Have I got this right?
Hello all, this is a great GTD community, loving all the very knowledgeable posts and input from the Nirvana web design staff, and of course .. Proximo.
I have just spent a high overhead week getting to this
post!
First of all I was a toodledo user last week, and was about to migrate into Nirvana and then spotted the Smartytask thread. I migrated my personal tasks into smartytasks and gave it a whirl, but it doesnt have AoF filters, I then noticed that Nirvana was about to undergo a major overhaul and I was sold. Today I took all of my tasks/projects into Nirvana, I have been reading the tips on setting up Nirvana, I think I am there, but i am unsure and would appreciate any advice, here's my aproach so far:
I work in construction and have put in a great deal of
professional areas of responsibilities (focus) i.e procurement,
design, consruction, and also a great deal of personal ones i.e
father, husband, holidays, etc. into Nirvana. This allows me to
focus on one particular set of projects/tasks at any one time,
depending upon what my "intuition" tells me is important at that
moment.
Typically I then go to the next action list, I then refine the list of next actions by context (using tag functionality), then further refine the list by energy and time available (I use e1t2, e3t3 tags).
Having created a list filtered by AoR, context, time/energy, I then use intuition and pick what i want to action, and move it to the top of the list. If I feel I have satisfied my "intuition" I look at other AoR and start again, if not I select another task from the list and move it to the top and so on.
I dont feel a need for the "today" list, as my priorities can change by the minute depending on what comes up during the day - question is - am I a million miles away or am I onto something here? Or have I just got it all wrong? :-)
Derek.
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2 Posted by roddyt on 16 Jun, 2010 12:23 AM
Derek,
Your description of how you use Nirvana is spot on in terms of GTD. You've developed areas of responsibility, contexts, time available, energy. You've ordered your tasks as you see fit (intuition is as good a method as any other). The Today list? If you don't need it, that's fine, there's nothing that says you have to use it.
But to answer your question, well, I can't do that because you stopped short on the most important information. Does this work for you? At any point in time, are you able to go to your list and easily identify the next task that you should be doing. And do you feel comfortable that that is what you should be doing at that time, and not something else.
If you can answer yes, then I would tell you that you are definitely doing it right. If not, then you've got some thinking to do. The only "right" way of doing this is the one that helps you be productive in your own life.
Roddy
3 Posted by Proximo on 16 Jun, 2010 03:14 AM
@roddyt,
Your statement is just greatness.
Nothing to add.
4 Posted by deekod on 16 Jun, 2010 10:40 AM
Many thanks roddy and proximo,
I have been combining GTD with prioritised projects/tasks for years with some success but some frustration too, therefore working by AoF/Context/Energy/Time/Intuition is new to me, and feels uncomfortable at this point in time - time will tell.
The reason for feeling uncomfortable is - I have some 500+ work tasks, and when selecting the AoF to work on initially, l will undoubtedly "pass by" projects/tasks in other AoF that would be brought to the top of my list if I used un-GTD like AoF/Project/Task priorities that I review every week. I am forced to rely on my "conscience" to jump from AoF to AoF to ensure I dont miss anything, this seems like a lot of overhead, but then perhaps not as much as juggling priorities every week?
So, here goes with my trial of GTD with Nirvana, starting initially with a review of chapter 9 of the book to ensure all the basics are in place, then working by AoF rather than priority.
Derek.
5 Posted by Proximo on 16 Jun, 2010 11:19 AM
@deekod,
I use AoR in a simplistic way.
I have the following AoR:
Personal
Work
Business
That's it.
This allows me to not jump from one AoR to another as often. When I show up to work in the morning, I switch to my "Work" AoR and usually stay in that Focus for the next 8 hours.
This allows me to easily scan my list as needed and make decisions on what I should be doing based on my Context, Time, Energy and Priority.
Priorities is not a hard coded structure in GTD, but it's always part of your decision making. Things change fast and often in real life making GTD very effective because you can make decisions based on these changes without having to always change a structured priority system. 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C.... etc.
Try GTD, keep it simple and learn to trust your system. When you know you are capturing everything that comes your way and it's in your system, you will start to trust it.
During your weekly reviews or daily scans, you will start to realize that you do have control and you are making the best decisions on what to work on.
