Action Lists overflow

[jaludwick]

What do you do when you get so many NA that you get overwhelmed, my list keep building up and then look like todo lists.

thoughts?

[GTDWorks]

Here's What I Do:

*Ask: Are some of these really Projects?
*Ask: Is it time to re-negotiate with the people and projects in my life?
*Ask: Should some of these be Someday/Maybe items?
*Ask: Is it time to set aside a few hours or even a day to just work on Next Actions?
*Ask: What's been happening in my world lately for things to get like this?

Looking forward to what others do, too!

[Dan Hussey]

Have you tried catagorizing the tasks with a preface.

Examples:

(HR) Schedule meeting with Rachel
(Sales) Research abc on net
(Personal) Call Bob at Honda dealership

This is a way you can get a view on what areas of focus you may have too many projects and next actions, and what areas you have too few. Then you can alter your work load with this in mind.

[Todd V]

Here's a good resource for this --> Prune Your GTD System (http://www.readysetdo.com/category/xtras)

[kewms]

Here's a good resource for this --> Prune Your GTD System (http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/Pruning_Your_GTD_System.zip.zip?a=downloadFile&user=toddvasquez&path=/Movies/Pruning%20Your%20GTD%20System.zip)

Can you provide more information about that link? I don't like downloading zip files unless I know what's in them.

Thanks,

Katherine

[Rainer Burmeister]

Can you provide more information about that link? I don't like downloading zip files unless I know what's in them.

It contains a rtf-file with hints on reducing your gtd-overwhelm .
No virus found.

Rainer

[Brent]

Generally, you should have one Next Action per Project.

If you have a lot of Actions, you have a lot of Projects. If that's overwhelming you, perhaps you have too many Projects.

Are you really making progress on all those Projects every week?

[TesTeq]

Generally, you should have one Next Action per Project.

Generally, you should have at least one Next Action per active Project.

[Tspall]

This is where your Weekly Review comes into play too. When you're looking over your lists, think about whether there are any items that *have* to be done that week or can they wait a litle bit, at least until the next week. If something can wait, then move it to your someday/maybe list. Since you should look at this list during your weekly review, it's not like you'll lose track of the item. You'll just move it back when it's a high enough priority to justify making it an @action item again. This might help eliminate some of the problem.

[DStaub11]

This is where your Weekly Review comes into play too. When you're looking over your lists, think about whether there are any items that *have* to be done that week or can they wait a litle bit, at least until the next week. If something can wait, then move it to your someday/maybe list. Since you should look at this list during your weekly review, it's not like you'll lose track of the item. You'll just move it back when it's a high enough priority to justify making it an @action item again. This might help eliminate some of the problem.

This is what fixed my similar problem. I had to admit that some of the NAs were for projects I wasn't really going to get to THIS WEEK. I also had many NAs that didn't have projects--but gave myself permission to put some of them on the Later Projects list. Realism is good.

Do Mi