Next actions and timelines

[donabrai]

I am very new to the GTD system and am struggling with my actions list. Currently it contains things that can be done whenever (such as organizing my family photos) to other actions (most part of a larger project) that I wish to have completed by a certain date.

I am curious how others organize and act upon actions that have a variety of deadlines. Right now, I'm looking at the list and I'm really lost and feel a little paralyzed as a result.

Thank you in advance
Dona

[bobbyman]

I track deadlines separately in a mind map :razz:
Also weekly review is important. Next actions isn't a place to go for strategic planning about deadlines

[donabrai]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Do you, at some point, migrate items on your mind map to the 'next actions' list? Or is the mind map an additional list that you work from when planning?

(sorry if this is a second response. I replied earlier, but do not see the post now)

[bobbyman]

Mind map with an overview of important deadlines and upcoming stuff is only an additon to all standart gtd lists and calendar, it doesn't replace them. The purpose of this mind map is to make sure I can see the big picture without having to remember it. And to give me a sense that nothing really big and important is hidden somewhere and might get missed.

[Suelin23]

I initially tried setting up due dates for interim tasks, but ended up with so many they would clog up my lists and I would see too many overdue tasks, so I've moved away from that and only use real deadlines.
The weekly review should help you see if you are doing things frequently enough to meet deadlines, but if this is not often enough to ensure things are progressing I put an action in my tickler file to review the project plan.
For example if I do my weekly reviews on a Sunday but I have a Friday deadline and lots to do to meet it, I might put a note in my tickler file for Tue/Wed to review the project plan to help spark some more action towards the deadline. This gives me the reminder before the deadline to get it moving.

[donabrai]

This helps.
Thank you.

[Myriam]

My NA-lists are in Excel, and I have two columns containing dates. A due date, where I fill in hard deadlines (must be done by that date) and a column with a wish date (would be nice to get it done by that time). For some items I have both filled in, for other items only one of both. This way I see in one look all of the actions with upcomming deadlines (dealine less than 1 week colors orange, less than 3 days colors red, automatically).

I don't put hard deadlines on my calendar, it just doesn't work for me.

For intermediary actions I put the final deadline for the project in the due date column, and the time I would like to finish the intermediate action in the wish date column.

During weekly review I go over my list, and adapt wish dates if necessary according to new priorities.

Myriam

[kelstarrising]

You might find this article interesting on this whole due date issue:

The Insanity of the What-by-When | HolacracyOne:

http://www.holacracy.org/blog/insanity-what-when

[Suelin23]

That's a great article Kelly. So many times I have agreed to due dates with others knowing that I think it's unrealistic and have no idea how to make it happen.

[Paper Ninja]

I keep a separate list call @DEADLINES where I keep all of my due date information. It is part of my daily routine to check that list. I also have the option to put them on my calendar if I want to add an extra layer of security

HINT:
NEVER plug in self-imposed deadlines for projects. Way too easy to do, and it is waaaaaaaaaay to easy to just blow them off. If you start to ignore those deadlines, you will ignore most of them (now which is a real deadline and which is just "like to finish by"?)

Only use REAL deadlines:
- I promised by customer they would have it by
- The presentation is scheduled for
- I will get fired if...
etc

[pxt]

I initially tried setting up due dates for interim tasks, but ended up with so many they would clog up my lists and I would see too many overdue tasks, so I've moved away from that and only use real deadlines.
The weekly review should help you see if you are doing things frequently enough to meet deadlines, but if this is not often enough to ensure things are progressing I put an action in my tickler file to review the project plan.
For example if I do my weekly reviews on a Sunday but I have a Friday deadline and lots to do to meet it, I might put a note in my tickler file for Tue/Wed to review the project plan to help spark some more action towards the deadline. This gives me the reminder before the deadline to get it moving.

Once you have identified a looming due date in weekly review and decided you need to do more to achieve it, how do you implement that decision? Where do you put that in GTD such that you are reminded during the week?

[Suelin23]

Once you have identified a looming due date in weekly review and decided you need to do more to achieve it, how do you implement that decision? Where do you put that in GTD such that you are reminded during the week?

Ok here is an example - one key project is my Effluent Discharge Improvement Works, which has a deadline of June 30 to get the capital cost approval document submitted. It's a fixed deadline which even my boss can't change, it's set by upper management. A subproject is the cost estimate, which I have to organise a workshop for. My project plan is in Word, in that I have a list of actions I think I would need to do, including 'organise workshop by 10th June', although most of my planned actions wouldn't have dates specified.
On my NA list there is currently no actions listed, because I finished the last one yesterday and forgot to assign a new task to replace it. This morning however, I check my tickler file (I use Awesome Note on the iPhone) and today's due task is 'Review Effluent Discharge project plan'. So I check my NA list, realise there's no next action, check my word project plan, and see the action I wanted to have done by today, and add a new next action to my project. Given this project is high on my priorities, it's fairly likely I'll do it today, or at least Monday.

[Myriam]

HINT:
NEVER plug in self-imposed deadlines for projects. Way too easy to do, and it is waaaaaaaaaay to easy to just blow them off. If you start to ignore those deadlines, you will ignore most of them (now which is a real deadline and which is just "like to finish by"?)

