Next actions: Both physical _and_ visible | 43 Folders - The Diigo Meta page

• 07 Apr 13
  

  S PP

  habits productivity task mgt self-mgt gtd actions

  • Next actions
  • David Allen defines next actions as “the next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move the current reality toward completion.”

  • See, I’m an inveterate list-maker, and I’ve always thought I was actually pretty good at it, but when I look back now, I can see how my typical TODO list was littered with landmines.

      

     

     
    1. Get new work
     
    2. Lose weight
     
    3. Buy Christmas presents
     

     

      

    I’ll bet you have (or had) a similar running list of all the nagging stuff that was littering your mental landscape, right?
  • The thing is, I now see how items like these can’t really be “done” at all; each one of those things is actually a complex, multiple-item project with built-in dependencies and waiting time.

  • A more reasonable approach using GTD would be to focus just on that next physical activity needed to undertake each project; even if it seems like a trivial activity. In order:

      

     

     
    1. Find old résumé in file cabinet
     
    2. Call gym to see when membership expires
     
    3. Start a running list of everyone I need to buy Christmas gifts for

  3 more annotations...

• 16 Oct 10
  

  golloween

  next-action gtd productivity

• 12 Aug 10
  

  Mel Mink
  • The thing is, I now see how items like these can’t really be “done” at all; each one of those things is actually a complex, multiple-item project with built-in dependencies and waiting time. To look at any of them as a single thing I need to do is to buy into the anxiety-inducing premise that my goals and behaviors should somehow mirror each other on a one-to-one basis. If you think about it, that’s plainly ridiculous
  • ut, for me, turning anxieties into projects and projects into discrete physical behaviors has a lot of appeal.
• 04 Jul 10
  

  msaidf

  • typical TODO list was littered with landmines.

      

     

     
    1. Get new work
     
    2. Lose weight
     
    3. Buy Christmas presents
  • items like these can’t really be “done” at all; each one of those things is actually a complex, multiple-item project with built-in dependencies and waiting time

  • ocus just on that next physical activity needed to undertake each project; even if it seems like a trivial activity. In order:

      

     

     
    1. Find old résumé in file cabinet
     
    2. Call gym to see when membership expires
     
    3. Start a running list of everyone I need to buy Christmas gifts for

  • ocus just on that next physical activity needed to undertake each project; even if it seems like a trivial activity. In order:

      

     

     
    1. Find old résumé in file cabinet
     
    2. Call gym to see when membership expires
     
    3. Start a running list of everyone I need to buy Christmas gifts for

  2 more annotations...

• 19 Aug 08
  

  Matthew Heinrich

  GTD

• 20 Feb 08
  

  Emi OKU

  eng-resource gtd

• 18 Nov 07
  

  pianoer

  acion gtd lifehack next productivity

• 01 May 07
  

  Doug Toft

  GTD

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