Advantages of "Inactive Projects" vs. "Someday" projects
Terminado
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Why is there a separate category for inactive projects? If it's not currently active, shouldn't it reside in "Someday" (or, "Someday/Maybe")?
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2 Posted by Proximo on 29 Mar, 2010 04:06 AM
Great question.
This is the way I see it.
Someday Task/Projects are things that during my Weekly Review I determined that I may want to do or would be nice to do, but I am not sure I have time for them or if I will ever get to them. This is why you consider them Someday/Maybe.
I normally don't have Projects in my Someday list because I don't waste my time fleshing out the details for things I may never do but simply sound interesting at the time. When and if I decide something on my Someday list will become a real task or Project, I would figure out the details or steps required at that time.
If I had a Project that I realized may never happen or at least that it won't be something I will focus on anytime soon. I turn it into a task title. The reason for this is that if I ever do decide to make this a real Project in the future, I like to flesh out the steps at that time with a clear perpective. If I need to remember key things, I add them in my notes section.
Inactive Projects are different. These are Projects that I know MUST get accomplished but their priority at the moment is not as high as others. Making it inactive simply gets rid of it from my left Navi Projects section so I only see the Projects that I am working at the moment. Inactive Projects can become active in a moments notice depending on many factors.
This is my personal perspective on this. Hope it can help in some way.
3 Posted by Terminado on 29 Mar, 2010 08:11 PM
Excellent! Thank you.
4 Posted by Proximo on 29 Mar, 2010 08:50 PM
Terminado,
I must apologize for my original post. I answer many of these questions using my iPhone and after reading my reply I am surprised you understood what I was saying at all.
I can speak and type most of the time. Spelling is a different issue. If it was not for automatic spell checking on my emails, I will be sending people hieroglyphics. I try my best to look back at my post and polish them off.
For some reason when I type on my iPhone, it seems OK, but when I go back to read it, I mis-typed many words.
Sorry and I am glad it was useful to you anyways. :-)
5 Posted by Terminado on 29 Mar, 2010 09:38 PM
@Proximo,
No worries. Actually, I did think the typos were uncharacteristic but then I figured it was done on your phone or very, very (did I mention very) late at night.
6 Posted by Proximo on 29 Mar, 2010 09:50 PM
Guilty on both. It was very late, I was very tired and I was on my iPhone with a tiny keyboard and fat fingers. :-)
7 Posted by westis on 30 Mar, 2010 06:51 AM
Hi. I'm reading "Making it all work" now and just came to the section about "It's to Hold On, Until a Later Time".
I am too a bit confused by Someday/Maybe vs Inactive Projects. To me anything that I've decided not to act upon as soon as possible (whenever that might be) is Someday/Maybe. That includes projects I know I want to do, but I realize there's no way I can do it now. I may or may not have put down any further details on actions (depending on if I have happened to get any ideas related to that Someday/Maybe project, although I'm not purposely coming up with the next action for a Someday project).
I like the fact that I can hide projects from the Projects list by making them inactive. But to me that is the same as putting them in Someday/Maybe. That is, the "Inactive Projects" list could rather be a filter that filters items in Someday/Maybe that are projects (rather than single actions or items that are just ideas). Because if I move an active project to Someday/Maybe it still disappears from the Active Projects list.
Maybe I'm not seeing the difference clearly, but as simplicity and keeping in line with GTD are two catchwords of Nirvana, I can't argue for having both Inactive Projects and Someday/Maybe by using any of those two arguments. Even more so as it's easy to spot projects in the Someday list, as they are showing how many actions/items are in that project.
Please enlighten me! :)
8 Posted by Proximo on 30 Mar, 2010 01:14 PM
Let me tackle this from a different angle to see if it helps explain my thinking. Again, this is simply my perspective and I am not trying to say this is the law in any way.
I have some items in my inbox. As I go through them I have to decide what it means to me. We all know this process.
What is it? Is it actionable?
No = Delete (Trash), Incubate (Someday/Maybe) or Reference.
