What is your Inbox(es)?

tdenison

Registered
I had a mental breakthrough listening to the GTD podcast where David talks about people getting stuck in all parts of GTD. I realized where I have trouble is between a task and a project. I tend to put a project as if it is a task on my to-do list, and now I can see where that is causing a problem for me.

So I'm trying to address that, and I realized that I don't know where to jot things down so I can move on and then go through that jot-down inbox later to decide on Project vs. Task. Do you immediately sort and organize before you take the next phone call? Or do you have an Inbox where you intermingle tasks, projects, file-its, waiting-on? How often do you review? I'm concerned that if I leave it for the weekly review I'll miss deadlines.
 

cfoley

Registered
I capture an idea and then get on with whatever I was doing. The whole point is to free up my mind and capturing is the minimum required to be confident that I won't lose my idea.

When I do get around to processing nothing gets intermingled in the inbox.
  • Projects go on my Projects list.
  • Next Actions go on a context list.
  • File-its get filed straight away.
  • Waiting-Fors go on my Waiting For list.
It sounds like you are trying to manage all these things from the same list. If you are using a paper system then I would suggest using a separate piece of paper for each context, another piece of paper for the project lists and another for the waiting for list. If you are using a digital list manager then I suggest using separate lists for each of these things.
 

tdenison

Registered
I capture an idea and then get on with whatever I was doing. The whole point is to free up my mind and capturing is the minimum required to be confident that I won't lose my idea.

When I do get around to processing nothing gets intermingled in the inbox.
  • Projects go on my Projects list.
  • Next Actions go on a context list.
  • File-its get filed straight away.
  • Waiting-Fors go on my Waiting For list.
It sounds like you are trying to manage all these things from the same list. If you are using a paper system then I would suggest using a separate piece of paper for each context, another piece of paper for the project lists and another for the waiting for list. If you are using a digital list manager then I suggest using separate lists for each of these things.

Yes you are right I have a "today" to-do list and I have been capturing directly into it. So it starts out task-oriented but then projects get into it. Thank you for pointing out that a separate list for capture is where I need to go with this!
 

ivanjay205

Registered
It is interesting you say this as I struggle with this all of the time....

I capture the thought in my inbox and also get on with what I am doing. Same thought as cfoley. I use FacileThings so it is easy to do it. However, at the end of the day I have a "workday shutdown" routine where I clarify everything in my inbox to leave the day nice and organized. I am ALWAYS guilty of establishing these as next actions and not creating projects breaking them down. I think it is pure laziness and "I know in my head" what I need to do, which yes it does defeat the purpose of hte entire system.

but I struggle with keeping the discipline of taking my time and organizing it properly.
 

tdenison

Registered
It is interesting you say this as I struggle with this all of the time....

I capture the thought in my inbox and also get on with what I am doing. Same thought as cfoley. I use FacileThings so it is easy to do it. However, at the end of the day I have a "workday shutdown" routine where I clarify everything in my inbox to leave the day nice and organized. I am ALWAYS guilty of establishing these as next actions and not creating projects breaking them down. I think it is pure laziness and "I know in my head" what I need to do, which yes it does defeat the purpose of hte entire system.

but I struggle with keeping the discipline of taking my time and organizing it properly.

I have fought against the concept of GTD projects, since I could not reconcile my own project list with my team projects as a project manager. Some of the threads here have helped me see where they are the same thing but how they are managed separately. That is helping me a lot!
 

Gardener

Registered
I put almost everything in the Inbox in OmniFocus--quick and sloppy, maybe ten seconds to get it in there, and then I go back to my previous train of thought.

When I process the inbox, I move items into one of many places:

- Existing projects.

- New projects.

- Lists. These are OmniFocus projects with names prefixed with "LIST - ", and a Context of "List", which is an On Hold context, so that these items will never appear in my active lists. This is a combination of Someday/Maybe material (example: "LIST - Garden Ideas") or pure lists (example: "LIST - Books to Read")

- Reminders, which is where I keep the lists shared between me and the other member of my household.

- When I'm being extra sloppy, I just throw them in Miscellaneous and trust that I'll get to them in the weekly review.
 

thomasbk

Registered
I had a mental breakthrough listening to the GTD podcast where David talks about people getting stuck in all parts of GTD. I realized where I have trouble is between a task and a project. I tend to put a project as if it is a task on my to-do list, and now I can see where that is causing a problem for me.

This is one of the core tenets of GTD that I found helpful in the beginning. You don't do projects, you do actions.

I would either enter the action into my system or drop it in the in-box to be processed later. The main thing is not to forget it. I may have several tasks that I'll later assign to a single project when doing my review.

I have fought against the concept of GTD projects, since I could not reconcile my own project list with my team projects as a project manager. Some of the threads here have helped me see where they are the same thing but how they are managed separately. That is helping me a lot!

My project list is a combo of my personal projects and team's. But by tracking tasks as next actions (mine) or waiting for (other people), it's become easy to have a unified project list.
 
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