I have many 1 week projects, what I discover was that I create a Week List that I call for Example WEEK 21 (this current week) and write in there the projects that need to be completed or that the deadline is this week. That way I just review this list everyday.

That is fast and works like a charm

NOTE: ONLY PUT IN THERE REAL DEADLINES, NO PERSONAL ONES

A few of us on the Yahoo! GTD_Palm group came up with a variation on GTD that helps a bit with this - the PigPog method.

http://pigpog.com/wiki/index.php/GTD_-_The_PigPog_Method

Rather than keeping a separate projects list, you stick the project on the end of the line for the action. Instead of ticking off the item, you edit the action part of it each time you complete an action. The item never vanishes from your action lists to be forgotten about until the next review.

It works well for computer-based lists, and MarkTAW put something similar together for paper users.

Sharing an approach that has worked for me, but with a caveat that I come from a Project Management background, so this may be too much rigor, but here goes:

I find that a "quick hit" project (a few days or a week) can often get hairy because we sometimes don't think of it as a project...many folks think "It's only a week, I'll just fit it into my day" and that's when the problems begin.

This is when I apply *MORE* project management rigor since I have a short runway -- and I've found the following principles helpful --

1. REDUCE YOUR MANAGEMENT TIMESCALE TO FIT THE PROJECT -- This means to view your days like "weeks" and do the same actions (but in a more compact and agile fashion) that you'd do for a 2 month project period -- schedule your project's tasks, dependencies and resources per day...this doesn't mean you need a PM package per se, but rather you "think" about it this way. This has helped me to actually recognize & re-schedule lower priority tasks, or delegate them.

2. GET THE LONG POLES IN THE TENT STARTED FIRST -- too often if you need input/decisions or other "content" from folks, they may not have as high an urgency as you do, and it can take them a day or two to return communications...start those threads as early as possible.

3. ADDRESS THE RISKIEST THINGS FIRST -- My former company provided technical infrastructure for large events, and we'd need to get a group of tasks done as a project in a few days or a week -- when we had to setup a 200 node IP-based phone system in a network environment that had limited capacity, we simulated tests on the network as if the phones were already installed IMMEDIATELY, and started surfacing & resolving issues a lot earlier than we'd normally have done, but it worked great.

Hope some of this is a help.

Sharing an approach that has worked for me, but with a caveat that I come from a Project Management background, so this may be too much rigor, but here goes:

I find that a "quick hit" project (a few days or a week) can often get hairy because we sometimes don't think of it as a project...many folks think "It's only a week, I'll just fit it into my day" and that's when the problems begin.

This is when I apply *MORE* project management rigor since I have a short runway -- and I've found the following principles helpful --

1. REDUCE YOUR MANAGEMENT TIMESCALE TO FIT THE PROJECT -- This means to view your days like "weeks" and do the same actions (but in a more compact and agile fashion) that you'd do for a 2 month project period -- schedule your project's tasks, dependencies and resources per day...this doesn't mean you need a PM package per se, but rather you "think" about it this way. This has helped me to actually recognize & re-schedule lower priority tasks, or delegate them.

2. GET THE LONG POLES IN THE TENT STARTED FIRST -- too often if you need input/decisions or other "content" from folks, they may not have as high an urgency as you do, and it can take them a day or two to return communications...start those threads as early as possible.

3. ADDRESS THE RISKIEST THINGS FIRST -- My former company provided technical infrastructure for large events, and we'd need to get a group of tasks done as a project in a few days or a week -- when we had to setup a 200 node IP-based phone system in a network environment that had limited capacity, we simulated tests on the network as if the phones were already installed IMMEDIATELY, and started surfacing & resolving issues a lot earlier than we'd normally have done, but it worked great.

Hope this helps.

That's a great view, and I just had a good example of its use without knowing it. My last (and fourth) weekly review was yesterday, and I must say that I haven't accomplished much this last week, but I feel great about what I'm not doing... I don't think about my other projects, because I know they are not forgotten, they just are less urgent face this big task that I have to get finished until Monday.

Of course, I was also able to profit from little strange time windows, when I got a new bracelet for my watch and finally got me a DSL connection. But the new Star Wars is on wait... :)

This is something that I struggle with, and means that one year after reading the book I have still not implemented GTD. I work on several concurent complex projects with lots of threaded e-mails with attachments and handwritten meeting notes that I need to keep as a permanent record. I find that my main action lists need to project views, with other lists of continuous tasks and one off actions by area of responsibility.

