Help! Reviewing is driving me crazy.

[mcogilvie]

Thank you for your reply! I'll have to re-read the book. I am unclear on what defines a "project" as David Allen makes his own definition, only it's pretty vague: "anything that takes more than one step." But what is a "step" in his view, a two-minute task? I can break down almost anything into steps, including answering an email (1. Open email, 2. read it, 3. write a reply, 4. spellcheck and review your reply, etc.). So is a Project anything that takes more than 2 minutes? If so, then, yes, many of my Next Actions are indeed projects.

It's your definition of a step that matters. Sometimes one action takes two minutes and sometimes an hour, but it's really what works for you. There's also an advanced, fully David Allan-approved tactic of doing a simple project with linear steps by having a single next action at all times along the way, but if you're not comfortable with this, don't do it. Let your own feelings of comfort or discomfort be a guide in how you handle things, as long as you are moving forward.

A lot of my Next Actions are recurring actions (set in Outlook to generate the same task for the next day after I mark it complete). For example, one of my Next Actions is "Process at least one paper from my In-Box. By they way, the In-Box is still about two feet tall, literally. If I do process one paper, the Next Action is regenerated to the next day. I think that's one reason I feel like I'm not accomplishing anything. It's like that every receeding corridor in Poltergheist the movie. No matter how fast you run down it, the end keeps stretching away from you.

If you've got a 2-foot inbox, of course you're uncomfortable! A recurring daily action of "Process at least one paper" isn't going to cut it, either. You need to do a rapid scan of the entire pile to pull out pressing actions and projects. Things that just need to be filed, or are someday/maybe, or that you know you can put off, can be put in a backlog pile separate from your inbox. Then do a brain dump exercise to ensure that you have everything. Too many recurring actions can distract you from real progress. Consider putting most of them on a daily checklist (and don't worry if some didn't get done).