How long should I take to process stuff?

[sonturk]

Is there a rule of thumb for how long we should take to process stuff? Sometime, I think I spend to much time just to figure what that stuff is, if action is needed, what successfull outcome and next action is.

[kelstarrising]

About 60 seconds to decide your next actions.

If the action will take less than 2 minutes, do it then.

If it's more than 2 minutes, defer or delegate it.

Cheers.

[Cpu_Modern]

>> About 60 seconds to decide your next actions.

If you are way over the 60 seconds mark your NA is 'brainstorm XYZ'.

[Oogiem]

>> About 60 seconds to decide your next actions.

If you are way over the 60 seconds mark your NA is 'brainstorm XYZ'.

I found that if I put "brainstorm X" on the list it never got done. I had to allocate enough time to really truly process my items when I did them. For some of them it takes me 15 plus minutes to even decide on the next actions. Putting it off does not work for me at all. I do better leaving stuff in the inbox if I run out of processing time. I have to be sure that I am fully processing what I do take out. As I am getting more practice I can make the next action decisions faster but it still takes a long time for some things.

I've had things that took a good half an hour to even decide whether it was actionable by me. The whole section on determining the successful outcome part can take a long time too for some inbox things.

I'm finding now that I spend on average an hour or more a day processing the inputs I create and at least once a week I have to take another hour to do the things that got stuck in the inbox because I wasn't sure whether I had to do anything or not.

[kelstarrising]

What would "brainstorm XYZ" physically, visibly look like you doing?

[sonturk]

Thank you for tips.

I think that tickler file could also be a good option to incubate stuff on which I cannot define in 60 secondes if action is needed, what successfull outcome and next action is.