Say I've decided I want to read Tolstoy's War and Peace.
I captured "Read War and Peace" in my inbox, and now it's time to Clarify.
Read something - that definitely sounds like an action to me, but it's a big book - 1500+ pages and a reading time of about 40 hours. Definitely not less than two minutes, so I'm not going to read it now.
That's a whole work week! Can a "Next action" take 40 hours? I definitely won't do it in one sitting.
Should I open a "War and Peace" project? There are 361 chapters. Maybe I can make each chapter a step, then I'll have a 361-step project.
But wait - what if I read a chapter a night? Stuff happens, so I'll probably only be able to read 5 nights a week, and that puts it at over a year - that mean's I can't make it a project!
Do I make reading War and Peace an Area of Responsibility? Seems kind of silly. I'm overwhelmed, so I think I'll put it in Someday/Maybe.
Thoughts?
Ah, reading for pleasure. In my experience, pleasure reading is best dealt with using Occam's Razor (the simplest and most efficient way to get from here to success). In David terms, we need to have a "mind like water" about it. Respond to it as it is.
You could put each chapter on a next action list, make it a responsibility, create a dedicated routine. All of those things are technically valid options.
Or. You could use a mind like water, as David recommends, and consider that the book already has a next actions list built into it (list of chapters) and your bookmark will indicate to you where you are in the process of completing it. The action of "read the book" doesn't need to be written on a next action list*, because the book itself IS a next action list.
If it doesn't need to be written on an action list, how do we keep track of it in our GTD system?
Since it's quite possible it will take over a year to complete, taking it out of the running to be a Project, you could totally put it on your Horizon 2 - Areas of Focus/Accountability/Responsibility List. It doesn't have a set end date, so it doesn't belong on Horizon 3 - Goals. It isn't necessarily an area of accountability or responsibility either because the outcome of finishing it doesn't affect anything else except perhaps your personal fulfilment & achievement on a relatively informal level. Calling it an Area of Focus makes the most sense because you want to give it the attention it deserves, but not make too much of a fuss about it (again, mind like water).
Ok, we've written it down as an Area of Focus, we've acknowledged that it has a built in Next Actions list, and we have a physical bookmark to know where we're up to with completing the Next Actions, so now we need to look at our limitations to getting it done.
Context, Time Available, and Resources.
The simplest way to embrace the limitations of reading it would be to put the book* (resource, with built in NA list) where you plan to read it (context). Then, when you have the wild hair (time available) to read, you sit down and voila!, use the bookmark to pick up with your immediate next action in the process of reading War and Peace.
If your intuition tells you that you won't naturally find yourself with the available time to leisurely sit in your reading chair, then take charge of the (time available) limitation by make an appointment/meeting with yourself to read, which will go in your Calendar because appointments/meetings are time sensitive.
If you find that you leave it off your calendar for a few weeks because things get busy, you can be assured that it will show up again because it is on your Areas of Focus/Accountability/Responsibility list that you glance at every week during your Weekly Review. And, because the physical book is located in the appropriate context, you will see it regularly and be reminded that it contains a Next Action list, complete with bookmark, ready for you to get back to.
Don't forget how important a mind like water is to this process. If it feels like you're having to do too much work to make it work, take a second to consider whether you're feeling resistance because the "defining" work (in this case the creation of a Next Actions List & "reading system") has already been done.
I was profoundly moved by War and Peace, btw. I Highly recommend reading it.
*Note - I acknowledge that not everyone reads physical books these days. If that's you, and you also have a digital GTD system, which alters the context from a reading chair to anywhere you decide to read, then make a faux placeholder NA or Project in your digital system labeled, "Read War and Peace" which will prompt you to go to the book, where the book's chapter (NA) list and your bookmark will guide you to your actual Next Action. I do encourage you to consider reading the physical book in this particular case, though. It's quite an experience.
