WOW, Look at my long list of stuff to do. HELP!
Have hundreds of actionable task in your Next list. No problem. GTD is not about getting everything done, but what makes sense at the moment. Let's say you have 200 actionable items.
Choose an Area of Focus
If you are at work for example, you may have a "Work" AoF.
Now the list may contain only 150 task.
Filter by Time and Energy
It's 2 hours before lunch and you have High mental energy. Use the Time and Energy filter to narrow your choices.
Hey, Your list is down to only 80 task to choose from now.
Horizons of Focus
Now use your Horizons of Focus to determine what are the most import task out of the 80. Sort the most important task to the top. You don't have to sort them all, but maybe the top 20 or so.
Now you have 20 task at the top of your list.
Choose a context
What type of work do you feel like doing? Do you like to tackle email in the morning or phone calls.
Filter by the tag (Context) that you feel like doing and now you only have about 5 task that match the criteria. These are the 5 task that are best for you to do right at this moment. Star them and now you can focus on the Today list.
You may decide not to filter by a particular context but star several task from the top 20 that you feel you can do right now.
Either way, you are now working with a smaller and more focused list of task that you feel good about doing.
Today List
You see. It's not that bad after all. I only have 5 task to focus on before lunch. As you work on these 5 task, more phone calls will pour in, more email will show up and more people will want you to do something. Use GTD to decided if it's Actionable or Not and keep on trucking.
"Don't put off things for LATER that make sense to do now, because LATER may not be the right thing to do then."
Proximo
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2 Posted by Steven Heidel on 19 Aug, 2010 04:07 AM
What do you do for a living that has 150 tasks?
3 Posted by Proximo on 19 Aug, 2010 01:23 PM
@Steven
lol
It's just an example. I actually just counted them and I have 153. How weird is that?
I know at times I have many more task/projects than this. Just depends.
What do I do?
I use GTD for everything in my life, so answering that question would require me to tell you about my life. :-)
Work = CAD & Administration Manger
Family = Husband and Father
Home = Honey To Do List
Finances = Control my budget, plan for the future, save for my daughter's college.
Business = I own a business
Hobbies = Self Defense, Gaming, Magician, Computer Geek, Gadget freak.
Learning = Programming
Family = Birthdays, hanging out with my siblings, etc.
Friend = Spend time with people I enjoy, go do things.
Entertainment = Movies, The Zoo, Shooting Range, Go to the Park, Amusement Parks, etc.
As you can see, when you use GTD for everything in your life, you can have lots of things to do. GTD and Nirvana allow me to accomplish what's important without loosing my mind.
Hope that is a good answer. :-)
4 Posted by Steven Heidel on 19 Aug, 2010 06:25 PM
Great answer, thanks!
Your list of areas gave me some ideas for more areas in my life. I only have an odd 30 or so tasks in mine, but I guess overtime I'll learn to get more stuff out of my mind and into the inbox.
5 Posted by martin.tyler on 20 Aug, 2010 06:57 PM
You said Family twice! You obviously aren't as organised as we all thought :)
Support Staff 6 Posted by Elbert McLaughlin on 20 Aug, 2010 07:02 PM
slap! ;-)
7 Posted by Proximo on 20 Aug, 2010 07:03 PM
@martin.tyler
LOL
You got me. I wanted to show that I spend time with my extended family as well and not just my wife and daughter.
I should have put them together, but I did not think of it at the moment. I just typed very quickly. lol
Good one.
8 Posted by bobwaltman on 21 Aug, 2010 11:45 PM
Hey Proximo,
I always enjoy your comments and posts, both here and the another forum.
Regards
David McLaughlin closed this discussion on 01 Feb, 2011 04:04 PM.