Projects without an end / criteria for completion - labels instead?

[JohnV474]

If you have multiple recurring items that occur with regularity, then your reminder could be a single entry to check your weekly checklist.

I have a daily checklist, weekly checklist, etc., for everything, everywhere, that needs recurring attention. Whether it's replacing windshield wipers every 2 years, treating leather, reviewing investments, shining shoes, replacing a furnace filter, preparing taxes, reviewing foreign language vocabulary, or defragmenting my hard drive, if an item recurs, I put it on a list.

Of course, in reality the windshield wipers may have been replaced already, so I am not a slave to the list. The list is to remind me to pay attention to that item and assess how it is.

The calendar is for information you want to know that day, whether because you committed to doing something at a specific time, that specific day, or because you want to think about that information on that day.

If you have a paper calendar, a single post-it can have a checklist of weekly tasks you want to do, which you stick to each week's page.

A Tickler system can also work for this... 43 folders, and whenever you accomplish a task, you can mail it to yourself to be reminded in several days.

The calendar I've described incorporates the Tickler, which is an approved practice. The parentheses indicate that it is a tickler item.

Hope you find something that works for you.

JohnV474

[bonerici]

I am brand new to the system, but it just seems to me that there is no place in the David Allen system for projects without end.

For instance, "Learn to Play the flute"

Your first action is to get a flute, then you get a teacher, later you make another action learn the scales, then later you learn how to play a simple piece of music, you keep putting more next actions on the list one after the other, but then, one day you decide "I have learned to play the flute" and then David Allen puts it on the completion list and never thinks about it again.

And he is one of the worst flute players in the world. The best things we do in life, learning to play music, learning to be a good father, learning how to be a good husband, all these things are never ending. And I guess the way to adapt these is to make little tiny goals one by one for these ongoing projects. So for instance to be a better husband one goal is to learn to always pick up your dirty laundry and put it in the hamper, so make that goal and then when you achieve it you make another goal, that you come right home after the game is over at the football stadium instead of hanging out there and having a dozen beers. So you go baby step by baby step achieving tiny goals putting them into action steps and achieving the actions.

But the David Allen system doesn't really provide for this sort of system. The David Allen system is for GETTING IT DONE and then throwing it out. Sure you can put it into your area of interest but once it goes into your action list you want to get it DONE and finished, so it's out of your psychic ram. But the best things in life are never ending, you are always working on them. Like you always work on your golf swing. It's not like Tiger Woods decided one day "OK I'm good enough, I don't have to work better at golf anymore. This project is DONE." Nope. He's working on a never ending project of getting better and constantly achieving and adjusting goals.

My feeling is that even though David Allen learned to play the flute he is probably one of the worst flute players in the world, because he put it on his list just so he could check it off. That's not how you learn to play the flute.

Please criticize, like I said I'm a newbie to the system, and I probably don't understand it fully and there really is a great way to get the ongoing projects in life integrated into the system that I don't really understand.

[Myriam]

It's an area of focus. For example:

area of focus: car is maintained
project: car brakes have been replaced
project: car has been washed
next action: google car shop near work
next action: drive to car wash

I always want my car to be in good condition, so I have that over-arching area of focus that I review every once in a while. The two associated projects have a definite successful outcome that could be met within a week or two as well as physical next actions to do; you're covered all the way up.

The question was about recurring projects or actions. In this example, you're not finished after driving to the car wash once... you want to go monthly (let's say)... and the question was how to handle that...

I use outlook tasks for that and only for that (the rest of my system is in Excel). I put "water plants", "make invoices", "start up weekly news letter" as a recurring item and when the date is there they pop up every time I open outlook. if I do them I check them off, if I don't they stay as "over due date" and keep popping up every morning...

Myriam

[TesTeq]

Your first action is to get a flute, then you get a teacher, later you make another action learn the scales, then later you learn how to play a simple piece of music, you keep putting more next actions on the list one after the other, but then, one day you decide "I have learned to play the flute" and then David Allen puts it on the completion list and never thinks about it again.

And he is one of the worst flute players in the world. The best things we do in life, learning to play music, learning to be a good father, learning how to be a good husband, all these things are never ending.

Why do you think that successful outcome of the "learn to play flute" project must be something more than "learn to play 5 most popular christmas carols"?

You can define any successful outcome - it's up to you.

You can be the happiest worst flute player in the world!

[Suelin23]

You can have a project to setup a habit. Eg I worked out that if my home was tidy and organised, I could clean the whole lot in 2 hours each week. I can't do that now because I have so much clutter, so decluttering and organising is a project. I'll know I'm done when it looks tidy and organised, and I can clean it in two hours.
So home is my area of focus, tidying and cleaning are my habits related to the AOF, and the project is decluttering.
Similar with meals, cooking is part of my home area of focus, but I have a project to setup a 4 week menu plan to help it go smoother.

[Oogiem]

I am brand new to the system, but it just seems to me that there is no place in the David Allen system for projects without end.

I would tend to agree. Most folks call these areas of focus, but for me that doesn't work either as they are ongoing or recurring projects that are all related. If I counted every such project as an AOF I'd have hundreds of AOFs and that doesn't seem correct either.

What I do is just call them projects. Even though they are never done, individual items in them are done. Some are recurring projects that happen every year and some are just on-going things I do.

Examples from my system include
AOF is manage farm sustainably, a sub-AOF if you will, is sheep work, and an ongoing project that is never done is trim sheep toes. I do try to get everyone trimmed once or twice a year and I have it broken down into next actions of trim ram toes, trim ewe toes, trim ram lamb toes and trim ewe lamb toes and I fire off a new copy of this project every 6 months or so.

Similarly from your example of learn to play flute, there can still be specific actions you take, play 2 hours every day practicing scales or learn song X and play it in front of family at Christmas or whatever. the all support your learning to play flute project/aof although some may in fact also be projects.

If this was me I'd ahve it as a folder under personal development (my top level AOF) and within that folder of Flute Stuff I'd have various projects about becoming a flute player (buy a flute would be my top one )