Prevarication! Use of a Next Action can make important projects harder

[kelstarrising]

I also find it easier to get things done when the pressure is on, and then once whatever big report has been issued, sometimes I just can't get my things together for a day or two. I'm "resting on my laurels".

Actually, another angle to consider is that there's also a subtle, but powerful dynamic at play when people complete things early, that doesn't come when you complete it on time or late. Completing it early creates an opening for you and others to question if you did enough. Because surely, you had more time, couldn't more be done? Completing on time or late seems to eliminate that skepticism, so procrastinating becomes a positive reinforcer that you did as much as you possibly could.

 

[Ship69]

Artificial deadlines are a good idea in theory, although I have a bad habit of vicious cycles.

I was reflecting today that GTD itself seems to take far too long. In particular, my lists are all too long. There are lots of tasks on my @Someday-maybe list that I don't want to see again for at least 3 months. And by reviewing it every week or 2, it covertly becomes a "High Resistance" task, even though I've never committed to doing it and have never put it off.

This is how my vicious cycle work:

a) Habitually aiming too high / taking on too much
b) ==> Habitually missing my targets
c) ==> Losing confidence in my ability to hit targets (==> Losing confidence in my GTD System ==> Potentially losing confidence in general?!)
f) ==> Losing personal energy & drive
g) ==> Getting even less done
h) ==> Beating myself up
i) ==> back to "a)" this time taking on even more in order to catch up

etc etc.

Eventually, I deliberately take on LESS.
This feels good for a while...
...but I'm still in the habit of only completing about half of what is on my plate.
So I now get even less done. Disaster!

Eventually, I start "making public" /sharing with others more of my commitments in order to get people to hold me to account.
The fear of embarrassment drives me forwards.
==> And this time a virtuous cycle can start. :^)

However, if I take on too much publically ==> then public humiliation can cause a really deeper vicious cycle. Very dangerous!!

Yes, I do find having a few major goals helps, particularly if other people know about them. But again it is all too easy to get into the habit of missing them...

And then just when I think I'm totally hopeless at getting anything done at all, for no obvious reason, I suddenly have a really productive day and achieve x2 or x5 what I normally would get through!

* * *

To be completely honest, simply having too much on my lists in general is becoming a real burden. Just reviewing all the Someday-maybes takes too long. Before I can blink I've lost 2 hours of my life and with zero output!
But if I fail to review them, then things pop up having suddenly become really important and potentially also urgent, so I can't completely trust the someday system.

And like I say, having too many Next Actions entered into my system for a major project seem overwhelming to just look at once, let alone to keep looking at.

I think a significant part of the core problem for me is that I am an extremely slow reader so long lists are a disaster.

Apologies I'm now rambling... But if you were a really, really slow reader, what would you do?

Either way, can any of you relate to the above?

 

[TesTeq]

I was reflecting today that GTD itself seems to take far too long. In particular, my lists are all too long. There are lots of tasks on my @Someday-maybe list that I don't want to see again for at least 3 months. And by reviewing it every week or 2, it covertly becomes a "High Resistance" task, even though I've never committed to doing it and have never put it off.

It's OK to review some Someday/Maybe items quarterly. Create SM-Quarterly list and move those nasty beasts there.

To be completely honest, simply having too much on my lists in general is becoming a real burden. Just reviewing all the Someday-maybes takes too long. Before I can blink I've lost 2 hours of my life and with zero output!

If you know that you have too much... delete half. Be realistic.

 

[Oogiem]

I think a significant part of the core problem for me is that I am an extremely slow reader so long lists are a disaster.

I can't relate, I LOVE long lists and am uncomfortable if I have less than a couple hundred projects active although my action lists are rarely over 30 items long.

However, You are very different as evidenced by many posts here. So... Be ruthless, if you can realistically only do half the stuff on your plate buck up and decide what you won't do, either get rid of it entirely or move it to the future.

Separate your someday/maybe lists into what you will look at this week, what this month and this year. Push as much of the blue sky stuff off into maybe I'll review it in a year to keep the review reasonable.

I have thousands of things on my someday lists and I have many different lists and they all get reviewed on different time schedules. Most get reviewed quarterly but some only once a year or so. Somewhere here I posted when I did a good count of all the someday/maybe projects once, it was in the multi-thousands.

