Tasks in Too Many Places?

Stuart Rudner

Registered
Hi, I am still working through the book and trying to determine how to best incorporate a GTD approach to life. I run a law firm, and can find tasks to be dealt with in:
  • Asana (for firm management and planning)
  • Practice management software (client related tasks)
  • our CRM
  • email
and probably others. My question is: is that ok, or is it too many places to look?

Thanks for any insight or opinions.
 

mcogilvie

Registered
Are these inboxes or contexts for you? An inbox is a place, real or virtual, where stuff to be dealt with shows up. A context is a place, real or virtual, where you do work. Some places, like email, can be both. From a workflow perspective, GTD “works” by defining and clarifying what you are committed to doing, mostly in terms of projects, next actions, project support and reference as far as daily work is concerned. Where do you keep these things now, and how do you you manage them? Where do you want to keep them, and how do you want to manage them? Do you want more integration in your own day-to-day work? Do you want more control? Better perspective?
 

Oogiem

Registered
can find tasks to be dealt with in:
  • Asana (for firm management and planning)
  • Practice management software (client related tasks)
  • our CRM
  • email
and probably others. My question is: is that ok, or is it too many places to look?
To me those seem like inboxes and no that's not to many inboxes. But if you are using them as your task manager then yes, I'd consider that too many places to look. I'm of the firm belief that actual tasks, your next actions and your project list are much easier to handle and work from when they are in a single place not scattered across applications or locations.
 

Stuart Rudner

Registered
Are these inboxes or contexts for you? An inbox is a place, real or virtual, where stuff to be dealt with shows up. A context is a place, real or virtual, where you do work. Some places, like email, can be both. From a workflow perspective, GTD “works” by defining and clarifying what you are committed to doing, mostly in terms of projects, next actions, project support and reference as far as daily work is concerned. Where do you keep these things now, and how do you you manage them? Where do you want to keep them, and how do you want to manage them? Do you want more integration in your own day-to-day work? Do you want more control? Better perspective?
Thanks for some very insightful questions. You have made me realize that I need to do some more thinking and planning. Ideally, I would like to have all of my next actions in one place, but I don't see how that is possible.
 

Stuart Rudner

Registered
To me those seem like inboxes and no that's not to many inboxes. But if you are using them as your task manager then yes, I'd consider that too many places to look. I'm of the firm belief that actual tasks, your next actions and your project list are much easier to handle and work from when they are in a single place not scattered across applications or locations.
Thanks! I would like to have all of my next actions in one place, but I don't see how that is possible.
 

Gardener

Registered
Thanks! I would like to have all of my next actions in one place, but I don't see how that is possible.
Well, it would be technically possible in the sense that it's possible to enter a pointer to each of those tasks in your main task system. I assume the issue is how much work that involves?
 

mcogilvie

Registered
Davidco has a guide for using Asana for GTD, which might helpful for you. Email is a problem for everybody, so no worries there. I’m a bit surprised that the CRM and practice management are separate, but you might be able to use Asana to point you to next actions in the @CRM and @PM contexts
 

bishblaize

Registered
Working with multiple systems like that is a pain. We use Asana at work, we also have a fair number of automated tasks come out of SharePoint. My approach is to import anything allocated to me to my system (OmniFocus) and handle them there. Then as part of my weekly review, I head into Asana and co and tick off any tasks as done. Not ideal, but I find it easier to track with everything in one system, even if it gives me more tidying up to do afterwards.
 

timstringer

Registered
I also use Asana and OmniFocus in tandem. I find that people often assign projects rather than discrete tasks in Asana. In these cases, I create an OmniFocus project with a link to the Asana task so that I can easily jump back into Asana to access resources, provide updates, etc. I manage the details in the OmniFocus project and mark both the OmniFocus project and the Asana task complete when I'm done.

I also have repeating actions in OmniFocus that prompt me to visit Asana regularly (e.g. I have a "Process: Asana Inbox" action that repeats on weekdays). And I have an "Asana" tag that allows me to easily identify OmniFocus actions that involve working in Asana. This way I can batch my work in Asana and not be jumping between apps too frequently.
 
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