Re: GTD process question: Daily todo lists
I like using the stars to highlight items I want to address today, from among my many next actions. On Dec 3, 12:38 am, jdunham jwdun...@gmail.com wrote: I haven't found contexts to be that useful. I'm sure they are for others, but that's not just the way my next actions need to be sorted. However I did have the problem of too many next actions. What helped me is making another state for actions and projects which need doing, but are not on my next actions list. I put items on this list until my next actions are down to a manageable number (like five or so) and then daily or weekly or when Next actions are empty, I can get that other list and review it. Seehttp://tiddlywiki.org/wiki/MonkeyGTD/Customization_Guide/Custom_Proje... for details, if you are interested. On Dec 2, 1:03 am, Frederic Aguiard frederic.agui...@gmail.com wrote: Hello, At some point in the past, I realized that 95% of my next actions were attached to the context '@work'. I did try to split that in several contexts like '@computer:online', '@computer:offline' and '@office' to account for the fact that I sometimes work from office, from home (both with internet access) and sometimes while commuting without internet access. However this was not enough to reduce the amount of next actions in '@computer:online' (still in the 85% range). Therefore I decided to experiment the multiple-context capabilities of mGTD, and to throw in a few more contexts which are not location based, in parallel of the ones listed above. I tried using for example a '@criticalPath' for actions which will delay other people's work if I do not respect my deadlines, a '@today' (that I daily updated) to mark items I wanted to do during the day (thus making a daily to-do list...), etc... In the end, what I did was having two sets of contexts, one for 'priorities' and the other one for 'physical location', and I used the intersection of the two to reduce the number of actions I have to choose from each day. I also tried when applicable to reduce the number of next actions per project to 1, only keeping as active the one with the highest 'priority', and moving the others to 'future', even if it was possible to do them immediately. I do not know if such ideas will be compatible with your environment, but what is great is that both GTD and MonkeyGTD give you a very broad capacity to experiment :) Best regards, Frederic On 28 nov, 03:21, John Holden j...@holdencrew.com wrote: You can think about using/referring to the 'Completed Projects' and 'Done Actions' lists/ticklers to track what you have done for your boss. This will list things by date and you can review it as part of your Weekly Review. It is 'very GTD' to do a thorough weekly review and I think it makes a big difference. With regard to daily ToDo lists, part of the GTD dogma is do what works for you! If you want to discipline yourself and commit to getting a discrete number of things done - come hell or high water - you can write them in your calendar/diary, allocating them a time as appointments. These tasks are going to take time, so there's nothing wrong in committing to 'an appointment with yourself' to complete next actions. If you're getting lost with context-based next action lists, perhaps you should review your contexts and challenge whether they actually work for you? Are they relevant to how your work/life is structured? My At Office list gets very long and out-of-control, as does my At Computer. This is because my computer is at the office (!) and the risk is that everything gets added to one of these lists. At the moment I am focusing on getting the lists done, rather than worrying about how they should be organised! Maybe you need fewer contexts? Maybe more? Probably different. Worth a think about why you get lost quickly. Good luck John On 28 Nov 2009, at 00:11, Jeff wrote: I'm back at mgtd after trying text files for a while. They're just not as pretty or cool as a TW-based app. Now I'm trying to use mgtd to also track what I have done so that I can easily produce status reports/tasklogs for my boss. Is it contrary to GTD dogma to use daily todo lists? When I use context-based next action lists, I get lost very quickly. -- Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to
Re: GTD process question: Daily todo lists
Hello, At some point in the past, I realized that 95% of my next actions were attached to the context '@work'. I did try to split that in several contexts like '@computer:online', '@computer:offline' and '@office' to account for the fact that I sometimes work from office, from home (both with internet access) and sometimes while commuting without internet access. However this was not enough to reduce the amount of next actions in '@computer:online' (still in the 85% range). Therefore I decided to experiment the multiple-context capabilities of mGTD, and to throw in a few more contexts which are not location based, in parallel of the ones listed above. I tried using for example a '@criticalPath' for actions which will delay other people's work if I do not respect my deadlines, a '@today' (that I daily updated) to mark items I wanted to do during the day (thus making a daily to-do list...), etc... In the end, what I did was having two sets of contexts, one for 'priorities' and the other one for 'physical location', and I used the intersection of the two to reduce the number of actions I have to choose from each day. I also tried when applicable to reduce the number of next actions per project to 1, only keeping as active the one with the highest 'priority', and moving the others to 'future', even if it was possible to do them immediately. I do not know if such ideas will be compatible with your environment, but what is great is that both GTD and MonkeyGTD give you a very broad capacity to experiment :) Best regards, Frederic On 28 nov, 03:21, John Holden j...