What to do when my Next Action is "Brainstorm"?

Helen Wright

Helen Wright

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Hi All

Fringe GTDer trying to get more on top of my work life, and recently have spent a lot of time Collecting and Processing into Outlook Tasks (only tool my company will allow me to use, but I've got it to work).

I've done a Guided Weekly review just now and my issue is a lot of my Next Actions are "Brainstorm this particular thing in order to understand what to do with it", or "Read this particular thing and then THINK/BRAINSTORM about the implications". I'm finding it very hard to get down to the next physical action which isn't "sit down with a pen and paper and throw some ideas around".

I think my problem is the definition between Projects and Next Actions, but if I put everything that needs further thinking down as a project I will be overwhelmed.

Any ideas on how to get my head around this?
 
Without knowing your specifics or details, I can say that I have both actions AND projects titled "clarify this" or "brainstorm". It depends on whether that's really the next action or if the project is "clarify this..." and the next action is "call x" or "email y" or "look this info up online".

In my world, it comes down to whether I need other resources to make the decision, or do i just need some hard thought and personal clarity?
 
Helen Wright said:
Any ideas on how to get my head around this?
Click to expand...

One thing to try is to ask yourself "What do I need to know or do to get started?"
After that, "What do I need to know or do to keep going?" or simply "What’s next?"
You do get used to thinking this way after a while.
 
vaughan76 said:
In my world, it comes down to whether I need other resources to make the decision, or do i just need some hard thought and personal clarity?
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In my case I think it's the latter.

So an example from my list is Project = "Write a strategic plan for my team for 2018". The only next action that I can think of is "Brainstorm strategy for 2018".

It just feels a bit wooly, and if I'm honest, I really struggle with ambiguity and procrastination! And at present, I have 15 "Brainstorm this" or "read this then think about it" next actions on my list and it feels a bit overwhelming.
 
Helen Wright said:
In my case I think it's the latter.

So an example from my list is Project = "Write a strategic plan for my team for 2018". The only next action that I can think of is "Brainstorm strategy for 2018".
Click to expand...

OK, let's see if we can break this down into something more manageable. Some ideas:

- if you have previous strategic plans, have a look at them. How do you react to them? Did they do what they were supposed to do?
- Do you have a preferred method or tool for brainstorming, like a mind mapping program? Then just set up a mindmap and see what happens.
- try jotting down a SWOT analysis: strenghs, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
- Google "easy strategic planning"
- ask somebody else for ideas

When you do any of these, you will react to what you are doing, an almost instinctive feeling that what you are doing is useful or not. Pay attention to that feeling. If you feel you should do something else instead, try doing it. Doing something is the key. It's a lot easier to change directions when you're moving.
 
The verb "brainstorm" can be a tricky one, because it invites procrastination if you don't see what you would physically, visibly do. @mcogilvie has some good tips for you. When I am tempted to use that verb I try to challenge myself to clarify what that really looks like, and sometimes it is super granular like "Jot down ideas for...", "Do a mind map on...", etc.
 
Helen Wright said:
In my case I think it's the latter.

So an example from my list is Project = "Write a strategic plan for my team for 2018". The only next action that I can think of is "Brainstorm strategy for 2018".

It just feels a bit wooly, and if I'm honest, I really struggle with ambiguity and procrastination! And at present, I have 15 "Brainstorm this" or "read this then think about it" next actions on my list and it feels a bit overwhelming.
Click to expand...

I’m curious if this is a challenge with the GTD methodology or a challenge with strategic planning itself? How would you go about doing it absent GTD?

When I think about strategic planning, I think about pulling stakeholders together for strategic conversations, looking at previous plans, looking at larger priorities for the organization, etc. Those are all specific next actions.

So is “brainstorm list of next actions for strategic plan”. I wonder if you just need to set time on the calendar to brainstorm and clarify your next actions?
 
vaughan76 said:
I’m curious if this is a challenge with the GTD methodology or a challenge with strategic planning itself? How would you go about doing it absent GTD?