Yes = What's the Next Action?
Let's stop here for a second. You see, here is where I distinguish the difference between a Someday/Maybe item and an Inactive Project.
Is it actionable? YES
When I first processed this particular task and the answer was Yes. It became a task/project. This means that as a Project, I clearly identified what the Next Action was and some other steps. You don't need to figure out all the task related to a Project at that time. This is what the Weekly Reviews are for. But if you know for sure that it has more than one step, you can identify what you know at the time and make sure you have a clear Next Action.
I usually have several Projects that I determined are actionable, I can make some Inactive in order to give me a little focus on the ones I am tackling at the moment. This does not mean that the Inactive Project is a Someday item because later that day I may receive an email that changes the priority of that project and I can start to focus on it.
The idea of having Active and Inactive is simply so that you can focus on the ones you are currently working on. This can change on a day to day basis. So think of it as a Today list for your Projects. It's a quick and simple trigger that allows me to show or hide what I want to see at the time.
Is it actionable? No
This is where an item would go to my Someday/Maybe list and I don't spend time figuring out if it's a single task or project. It's NOT actionable, so I can either Delete it, make it a Someday item or it's Reference material.
If it's a Someday item, this means that I MAY one day change my mind about this task/project but at the moment it's not Actionable.
This is the difference.
Something that I decided WAS actionable and became a Project, would either be Active or Inactive depending on what I want to focus on at the moment. Monday a project can be inactive and on Tuesday it becomes active. Simply because a shift in Priorities and my focus. Both Active and Inactive Projects are Actionable and I am doing work on them.
Someday is not actionable and I won't be doing any work on them or figuring out the multiple steps required UNLESS, during a Weekly Review I determined that this Someday item is now Actionable.
Hope that makes sense.
9 Posted by westis on 30 Mar, 2010 06:13 PM
Thanks a lot for the clarification! It does indeed make sense.
However, I still see Inactive Projects as a subcategory to Someday/Maybe. I read for example in Making it all work, about the Incubating organizing category, where DA takes as an example a project that has been in the active projects list for weeks, but because of new circumstances is moved to Someday/Maybe (which in the Nirvana case probably would be Inactive Projects).
An item in the Someday/Maybe list may very well be actionable in the sense that it is possible to act upon, only that I've decided to put it on hold. I could put actions, projects or just ideas that needs further clarification in Someday/Maybe.
It's just a technical detail really and I really do see the value of using Inactive Projects like you suggest. But still I'd rather see it as integrated with Someday/Maybe, as a filterable sub-category. When more filtering will be available, maybe these kinds of customized filters could be setup to anyone's liking.
Re: another recent thread, as it is now a project can be both in the Inactive Projects list and in Someday/Maybe at the same time. I do find it slightly confusing.
10 Posted by Proximo on 30 Mar, 2010 06:49 PM
@westis,
I guess I did not cover what happens when a Project lingers in the Project list for a long time. During my weekly reviews, I have moved some Projects into Someday. Sometimes it's because the Project may have died or requires some funding in order for it to move forward. There are many reasons why a Project would go from the Project list to the Someday list.
Inactive Projects for me are more of a temporary delay or lower priority. I simply use it to keep the Active Project list fresh with the stuff I am taking action on at the moment.
Inactive projects are too important to be considered Someday/Maybe, but due to resources or time, I can't tackle it this week or the next. One thing for sure is that they MUST be done. So it's not a Someday/Maybe at this time. Now let's say the funding fell through or a decision was made to not tackle it right now or in the near future. (6 to 12 months). I will then move it to Someday list because it may never get done. Eventually after about 12 months, I will need to decide if this project will get new life or just die. In the case that it will not get a new life, I will then delete it and get it out of my Someday list.
I think we are both dancing around the same thoughts here. It's just a matter of how you view the Inactive Projects. To me if there is a possibility of this Project not happening, I will move it to Someday/Maybe, but if it's still actionable and must be done, it stays Active and could move to Inactive while I get other higher Priority projects done. Leaving it Inactive reminds me that there is no question that this will and needs to happen. Only when I move it to Someday will it mean that it could possibly die.
