How do you link actions to Areas of Responsibilities

[Conejo23]

I realize that the most obvious connection will be thru projects, but that has two issues that I can see.

First, how do you cleanly get a view of your AORs and the projects tied to them? Most systems I've seen don’t have overt linkages between projects and AORs.

Second, not all actions belong to projects, some are just single actions that tie directly to an AOR and not a project. An example of this would be “Run 5 miles today”. I’m not doing that to further a project, but because one of my AORs is Building and maintaining optimum health.

It would be cool to be able to see actions not just by project or context but also by AOR. This is an area of my life that is important to me, now what have I structured and planned to move it along?

Just wondering how others tie in this level (and the higher ones) with their projects and actions.

[GTDWorks]

I word the Action or Project in such a way as I know it ties in to the particular AOF.

[sdann]

I assign projects and single actions to about 6 categories/topics, which are groupings of my areas of focus. I have done this for years, even pre-GTD, to make certain I always have something going in each area. For example I try to make certain I have actions/projects in business development as well as financial. Once I began GTD, I slowly began renaming the categories to encompass groupings of my AoFs, once I realized I could use them in this way. It's an extra step, but the rest of my GTD system is really basic and simple.

[Brent]

You don't have to explicitly link them. If you look at an action called "Run 5 miles," it should be clear whether that's part of "Maintain a Healthy Body" or "Maintain the House," right? ;-)

If you're concerned that some Areas of Focus may not get enough attention, one part of the Monthly Review is to check each Area of Focus to ensure you have enough Projects/NAs to adequately support it.

Of course, you certainly can maintain an explicit link, using a tool or a tag or some such.

[Oogiem]

First, how do you cleanly get a view of your AORs and the projects tied to them?

I look at the left sidebar in Omnifocus when I am in projects mode with a perspective of all active projects visible and all the folders set to show everything. My top level folders are my areas of focus so I can easily see if I have projects or single actions in each one. I can also easily see that I have too many projects in one area and then decide to put some back into someday/maybe.

For an action like Run 5 miles today that would be under a project called Cardio Workouts or something similar in my Personal Development area of focus so it would be in a project, just a repeating task.

[GTDWorks]

Oogie:

Could you capture a screen shot of that for those of us using OF?

[Conejo23]

Brent....yes, when I look at THAT task I know to what it relates. But what I was looking for was a way to do what Oogie describes below, visually identify what projects and tasks belong to which AORs. I posted about this on the OmniFocus forums, as well, and someone there had the same idea that Oogie has, to make a separate project folder for each AOR, then within that also create a single action list for each AOR as well. Now I can look at all those folders and see how many projects I have for each. I’m going to try that and see how it goes.

[Oogiem]

Could you capture a screen shot of that for those of us using OF?

Here are 2 partial ones. I have enough stuff that it goes for longer than a screen or 2. First 2 show my more normal viewing mode, last is the top level folders only

[humblepie]

i mainly use my ipod touch for planning and here's an article mainly center on how u match area of responsibility to tasks and actions >>

How to plan for big projects and its sub-projects (http://www.productiveorganizer.com/to-do-list/gtd-series-how-to-plan-for-projects-and-sub-projects/)

Basically, i can create big lists for the Area of Responsibility and in these list i can have subprojects or tasks or checlists for them. So it works out well.

[GTDWorks]

Thanks, Oogie. Your set up is amazing! I can certainly see why OmniFocus is so helpful to you.

[angie]

Yes! I agree! For me, it's crucial to be able to link in my AOR's with my projects and actions. I use Outlook and my system is simple but works: I use the projects feild to enter an AOR (from a simple drop down menu) and then I use the subproject feild to enter an actual individual project title.

This way I can pull up all my projects under a certain AOR, and of course pull up any actions under each project. Works for me. I wish, of course, that the Outlook add-on (which I otherwise LOVE) already had a prevision for an AOR entry, but... this gets the job done.

Angie

[Cpu_Modern]

Keeping my Projects-list sorted by categories is all I do. Those categories are akin to what sdann wrote. When starting GTD I used to be all neat-picky about having projects sorted by AoF but sson realised: the best projects support multiple AoFs. After a while you tend to get every major area going (the melting of the glaciers, the ice age is over a new era of GTD has begun..), than the need to see every project attached to every area is gone too.

[Senol]

And how do you guys do this in a paper version?

[Oogiem]

the best projects support multiple AoFs.

Agreed.

But in my world there is still a major primary AoF that each project relates to so when I have projects that span several I put them where the most actions are going to happen.

[Brent]

And how do you guys do this in a paper version?

Some examples from my @Home list:


Pull out box of Christmas cards (mail out all Christmas cards)
Grab bottle of Clorox spray (clean bathrooms)
Crack open Japanese language book and study for a few minutes (finish Japanese language book)


I don't normally connect NAs to Projects, but that's how I do it when I need to. Those are good examples of why I don't need to explicitly connect them, actually.