When Nirvana adds Time and Energy/Effort for task, it's going to make a HUGE difference on how GTD helps us choose what to work on. Time and Energy/Effort needs to be something we can filter by in order for it to be useful, but if done correctly you will start to see the power of GTD decision making.
We are here to help and we are all learning together. :-)
6 Posted by candeshouse on 16 Jun, 2010 01:00 PM
Proximo beat me to the punch (no surprise there). The only thing I would consider is consolidating your AofR and either using tags or naming to filter down to the next level. I attempted to do the same breakout within my "work" AofR initially, and it was just too tedious and confusing switching from "area" to "area" while always being at work. A systematic change would be to allow the choosing of multiple AofR at a time, but I don't know that this makes the most sense and not aware of it being included in future releases.
7 Posted by PeterW on 16 Jun, 2010 02:06 PM
As I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm not convinced that AoR in its current form is a helpful tool. In my opinion it just adds complexity.
8 Posted by roddyt on 16 Jun, 2010 02:57 PM
Derek,
Just to reiterate one point Proximo made. When I read your description, I thought to myself that you had an awful lot of areas of responsibility defined. I didn't say anything because, as I said, if it works for you, then it's right.
Based on your comments though, that is the first thing I would concentrate on. Like Proximo, I have very few AoRs, and that works well for me.
That, of course, would increase the number of tasks in your focus area, but during your weekly review, you can tuck away tasks in the Someday/Maybe list as appropriate, or set projects to inactive if you know you won't be working on them in the next week. That would cut down on the amount of tasks visible on your day by day usage (hopefully, those 500+ tasks aren't all immediate next actions; if so, you are one busy guy).
As Nirvana improves, there will be more ways to improve focus. Scheduled tasks are coming soon; that should (hopefully) hide tasks that can be assigned a start, or focus, date in the future. Also, there have been suggestions made that would enable setting a subset of project tasks as next actions. Presently it's all or nothing.
Good things to come, and also a big plus on everything else Proximo said. I hope you are able to zero in on a method that you can feel comfortable with.
Roddy
P.S., not to slight @candeshouse as I only mention Proximo above, but I saw the last messages only after I finished writing my message, and I don't want to rewrite it, so I'll give credit here.
9 Posted by deekod on 16 Jun, 2010 05:14 PM
Many thanks all,
The book suggests using AoF "sublists" with appx. 7 AoF in each list, I actually ended up with 32 split between professional and personal! I will trim these back to 2 main professional and personal AoF lists, thanks for this.
I'll create a suggestion thread for AoF sublists in line with Chapter 9 (p205 of UK edition 2001) recommendations, as I feel this is warranted to allow next action selection in line with the book.
In the interim, I will hold off using tags as AoF sublist filters as my tags are already getting too busy with energy/time and agenda task metadata, but I look forward to removing these once we have standard task energy/time fields.
Thanks again for the great support,
Derek.
deekod closed this discussion on 16 Jun, 2010 05:14 PM.
Proximo re-opened this discussion on 16 Jun, 2010 05:51 PM
10 Posted by Proximo on 16 Jun, 2010 05:51 PM
I think some future features will make a big difference as Roddyt mentioned.
We need to keep the ideas flowing and be open minded to all suggestions to make sure we make Nirvana even better.
11 Posted by deekod on 16 Jun, 2010 08:54 PM
Well said Proximo, with the wealth of experience in this community I have no doubt Nirvana will become (even more) true to its name amongst GTD practicioners.
Just a "final" note on all the above posts, I have decided to implement Area of Responsibility sublists for my Professional Area of Focus as follows (until we have Nirvana implementation for this hopefully):
This allows me to "prioritise" my projects and AoR sublists by sliding them up and down using the project view, I can juggle projects/AoR until it feels "right" at that moment using intuition, I then work down the list of projects "grazing" on tasks as I go, so far so good, time will tell.
I realise the above may not be to everyone's liking, but as you say Roddy I now feel I am working on the right task at the right time, so I'm there, hope this helps someone else too.
Thanks again for all the very helpful comments.
Derek.
12 Posted by ryan on 09 Oct, 2010 03:29 PM
I am late to the party here, but what I DON'T like about Nirvana is that Area of Focus is tied to closely to daily tasks. If you follow the book, AoF is primarily a tool to help with your weekly and less periodic review. It is not designed to be a filing system for projects.
