All my tasks are really projects

[rpmu...@gmail.com]

Still doing GTD, and still loving it. I've made noticeable improvements
in my productivity, and really love the system. However, when I look
closely at my system, I realize that all of my tasks are really
projects. In reality, each of my projects should have several
subprojects, and these should have all of the next actions.

When I try to stop doing this, I'm finding a lot of internal
resistance. One of the things I'm afraid of is that if I really put
down true next actions, I'll have too many of them, or I'll spend all
of my time looking at my projects list trying to decide what's next. I
realize that these are all irrational, illogical worries.

I'm sure other people encountered similar internal resistance to true
Next Actions. How did everyone else handle it?

[tommyw]

It's a problem alright. When you have a lot of projects and a
corresponding amount of NA.

When the monkey brain is engaged, when a really dumb NA is all you have
to do, oh productivity goes right the way up there. Give it a go,
don't hold back.

A couple of things might help. Stephen Covey's approach where you try
to identify Important and Not Urgent actions can help you prioritise
between your various projects. You can start your week looking at all
your projects and then focus on the priority ones.

You might need someone else to tell you. The Kinkless GTD approach
currently sweeping OOP lovers off their feet has a latest template that
gives you its list of your next actions. It'll go through your
projects and actions and pull a set of them out for you.

[Deb]

From: rpmu...@gmail.com

>>When I try to stop doing this, I'm finding a lot of internal
resistance. One of the things I'm afraid of is that if I really put down
true next actions, I'll have too many of them, or I'll spend all of my
time looking at my projects list trying to decide what's next. I realize
that these are all irrational, illogical worries.<<

Do you use a Someday/Maybe list, and should any of your projects be on
there instead of your active list? Even if your answer's no, it may be
that once you lay out how many active projects you have, pure sanity
(and lacking that, self-defense) will tell you that some of them
*should* be moved to your S/M list. :)

Cheers,
Deb

[rpmu...@gmail.com]

Thanks. It was actually the Kinkless GTD approach that made me realize
that my current system was bad.

[rpmu...@gmail.com]

I think that's exactly right -- many of my actions should indeed be on
the S/M list. I guess I had hesitated to do that because I worried that
I would never do any of those items, but I think you're right.

[Deb]

>>I think that's exactly right -- many of my actions should indeed be on
the S/M list. I guess I had hesitated to do that because I worried that
I would never do any of those items, but I think you're right.<<

Personally, I find that the more regularly I do the weekly reviews, the
more trusting I become of that list. Whereas, before, yes, it felt like
exiling projects to Siberia. :)

Maybe setting up random reminders in your tickler file to check your S/M
list would make you feel more comfortable about starting to use it?

Cheers,
Deb

[Chris Lott]

On 10/4/05, rpmu...@gmail.com <rpmu...@gmail.com> wrote:

> When I try to stop doing this, I'm finding a lot of internal
> resistance. One of the things I'm afraid of is that if I really put
> down true next actions, I'll have too many of them, or I'll spend all
> of my time looking at my projects list trying to decide what's next. I
> realize that these are all irrational, illogical worries.

I have struggled with similar apprehension. For me, I finally
recognized that it wasn't the number of NAs that was worrying me-- as
you said, that is irrational, since the number doesn't change through
listing them-- but a question of granularity. It felt like if I opened
Pandora's box that way, breaking all the tasks into subtasks and
further subtasks that it would never stop. In that scenario, the
number DOES increase and it gets a little terrifying :) I had to have
some faith that the natural impulse which allows us to choose a next
action also curbs this tendency... and (happily) it does.

c
--
Chris Lott

[Brian Glick]

I've found that effectively managing my contexts really helps me feel
under control with hundreds of different next actions to choose from.

While staring at my list, I'll ask questions (often subconsiously) to
drill down to a sub-set of my actions.

For example,

Where am I... (Work)
What tools are available to me (Email, Phone)
What people are available to me (none)
What level of complexity am I able to handle right now (not much)

Now I've only got 4 or 5 things that fit all of those criteria, so I
just pick one and do it.

[JoshD]

I was writing a short reply to this thread. Then it got out of control.
:)

I stuck it here:
http://metacarpal.net/blog/archives/2005/10/05/someday-display/ because
it's just unwieldy long.

Cheers,
Josh

[rpmu...@gmail.com]

[rpmu...@gmail.com]