Projects / Project Notes

  • Thread starter Thread starter indigodreaming
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indigodreaming

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hi

I am new to GTD and getting everything sorted out. have set up a day-timer organiser following DA's sugestions. but...

can anyone tell me how the projects and project notes sections differ from each other and any good tips/ideas of using projects effectively?

thanks guys

(p.s have done this post cause it was on my actiion list... 1st one down.. yippee!!!)
 
Hi Indigodreaming, and I must say that's a fine name you've got: I'm currently reading a book that has two characters who are dyers, and indigo to the elbows. :)

In answer to your question, here's what I understand by it: the project list is just a list of all your projects by name, while your project notes (sometimes called project reference, or project materials) for each project contain all your notes etc for that project.

I've recently acquired one of the yummy Levenger Circa notebooks, and with the dividers it's made a perfect GTD notebook. I use the list of project names mostly when I'm doing a review (not as often as I should, alas :rolleyes: ): I go through that list to make sure that I've got at least one Next Action on my NA lists for every single project in my Current/Active Projects list. The project notes are just my scrawls of what needs to be done to accomplish each project: rough planning or brainstorming, in effect.

It depends on what kind of projects you have - mine tend to be things that can be pretty well described or managed with a single page of notes. If you have more, just keep it all in a folder in your reference system. If my projects 'grow' too big, I tend to break them down into sub-projects, which keeps my project list manageable (because sub-project A3 can't be started until sub-project A2 is complete), and keeps my notes simpler. Your mileage may vary.
 
unstuffed describes it well.

As to the reason for the split: You want to be able to easily skim over all your active Projects, so you can choose what's most important right now. But projects often have a lot of support materials--notes, ideas, inspirational pages ripped out of magazines--that need to be stored somewhere. So the support materials go into your reference system, while you maintain a separate, short list of Projects that you can easily review.

That make sense?
 
thanks guys

that makes complete sense and i can see how a short list that can be scanned in minutes and linked to nA's would be really efficient.

now all i've goto to do is learn to prioritise!!!!
 
I keep a pile of blank checklists and use one for each project. I outline the actions (in order) on the project sheet, and on the (blank) back I keep any notes that I need to make. I then copy any Next Actions from that project list to my Next Actions list.

Most of my projects don't require more than one page of notes, but for the few that do, I either create a new GMail label named after the project (for electronic notes) or put paper notes right behind the project sheet.

Welcome to GTD! It's a great foundation that will serve you well.
 
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