Only use REAL deadlines:
- I promised by customer they would have it by
- The presentation is scheduled for
- I will get fired if...
etc

That is exactly why I keep both, but separate... (see my earlier response) this way I can easlisy distinguish between both ("have to" and "would like to")

Myriam

[jerry05031111]

The weekly review should help you see if you are doing things frequently enough to meet deadlines, but if this is not often enough to ensure things are progressing I put an action in my tickler file to review the project plan.

[pxt]

Ok here is an example - one key project is my Effluent Discharge Improvement Works, which has a deadline of June 30 to get the capital cost approval document submitted. It's a fixed deadline which even my boss can't change, it's set by upper management. A subproject is the cost estimate, which I have to organise a workshop for. My project plan is in Word, in that I have a list of actions I think I would need to do, including 'organise workshop by 10th June', although most of my planned actions wouldn't have dates specified.
On my NA list there is currently no actions listed, because I finished the last one yesterday and forgot to assign a new task to replace it. This morning however, I check my tickler file (I use Awesome Note on the iPhone) and today's due task is 'Review Effluent Discharge project plan'. So I check my NA list, realise there's no next action, check my word project plan, and see the action I wanted to have done by today, and add a new next action to my project. Given this project is high on my priorities, it's fairly likely I'll do it today, or at least Monday.

So you recognise the next action being quite urgent because it's familiar to you. You look through the various next actions and think: I better do that now, otherwise I won't hit the final due date. (?).

I generally struggle in that I want a way to pick out the intermediate actions that will get me to a hard deadline, even though the individual actions don't have hard deadlines. I'm looking for some way to mark them in my system, but without setting due dates on them, as that would soften the impact of my genuine hard due dates.

On the other hand, perhaps I am trying to automate it too much.

[Suelin23]

So you recognise the next action being quite urgent because it's familiar to you. You look through the various next actions and think: I better do that now, otherwise I won't hit the final due date.

Two things are really important in getting things done on time:
1 - Review. If you don't review frequently, you won't be familiar with the tasks and they'll just blend in amongst all the rest.
2 - setting priorities. I use Pocket Informant, which has a field in each action for importance (top, high, med, low). All the actions that I need to get done in the next couple of days are set to top priority. When I am ready to do actions, I sort them by context, time and priority. So for a given context, as long as I'm not limited in time or too tired, the higher priority tasks will preferentially get done.

[pxt]

Two things are really important in getting things done on time:
1 - Review. If you don't review frequently, you won't be familiar with the tasks and they'll just blend in amongst all the rest.
2 - setting priorities. I use Pocket Informant, which has a field in each action for importance (top, high, med, low). All the actions that I need to get done in the next couple of days are set to top priority. When I am ready to do actions, I sort them by context, time and priority. So for a given context, as long as I'm not limited in time or too tired, the higher priority tasks will preferentially get done.

I probably do need to spend more time getting to know my next action list better and I'm sure that will help.

I am considering doing something similar to what you do, in terms of highlighting actions that I see need to get done in order to meet an upcoming due date. I think I'll try marking some projects with a tag to indicate that its actions need attention because of an impending due date, this will then show up on all that project's actions in my GTD software, but without them needing a soft due date. I might label these 'Due', as opposed to say 'Important' so I can see the reason why they are priorities, in a Covey-ish sort of way.

[cwoodgold]

donabrai: Relax. I think basically the GTD system says, don't worry too much about priorities; just start doing stuff.

Make sure your list is all things that you definitely intend to do relatively soon; move other things to "someday/maybe". Identify the things you're able to do where you are now with the time and energy you have right now. This may be a much shorter list. Then consider which ones are the highest priority. Having a due-date is one factor contributing to priority, even if the due date is next week and there's plenty of time before then. If you're not sure which ones are higher priority, then I would suggest don't worry: just pick one and start doing it. The point is to get things done.

Here's one possible approach: do the things that have due dates and leave the other things until times when there's nothing with a due date that you're able to do first. If you find that this means you're not spending enough time on stuff like family photos, then you can either take on fewer projects that have due dates, or else schedule a certain amount of time, say an hour a day, to do the other stuff.

What I actually do is: I put an asterisk beside something on the list if it's a high priority. I try to do stuff way before a deadline if that's possible and appropriate. Or at least that's what I tell myself I try to do. Anyway, for whatever reason, now that I'm using GTD I don't have to worry about deadlines as much; most of what I do seems to be important but not immediately urgent.

[Mhoram]

Two things are really important in getting things done on time:
1 - Review. If you don't review frequently, you won't be familiar with the tasks and they'll just blend in amongst all the rest.


I'm very new to GTD, but this sounds like the key to me. If I try to "just know" when a Next Action should become the most important based on its deadline, I'm going to violate the central principle of GTD -- getting things out of your head -- because I'm still going to be trying to hold all my Next Actions and Projects (at least the ones connected to deadlines) in my head so I can continually prioritize them. There has to be a way to get them out of my head, and have my system hand them back to me at the appropriate time to meet the deadline. Regular review -- plus judicious use of a tickler file, to say "how's this project coming?" now and then -- ought to deal with that.