2min rule on a S/M item ?

[Tado]

Personally I do use the 2min rule on a S/M maybe item thats landed in my inbox... but sometimes i feel I should just file it away and come back to it when its a active project... Is it a bad practice to use the 2min rule on a someday/maybe next action ?

[artsinaction]

Personally I do use the 2min rule on a S/M maybe item thats landed in my inbox... but sometimes i feel I should just file it away and come back to it when its a active project... Is it a bad practice to use the 2min rule on a someday/maybe next action ?

Hey, Tado!

I don't think I've ever had a two-minute someday/maybe. I wish! I think one of the reasons things fall into S/M is that they are usually projects that I can't find time or energy for. Heck, if they were only two-minute actions, I'd be all over them!

Now, if you have a dozen of these and you're trying to get through your inbox and it's bogging you down, then I guess I could see putting them in S/M.

But, to answer your question, in my opinion it's only a bad practice if it's getting in your way and making you less productive.

Dena

[cwoodgold]

No, I think it's fine to use the 2-minute rule!

You either spend the 2 minutes and actually get the thing done; or you spend time
now deciding where it goes in your system and putting it there, and you spend time each time you review your someday/maybe's reconsidering whether to do that thing or not. I think David Allen has figured that about 2 minutes is the cutoff where it won't be worthwhile to put it into your system rather than do it now.

You could have two different types of 2-minute someday/maybes: one is the type
where the whole project will take 2 minutes; i.e. there's only one action in the
project. It's probably worthwhile to do those when you run across them. The other
type is where you can do a 2-minute action, but it won't actually do you any good
unless you eventually do a bunch more actions on that project. Maybe it's still
good to do those; or maybe you could set a 1-minute or 30-second rule for those
instead; or maybe it depends on whether that 2 minutes of work will still do some
good if you eventually do the rest of the project 3 years from now.

It can also depend on how busy you are. You could make it a 30-second rule or
a 5-minute rule depending on how much you're in a hurry to get through your
inbox right now.

Or, just keep it simple as always a 2-minute rule so you don't spend a lot of
time standing there thinking "Let's see: shall I apply a 2-minute rule or a 1-minute
rule to this one?" Actually, I find I can make those decisions quite quickly, usually.
I figure if it's close to the borderline, then it doesn't matter that much which
way I go. (The derivative is near-zero near the maximum, as my father pointed out.)

[ellobogrande]

Follow the two minute rule, but if there's a larger project behind that action that you're doing in two minutes then capture it and put it on your Projects or Someday/Maybe list.

I seldom have anything on my Someday/Maybe list that's a single action. 99% of that list contains Projects that I've just not committed to doing now.

[cwoodgold]

Now that I think of it, I think David Allen defined the two-minute rule as
applying to things you're definitely intending to do, so, as he formulated
it, it wouldn't apply to someday-maybes. However, the way he described
someday-maybes, they're all big, vague things like "go on a trip to Cuba";
I don't think he would put a 2-minute action there, either. So I still stand
by my first answer although it may not be strictly GTD.

[Roger]

It took me a little while to figure out why this question seemed so weird. Taking another look at the Workflow cleared it up for me.

According to the Workflow, here's how something ends up in Someday / Maybe: Stuff -> Inbox -> What is it? -> Is it Actionable? -> No -> Someday/Maybe.

Which is to say: The only things that end up in Someday/Maybe are things that are not actionable, according to the Workflow. So there really isn't any point of application for the 2-Minute Rule.



Cheers,
Roger

[shane_k]

Personally I do use the 2min rule on a S/M maybe item thats landed in my inbox... but sometimes i feel I should just file it away and come back to it when its a active project... Is it a bad practice to use the 2min rule on a someday/maybe next action ?

I think this could be ok.

I have had times when I was doing my weekly review and looking over my someday/maybe lists, and either saw an action on there that was a 2 minute action that I could get done right away but the rest of it was left in the someday/maybe section.

also sometimes just reviewing your someday/maybe list might trigger in your head new actions that you never thought of before, or old actions that you forgot to put into your system, and if they are 2 minute actions you can do them right then and there.