Question on Managing Actions

[Cluby1]

Okay, so here's a question. What category do you place the following in:

I have batteries at home that are no longer good any more. I would like to recycle them responsibly and have found out that I can return them to my local electronics store (a 15 minute car drive away from where I live). Would I list this as an @errand? If I am on the road, I can't do this errand unless I have the batteries with me, so I can't just do this while out running another errand. So, I am thinking this may be an @Home item, however, if it's midnight on a Thursday and I am at home, I can't take the batteries to the electronics store. Would this be a project, although the only action is to take them to the store to get them recycled?

There are other things like this, and the above is just an example. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

CL

[Maura]

Here's what I would do - give yourself a note in @home, to put the batteries in the car. Just get them to the car. That's all you have to do when you are at home.

Then, add the item to your @errands list, and the next time you are near the store, you'll have them handy and can just drop them off.

For two or three step items like this, I don't see a need to make a project, or add stuff to @waiting for, or anything else that would make the task more complicated than it needs to be. Actually, I personally might not even add it to an @errands list. Just seeing the batteries sitting on the passenger's seat of my car every time I get in it, is reminder enough, and would personally cause me less stress than managing a longer @errands list would. But that's just personal preference. The key here is that your next action is to round up the batteries and get them to the car.

[gordonsta]

We have a local recycling option that is only open on Saturday's. I pitch my spent batteries into my tickler file for the next Saturday when I expect to be out and about near the recycler.

[Brent]

I'd put the batteries by the front door. That's a reminder to take them with me to the car. That way, the next time I'm "@Errands," I can recycle the batteries.

In other words, put the necessary support materials in the context that they need to be to get them done.

[sdann]

My trunk currently holds some cardboard boxes and old unusable phones that I will be taking to the recycling center sometime soon. As you can guess, I drive around with that for about a week or two until I'm near there, but I don't mind, because recycling makes me feel good and its important. The only entry I have for this is on my @errands list: "recycling center". On another note, I really should start recycling my batteries though too, so thanks for that idea.

[Cluby1]

Thanks everyone. Some good ideas here for sure.