When should I date next-action tasks?

[Juniordesouza]

Hey guys

I recently finished reading GTD, and I had a question about whether we should set a date for the next actions.

I have been processing the inbox tasks and putting date on all next actions. Obviously, we all have a lot more tasks than we can do, but I've been finishing my days without being able to complete part of those tasks that I put a date on, feeling unproductive for not being able to complete all the tasks I planned for that day.

What am I doing is correct? When should I put a date for the next actions?

 

[ivanjay205]

Hey guys

I recently finished reading GTD, and I had a question about whether we should set a date for the next actions.

I have been processing the inbox tasks and putting date on all next actions. Obviously, we all have a lot more tasks than we can do, but I've been finishing my days without being able to complete part of those tasks that I put a date on, feeling unproductive for not being able to complete all the tasks I planned for that day.

What am I doing is correct? When should I put a date for the next actions?

Congrats on finishing GTD, after reading the book it takes lots of practice to really get it down! Specific to your question, no you should absolutely not put due dates in your system. If you do that you will become numb to them as they are meaningless. If something has a firm due Date it belongs on your calendar to ensure you have time allocated.

What I personally do is lets say I have a due date in 3 weeks. I can do that Next Action between now and 3 weeks out. It will live on my Next Action List with a due date and the week before it is still not done I move it to my calendar. This Way I have flexibility until I am out of time and I dont. Some people would argue put it on your calendar initially regardless.

In GTD you want to use contexts, time, and energy as your criteria to choose your next action. As long as you use your someday/maybe list appropriately you will not be overwhelmed and your mind will guide you to the right next action at the right time.

The beauty of this is when plans shift, an emergency comes up, something in your personal life changes. With due dates you would be redoing your entire system. With GTD it is all neatly parked ready for you when you can return to it.

In my role, as an owner in a business, it helps me all of the time. My days can go sideways on me, but I rarely feel overwhelmed and I know what needs to get done when from a priority standpoint.

 

[mcogilvie]

Hey guys

I recently finished reading GTD, and I had a question about whether we should set a date for the next actions.

I have been processing the inbox tasks and putting date on all next actions. Obviously, we all have a lot more tasks than we can do, but I've been finishing my days without being able to complete part of those tasks that I put a date on, feeling unproductive for not being able to complete all the tasks I planned for that day.

What am I doing is correct? When should I put a date for the next actions?

Unrealistic expectations are often productivity killers, and putting artificial or arbitrary due dates on next actions is often a problem. GTD emphasizes the use of due dates which are real: the project must finish, the license must be renewed. Sometimes it is useful to have milestone deadlines, such as “Part 1 finished by June 1.” This is helpful if you realize that failure to hit the target is not a failure but a wake-up call. Most people don’t need dates on most projects and next actions. Plans change, accidents happen, priorities shift. Sometimes we forget to take credit and be happy with what did get done because we obsess over what didn’t. I like the distinction Eisenhower supposedly made between plans and planning. Any single plan is unlikely to be followed, but planning looks at the entire landscape of possibilities and prepares us to be flexible and resilient. David Allen wrote an excellent book titled “Ready for Anything” that explains a lot of the ideas behind GTD.

 

[Juniordesouza]

Ivan, thank you very much for your reply.

So should I remove the dates of the next actions and sort them by priority to know which ones I do first?

Congrats on finishing GTD, after reading the book it takes lots of practice to really get it down! Specific to your question, no you should absolutely not put due dates in your system. If you do that you will become numb to them as they are meaningless. If something has a firm due Date it belongs on your calendar to ensure you have time allocated.

What I personally do is lets say I have a due date in 3 weeks. I can do that Next Action between now and 3 weeks out. It will live on my Next Action List with a due date and the week before it is still not done I move it to my calendar. This Way I have flexibility until I am out of time and I dont. Some people would argue put it on your calendar initially regardless.

In GTD you want to use contexts, time, and energy as your criteria to choose your next action. As long as you use your someday/maybe list appropriately you will not be overwhelmed and your mind will guide you to the right next action at the right time.

The beauty of this is when plans shift, an emergency comes up, something in your personal life changes. With due dates you would be redoing your entire system. With GTD it is all neatly parked ready for you when you can return to it.

In my role, as an owner in a business, it helps me all of the time. My days can go sideways on me, but I rarely feel overwhelmed and I know what needs to get done when from a priority standpoint.

 

[TesTeq]

So should I remove the dates of the next actions and sort them by priority to know which ones I do first?