@holdencrew.com wrote: You can think about using/referring to the 'Completed Projects' and 'Done Actions' lists/ticklers to track what you have done for your boss. This will list things by date and you can review it as part of your Weekly Review. It is 'very GTD' to do a thorough weekly review and I think it makes a big difference. With regard to daily ToDo lists, part of the GTD dogma is do what works for you! If you want to discipline yourself and commit to getting a discrete number of things done - come hell or high water - you can write them in your calendar/diary, allocating them a time as appointments. These tasks are going to take time, so there's nothing wrong in committing to 'an appointment with yourself' to complete next actions. If you're getting lost with context-based next action lists, perhaps you should review your contexts and challenge whether they actually work for you? Are they relevant to how your work/life is structured? My At Office list gets very long and out-of-control, as does my At Computer. This is because my computer is at the office (!) and the risk is that everything gets added to one of these lists. At the moment I am focusing on getting the lists done, rather than worrying about how they should be organised! Maybe you need fewer contexts? Maybe more? Probably different. Worth a think about why you get lost quickly. Good luck John On 28 Nov 2009, at 00:11, Jeff wrote: I'm back at mgtd after trying text files for a while. They're just not as pretty or cool as a TW-based app. Now I'm trying to use mgtd to also track what I have done so that I can easily produce status reports/tasklogs for my boss. Is it contrary to GTD dogma to use daily todo lists? When I use context-based next action lists, I get lost very quickly. -- Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en.
Re: GTD process question: Daily todo lists
I haven't found contexts to be that useful. I'm sure they are for others, but that's not just the way my next actions need to be sorted. However I did have the problem of too many next actions. What helped me is making another state for actions and projects which need doing, but are not on my next actions list. I put items on this list until my next actions are down to a manageable number (like five or so) and then daily or weekly or when Next actions are empty, I can get that other list and review it. See http://tiddlywiki.org/wiki/MonkeyGTD/Customization_Guide/Custom_Project_Classifications for details, if you are interested. On Dec 2, 1:03 am, Frederic Aguiard frederic.agui...@gmail.com wrote: Hello, At some point in the past, I realized that 95% of my next actions were attached to the context '@work'. I did try to split that in several contexts like '@computer:online', '@computer:offline' and '@office' to account for the fact that I sometimes work from office, from home (both with internet access) and sometimes while commuting without internet access. However this was not enough to reduce the amount of next actions in '@computer:online' (still in the 85% range). Therefore I decided to experiment the multiple-context capabilities of mGTD, and to throw in a few more contexts which are not location based, in parallel of the ones listed above. I tried using for example a '@criticalPath' for actions which will delay other people's work if I do not respect my deadlines, a '@today' (that I daily updated) to mark items I wanted to do during the day (thus making a daily to-do list...), etc... In the end, what I did was having two sets of contexts, one for 'priorities' and the other one for 'physical location', and I used the intersection of the two to reduce the number of actions I have to choose from each day. I also tried when applicable to reduce the number of next actions per project to 1, only keeping as active the one with the highest 'priority', and moving the others to 'future', even if it was possible to do them immediately. I do not know if such ideas will be compatible with your environment, but what is great is that both GTD and MonkeyGTD give you a very broad capacity to experiment :) Best regards, Frederic On 28 nov, 03:21, John Holden j...@holdencrew.com wrote: You can think about using/referring to the 'Completed Projects' and 'Done Actions' lists/ticklers to track what you have done for your boss. This will list things by date and you can review it as part of your Weekly Review. It is 'very GTD' to do a thorough weekly review and I think it makes a big difference. With regard to daily ToDo lists, part of the GTD dogma is do what works for you! If you want to discipline yourself and commit to getting a discrete number of things done - come hell or high water - you can write them in your calendar/diary, allocating them a time as appointments. These tasks are going to take time, so there's nothing wrong in committing to 'an appointment with yourself' to complete next actions. If you're getting lost with context-based next action lists, perhaps you should review your contexts and challenge whether they actually work for you? Are they relevant to how your work/life is structured? My At Office list gets very long and out-of-control, as does my At Computer. This is because my computer is at the office (!) and the risk is that everything gets added to one of these lists. At the moment I am focusing on getting the lists done, rather than worrying about how they should be organised! Maybe you need fewer contexts? Maybe more? Probably different. Worth a think about why you get lost quickly. Good luck John On 28 Nov 2009, at 00:11, Jeff wrote: I'm back at mgtd after trying text files for a while. They're just not as pretty or cool as a TW-based app. Now I'm trying to use mgtd to also track what I have done so that I can easily produce status reports/tasklogs for my boss. Is it contrary to GTD dogma to use daily todo lists? When I use context-based next action lists, I get lost very quickly. -- Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en.