I know that you refer to project plans in the workflow diagram, but I find that these need to be the heart of the system rather than 'by context' action lists.

Another variation on the first comment is to have a list of Mid-Week Projects. This list would contain projects for which you know you will probably complete the next actions for and you will want to think of new next actions before your next weekly review. It functions like the @WaitingFor list in a way. It saves you from having to review your whole projects list during the week.

This is actually the biggest problem that I have had in getting a complete install of GTD as my LMS (Life Management System).

Prior to GTD, the biggest problem that I faced was keeping track of all the projects I was working on. I found that I would inevitably repeat many steps, as I wouldn't have a complete listing and organized reference materials for my projects, and waste a lot of my spare time. (As these tended to be personal projects, mostly writing projects, it wasn't catastrophic from a business perspective, but it definitely stung when I would locate a project folder weeks later with plans that I had redrafted.)

What was working for me was my next actions, at least for my major projects. I had three small 5 x 8 planners, that I used to house the next actions for the three main areas for my life: (1) a college student, (2) my schedule of appointments (as I make my living as a professional tutor); and (3) for my life -- which really equates into those things not covered by (1) or (2). I didn't really use a master schedule, as I just compared all three of the planners, and that was my daily schedule. My project plans would be housed somewhere else: either (at best) in file folders in my filing cabinet, somewhere on the computer, or (at worst) somewhere else I couldn't find.

After a while of using my LMS to "officially" track more and more of my life activities, I found that I did need a master calender. And I definitely agreed with GTD philosophy that only those things that are day specific and time specific ought to go on the calender. That made a lot of sense to me.

One thing, however, was especially difficult to implement in GTD was managing my school projects. For instance, with 250-300 pgs a week to read, you certainly can't tackle it as a single task. And, if you break it down to multiple tasks and put the tasks on Next Actions, to get to as soon as I can, you don't have the control to ensure that consistent progress is being made on a regular basis. This control requires more frequent review than once a week, during the weekly review.

Under GTD, you essentially have have two tiers of priority for daily action:

1. Calender Items
2. Next Actions

What I've found to handle these sorts of projects that are more flexible than the "set-in-stone" criteria for the calender, but require more control over the timeliness of the completion of the task, is to add a tier that is subordinate to Calender Items, but supercedes Next Actions. I call them Agenda Items, because they are things that I'm really trying to get done during that day. So for me, this is the order of priority of daily things to do:

1. Calender Items
2. Agenda Items
3. Next Actions

And this makes sense. For instance, if you need to get out to the stationery store to pick-up some bookends, this should go on your Next Actions list. And it shouldn't go on the sacred territory of the calender. And it shouldn't go an your Agenda Items (unless of course, it were absolutely crucial that you get those bookends in the next couple of days).

But if you have a project that you will be implementing on a daily basis, and regular chunks of progress must be ensured, then the tasks defined during your planning then go on your Agenda Items list, by day.

Essentially your Agenda Items List is another weekly calender w/o time slots. There's no reason under GTD you can't have more than one "calender," physically, anyway. As DA says, a calender is really just an action list with day and time slots. But one of your "calenders" must be the one that maintains the integrity of your "set-in-stone" time/day committments. Then you can use as many other weekly calenders as you need to manage your projects on the daily level to ensure consistent progress is made.

This is essentially what was working with my LMS of three 5x8 planners: I really had one time specific calender with my "set-in-stone" time commitments. And then I had day specific task lists that were flexible enough for one or two of the tasks to be put off til the next day, or for one or two of the tasks to get done early if I was feeling like taking the initiative.

What didn't fit into this system were the Next Actions: To do when I'm not doing other things, but still doing stuff. I agree with DA, to place something that really can be done anytime during the week on a particular day to do, really does weaken the integrity of the system. And although he was referring to the calender when he mentioned this, I think it applies to this daily Agenda Items Lists as well. Running non-pressing errands really ought to go on Next Actions.

Overall, then, I've found the following things not entirely appropriate for the Calender and Action Lists and found them to fit quite well on my Agenda Items Lists:

- Tasks for projects that you want to control on a sub-weekly level (i.e. daily and bi-daily, etc.);
- "A" Priority things that have to get done in the next couple days, but not at any particular day or time.
- Any "B" or lower priority things that have sat on the Next Actions list for a week or so that during your Weekly Review you have determined you want to make sure you get rid of during the next week, and want to bump-up their priority and ensure they get your attention before you go onto the Next Actions lists.

