ForumsGetting Things Done®Next Actions
Next Actions
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peaston |
How do you handle next actions? I'm new to Toodledo but have been following GTD for years. I'm trying to figure out how to set things up Projects and Next Actions.
I'll probably use tags to group tasks by projects and people. But that will get messy after a while. I really see projects as a higher level task and action items as sub-tasks. I would be nice to have sub-tasks. But the bigger challenge, whether using Outlook, Palm, or paper has been how to deal with Next Actions. Generally, I just type all the actions in the project. Then I create the first next action. After I complete the action, I then create the next action, and so on, until the project is done. That's not efficient and so I rarely follow it strictly. I would love for an application that would pop up the next action on a project action list as soon as I complete its predecessor. Project management software (e.g., MS Project, OpenProj, Open Work Bench) does that but that is overkill and too time intensive to set up for daily use. Pre-creating all next actions is messy and confusing if the application doesn't support task sequencing. How have you GTD followers configured Toodledo to manage next actions (sequencing) without lot's of manual data-entry? |
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peaston |
Oops. I see that Toodledo does offer a sub-task feature in the Pro version, which I'm not in the trial period of. But this looks just like a grouping function, which is helpful, but it has no sequencing.
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vegheadjones |
I use folders for projects, tasks for actions and the status of next action to denote the next action for each project. This method requires reviewing all tasks in a folder after a next action is completed to determine the next "next action" but I find that review to be highly useful in determining what to do next. I much prefer that to having to determine the sequence ahead of time.
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Jon |
My work-around is to put numbers for the context (1, 2, 3, 4, etc) and then assign context 1 for the first step, context 2 for the second step, etc.. I then sort by context and it puts them in the proper order. It works pretty well for me.
Jon |
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Darius_1296933579 |
For sequencing, try using Time Due, ie. 1:01am, 1:02am, etc. Works great!
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peaston |
Thanks for the tips, but none are ideal for me. vegheadjones comes the closest to being useful for me, although it adds to the visual clutter. I think I'd rather just brainstorm the tasks in the notes of the project task and manually create the next actions as I complete project tasks.
Really, what I'm looking for is the auto-creation of a new task when another task is completed. Activity sequencing and workflow support is probably asking too much of a $15/year task management SaaS. Projity costs $20/month/user and doesn't integrate with Google Calendar. |
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vegheadjones |
Hi Peaston,
Happy I could help. I don't find my lists to be too cluttered though, not when I commit to doing a weekly review where all projects and actions are reviewed and decided on. I also used the saved search feature to pull out "next next action tasks" and review those on a daily basis. Basically these are ones with a priority of 2 and a status of active, though I used a saved search and no just look at priority because I also filter out things that a due later and want to include some other factors. This is what gets reviewed each day and after a next action in that project is completed. The other list gets reviewed during my weekly review. |
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peaston |
I thought of using the priority field in exactly the manner you suggest. I'm still new to Toodledo. I suppose if I can order subtasks by priority that'll do a pretty good job. But it still would seem to clutter up my Context lists, which I what I mostly work in.
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vegheadjones |
Hi,
Make a saved search that shows only priority 3 and the contexts you are interested in. Voila-- a perfect next action list for you to work off of. |
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