ForumsGetting Things Done®GTD Workflow
GTD Workflow
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Proximo |
GTD is very simple.
"It's a Trusted System" GTD - Workflow 1. Collect - Get everything out of your head and into "Buckets", get them out of short-term memory. - Physical In-box, iPhone, Toodledo, etc. - Have as few of these collectors as you can, and as many as you need. - Empty them regularly, by processing and organizing. 2. Process - Process the items you have collected (decide what to do) - If it's NOT actionable,toss it, "tickle" it for possible later action, or file it as a reference. - If it IS actionable, decide the very next physical action. Do It - if less than two minutes Delegate - and track on "waiting for" list Defer - put on an action reminder list or in an action folder. If one action will not close the loop, then identify the commitment as a "project" and put it on a reminder list of projects. This is where some get confused. Defer means it goes on an Action List or Project List. This is why Projects should have their own areas, but I won't go there. 3. Organize - Group the results of processing your input into appropriately retrievable and reviewable categories. The four key action categories are: Projects - (projects you have commitment to finish) Calendar - (actions that must occur on a specific day or time) Next Actions - (actions to be done as soon as possible) Waiting for - (projects and actions others are supposed to be doing, which you care about) Use context to make the task easier to filter. A context can be the tool required to complete a given task or a location. @Phone @Internet @Home @Work @Errand @Meeting 4. Review - Review calendar and action list daily (or whenever you could possible do any of them). - Conduct a customized weekly review to clean up, update, maintain, and advance your systems. Note: The Weekly Review is the most important part of GTD, and without it, you will fail. 5. DO - Make choices about your actions based upon what you can do (context), how much time you have, how much energy you have, and then your priorities. Note: It's important to try and guess how much time each task can take in order for you to evaluate if you can do a given task later. Energy level is also very important because you may have plenty of time at the moment, but very little energy. This allows you to tackle low energy task and still be productive. I use tags for this. Priorities is not hard coded in GTD. In other words, you don't assign priorities to task, but you must know based on context, time and energy which task you need to do. This is by no means the entire GTD System, but a break down of the Workflow. Hope this helps anyone interested in GTD. It's simple and powerful. Other Notes: The Calendar is sacred and should only be used for task that must be completed by a given date. Do not add due dates to task unless they meet this criteria. Your Actions are broken down into two areas. Actions - The list of Actions you decided need to get done Next Actions - The Actions you decided you will tackle that day or week. You work from your Next Actions and focus on them until they are done. During your Weekly Reviews, you will understand what Actions need to be moved up to the "Next Actions" This message was edited Aug 04, 2009. |
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Claudio |
Thanks for the overview, Proximo.
Conduct a customized weekly review to clean up, update, maintain, and advance your system. I'm wondering: Which lists do you use in your Weekly Review? Do you use a Saved Search?
Note: The Weekly Review is the most important part of GTD, and without it, you will fail. |
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Proximo |
You can use what ever is easiest for you. I normally work from the master list and go down one by one.
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Anders |
Proximo, thanks for the great post. I am planning to start reading the book this weekend, and I really appreciate all the great discussions in this forum (I may not post much here, but I read them all).
As for the weekly review, it is something I do not do, but realize would be beneficial, and I have been considering the options. The All Tasks view is obviously a nice way to make sure you are not missing anything, but saved searches have advantages as well. I really wish the CSV import/export supported subtasks because I think the ideal method would be to export and review in excel where there are great tools for arranging and editing everything. This message was edited Aug 04, 2009. |
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Proximo |
@Anders
When you are done reading the book, you are going to be Dangerous. :-) You already go above and beyond the call of duty as it is. When you have GTD under your belt, weather you decide to implement it or not, you are going to be even more valuable. Thanks for everything you do. |
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Claudio |
Proximo:
You can use what ever is easiest for you. I normally work from the master list and go down one by one. Uh ... okay. What is your "master list" and how do you structure it in Toodledo? Any specifics that you can offer would be helpful. Thanks. ETA: Ah, I see that you posted a basic Weekly Review in another thread. Thanks. How do you review projects? This message was edited Aug 04, 2009. |
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Proximo |
I use Folders as areas of Focus. I am a Pro Plus subscriber, so I use Task with Sub-task as projects.
When I am at work conducting my weekly review. I make sure I am in the "Work" folder and I go down my Action List one by one. All my Projects are in the bottom of the list with a Status of "none". I use Nested Sub-task if not, I will loose my mind when looking at my Action List. For each project I click on the icon to see the sub-task and make sure I go through them one by one. As a side note, since I use Nested Sub-task, I always have my sub-task entered in the order I need to accomplish them. I mark only the next one on the list with a status of "Next Action" if I am ready to work on that Project task that week. I use custom Search to show me all my task with a status of "Next Action", inside my "work" folder and if they are sub-task. This custom search is where I work from because I don't see all the other items on the list. Just all my "Next Actions" I also show Delegated Task on here to remind me to follow-up with individuals I assigned a task too. |
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