[Oogiem]

Those are good examples of why I don't need to explicitly connect them, actually.

Your examples reminded me of a reason I like to have them explicitly connected.

If something happens to me and my husband, I want to be sure that the neighbors and other folks trying to deal with everything will have a roadmap for what are the critical projects so things continue on. Someone who comes in and pulls up my Omnifocus list would easily see what are the projects related to the sheep and be able to make decision about what is a health and welfare action vs what is a marketing action. A blind list of actions may not provide enough information for someone to come in and do them without training.

I'm paranoid about that having been in the situation of having a death in the family and having to pick up all the on-going projects with no assistance and no help from any sort of system and it made a stressful time even worse.

Since a fair number of my projects are years or decades long I have to be sure that all the thinking and actions I have started are documented and known for future reference, esp. if I am not around to explain it. A lot goes into project reference but a lot is also embedded in the action lists that would need triage in case something happened to me. Attaching actions to projects makes it easier for someone to come in and put on hold anything not critical in case of disaster.

[GTDWorks]

If something were to happen to me, I wonder how many people could come in off the street and figure out my system well enough to manage it without having been trained in GTD, OmniFocus, Things, or whichever system I might be using.

Most people in my world wouldn't even know the difference between a project, a next action, an Area of Focus, or a Someday/maybe. :)

[Oogiem]

figure out my system well enough to manage it without having been trained in GTD, OmniFocus, Things, or whichever system I might be using.

Most people in my world wouldn't even know the difference between a project, a next action, an Area of Focus, or a Someday/maybe. :)

That's the use for checklists and documents that describe those things. I have one for major tasks I do. One for where all the various critical files and stuff are, one for how to access my computer and what is there and how it relates to what I need to have done or needs to be kept up. And your comment reminds me that at this years yearly review I need to either find the David Allen Co basic GTD write up and include that in my emergency book or write up one for myself. I also need to document my Omnifocus set-up a bit better.

A friend calls it the Hit by a Bus Backup Strategy. If she was hit by a bus another technical writer should be able to come in and pick up all her clients, jobs and tasks within a week and keep them moving forward. She is a sole proprietor and feels it is critical that no client suffer if she is injured or disabled.

As a farmer with livestock that depends on us for their food and water I also feel it is critical that someone with a basic understanding of animals be able to come in and pick up our projects and tasks and move forward in any emergency.

If you are the bottleneck on a critical path you need to have a backup plan or person. No person in any business should be completely indispensable.

[GTDWorks]

Hi, Oogie,

Thanks for this! This is a tremendous post on the importance of leaving things well, just in case...

I have all relevant files related to my work at my office and immediately accessible for anyone who might have to come in behind me should the worst happen. The same at home. Thankfully, there's no bottleneck with me but I'll review during my yearly review to make sure all is well.

Your thoroughness is admirable!

[Day Owl]

Oogie, your approach is invaluable. Most areas of my life would not need that kind of treatment. They could just die along with me. But you've made me become hyperaware that my chief volunteer project, which means a great deal to me, involves several other people, and is implemented by me alone (because at present no one else is available), would fall into chaos if I were to die suddenly or become unable to continue. Someone would eventually be able to put the parts together, but meanwhile the project would suffer. I need to (1) write out a comprehensive description and (2) identify someone as backup and start to train that person. New Year's resolution!

[Pablo]

It would be cool to be able to see actions not just by project or context but also by AOR. This is an area of my life that is important to me, now what have I structured and planned to move it along?

Just wondering how others tie in this level (and the higher ones) with their projects and actions.


I use Outlook 2002 to track my Projects, Next Actions & AORs a.k.a. (Roles) I would track your Desired Outcome by selecting 3 Categories. (Project) (Context) (AOR) My Areas Of Focus are: Career, Family/Friend, Finance, Home Manager, Leisure/Recreation, Self, Spouse/Parent. In your example I would have a project named after your desired outcome (Optimum Health) A next action (Run 5 miles today) & an AOR (Self).

You only have to create this Task once in Outlook. In the Subject you put in your Desired Outcome. In the Notes section you put in your next action. Click on the categories tab & select Project, Context, AOR. Once you've completed the next action precede it with a date stamp to mark it as done & push it down the note field & add your next action above it.

My categories are: *Projects, *Read/Review, *Waiting For @Anywhere, @Computer, @Errands, @Hangar, @Home, @Office, @Parents.

This is how I tie AORs to Projects & Next Actions.

Pablo

[Conejo23]

Thanks Pablo, i appreciate you sharing how you do it.

the challenge with your example is that, per classic GTD definitions, you're turning an AOR into a project. "Create Optimum Health" isn't a project, there's no finish line where i can say "ok, this is completed, time to move on to something else." Therefore, it isn't a project, in this case it's an AOR.

At least that's how i'm looking at it at this point.

i'm really trying to avoid making AORs into projects, i think that will confuse my brain and muddy up my projects list.