Great discussion.
11 Posted by westis on 30 Mar, 2010 07:08 PM
Excellent. As I'm still very new to Nirvana I think this disctinction will be clearer with time.
@Proximo: Thanks for always great insight! :)
12 Posted by Proximo on 30 Mar, 2010 09:03 PM
@westis,
This particular topic is not so much about GTD but how to use the Active/Inactive project functionality of Nirvana. I am simply sharing how I use it in hopes someone can get a good idea from it. I also learn just as much from you, so please keep the great discussions coming.
Thanks for your willingness to share.
13 Posted by Ari on 13 Jun, 2010 02:21 AM
@proximo. Why does the Inactive project list also show Someday projects? I feel if it is to be used as you suggest,(i.e. Inactive is a temporary store for projects you are not working on now), the Inactive list should only show projects marked "Inactive" but not also all the Someday projects.
14 Posted by Proximo on 15 Jun, 2010 01:31 PM
@ari,
Good point.
I don't have many Someday projects but I just moved one there to understand what you are saying. Now that I have that project in the Someday list, it still shows up in the inactive list. A little redundant if you ask me.
Inactive Projects is not actually part of GTD but it's an option to help keep the UI clean.
What I mean by this is that a Project is either Actionable or Not. If it's actionable, it will be in the Project list if it's Not actionable it will be in the Someday List.
The inactive trigger is simply to clean up what projects show up in the UI on the left Navi to prevent 50 projects from showing there when you are actively working on only 10 of them.
Hope that makes sense. I agree that the project should not show in the inactive list if it's a someday Project and it should not show in the Active Project list either.
Sounds like something Nirvana will need to give us feed back on. If the idea or intent is that making a project inactive is the same as making it a Someday Project. I would not agree with the logic. I should be able to put a Project in the Someday list and back to the Project list as needed. An inactive project should not be considered a someday project because it does not show up in that list by default and causes confusion. If you move a project to the Someday list it shows up as you would expect there but it's still in the inactive list as well.
If you make the someday project active, it removes it from the someday list and the inactive list at the same time. This is confusing if you ask me.
Inactive to me has always been a way to clean up the left Navi and not to control my Someday projects. Like I said, this could be the intent and I was just using this feature in my own way.
If it makes it easier to understand, I would rather the inactive projects option disappear and manage them correctly with the Someday list as needed. I would then like an option to choose what Project appear on my left Navi for easy access to make up for the lost functionality. I just don't agree with Inactive Projects being considered Someday at all.
:-(
15 Posted by Bernard on 03 Sep, 2010 04:09 PM
Slightly different Question,
but in your "Next" section, it shows ALL my tasks related to an Active project. My use of the "Next" section is to only bring out the "Next Action" of my Project (e.g. the first one) and not confuse me with the other items that I may have identified related to the project.
And while I can make a project "Inactive", I can't make the Tasks within a project inactive (which would be another good way of me keep the "Next Actions" of a project, distinct from what I believe will likely be future actions).
It may be that I'm just not applying GTD principles correctly, but it would be good to hear what others think.
Thanks,
bernard
16 Posted by Proximo on 03 Sep, 2010 06:24 PM
@Bernard,
Actually, you are exactly correct. The next big update to Nirvana is going to accomplish exactly what you described. Only the Next Actions of a project should show on the Next list.
So hang tight because the new update is coming very soon.
17 Posted by Bernard on 03 Sep, 2010 06:41 PM
@Proximo
Thanks.
After commenting, I later realized that many others have noted this issue in other threads.
Glad that it's being worked on!
Great work though, it's a very nice system :)
18 Posted by Proximo on 04 Sep, 2010 01:23 AM
@Bernard
If you search for "Unified Next List", you will find several discussions where this is mentioned in detail.
Yes, Nirvana is a nice system and the developers are nice people. What else could you ask for?
David McLaughlin closed this discussion on 03 Feb, 2011 09:32 PM.