Re: GTD process question: Daily todo lists
On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 9:21 PM, John Holden j...@holdencrew.com wrote: If you're getting lost with context-based next action lists, perhaps you should review your contexts and challenge whether they actually work for you? Are they relevant to how your work/life is structured? My At Office list gets very long and out-of-control, as does my At Computer. This is because my computer is at the office (!) and the risk is that everything gets added to one of these lists. At the moment I am focusing on getting the lists done, rather than worrying about how they should be organised! Maybe you need fewer contexts? Maybe more? Probably different. Worth a think about why you get lost quickly. That sounds a lot like my situation. Basically, everything goes into the category Office. I then decide what to put on my daily todo list based on what's most important/interesting/urgent/etc. I find that I end up putting myself in the context needed to do the next task for the project at hand instead of figuring out what context I'm in and running through that context's action list. I've been creating daily todo lists by creating a project for each day, and tagging other projects/tasks with that 'day'. Thanks! -- Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en.
GTD process question: Daily todo lists
I'm back at mgtd after trying text files for a while. They're just not as pretty or cool as a TW-based app. Now I'm trying to use mgtd to also track what I have done so that I can easily produce status reports/tasklogs for my boss. Is it contrary to GTD dogma to use daily todo lists? When I use context-based next action lists, I get lost very quickly. -- Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en.
Re: GTD process question: Daily todo lists
You can think about using/referring to the 'Completed Projects' and 'Done Actions' lists/ticklers to track what you have done for your boss. This will list things by date and you can review it as part of your Weekly Review. It is 'very GTD' to do a thorough weekly review and I think it makes a big difference. With regard to daily ToDo lists, part of the GTD dogma is do what works for you! If you want to discipline yourself and commit to getting a discrete number of things done - come hell or high water - you can write them in your calendar/diary, allocating them a time as appointments. These tasks are going to take time, so there's nothing wrong in committing to 'an appointment with yourself' to complete next actions. If you're getting lost with context-based next action lists, perhaps you should review your contexts and challenge whether they actually work for you? Are they relevant to how your work/life is structured? My At Office list gets very long and out-of-control, as does my At Computer. This is because my computer is at the office (!) and the risk is that everything gets added to one of these lists. At the moment I am focusing on getting the lists done, rather than worrying about how they should be organised! Maybe you need fewer contexts? Maybe more? Probably different. Worth a think about why you get lost quickly. Good luck John On 28 Nov 2009, at 00:11, Jeff wrote: I'm back at mgtd after trying text files for a while. They're just not as pretty or cool as a TW-based app. Now I'm trying to use mgtd to also track what I have done so that I can easily produce status reports/tasklogs for my boss. Is it contrary to GTD dogma to use daily todo lists? When I use context-based next action lists, I get lost very quickly. -- Jeff -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups GTD TiddlyWiki group. To post to this group, send email to gtd-tiddlyw...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to gtd-tiddlywiki+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/gtd-tiddlywiki?hl=en.
