Quote Originally Posted by jduk View Post
Non-urgent work
Say it's due in 2 weeks and won't take more than an hour. Doesn't go on Next Actions, as is time-specific.
I disagree. This is a perfect example of something which should go on the NA list. The whole point is to do things before they become urgent.

Quote Originally Posted by jduk View Post
Courtesy reply to email
Say I get an email that's not essential to reply to - but where doing so would be courteous and help build relationships, etc.
I agree with TesTeq, two minute rule applies. If it does take longer (personally I'm really slow at constructing emails) then it is a Next Action.

Quote Originally Posted by jduk View Post
What I like about Next Actions is that these are now things that don't have to happen at any point - so when my calendar is completely full up for extended amounts of time, I at least know that I don't have to worry about what's on the Next Action list. But if I create a Next Action to 'reply to XYZ', I'm not guaranteed to get round to it any time soon - I'd rather not leave it too long.
If your NA's are taking too long to complete then it might help to review them a bit more. I try to look through my NA list at the start of the day and decide on the things which I feel really should get done that day. Ideally the answer is nothing because I dealt with everything way in advance (see my first point above) but in the real world there's always something I have to do on the day.