This has helped me tremendously. I'm currently in the process of getting this fully implemented, but I am confident once fully actualized, my LMS will have all the strengths of GTD and my "three 5x8 planners" system, I used previously.

I hope this helps.

This is actually the biggest problem that I have had in getting a complete install of GTD as my LMS (Life Management System).

Prior to GTD, the biggest problem that I faced was keeping track of all the projects I was working on. I found that I would inevitably repeat many steps, as I wouldn't have a complete listing and organized reference materials for my projects, and waste a lot of my spare time. (As these tended to be personal projects, mostly writing projects, it wasn't catastrophic from a business perspective, but it definitely stung when I would locate a project folder weeks later with plans that I had redrafted.)

What was working for me was my next actions, at least for my major projects. I had three small 5 x 8 planners, that I used to house the next actions for the three main areas for my life: (1) a college student, (2) my schedule of appointments (as I make my living as a professional tutor); and (3) for my life -- which really equates into those things not covered by (1) or (2). I didn't really use a master schedule, as I just compared all three of the planners, and that was my daily schedule. My project plans would be housed somewhere else: either (at best) in file folders in my filing cabinet, somewhere on the computer, or (at worst) somewhere else I couldn't find.

After a while of using my LMS to "officially" track more and more of my life activities, I found that I did need a master calender. And I definitely agreed with GTD philosophy that only those things that are day specific and time specific ought to go on the calender. That made a lot of sense to me.

One thing, however, was especially difficult to implement in GTD was managing my school projects. For instance, with 250-300 pgs a week to read, you certainly can't tackle it as a single task. And, if you break it down to multiple tasks and put the tasks on Next Actions, to get to as soon as I can, you don't have the control to ensure that consistent progress is being made on a regular basis. This control requires more frequent review than once a week, during the weekly review.

Under GTD, you essentially have have two tiers of priority for daily action:

1. Calender Items

2. Next Actions

What I've found to handle these sorts of projects that are more flexible than the "set-in-stone" criteria for the calender, but require more control over the timeliness of the completion of the task, is to add a tier that is subordinate to Calender Items, but supercedes Next Actions. I call them Agenda Items, because they are things that I'm really trying to get done during that day. So for me, this is the order of priority of daily things to do:

1. Calender Items

2. Agenda Items

3. Next Actions

And this makes sense. For instance, if you need to get out to the stationery store to pick-up some bookends, this should go on your Next Actions list. And it shouldn't go on the sacred territory of the calender. And it shouldn't go an your Agenda Items (unless of course, it were absolutely crucial that you get those bookends in the next couple of days).

But if you have a project that you will be implementing on a daily basis, and regular chunks of progress must be ensured, then the tasks defined during your planning then go on your Agenda Items list, by day.

Essentially your Agenda Items List is another weekly calender w/o time slots. There's no reason under GTD you can't have more than one "calender," physically, anyway. As DA says, a calender is really just an action list with day and time slots. But one of your "calenders" must be the one that maintains the integrity of your "set-in-stone" time/day committments. Then you can use as many other weekly calenders as you need to manage your projects on the daily level to ensure consistent progress is made.

This is essentially what was working with my LMS of three 5x8 planners: I really had one time specific calender with my "set-in-stone" time commitments. And then I had day specific task lists that were flexible enough for one or two of the tasks to be put off til the next day, or for one or two of the tasks to get done early if I was feeling like taking the initiative.

What didn't fit into this system were the Next Actions: To do when I'm not doing other things, but still doing stuff. I agree with DA, to place something that really can be done anytime during the week on a particular day to do, really does weaken the integrity of the system. And although he was referring to the calender when he mentioned this, I think it applies to this daily Agenda Items Lists as well. Running non-pressing errands really ought to go on Next Actions.

Overall, then, I've found the following things not entirely appropriate for the Calender and Action Lists and found them to fit quite well on my Agenda Items Lists:

- Tasks for projects that you want to control on a sub-weekly level (i.e. daily and bi-daily, etc.);

- "A" Priority things that have to get done in the next couple days, but not at any particular day or time.

- Any "B" or lower priority things that have sat on the Next Actions list for a week or so that during your Weekly Review you have determined you want to make sure you get rid of during the next week, and want to bump-up their priority and ensure they get your attention before you go onto the Next Actions lists.

This has helped me tremendously. I'm currently in the process of getting this fully implemented, but I am confident once fully actualized, my LMS will have all the strengths of GTD and my "three 5x8 planners" system, I used previously. And hopefully, then, a truly seamless system.

I hope this helps.

hiii