Someday/Maybe: Projects vs Actions

[treelike]

3. If I did what you suggest, I would never do some things I have to do.

Me too. If there's something I need to do but don't want to do then I'm even more motivated to do it now, to get it out of the way. Well, sometimes.

 

[Oogiem]

If I resume my vision :

1. an action that I must do and I can do right now, if context/energy/time are ok, goes to my NA list.
2. an action that I must do and I can't do right now because of date goes to :
   1. my calendar if I must do it on a specific date.
   2. my tickler system if this action goes to my NA list at this date (like a start date).
3. an action that I must do and I don't want to do right now, goes to my tickler system for futur review (I guess this one is different for everyone).
4. an action that I must do and I can't do right now because of other tasks goes to my project references (and when it's a standalone task ? )
5. an action that I may do and I don't want to do right now, goes to my SMB list.

That seems a lot more rigid to me than how I work. I agree with @mcogilvie that if I used those criteria there would be things I must do that never got done. I use a task manager that supports hiding actions that cannot be done yet easily so that affects what goes into my GTD system.

My view would be this:

1. An action that I must or want to do in a project that is currently active that is not pending some other action is a next action
2. An action that I must or want to do in a project that is currently active but that is blocked due to some other action that must be completed first is in my task manager but is not an active next action.I won't see it in my lists until the blocking action is completed
3. An action that I must or want to do but that can't be done until a specific date goes in tickler or in my task manager with a start date of the date when I can do it.
4. A project I might work on, a project that I must complete but that requires a different season, a bucket list project, an idea for a project that I may or may not ever do, a project I started but did not finish before it was no longer able to be worked on due to some constraint (that I may or may not ever even finish) all go into my someday/maybe lists.

I have had projects that I started, that got partway done and then sat in s/m for a while until I decided that they would never be completed and let them go. Life happens, things change, things that seemed critically important at one time may prove irrelevant later. It's ok to drop a project. I usually put such things in someday/maybe for a couple of cycles until I am sure I want to completely eliminate it from my system. Sometimes the project is important and I didn't want tolet it goe. I actually created a someday/maybe lists for projects that need to be done but not by me where these can live. I've occasionally been able to take allt eh work I did on those thigns and hand it off to someone else when they decided to take over the reins and work that project. I felt good about keeping all my notes, where I was in tehproject and project support material so the handoff was easy. Some of ny stuff was no longer useful but a lot of it was so it was a win win for both of us.

 

[Hydro]

Do you have some examples of tasks that can't be done with this system ?

@Oogiem your view it's mostly like mine. My app allow to hide NA block by other tasks, add start date to work like a tickler system...

The main point is to not put into SMB list tasks that I take commitments even if I must deferred this task because of date / other task.

 

[Oogiem]

The main point is to not put into SMB list tasks that I take commitments even if I must deferred this task because of date / other task.

And my point is I only keep in my task manager things I can and plan to do now, during this this season. Mostly due to volume. I use Omnifocus and I use the review system that is built in with my own custom perspectives. When I have 2000 items to review in their system it's painfully slow and maintaining the staggered review periods in Omnifocus is terrible and frustrating. So I eliminated that friction entirely by moving all my someday/maybe items out into DEVONThink where I can review them by just reading a simple plain text note all at once not individually and only when I NEED to review that particular grouping of items. I can't easily review groups of items in Omnifocus. Only one project at a time and I found my self clicking reviewed without really reading or reviewing them because it took too long and I missed things. Separting the 2 classifications is far simpler and easier to manage.

Even with that separation I have a very large population of projects I am working on. Right now I have 267 projects and over 1300 actions in my current, active, do this season, Omnifocus system.