GTD and Academia

[Dr. Eric Durbrow Ph.D.]

Can someone share a sample of their GTD next actions? This would be
helpful because one of the keys of getting the most out of GTD is
setting Next Actions at the right scale (not too small and not too
big). My impression from my academic colleagues is that they tend to
have Next Actions that are set too big (e.g. "revise manuscript").
Thanks!

[terraa...@gmail.com]

Yes, "revise manuscript" as a task item certainly falls into
cringe-worthy territory :-).

I am far from advanced or stable in my GTD implementation, so slather
anything I say in this regard with a heavy helping of caveat. However,
here are a couple of discoveries I've made that may be helpful to
others:

1. The only times I've been truly successful in plowing through a
mega-task such as "revise manuscript" in anything close to a setting
have been when what "revise manuscript" *means* have been made quite
explicit. I guess I could say I do and don't make NAs for this - I
don't in the sense that I rarely add this to my regular NA lists (which
I keep on the Palm) unless they're very very few (otherwise I find my
lists get too long and unwieldy and overwhelming and I have difficulty
self-managing under those circumstances). I *do* in the sense that
I'll make a section-by-section outline (I'm primarily windows-based
right now, and often use Ecco Pro for this) of the
article/paper/report/whatever and detail out what's between the
paper-as-is and the paper-as-it-needs-to-be for its next step on the
journey (submission, resubmission, review by chair or another
colleague, etc.) Some of these will be fairly complete NAs in and of
themselves - e.g., "Tighten up this paragraph," "add more cites on
___." Others will prompt for me things intermediary steps that need to
happen - get more info on X, decide about Y, ask Z for input on how
well this frame works, etc.

2. Despite what that sounds like, I'm not as meticulous as I could or
should be about breaking everything I do down into micro-NAs. I do get
there when I realize that I'm procrastinating or having difficulty
getting my head around what I need to be doing. Otherwise, unless this
need presents, I tend to break things down into slightly chunkier
levels. Informally, I think I have a model in my head similar to the
lingo used by a dim sum restaurant I used to frequent - they organized
things by "nibbles," "small eats," and "big eats." I don't try to
avoid "big eat"-sized tasks entirely, because I know there's some
things it helps to just give myself space to immerse into the thought
process of the task. But recognizing when things *can* be considered a
nibble or snack is good, too - then I can play games with myself, such
as alternating between big eats and small eats, setting a timer for
knocking out nibbles, etc.

--Shelby

[Dr. Eric Durbrow Ph.D.]

I wonder if viewing the revised ms as an outline (in Word, etc) and
then listing the tasks under each problematic section would help. Of
course, if tasks involve re-analysis of data or reading another
article it is still easy to procrastinate. Below is great. Other
ideas for GTD and revision.