When I think about strategic planning, I think about pulling stakeholders together for strategic conversations, looking at previous plans, looking at larger priorities for the organization, etc. Those are all specific next actions.

So is “brainstorm list of next actions for strategic plan”. I wonder if you just need to set time on the calendar to brainstorm and clarify your next actions?
Click to expand...
If I'm being totally honest, it's a challenge I have with vague and ambiguous tasks all the time! I think I like GTD because it (ideally) forces me to break down those vague projects into physical next actions, which then allows me to (in theory!) stop procrastinating and get on with it.

So on reflection, I think my question is probably - "What do I do when my next action isn't clear, because the task or project is very vague and I need to do some more thinking before I come up with a plan or a concrete next action?"
 
Helen Wright said:
If I'm being totally honest, it's a challenge I have with vague and ambiguous tasks all the time! I think I like GTD because it (ideally) forces me to break down those vague projects into physical next actions, which then allows me to (in theory!) stop procrastinating and get on with it.

So on reflection, I think my question is probably - "What do I do when my next action isn't clear, because the task or project is very vague and I need to do some more thinking before I come up with a plan or a concrete next action?"
Click to expand...

I think that makes sense, and it something I've appreciated about GTD myself. There's a David Allen white paper out there somewhere ("Stalking the Wild Projects"?) where he talks about exactly this and its helped me.

In the case of your refined question, I think I personally would have a project called "clarify strategic planning process" and my next action might be something like getting an afternoon or so on the calendar to sit down and brainstorm/mind map out a bunch of stuff. It might also include pulling together a couple of key people for a meeting to do that as well (though that is likely to be the second action once I've had time to myself). The project is "clarify strategic planning kickoff" (or something like that) and the next action is blocking out time on the calendar (or it could just be "brainstorm next actions for strategic plan" if you trust yourself to do it, but personally for those kinds of projects I like giving myself time boundaries on the calendar). The next action or two after that might involve reaching out to specific individuals to get their input...and off you go.

Keep in mind that, once the ball is rolling and depending on the scope of your plan, you might ultimately end up with a more formal project management approach where you Gantt Chart it...but even that in no way precludes using the natural planning model to keep the ball rolling at the runway level as you move through the Gantt Chart process.
 
Helen Wright said:
I'm finding it very hard to get down to the next physical action which isn't "sit down with a pen and paper and throw some ideas around."
Click to expand...

What is wrong with sitting down with a pen and paper and throwing some ideas around? This is a great next action! Seriously. Sitting down and brainstorming should be viewed as a delightful time, which is spent being creative.

For me, the next action for brainstorming is to schedule a period of time dedicated to brainstorming.

A recent example from my life. I am a magician. I perform, create and teach sleight-of-hand magic. One of my favorite effects is known as a card to wallet. There are many existing methods, but they have minor flaws (meaning that there is opportunity in them for improvement).

For many years, I have chosen to use an existing routine. Recently, I saw another magician's idea on how to improve the effect. That inspired me to brainstorm. So, I set aside some time where I had no interruptions—no e-mails, no instant messages, no calls, nada. That was my next action, which led to brainstorming.

My two hours, spent staring at the ceiling, resulted in some ideas. I set another brainstorming session for the next day. I kept doing this until I had brainstormed enough to have tangible goals (order materials/research types of thin, flexible plastic/design the sleights to use with the routine/@waiting for materials to arrive/rehearse the routine/show the routine to mentors/get feedback from mentors/perform the routine for audiences/evaluate the results/make this routine part of my act). This process works for me.

I hope the above offers some inspiration.

Jim
 
Lecter said:
What is wrong with sitting down with a pen and paper and throwing some ideas around? This is a great next action! Seriously. Sitting down and brainstorming should be viewed as a delightful time, which is spent being creative.
Click to expand...
It is wrong when it is not followed by any other type of activity...
 
So My preferred brainstorming is an outline that I do in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. The one take away for me is that I need to change my next actions for brainstorm to Outline because I can visualize myself doing that.
 
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