@Juniordesouza Yes, remove as many dates as you can. You can sort Next Actions by priority but it can be tricky since your priorities may change sooner than you think. In GTD we prioritize on the fly when we browse the @context list. Optionally – in the morning – you can flag the actions you really, really want to do today.

 

[ivanjay205]

Ivan, thank you very much for your reply.

So should I remove the dates of the next actions and sort them by priority to know which ones I do first?

What system are you using? I use Omnifocus but I think understanding the system might help. You dont want to sort at all, I know that sounds crazy but just me.

The idea is to figure out a series of contexts that work well for you. They might be tool based (@computer, @home, @office) or they might be more mood style (@Quick hits, @Focus Work, @Hanging Around). My recommendation is to start with tool based as it is the most literal out of the book and easier to get your hands around it. I dont know what your work/home life situation but lets say your contexts are:

@Computer
@Home
@Office
@Calls

And let's say your tool lets you put in durations of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour. And Energy levels of Low, Medium, High

What I would do is select my most limiting factor first. So let's say I am about to hop in the car, I would quickly have a "perspective" or "view" in my tool that lets me see calls. I can do this while driving, make a call and hit the road.

Let's say I am behind a Computer, I would narrow down my choices by entering my @Computer context. Now I might have 20 next actions in there.... What is the next most limiting factor. If I only have 15 minutes between meeting by selecting 15 minutes I can grab any next action that is 15 minutes or less. If I am in a high energy mode I can grab high energy to see all my actions, if I am lazy, low energy and filter out those more complex ones.

By using the tool, time, and energy level criteria your tool should narrow down your focus.

Now, when you get a bit more advanced if you work and home life require majority computer time (mine does and many knowledge workers have this issue) you will need to break up that computer context somehow. But that is only once you get a bit more advanced in my opinion.

 

[Juniordesouza]

Que sistema voce está usando? Eu uso o Omnifocus, mas acho que entender o sistema pode ajudar. Você não quer resolver nada, eu sei que parece loucura, mas só eu.

A ideia é descobrir uma série de contextos que funcionam bem para você. Eles podem ser baseados em ferramentas (@computer, @home, @office) ou podem ser mais estilo de humor (@Quick hits, @Focus Work, @Hanging Around). Minha recomendação é começar com base em ferramentas, pois é o mais literal do livro e mais fácil de entender. Não sei qual é a sua situação de trabalho/vida doméstica, mas digamos que seus contextos sejam:

@Computador
@Lar
@Escritório
@Chamadas

E digamos que sua ferramenta permita que você coloque durações de 15 minutos, 30 minutos, 1 hora. E níveis de energia de baixo, médio, alto

O que eu faria é selecionar meu fator mais limitante primeiro. Então, digamos que estou prestes a entrar no carro, teria rapidamente uma "perspectiva" ou "visão" em minha ferramenta que me permite ver as chamadas. Posso fazer isso enquanto dirijo, faço uma ligação e pego a estrada.

Digamos que eu esteja atrás de um computador, eu restringiria minhas escolhas inserindo meu contexto @Computer. Agora eu posso ter 20 próximas ações lá... Qual é o próximo fator mais limitante. Se eu tiver apenas 15 minutos entre as reuniões, selecionando 15 minutos, posso pegar qualquer próxima ação que seja de 15 minutos ou menos. Se estou em um modo de alta energia, posso obter alta energia para ver todas as minhas ações, se sou preguiçoso, baixo a energia e filtro aquelas mais complexas.

Ao usar os critérios de ferramenta, tempo e nível de energia, sua ferramenta deve restringir seu foco.

Agora, quando você ficar um pouco mais avançado, se o trabalho e a vida doméstica exigirem a maior parte do tempo do computador (o meu exige e muitos trabalhadores do conhecimento têm esse problema), você precisará interromper esse contexto do computador de alguma forma. Mas isso é apenas quando você fica um pouco mais avançado na minha opinião.

Today im using the app THINGS: https://apps.apple.com/br/app/things-3/id904237743

I am a business owner I work both in the office and at home.

Today I divide my tasks into the following contexts:

@Office;
@Home;
@Computer:
@In the street;
@Anywhere

So far I don't use energy level, today I wouldn't know how to work that way because most of the time I'm willing to do any task.
As I do 90% of my tasks on the computer, the @Computer context is useless.
I would need to find a way to organize my priorities without this "pressure" of deadlines or maybe find another way to classify tasks.
Let's see if following the way I classify today I can work productively.

