Thanks for the response and the links. The reason I suggest taking a live project, breaking it into tasks and doing it the GTD-way is to better understand the intricacies of implementation. The problem I see with most projects is a lack of integrated or central planning. Now if you do go that route your task list becomes hard to manage.

Not sure if this makes sense to you at the moment but if you were to take an example, I can point the difficulties. I would appreciate if you mail me the update on GTD and projects.

Thanks

Dr. Saraf

We’ll look at doing more blog posts on detailing out projects, as you suggest. There are loads of resources on GTD Times and GTD Connect on projects that you should find helpful now. Here are two links on GTD Times I would suggest, if you haven’t seen these:

http://www.gtdtimes.com/2010/02/15/managing-projects-tips-from-david-allen/

http://www.gtdtimes.com/2009/11/28/a-quick-guide-to-gtd-projects/

We’re also working on a new product for the fall on GTD & Projects. Should give a ton of detail and helpful models for wading through your projects.

Kelly

However, deciding how much to plan or to what level plan and deciding the appropriate next action is not trivial (again these may be the 10% of your projects). This is even more complex for long-term projects. e.g. retirement planning

It would be very useful for me (as well as other users of GTD) if this blog would explain 2-3 sample projects planned and implemented using GTD philosophy.

Thanks

Thanks for pointing out a pitfall so many people fall into. It’s so easy to confuse our priorities and get frustrated, unless, of course, we follow a system that works.

Thanks again,

Jonathan Flaks

It had gone to the spam folder.

It’s posted now!

GTD Times Team

Basically this means I can do a reasonable amount of pre-planning/thinking on a project’s actions without having several items from that project in my next action list and, once one next action is done, I can also easily pull up the next next action and work on that if it’s the most appropriate thing to be doing. It also gives me a list of what’s been done on the project in the reference material.

My weekly review looks like this. As I review my Project List (64 projects currently), I compare it to my ‘Next Action’ List. I know that I should have a ‘Next Action’ task for each project (roughly 64 actions). With my large projects, I frequently brainstorm the next 2,3 or even 4 tasks needed to move that particular project along. Instead of misplacing those or adding them to my ‘Next Action’ List, I label those tasks with the action ‘List’. During my review, if my ‘Next Action’ list is short or if I draw a blank on what I should do next on a particular project to move it along- I simply review my project’s ‘List’ tasks. So, in essence I update my ‘Next Action’ List from my ‘List’ tasks. My ‘Next Action’ List stays under control and focused on my projects.

Now, you could see it as an additional step, but it works well for me. Many of my projects are very detailed oriented will lots of tasks so capturing them all under ‘List’ in one trusted place until they are moved to ‘Next Action’ allows me to empty my mind and just focus on the ‘Next Action’ List during my day-to-dy work.

Thanks for opportunity to share. Thank you Mr. Allen for GTD!

GTDer for 5 years.

You look at a next action and can just do it. By the time its done, the project is in front of you and you know what to do next so there is no overhead or bookkeeping, just continue.

When you get interrupted, make sure (perhaps via your inbox) that the next action step from wherever you got to ends up in your list.

Its like a bookmark, you don’t need to mark every page as long as you mark where to continue when you put the book down.

For really important projects or projects with deadlines, I’ll throw a NA post-it in one of my 43 folders to make sure it gets put on the top of my list for that day.

GTD has been life changing for me. I keep my next actions in a journal and since I started really implementing the system – I have 46 pages of crossed of actions. A page of crossed off to-do lists is truly better than any work of art Thanks David!!

Now in your reference system (or project file) you have a list of all the steps you need to do to complete the project. It doesn’t really matter if they’re sequential tasks or not. As you are working on the project, complete an action, or during the weekly review, you transfer tasks from the project list to your next action list — either the next sequential task or whatever tasks you want to accomplish next.

For full-blown project management systems, the project list is a project plan. It’s worthy of review and updates during your weekly reviews… but you may not want all the tasks on your next action lists all the time.

I have a few projects where my next action is simply “do work from the project plan” — especially when the tasks are not context specific (like calls, errands, etc.). Once in a while the next action is “do work from the plan” as well as “discuss X with David” and “go to Target to buy supplies.”

Obviously, use whatever works for you. Don’t let your next action lists get bogged down unnecessarily, but also don’t ignore the fact that without those things written down somewhere it may still be on your mind. Just change the somewhere to be an appropriate place for what it is.

Hope that helps.