I try to keep it so that my weekly review of someday maybe only takes me about 15 minutes but I've a very fast reader so I can handle long lists in that timeframe. As an example, I can read through 92 on hold someday/maybe projects with over 400 possible future next actions in less than 15 minutes. That's my current weekly review someday maybe list.

 

[Gardener]

But if you were a really, really slow reader, what would you do?

I would sit down and consider which lists I have to read most frequently. Then I would figure out how to make those lists as short as humanly possible. The more frequently I read it, the shorter it should be.

I would have three different Someday/Maybe lists:

Someday/Maybe--Review Annually
Someday/Maybe--Review Monthly
Someday/Maybe--Review Weekly

The primary question when reviewing the weekly Someday/Maybe list would be, "Can this go to the monthly or annual list?" The next question would be, "Am I REALLY SURE this can't go to the monthly or annual list?"

I would set up some sort of very reliable tickler scheme so that I wouldn't have to waste time reading things that aren't due yet--those things would be totally invisible until the tickle date.

I would make my current lists as short as humanly possible. I mean SHORT. They probably have to have more than one or two items on them, but that would be the goal. SHORT. Only when they are empty because I've done all the work on them would I go back to the Someday/Maybe to find another task. If I discover that I won't be able to do a task after all, I would move that task back to Someday/Maybe so I'm not wasting daily time reading it.

I would move as much as possible to separate lists. For example, if I had to call a dozen people, I would put those names on a "to call" list. Then on my main list, I'd just have a reminder to "make calls". That way, I'd only read the individual people's names when I'm about to make use of those names.

 

[Shady Waxwing]

Artificial deadlines are a good idea in theory...
....
I was reflecting today that GTD itself seems to take far too long. In particular, my lists are all too long.
....
To be completely honest, simply having too much on my lists in general is becoming a real burden.

Artificial deadlines would signal to me that I don't trust my system, or am not doing weekly reviews.

I've heard David Allen say that people blame him or GTD because they have long lists. All he did was come up with an effective way to manage commitments. He does not tell us what to commit to. In fact, he advises that we not overcommit.

If having too much on your lists is a burden, delete. The burden has only as much weight as you give it.

 

[Cpu_Modern]

@J_Shade:

What can I say? If you even quote the book itself to prove your usage of the vernacular to be more accurate then mine, then all that is left to do for me is to take my hat off to you.

What I meant off course is that sometimes a project doesn't have it's Next Action reminders on any of the @context lists.

Perhaps you could give an example of what would go in the tickler file, because I think it could count as a next action on the project.

Sometimes I have checklists in my tickler. For example at the moment I observe a strict diet and when I process the tickler, I tick the previous day as either success or failure of some kind. So, yeah, the project "observe diet for X amount of time" has no real Next Actions at the moment and just gets driven by a checklist.

 

[bcmyers2112]

@J_Shade:

What can I say? If you even quote the book itself to prove your usage of the vernacular to be more accurate then mine, then all that is left to do for me is to take my hat off to you.

What I meant off course is that sometimes a project doesn't have it's Next Action reminders on any of the @context lists.

Sometimes it's worth making sure we're all on the same page about GTD jargon, but not at the expense of trying to understand someone's underlying point (admittedly I've been guilty of this persnickety practice). And @Cpu_Modern's point was a good one to make. There was a time when I was myopically focused on my context lists as being the locus of everything GTD. It took me a while to understand that my context lists, calendar, stack baskets, and everything worked together as a GTD ecosystem. Context lists are just one part of that.

Sometimes I have checklists in my tickler. For example at the moment I observe a strict diet and when I process the tickler, I tick the previous day as either success or failure of some kind. So, yeah, the project "observe diet for X amount of time" has no real Next Actions at the moment and just gets driven by a checklist.

Sometimes I have projects for which the sole next action is one that I can't start for a period of time. I used to get hung up on whether a project could really be a project under those circumstances. Then one day it dawned on me: duh -- YES. A tickler item could very well be the next action for a project.

As long as something is where you need to see it, when you need to see it, and how you need to see it so that it serves to keep that thing off your mind until it's time to focus on it, then you're observing perfectly good GTD practices.