Clarification on the Getting Things Done CD and Todos

Clarification on the Getting Things Done CD and Todos




Clarification on the Getting Things Done CD Set(3cd's)....

David Allen says on this CD( Track 17 cd 1) that for projects he has
a category named Projects in the Todo's and of course all the other
context categories one may need. The question is how does he identify
project next actions and to what project they belong ( he mentions he
has about 70 of them so I'm sure it can be quite confusing at times
and just glancing over them). Let me setup the following scenario
perhaps an example will clarify my question, let's suppose we have
the following Projects:


Project A
Project B
Project C
Project D
Project E
Project F

So all these would show up in the category named Projects of course
as individual todo's with their respective titles, all the
aforementioned projects have a series of next actions scheduled or
planned in no particular order let's say ie.

Call Mary re: meeting
Draft memo re: study session
Go to Kinko's to see paper types

Now when one is looking in your project category one sees all the
titles but where are the next actions located ???, are they in the
notes section of the todo's meaning one can setup somekind of template
(Memo+ is great for this btw) to show next actions, completed actions
and whatever notes one may need or are the next actions coded as
individual todo's as well meaning that one would see something like
this in the Todo's:

[] Project A
[] Call Mary re: meeting
[] Draft memo re: study session
[] Go to Kinko's to see paper types

but if one sees this, then you would see all other other projects
titles along with the a bunch of next actions so it won't be easy to
identify them, this is the question how does he suggest managing this
Todo app

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
:lol:

jl

Each NA would go under it's appropriate context category. What I then do is reference the appropriate project within the description of the NA. So, in your case I would have:

@Calls (category)
Call Mary re: Meeting for Project A

@Computer (category)
Draft memo re: Project B Study Session

@Errands (category)
Go to Kinko's to see paper types re: Project C

I used to go crazy with trying to link NA's to Projects, however, over time I (and as I got better w/my weekly reviews) developed more of an intuitive feel for what is going on with each project.

The actual projects list only serves as an index - as a "stake in the ground" to remind me that something else needs to be done before this project is "done". All of my backup for each project is contained in the physical project folder.

HTH,

-James

How long have you been practicing GTD James ? I guess with more time you get sharper at recognizing the next actions and that intuitive approach towards project management. Sometimes I feel like I have to always be able to link back to the original project template, I dunno I guess it will get better.

How long have you been practicing GTD James ? I guess with more time you get sharper at recognizing the next actions and that intuitive approach towards project management. Sometimes I feel like I have to always be able to link back to the original project template, I dunno I guess it will get better.