I am looking for some advice and suggestions on a plan I am putting together to follow, this is taken from several different sources I have found that I feel will work for me. So feel free to comment,make suggestions. Thanks for your time in advance.
(note this is the old version)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pTH2Zlc2iQ0AMxk3xU8nAAU3AXQM5FliSe3NjoFyPKI/edit?usp=sharing
A link to the new updated, simplified version is in a later post if interested.
Hi Lisa,
That was an interesting read. I seems you plan to follow GTD closely and have also chosen to adopt some of my "dirty tricks" and workarounds for Doit. Here are some initial comments:
1. Although DA emphasizes the various stages in collecting, processing etc, and although I agree with that distinction at an intellectual level, and although I even do it like that when under time pressure (just collect, but process later) I think that in practice it is very often more practical (for me, anyway) do to it all in one fell swoop. And all the talking DA does about about getting "in" to zero, empty your mind etc, is something that I think is best to be doing constantly, not just during weekly reviews.
2. Daily reviews and weekly review and "seldom" review (say every 4 months):
I have repeating tasks set up for these reviews, and they contain a checklist for exactly what I want to look at during that particular kind of review. Although it is maybe kind of obvious and I know it by heart, I still find it comforting to have a checklist. (For example, I check my Waiting For list every day, but only the red and blue priorities unless I have an awful lot of time.)
3. I agree that it is best to stay away from hard scheduling (unless the date is objectively true). It is better to use red priority for things that you really cannot afford to overlook these next few days. Setting dates, and constantly changing them, is not only a lot of unnecessary work. What is worse is that these tasks then camouflage the few tasks that actually do have real hard dates and make them difficult to see.
4. About my workarounds:
- I have not intentionally recommended an "AoR project" to be used for Reference.
- when you select new relevant project tasks - previously subsequent/dependent tasks - from Someday NoPriority, you also need to move them to the appropriate "box" (usually Next, but sometimes Waiting or even Scheduled or Someday or Trash etc). The Someday/NoPriority is just a half-convenient in-app substitute for having these tasks in the external "project support materials" as per "paper GTD". They are not actually Someday tasks.
That was an interesting read. I seems you plan to follow GTD closely and have also chosen to adopt some of my "dirty tricks" and workarounds for Doit. Here are some initial comments:
1. Although DA emphasizes the various stages in collecting, processing etc, and although I agree with that distinction at an intellectual level, and although I even do it like that when under time pressure (just collect, but process later) I think that in practice it is very often more practical (for me, anyway) do to it all in one fell swoop. And all the talking DA does about about getting "in" to zero, empty your mind etc, is something that I think is best to be doing constantly, not just during weekly reviews.
2. Daily reviews and weekly review and "seldom" review (say every 4 months):
I have repeating tasks set up for these reviews, and they contain a checklist for exactly what I want to look at during that particular kind of review. Although it is maybe kind of obvious and I know it by heart, I still find it comforting to have a checklist. (For example, I check my Waiting For list every day, but only the red and blue priorities unless I have an awful lot of time.)
3. I agree that it is best to stay away from hard scheduling (unless the date is objectively true). It is better to use red priority for things that you really cannot afford to overlook these next few days. Setting dates, and constantly changing them, is not only a lot of unnecessary work. What is worse is that these tasks then camouflage the few tasks that actually do have real hard dates and make them difficult to see.
4. About my workarounds:
- I have not intentionally recommended an "AoR project" to be used for Reference.
- when you select new relevant project tasks - previously subsequent/dependent tasks - from Someday NoPriority, you also need to move them to the appropriate "box" (usually Next, but sometimes Waiting or even Scheduled or Someday or Trash etc). The Someday/NoPriority is just a half-convenient in-app substitute for having these tasks in the external "project support materials" as per "paper GTD". They are not actually Someday tasks.
