Next Action Granularity for Research and Debugging

[jknecht]

Does this mean that, when I plan my day, I put 'debug feature x' in my projects list, put 'stud file x with printf statements' in my action list, and, if I get interrupted, capture the next action somewhere?

I would definitely put 'debug feature x' on your project list. If 'stud file x with printf statements' is the very next thing you can possibly do, then it goes on your 'Next Actions' list.

Interruptions, though, are tricky business. If you haven't completed your printf's, then you don't check off the next action and you don't create a new one. Though, you might change the next action to "finish putting printf's in file x", but only if there is a chance that you'll forget that you've already started.

If you've completed the next action and are well on to other things when the interruption comes, then you should mark the "printf" action complete and write down the new next action (for example, "run regression tests on component x").

(on paper in my inbasket, or in my word todo file, which I generally leave open)?

It's your choice of where you capture this. Me? I just put it directly into my next actions list. There's no sense letting it linger in my inbox until the next weekly review if I know exactly what it is and how I want to process it right now.

Not to derail the conversation, but your "todo" file worries me a little bit. Is this a list of your projects, or your next actions? I sense some ambiguity here, but maybe it's just a matter of terminology. If you've got your projects and their next actions comingled, you really should consider separating them... even if that just means putting headers or page breaks between them.

And, when the debugging is done, what then? I am accustomed to just putting an X in front of all done items in Word, sorting them so they fall to the bottom of the list, and referring to them when I write weekly reports. Having the project in a separate file kinda complicates things because I am not used to tracking projects that are so short, and that can open and close in a day.

Again, I'm not clear on what an "item" is in your Word document. I don't want to make any suggestions about where to put your X's and how to sort without understanding whether you keep your project lists separated from next actions.

That said, I suggest you keep a separate daily log of things you've done (for purposes of reporting to management). Management is likely to want information at an entirely different level from the way you'll need to structure things in GTD.

In my experience, GTD is fabulous for keeping my work on-track; not so great for status reporting. It's far too granular, and the next actions really only represent what I need to do after each time I stop -- it's not a complete list of everything I've done, nor even the "important" things I've done.

Hope this helps.