Evan Siegel
Registered
I have posted about this topic numerous times and it's close to clicking for me but no one's explanation has gotten me there yet, though the responses are good and appreciated. My confusion stems from my profession as a consultant (ha ha go figure) and how I view a project versus GTD. Here's the thing...I'm good with the notion of the mind sweep, I'm good with the notion of the post its in buckets, I'm good identifying the very next action but the the connection to eventually becoming a project is not there yet for me. At the point of post its, all these are, are things to do or actions that are grouped into basic organizational categories. Even at the point of identifying the very next physical action there is still at this point no relation to larger outcome (via the notion of project).
I guess my confusion is stemming from that david literally says everything can be a project. First, what about those post its that have actions that do not have a second step. If those aren't projects but they do require actions where are they managed if they are 'deferred' meaning an action has to be taken that takes longer than two minutes. 'Buy Groceries' does not need to be categorized into a project, that is overkill, but it does take more than 2 mins and the action of buying groceries is something that can be tracked...but where? I don't see how this would go in a project list.
It seems the idea is that when you have post it and you identify the very next action you would then look at the larger outcome and identify the project. This is fine but IF this is the case the hole I see here is this...if the notion of identifying a thought or post it is meant to spur the larger identification of an outcome (via a project), it is not meant to identify ALL the steps to that project but rather the project itself.
for example...if you have a post it note titled 'find financial planner', you could say perhaps the project is 'develop family financial plan'. While find financial planner is indeed a step, it's only one of many that are needed to complete this project. If you're telling me the purpose here is just to identify the project (develop financial plan) then ok that's understandable. But, I'm not seeing how the notion of going from an action to a project accounts for the entire set of actions that need to be done to complete it. In other words, in his system you start with an action, you identify a project, but that alone does not provide accountability, there's other actions for that project that need to be identified and executed and it's unclear to me where/when/how this is done.
I guess my confusion is stemming from that david literally says everything can be a project. First, what about those post its that have actions that do not have a second step. If those aren't projects but they do require actions where are they managed if they are 'deferred' meaning an action has to be taken that takes longer than two minutes. 'Buy Groceries' does not need to be categorized into a project, that is overkill, but it does take more than 2 mins and the action of buying groceries is something that can be tracked...but where? I don't see how this would go in a project list.
It seems the idea is that when you have post it and you identify the very next action you would then look at the larger outcome and identify the project. This is fine but IF this is the case the hole I see here is this...if the notion of identifying a thought or post it is meant to spur the larger identification of an outcome (via a project), it is not meant to identify ALL the steps to that project but rather the project itself.
for example...if you have a post it note titled 'find financial planner', you could say perhaps the project is 'develop family financial plan'. While find financial planner is indeed a step, it's only one of many that are needed to complete this project. If you're telling me the purpose here is just to identify the project (develop financial plan) then ok that's understandable. But, I'm not seeing how the notion of going from an action to a project accounts for the entire set of actions that need to be done to complete it. In other words, in his system you start with an action, you identify a project, but that alone does not provide accountability, there's other actions for that project that need to be identified and executed and it's unclear to me where/when/how this is done.