no further structure, seems to be the major objection people have to GTD. So in a way I guess I am trying to help David find new avenues that will increase the uniqueness and popularity of GTD. I do not see that this can be achieved by watering down the heuristic-opportunistic element with mainstream scheduling ploys. On the contrary, I believe the solution would be found in providing additional structure to the hard landscape and the "buckets".
 
"I do not see that this can be achieved by watering down the heuristic-opportunistic element with mainstream scheduling ploys".

You see, Folke, many of us DO NOT see this as watering down GTD. At all. As I said in a previous post, I maintain next action/context lists. If I wish to schedule a major next action on my calendar to (1) protect that period of time from the relentless meeting requests I receive and (2) to put a stake in the ground that I WILL do this at this time, I do not see how this is diluting GTD in any form or manner. And I DO know that David is okay with this and not due to the reasons of placating people as you described.
 
@Folke: Here is a quote directly out of David Allen's book:

“Realizing, as you look through your calendar while considering what’s changed in the last few days, that you had now better block out two hours for yourself in the coming week so that you can finish drafting a document on time, is the kind of “aha!” moment that can help prevent the loss of control”.

Allen, David (2008-12-01). Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life (Kindle Locations 3619-3622). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

I really would like to hear from you what you think David meant by this. I see that he has a document that is due soon and he realizes he had better set aside time so that it WILL get done. Hence, blocking off time on the calendar.
 
Longstreet - where do you store your lists, paper or electronic? I tried to move to paper but found I now have many pages of NA's scattered over different notebooks.
 
@TMac: I use nirvanahq. It is web-based and they are very soon releasing all new mobile apps. I am a Beta-tester on their iPhone/iPad app and it is outstanding. Here is a link to their website.

https://www.nirvanahq.com/
 
Thank you all so much for taking the time and share! It is SUPER gratifying to see so many people out there practicing the GTD methodology and reading about everyone's views on how it should best be carried out. I know GTD is a very popular system, but for the past 2 years, I've been practicing on my own and never physically met a person who also knows and practice GTD. So glad to finally join this forum! After reading everyone's input, I believe there is not a correct answer to whether "practicing piano" should be put on Calendar or Next Action List, mainly because every project and everyone is unique. If a person thinks practicing for 1 hour a day, everyday, is an absolute must in order to complete the project to satisfaction, then it makes sense to put on the calendar, because then the practicing becomes "day and time specific". If a person thinks he just needed to practice for 30 min once or twice prior to the recital, then it make sense to only put "piano recital" on the calendar for Oct. 1st. Then adding the "practice piano" to the next action list should be sufficient. Either way, I think the main point is, we need to get it off our heads and into the GTD system, and feel comfortable enough that we will be reminded to do the things we need to do. And as we can see, everyone has a slightly different approach to get to that "mind free" level, and that's OK! We are all getting things done!!!
 
Longstreet said:
I really would like to hear from you what you think David meant by this. I see that he has a document that is due soon and he realizes he had better set aside time so that it WILL get done. Hence, blocking off time on the calendar.
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I think he means exactly what you claim that he means. That approach is different from (or at least "beyond") what he described in the 2001 version of GTD (which is the only one I ever read. I read it a couple of years ago).

I applaud his later effort to address the issue of bringing sufficient attention to particularly important tasks, which was completely missing in GTD 2001. But I wish he had been more creative than to just reinvent scheduling, which is in stark contrast with his core message (which still is, I presume, to generally avoid scheduling and to make the decision in the moment based on context etc, which could therefore in some sense perhaps be considered to be "even more" GTD?).

I realize that scheduling the task secures your attention, which is what you want (and what I want, too). That's great. The bottom line is that it works for you, and that is what matters. The unfortunate side of scheduling, though, is that you are creating the optical illusion that you do not need to consider this task before that time, and the optical illusion that you cannot deal with it after that time, and the unnecessary work of rescheduling it when you change your mind.

I solve the exact same problem (securing attention) by instead just marking the task with a red line on the left in the next actions list. The red line indicates that I have decided to review/consider this task multiple times per day from now on. That works for me, which is the main thing. Also, it does not impose any new contrasts or inconsistencies with the other parts of the GTD teaching - it just differentiates the review frequency.

We both want the same thing - be able to see very clearly what matters most.
 
Of course, Folke. We indeed want the same thing. I think your approach is great and I am so glad it works so well for you! I do still disagree with your assessment of "the unfortunate side of scheduling". For me, it works beautifully.
 
Guys, some are doing red-markers for their priorities and some are scheduling and creating fictive deadlines. Why? Maybe this is as good as it gets - for some of us - in our hectic and complex world. Doing this and applying Davids super GTD process are, at least as far as I can see, by far the best way to answer Davids question: ” How consistently are you doing the absolutely right things?” (GTD Mastery - closing the gaps Webinar, dec 2012).
 
@jenkins: Let's say I have a next action as write first draft of the discussion section for a manuscript. I think it will take me 90 minutes to write this section. This is also based on past experiences in writing these sections. I have this on my context list for @computer/online. I decide I really need to get this done this week and my prime writing time is early in the morning. I will schedule this action directly on my calendar for 8:00-9:30. I keep the next action on the context list too. If something urgent and important comes up (my President calls me and needs to meet with me NOW), then I either reschedule the action to a different day or I delete the calendar entry entirely. The action is still on my next actions list, so it is not lost. I only do this with what I consider high-focus, high-energy actions that take 1+ hours to do.

There is ample research that clearly has shown that what has been scheduled has a much better chance of being done. I like putting the stake in the ground that this is what I am going to do on this morning. I do not have to scan a very long next actions list and decide what to do -- I have already made the executive decision. I find it considerably lessens decision fatigue.

This approach has been discussed in GTD Connect webinars and is supported by senior coaches and David Allen himself. Look at the quote I had in a previous post straight from one of his books. The key is to not use your calendar as your entire task manager (not hardly) and to be open to renegotiate with yourself if things change. If you do that, as David himself stated, then you are "doing GTD".
 
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