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I'm helping my sister and brother-in-law with their organizational issues, and I'm wondering if anyone has tips on setting up GTD systems for a couple. I think they should each have their own next action and project lists. But a whole lot of the "stuff" they're coming up with is joint: it's about the house or the baby, and the issue of who's in charge of what is somewhat sensitive. Whose project list do things like this go on? Should we make a joint project list? Suggestions?
Do Mi
I think you should have your own project and action lists but some projects are bound to be shared.
The Weekly Review (as ever) is critical. You should do your own Weekly Review and then do a joint Weekly Review to cover the shared projects to decide who's got the Next Action.
I don't speak from personal experience as I haven't yet persuaded my wife to take on GTD but I do get her involved in a joint Weekly Review after I've done mine.
David Allen may have some advice as he and his wife obviously both use the system.
David
Check out the replies here: Newbie looking for advice
Thanks, Matt--good thread.
I think I'm going to encourage them to have a weekly couple review during which they look at all projects and actions and one or the other takes ownership of each one (with possible renegotiation). Then their action lists can be individual.
Do Mi
My wife and I set a time to sit down each week and review the scope of our lives, family, and work worlds so that we're in sync with each other. Because we haven't met in a few weeks due to a myriad of activities in our lives, we met for 5 hours today at Starbucks doing thorough individual Mind Sweeps and then a major calendar and Projects review. The sense of relief was palpable when we got into the car to finish some errands!
We have separate GTD systems but a unified willingness to sync with each other each week or so to keep things in harmony.