Reading: what kind of NA is that?

[Borisoff]

I need and want to read books and magazines. They come on monthly basis and during net surfing. When a new magazine arrives I put it into "IN". What is the next phisical action with it and to what category it should belong (now I have @Computer, @Office, @Home, @Call, @Agenda, @Outside)? And what is the best practise to have time for reading?

Regards,

Eugene.

[kewms]

I have a separate context for @Read/Review. Reading related to specific projects goes there and gets treated like any other NA.

General reading, like magazines, goes into a "stuff to read" file, separate from my inbox. When I have reading time, I pull something out of that file. If I don't finish it, it goes in my tickler file, usually for about a week in the future.

After doing this for a while, I have between 3 and 5 "active" magazines in my tickler file. As I finish them, I go back to my general reading file for more. Anything that has been in the general reading file for more than six months or so gets thrown away on the assumption that if it wasn't important enough to read before now, I'll never get to it.

I do most of my business reading at lunch, and most of my personal reading on weekends. Like most things, the key is to decide when you can do it, and then block that time off as an appointment with yourself.

Katherine

[Borisoff]

Katherine,

if the answer is scheduling of time then what do you think works better: scheduling "to Read" as all day event or time specific event?

Regards,

Eugene.

[kewms]

if the answer is scheduling of time then what do you think works better: scheduling "to Read" as all day event or time specific event?

Unless you have all day to read, it's a time specific event.

Katherine

[moises]

Reading is a reward for me.

It is for me too. But it took me a very long time to figure out that I would be a lot more effective if I used reading as a reward.

[Jamie Elis]

It is such a pleasure to read the thoughts of intelligent, insighful, reflective, and articulate people.

[TesTeq]

I would like to live nude in a cabin in the woods and read for 10 years. Someday?
Why nude? Is reading more efficient when the reader is nude?

[dbobfish]

Time spent getting dressed could be time spent reading!

[dbobfish]

"It is such a pleasure to read the thoughts of intelligent, insighful, reflective, and articulate people."

Here here Jamie. This site should be at the top of anyones reading list!

Or would that be @Browsing or @Posting?

Some really useful insights though, I'm looking forward to really getting to grips with this system, and helping others out with similar valuable suggestions.

As for the reading - what am I doing so far?

I work in a library - my organisation in my work is meticulous, it has to be, it's a medical library and medical staff need to be able to access the information they need quickly and easily.

As for my personal organisation of reading material I keep coming across a pile of books at home and thinking 'ah heck yeah - I meant to read those, they're due back at the library soon!'

So I am trying to formulate something more concrete to manage and apply my reading. At the moment I have digital files on the PC and the pda, paper files in a 'read review' folder I carry with me most places, and books? Well, books kind of all over really! Yeah, I know, I work in a library and my own books are in a real mess! Good job I ain't a brain surgeon I guess!

Sorry - just realised - long post... I'm cutting in on your reading time!

[Desultory]

I also keep a reading shelf for books. I stuff magazines and papers into a small courier bag. When I go out, I add a book and catch up on my reading on the bus.

[Borisoff]

I'm telling about unwanted reading not the reading I like :) I have to read 100 pages of document I don't like but have to read. More then that I have a deadline for that reading that is April, 1st. Now I think I have three options:

1. Put this reading as a Next Action with as much as I can pages per day to read; read when I can but could end up with 100 pages still to read on the day before the deadline :smile:

2. Put this reading as a day specific event with 5 pages per day (100pages/22daystodeadline) to read and finish with 0 pages on the deadline. That's better for me :grin:

3. Make a timemap to allocate 2 hours per day for this Project and continue allocating till done. I think in this case I can even have some spare time before the deadline because I think I can read more then 5 pages in 2 hours :razz:

What do you think DA could recommend for that kind of NAs to keep this job an art of stress productivity?

Regards,

Eugene.

[kewms]

I would plan to read some amount every day until done. You could do this by either saying that you're going to read X pages per day, no matter how long it takes, or by saying that you're going to spend Y hours per day, no matter how much or how little you get done.

Which approach you take is really a matter of taste. What works for you? For me, allowing Y hours per day would probably work better, because that protects the time from other, perhaps more interesting, projects.

Katherine

[mramm]

The beauty of GTD is that you do not have to do what DA tells you to do. There is so many options for customizing your own system within the GTD framework.

GTD boils down to (FOR ME):
1. Write EVERYTHING down
2. Decide on concrete NA for everything that is written down (see step 1)
3. Track those NA through to completion

The system that you use, may not work for me, and vice versa.

Any of those three options is the perfect option...as long as you can get the 100 pages read by April 1.

In my system it would be:

@Work
READ-War and Peace
due April 1

That is just me.

Michael

[TesTeq]

In my system it would be:

@Work
READ-War and Peace
due April 1
For many people reading a book is an overwhelmingly huge project that must be divided into smaller chunks (next actions) - for example "read Nth chapter".

[Day Owl]

I also have a gigantic Digital Library, thanks to Project Gutenberg and others, which I could never read in my entire life. Here are thousands of free books.
http://www.gutenberg.org/cdproject/

CosmoGTD, you have ruined my future. With all the read and unread books still on my shelves, and now this link of which I was previously unaware, how in the world am I ever going to GanyTD?

[Borisoff]

thanks, now I have options :razz:

I will think if a day-specific (read 5 pages) or hard landscape (2 hours per day) next action helps me finish this task :)

Best regards,

Eugene.

[cornell]

This a great question - something that I've been pondering for a while. Currently I have "FYI" reading that goes into my "Read/Review" folder (which I carry everywhere for those spare moments, and "Must Read" material that is associated with an action (and possibly a project). It goes into either the associated project folder (if there is one), or into my "Action Support" folder (AKA "holding" or "pending" in other systems) otherwise. The reminder goes onto my @anywhere list. If necessary, I add a "safety net" entry in my calendar - day-specific information (last day to read xx before tomorrow's meeting), or I put an entry an hour before the meeting: Last chance to read xx.

A few more thoughts:

1) One of davidco's coaches passed this along: Their "best practice" for reading is to break it into three levels: Critical, FYI, and Someday/Maybe. I wasn't able to get much detail about using them - anyone else know about this?

2) The thread Getting Reading Done (http://davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2822) has a bunch of suggestions. Ditto for Magazines and other reading material (http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1971).

Finally, I've written a few posts on the topic, for the interested: Reading Books The GTD Way (http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2005/09/reading-books-gtd-way.html) and How to read a lot of books in a short time (http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-read-lot-of-books-in-short-time.html) (general tips - not GTD-specific).

I'd love to hear others' tips!