Re-occuring tasks or projects - Where?

J

justin caise

0
Or where do you keep your daily affirmations and habit change reminders?

Should I list habit change reminders and mind set reminders on my daily next actions list? So far I have done this and by their nature they last more than a week, which clutters the list to the point of blindness/disgust.. Also, some other obscure, reminder note section "may" not get looked at.

I heard David say, in Road to Black Belt, that things like never finished items, such as improving customer relations in sales, etc. are sort of 20K ft items [Roles and areas of response] … but is this also true for more daily type stuff?The other reoccuring things?

Do many of you have a list of lists to view during your weekly review? Do you get to it? This question may fit right in there with the question - "Where do I park my list of longer horizon goals and values."

Should I maybe just keep a list of habits/behavioral/personal develpoment and a reminder to view it during the weekly? Thats sort of "once removed" though - same as parking your reference files in the next room - I'd like to create the least amount of resistance.
Where am I going to see it?

Does a weekly review of such things suffice for including it into my intuitivity?

Also, a possibly related item - I once mindmapped my projects list into 3 separate catagories just for a temporary view and it helped raise the above question…
1.) Completable projects (Organize garage workspace)

2.) Unending, re-occuring/habits to form or "lifestyle" stuff (Learn to put things away)

3.) stuff which may be goals rather than projects. (Become one of those organized people)

That last one helped to clean up edges and got some stuff off of my projects list and up to the higher level of goals. Suddenly I found myself in quarterly review land. :cool:

Just trying to remember to "steer my elephant" you know.

Thanks, JC
 
Hi Justin,

While it's not "technically" GTD I use what I call a Daily Action Card to take care of recurring tasks. I created a template in Word that prints to an index card and covers the daily basics, and I print a week's worth every Sunday during my Weekly Review. The seven cards are almost exactly the same (feed cats, take vitamins) but there are a couple small differences (i.e. Thursday's has "Take Out the Trash.")

I made a separate chart in my kitchen for cleaning, though, as that was really cluttering up my lists.

I keep a notebook in Evernote that contains little motivational sayings and passages that keep me focused on what's important, and it's an item on my Daily Action Card to peek into that notebook at least once a day and read something.

If you're really trying to instill a new habit, there's an area of psychology called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that encourages the use of Advantage Response Cards. Basically, you grab a stack of index cards, and on the front you write the negative thought/excuse ("I'm too tired to exercise" "I'll do my weekly review tomorrow") and then on the back you write a well-reasoned argument. Then, when you find yourself making excuses and procrastinating, you just grab the card and read it. You're also supposed to keep one card of reasons why you want to instill the new habit ("I'll look great in a dress" "I'll be able to go on vacation without work looming over my head") and read that card every six hours (which you can either set as an SMS reminder via Google Calendar or put on a Daily Action Card).

There's no reason you have to keep all your motivational reminders in one place. They should be everywhere. Put a couple over your desk, one by your bed, one in the kitchen, etc. I've framed particularly motivational quotations and hung them up in the house. This way you're surrounded by motivation and never have to seek it out.
 
Re-occuring lists

Hi Justin,

I separate my re-occuring lists from my regular GTD system. I use Brainforest Pro on my Palm TX & Desktop (They sync). One of my lists is the Weekly Review, I check the items off as I do them. I always review all my lists at least once a week during my weekly review. A new list could be reviewed daily until I get the routine lined out, (Example: Daily tasks list at the office).

Pablo
 
re: Reoccuring or constant tasks / goals / outcomes

1. REOCCURRING TASKS
It depends on your setup, but my advice is to steer these into an electronic calendar program on your computer or smartphone / PDA. These electronic programs are excellent for setting intervals and they automate the reoccurring reminders for you. The key is to make sure they remind you in an adequate way, and at the appropriate time. Since I'm in email so frequently each day, I set up iCal (on the mac) for events like these with an alarm to send me an email on the appropriate day or time. iCal does a great job of letting me set the reoccurrence of these reminders. Similar functionality is in other programs -- like Outlook (for PC users).

2. REMINDERS
There are quite a few things that turn out to be reminders rather than next actions. They don't have due dates, they are not things you can do, but they are things you want to be reminded about on some regular basis. Something like "I'm eating healthier breakfasts" would fall into a category like this. You just want to be reminded of this every morning or at some other interval. These also, I think, work best in an electronic calendar program or smartphone / PDA. I have a separate calendar in iCal just for these, a calendar called "Reminders" so I can keep them separate from my hard lines for the day.

3. OUTCOMES
Successful outcomes are best put with their respective projects and then reviewed as frequently as needed to stay motivated.

4. AFFIRMATIONS
For those that are connected with projects, probably best to put with your successful outcome vision for each of your projects. For the rest, it really just comes down to how frequently you want/need to be reminded about them. Putting them in an electronic calendar program on some reoccurring interval to remind you might be a good way for doing this.

Not sure if any of this helps, but this is what's working for me.
 
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