 

[Gardener]

What am I doing is correct? When should I put a date for the next actions?

In the sense that you mean, I only use dates if there's a full-tilt deadline, like taxes are due or I need to do that thing for that already-planned party.

I say "in the sense that you mean" because in OmniFocus I put future Start Dates on things to hide them. But I more often move things I don't want to see to some form of Someday/Maybe--my goal is to have no more than a few days' worth of tasks active and visible.

 

[TesTeq]

I would need to find a way to organize my priorities without this "pressure" of deadlines or maybe find another way to classify tasks.

@Juniordesouza In Things you can use "Today" for top priority tasks without assigning specific dates to them. During your daily review (in the morning or in the evening of the previous day) you assign "Today" to each action that has top priority.

 

[ivanjay205]

Today im using the app THINGS: https://apps.apple.com/br/app/things-3/id904237743

I am a business owner I work both in the office and at home.

Today I divide my tasks into the following contexts:

@Office;
@Home;
@Computer:
@In the street;
@Anywhere

So far I don't use energy level, today I wouldn't know how to work that way because most of the time I'm willing to do any task.
As I do 90% of my tasks on the computer, the @Computer context is useless.
I would need to find a way to organize my priorities without this "pressure" of deadlines or maybe find another way to classify tasks.
Let's see if following the way I classify today I can work productively.

I had this same struggle and here is what I did. To make my life simpler I created a series of contexts that let me prioritize based on time, location, and energy all at the same time. My contexts are:

• Calls/Texts
• Focus Work (high energy, longer duration of time)
• Hanging Around (when my lazy mode kicks in, stuff I can get done while watching tv on the couch etc.)
• Home
• Office
• Quick Hits (for things I can do in between meetings, these are typically independent next actions not part of a bigger series of things I need to do together and that are just a few minutes to knock out, longer than 2 minute rule, but shorter than 15 minutes)
• Review (for things I need to review otherwise they hold others up, in my position this happens often so I try to keep this empty)
• Shopping/Errands

This list works really really really well for me. If there is something I can only do at home or the office I place it in either of those. So they are typically not computer related work as that is anywhere. Everything else lets me shift by energy and time. So if I have an hour and am highly engaged I will jump into focus work. If I have 10 minutes between meetings I go to Quick Hits. I try to prioritize review on a daily basis.

 

[dtj]

Coupla contexts you might add. @Investigate or @Research for things that you could casually look into. More aspirational than hard core. Also, while it gets close to energy levels, I have @braindead for things that I can do that don't require much mental engagement. That could be when you're mentally toast, but wanna get some stuff done. Think things like tagging photos, or sorting whatever (bills, etc). It can also be times when you're only partially engaged in conference calls.

 

[schmeggahead]

I recently finished reading GTD, and I had a question about whether we should set a date for the next actions.

I have been processing the inbox tasks and putting date on all next actions.

I believe I discovered why there are those who advocate for asking a clarifying question about a request for advice before responding directly to a question. I needed clarity a confirming question would have given in this case.

I must be so averse to adding target dates to tasks that aren't required that it didn't occur to me it was happening.
All of the posts above by those who understood your question are great answers.

However, I thought @Juniordesouza, you were adding a "date added" information (like I do to waiting for's) rather than an actual due date.

And that made me curious about what benefit there would be in doing that, not as a due date but a sort of created date. Seeing all of those old dates on incomplete tasks might have the same effect as your experience with actual due dates.

Still, adding the information date to Waiting for's is really effective. Create dates on next actions might be useful (they wouldn't turn red, yelling at me like due dates) because I would know those next actions (with old dates) I have skipped over doing lots of times. Maybe they need fresh wording or they aren't really the next physical visible action.

Every additional step adds drag to my system so I am hesitant to add something where the effort to do it is greater than the payoff.

Thoughts?
Clayton.

Give rights to others that you want others to give to you.

 

[ivanjay205]

I believe I discovered why there are those who advocate for asking a clarifying question about a request for advice before responding directly to a question. I needed clarity a confirming question would have given in this case.

I must be so averse to adding target dates to tasks that aren't required that it didn't occur to me it was happening.
All of the posts above by those who understood your question are great answers.

However, I thought @Juniordesouza, you were adding a "date added" information (like I do to waiting for's) rather than an actual due date.

And that made me curious about what benefit there would be in doing that, not as a due date but a sort of created date. Seeing all of those old dates on incomplete tasks might have the same effect as your experience with actual due dates.