Your focus on projects are the active projects you have.
13 Posted by Proximo on 11 Oct, 2010 08:58 PM
@Ryan Malone,
From my understanding on DA's books. AoF is nothing more than a Location Context which is exactly how AoF works in Nirvana.
Some have used AoF differently, but I keep things simple and use them in this way.
AoF = Location Context or Major Area of Interest
Tags = Resource Context
That's it. Following this approach, it mimics what DA is doing on paper for the most part.
I first filter by the current Location I find myself in or a Major area of interest such as Finances. Once I filter my AoF, I can now filter by Time, Energy, Context, Priority as needed.
Very simple.
14 Posted by ryan on 12 Oct, 2010 02:42 PM
@Proximo - You inspired me to go read the chapter yesterday again, and from what I gather AoF is merely a checklist of responsibilities so that things don't fall through the cracks, not a filter system for when you are in to do. It pretty explicity says that it is for review less than weekly (although that is a personal choice).
With Nirvana, I've found the AoF feature too rigid for my application because it is too clunk to switch between AoF, so I basically have one AoF called "checklists" which contains things like altitudes, packing lists, AoFs defined by David Allen.
For the filtering, I filter closely to how you do--work, home, clients. As a result, I tag each project work, home or client. When I tag tasks, I tag the context (@calls, etc) and the filter (work), so I get something like this:
Rework blog editorial calendar for PMG @computer, clients
It gives me a much more fluid experience that using the AoF dropdowns.
15 Posted by Proximo on 13 Oct, 2010 10:52 PM
@Ryan,
We can get tangled in naming easily.
Let me just say this to be clear. To ME... AoF in Nirvana is nothing more than an Uber Context. In DA's first book, he clearly states that context are locations or resources. I use AoF in Nirvana as my Location Context and Tags as my Resource Context.
Maybe AoF is not the right name for the feature.
I did not like the idea of using @Work and @Home in my task because I don't like having a bunch of tags. AoF in Nirvana was simply a way for me to separate my Location based context from my resource based context.
Nirvana does not use the "Context" terminology which can lead to confusion. I understand that tags are more flexible but I bet many of the GTD users only use tags as context. If tags where to be renamed as context per GTD, I would have no problem with it. I use tags specifically for context and not to micro manage my task to death. Simple in my opinion is usually better.
I know some people like adding 10 tags to their tags but I sure don't use them that way.
Renaming Ideas:
Tags become Context
AoF are removed and Uber Context are used along with regular context. Uber context could have a different background color and always stay left justified.
Next becomes Next Actions
Waiting becomes Waiting For
Later is removed
Someday becomes Someday/Maybe
I think the closer you stick to the GTD way of naming, the less confusion there will be.
With that said Ryan. I am going to read the chapter again myself, but I think we are both thinking the same thing, but I don't consider AoF in Nirvana to be the same thing as you. Like I said, we can get very confused with naming of things.
16 Posted by adburn on 16 Oct, 2010 06:29 PM
Been lurking a while but felt the urge to join - so much good advice and as an ex Omni Focus use very keen to see the 'nested projects' approach in Nirvana.
Just a thought - I use the Today list as 'next Actions' - so in each project as I identify a Next Action I make it a Today task - then on daily basis (or however I realistically get round to it) i can review all my Next Actions by checking my Today list.
17 Posted by ryan on 16 Oct, 2010 07:47 PM
@Adburn, you wrote:
"...and as an ex Omni Focus user..."
So am I, and I was curious as to why you left OF as well.
Brilliant idea regarding the Today and actions, especially since Nirvana won't get hide the tasks that are not truly next actions...yet. Thanks for sharing.
18 Posted by adburn on 18 Oct, 2010 11:31 AM
@Ryan Malone
Left Omni Focus as work is all on a PC & Nirvana lets me use both platforms.
19 Posted by Proximo on 18 Oct, 2010 07:51 PM
@Ryan and @adburn
Remember that Nirvana is about 1 week away from a Major update that will allow you to choose what your Projects Next Actions are.
Just a reminder. :-)
David McLaughlin closed this discussion on 11 Feb, 2011 07:25 AM.