Should There Be a Limit on Areas of Responsibility? (mine listed in the post)

[Sievert]

Hi folks I wonder if there should be a limit on areas of responsibility - I seem to have many - a recent Brainstorm came up with:

Husband
Father
Son
Rabbit Owner (!)
House Owner
Car Owner
Manager
Leader
Technical Expert
Main Provider
Sportsman
Friend
Brother
Son in Law

This seems a lot but I think they're all valid..and there maybe more.

I thought about combining the family related ones into 'family' but I thought I'd potentially miss things to do with being a 'brother' if I had multiple live projects for 'husband' on-the-go.

What do you guys think? I basically need to define this list so I can then ensure that my projects link to at least one of them, and each area has a project - OR - I'm consciously NOT working on something in that area.

Thanks
Sievert

 

[bradenchase]

Contexts or areas?

You need as many as you need so they may indeed be valid.

I personally have an area for my household and another for the extended/rest of the family. Then if there is something that needs to be dealt with on a brother to brother or son to mother or husband to wife, those go on context lists just like your @computer. The difference is that your context is the person (as they are the real key)
For example, I have varying projects regarding my wife's health, future education, and friendships. Each project goes under a different area of responsibility - health & vitality, our household, public relations - (even though they are all related to her) and the the actual action I need to track go on context lists, some are on the @wife list, some on the @Internet (research), some are on the @home list.

Often the connecting "link" for all of these thing is in the goals horizon or even the vision. At least that's how I understand it!

I hope that made sense!

 

[ellobogrande]

Hi folks I wonder if there should be a limit on areas of responsibility - I seem to have many - a recent Brainstorm came up with:

Husband
Father
Son
Rabbit Owner (!)
House Owner
Car Owner
Manager
Leader
Technical Expert
Main Provider
Sportsman
Friend
Brother
Son in Law

This seems a lot but I think they're all valid..and there maybe more.

I thought about combining the family related ones into 'family' but I thought I'd potentially miss things to do with being a 'brother' if I had multiple live projects for 'husband' on-the-go.

What do you guys think? I basically need to define this list so I can then ensure that my projects link to at least one of them, and each area has a project - OR - I'm consciously NOT working on something in that area.

Thanks
Sievert

I think you've identified perfectly valid Roles in your life; I've made an Area of Focus category just for those. Roles can cross boundaries of other focus areas; as a Technical Expert you may do computer work for a living but also volunteer your computer skills to charity outside of work. Volunteer is a role, too.

Traditional areas of focus and responsibility include things like your family, finances, health and vitality, spiritual practices, recreation, personal development, professional development, etc. Make sure you capture those, too.

 

[Sievert]

Thanks Guys.

@bradenchase - ah I see in your system you use a higher review level to identify where things need attention. I might be focusing too tightly - when I could perhaps generalise an area of focus to, indeed, family, but my higher 'altitude' might pick up that I needed to do things to keep my extended family relationships going etc.

@ellobogrande - thanks for the validation - and I've added 'Career Progression/Professional Development' in there now thanks!

SIevert

 

[kelstarrising]

should be a limit on areas of responsibility

Good question! No limit on these. Average for most people is about 5-10 personally and professionally, but it's unique for everyone depending on your life and level of granularity you want to drill down to.

Kelly

 

[SiobhanBR]

Areas of Responsibility - Drilled Down

Average for most people is about 5-10 personally and professionally, but it's unique for everyone depending on your life and level of granularity you want to drill down to.

I currently have about 30 Areas of Responsibility for work and 20 for personal. These include everything from "maintain professional office space" to "maintain contacts" and the more job specific areas like committees I sit on, programs I'm responsible for and policies/procedures I want to ensure are maintained and relevant. For personal I have roles like "Me", mom, wife, etc but also medical care, finances, musician, writer, appearance etc.

When I first implemented GTD a lot of these Areas of Responsibility lived on my Projects list, but after some reading here at the forums and some trouble trying to identify NA for some of these I realized that something like "Maintain Personal Appearance" is not a project. During my weekly review I see this entry on my AOR list with some brief descriptor words ("hair, nails, clothes, accessories") and I may generate a project ("Get hair cut", "shop for new winter boots") or I may acknowledge that I feel this area is getting along just fine and no new projects or actions are warranted.

For me, the Areas of Responsibility generate projects, which generate next actions. I found that when I seriously culled my "Project List" to get rid of anything that was really an "Area of Focus" it clarified a lot of my thinking.