Still, adding the information date to Waiting for's is really effective. Create dates on next actions might be useful (they wouldn't turn red, yelling at me like due dates) because I would know those next actions (with old dates) I have skipped over doing lots of times. Maybe they need fresh wording or they aren't really the next physical visible action.

Every additional step adds drag to my system so I am hesitant to add something where the effort to do it is greater than the payoff.

Thoughts?
Clayton.

Give rights to others that you want others to give to you.

I add dates to all of my waiting for actions. This way I can have visibility into how long I have been waiting for them. Helps me keep track of when to nudge others to get it moving

 

[René Lie]

I believe I discovered why there are those who advocate for asking a clarifying question about a request for advice before responding directly to a question. I needed clarity a confirming question would have given in this case.

I must be so averse to adding target dates to tasks that aren't required that it didn't occur to me it was happening.
All of the posts above by those who understood your question are great answers.

However, I thought @Juniordesouza, you were adding a "date added" information (like I do to waiting for's) rather than an actual due date.

And that made me curious about what benefit there would be in doing that, not as a due date but a sort of created date. Seeing all of those old dates on incomplete tasks might have the same effect as your experience with actual due dates.

Still, adding the information date to Waiting for's is really effective. Create dates on next actions might be useful (they wouldn't turn red, yelling at me like due dates) because I would know those next actions (with old dates) I have skipped over doing lots of times. Maybe they need fresh wording or they aren't really the next physical visible action.

Every additional step adds drag to my system so I am hesitant to add something where the effort to do it is greater than the payoff.

Thoughts?
Clayton.

Give rights to others that you want others to give to you.

I too add a "date added" on my waiting for as recommended in the book, which I think add value.

For other tasks, I don't. If I'm curious to see how long a task has been sitting idle, I can go into the task details in Asana, and it shows om the bottom (along with when it was edited - usually when clarified and organized out of my mind sweep list and into a context list).
For waiting for items, this is a bit too tedious for me...

 

[cfoley]

I date stamp my Waiting Fors with created date because it helps me decide whether to follow up.

I also date stamp my projects on creation and completion. I don't really have a good reason but it is something I like to do.

 

[René Lie]

I also date stamp my projects on creation and completion. I don't really have a good reason but it is something I like to do.

This could be useful for a year end review; nice to see how many projects you created an completed over the course of a year!

 

[schmeggahead]

I also date stamp my projects on creation and completion. I don't really have a good reason but it is something I like to do.

When I review projects, I date stamp the update for that review date in addition to start and completion.
Clayton

For one step and then the next gets you where you are going.

 

[Chas29]

As I do 90% of my tasks on the computer, the @Computer context is useless.
I would need to find a way to organize my priorities without this "pressure" of deadlines or maybe find another way to classify tasks.
Let's see if following the way I classify today I can work productively.

Perhaps you could break down your @Computer context further, to make it useful.

For example, maybe you could have:

@Computer (email)
@Computer (business)
@Computer (personal time)

And then each category would be maybe 30% each, instead of having @Computer be 90%.

 

[John Forrister]

Adding the date you start a Waiting For is helpful. And add a due date only if something will blow up if the waiting for doesn't show up in time.

Adding due dates to tasks or projects that don't actually have hard due dates is ultimately unproductive. I suggest try it for a while and note how often you miss or move the due date. I like to think I know my priorities way in advance. In reality, too much new input changes my priorities for fake due dates to be useful. Regularly reviewing my lists after clarifying my inboxes to zero is more helpful. I want to pretend that I can predict and control next week, when the reality is that last week changed in ways I did not foresee two weeks ago. Next week is already in motion and I can identify elements that will re-prioritize my attention.

 

[schmeggahead]

Adding due dates to tasks or projects that don't actually have hard due dates is ultimately unproductive

Whenever I have done this, it has been way too much stress and muddied the hard landscape of my day.

I do have a need to hide certain options for a while (e.g. I know I want to do them but my workload says I should delay acting for a bit closer to the when it will start impacting). For this, I use a form of a tickler system. I have a list in my NA called Tickler. All items in this list have dates on them. The day they pop up, I do the equivalent of tossing them into my inbox for some, or put them straight into the context where they can be done. I always strip the date from the NA in this situation.

NA that I use this method for are things like: Complete winterize the house & pool house checklist, Complete spring checklist, etc. )

So really, I'm only putting a due date to pull them out of tickler, not the actual due date.
Clayton.

When people travel to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small.
Few people think that they can radically change the future by doing something small in the present.