When I have executed next in turn task - should I delete it right now?

[TesTeq]

Keeping a list of chronological actions for each project is pretty necessary.

I would make an exception for really simple projects - like changing tires (summer --> winter). The actions are:
1) Find the car service station phone number.
2) Call the car service station to schedule the visit.
3) Go to the car service station.
I really do not need to write this list down - I need the appropriate Next Action / Calendar Entry only - to trigger the "getting project done" activity.

[Jamie Elis]

This is not a simple choice and will depend on the nature of your projects and routines and where you are doing them and how good your memory is. It will also depend on how you might keep track of your completed actions--do you review them with other actions related to the project to cue yourself to think in someway? Can you wait until you have your project materials at hand? Do you need to keep a running record of what you did for some purpose such as a reference log or for accountability or communication to another person? If so, then these may need immedate n/a recorded in your system or just be kept for reference if needed.

Even some routine actions have novel elements, for example, making dinner is not the same food preparation every night and I have left something cooking in the crock pot at 6:00 am (deleted the n/a) and totally forgotten and picked up dinner en route home.

If I delete after I have performed an action in a context that is away from my project support materials and the actions need not be done in a linked sequence, I may put that very same already completed action back on my list a few actions down stream that I already did a few days prior and re-do it. Last week I sent e-mails in regard to not appearing for certain meetings this week because I would be on a trip. I put newr @computer n/as on my list related to my trip right away. After I completed those, I guess I put the in n/a to e-mail about not being present (all over again) because apparently I e-mailed everyone again in this regard on the very same day. Then I did it again this Monday morning. The recipients thought I was making a really big deal about my absence and bugging them for a response but I was not and knew they were away at the time of the first e-mails. I also have done this repeating thing when there is a tight chain of actions in a portion of a project because I forget how far along I was after completing a linked sequence and so started a few actions back on what I think is another branch. I get this strange sense of deja vu a few actions later. I am in a lot of places and can do a lot of things @anywhere. Clearly, I have to have a skeleton list of the project outlined and with me when I do even simple things but I have not figured out how to do this with basic Palm unless I carry around a lot of paper in addition.

I also find that it often takes a combination of doing the thinking up front (project planning) and reflecting on completed actions and their consequencs to determine what a next action is or it can take looking at what contexts I will be in to see what I might be able to do while I am there becasue a lot of things can be done more than one place.

[Brent]

Unless your Next Action is the *last* action for the project, how else will you ensure you have another Next Action behind it?

Because you'll update your NA list when you switch to another Project, or within seven days at your next Weekly Review. Right?

The idea is to get things *out* of your head and into a trusted system -- 99% of the time I know what the next action is off the top of my head, sure, but if it's written down (or otherwise captured) then I never have to rely on my memory.

The danger there lies in following a next step that's several days out-of-date. I'd rather write down the best Next Action as of my *current* progress on the Project, not what I thought on Sunday that it would be today.

[MarinaMartin]

Because you'll update your NA list when you switch to another Project, or within seven days at your next Weekly Review. Right?



The danger there lies in following a next step that's several days out-of-date. I'd rather write down the best Next Action as of my *current* progress on the Project, not what I thought on Sunday that it would be today.

Maybe I explained myself wrong.

I keep a separate list of actions for each Project, and then transfer the Next Action(s) for each Project to my Next Actions list.

If I complete a Next Action, I'll cross it off and either do the next Next Action in the project, or at least write the next Next Action on my Next Actions list.

However, occasionally something will happen where I *don't* write the next Next Action on my Next Actions list. I catch these mistakes by reviewing each Project list during my Weekly Review and making sure each has a Next Action listed on my Next Actions list.

I was originally responding to someone who was arguing that a Project list was not necessary. I agree that if it's really simple, it might not be worth it, but for the majority of projects, a Project list is what keeps things from falling through the cracks and ensures that I can actually trust my system.

Marina

[Brent]

Nope, you explained yourself just fine. Let me see if I understand.

Let's say you have a Project to, oh, fix up part of your garden. As I understand it, you write down a bunch of Next Action steps in a separate list. I'll call that separate list the Garden List. That may contain Actions to prep the soil, wash out containers, buy certain plants, and dig them in.

So you transfer the first item in your Garden List to your Next Action list. But as you work in the garden you discover certain things about the nature of your soil that you didn't know before.

That information may invalidate some of the actions on your Garden List, right? So how do you keep your Garden List up-to-date? Do you review it? If not, when you return to your Garden List to put another Action on your Next Action list, don't you have to re-evaluate the Garden List to make sure it's not out-of-date?