Old and dusty actions

Recently a challenge was started on the GTD Connect forums surrounding "old and dusty" actions.  I'm sure we all have these lurking in whatever system we are using to organise our lives - those items that have been sitting on the list for far too long and, for some reason, just haven't been done.  The thread was a great nudge for me to get going on some items that had been going stale on my lists for longer than I would like to admit!  Months in some cases! 

The silly thing was that once I sat down and just got on with it, the tasks actually didn't take that long and weren't as difficult as I had imagined.  It's amazing how often an item can grow in your mind into a far bigger deal than it really is.  Taking that step to "just do it" is often not easy but once finished it can give such relief.  I was surprised how much some of those relatively innocuous items had been gently annoying me and it felt great to tick them off as done. 

Do you have an item that has been silently nagging at you?  Go for it, do it and get some relief!!

Using incubation lists

I am currently experimenting with an incubate list for items that I want to get to soon, but not right now.  My lists for work had become too long and I realised a couple of weeks ago that some of the items just didn't have a high enough priority at the moment to be on my regular action lists.  The question was where to put them so that I could be sure that they would be reviewed often enough.  I had recently read a thread on the GTD Connect forums about incubating to "month X" and placing the list in the tickler to be reviewed at that point.  This really made sense to me so I have given the idea a try from April to May.  I made the "incubate" list in mid-April and placed it in my tickler for 1st May, with a reminder in outlook to check it on that day. 
The list worked really well - I had much tidier and more focused actions for April that really helped me to engage with my lists (see also my post on coloured paper!) and could be certain that the items I had incubated would not be forgotten.  When 1st May came round I brought out the list, scanned through it and put a couple of the items back onto my action lists.  The rest stayed on the incubate list to be looked at in 3 weeks time and went back into the tickler (with the appropriate reminder).
This list is obviously a version of Someday/Maybe, but feels more active.  I have always struggled a bit with the Someday/Maybe list.  I can see its value and wish that I could utilise it better, but somehow I always feel slightly nervous about it for items that need to done at some point, just not now.  I'm very happy to use it for items that I'd like to do, but don't actually matter if I don't get to them.
The incubate list is definitely the best route I have found so far to stay comfortable with that "not now but later" type of list.

Fun with coloured paper!

I often read about the amazing gadgets that people are using to run their GTD system but I'm an old-fashioned type and have been using paper to run my system for at least 2 years now.  I find paper works brilliantly for me. A few years ago I had my lists in excel and they just weren't particularly attractive. I found myself being reticent in wishing to look at them and use them. Paper and pen is just more comfortable somehow.
 I have just reinvigorated my lists at work by printing lines onto A4 coloured paper and using different colours for different contexts.  It's made them really enjoyable to work with - a simply change that has made a bigger impact than I expected.  I have surprised myself at how much more engaged I feel with the contents of the coloured lists compared to the "boring" white paper lists.  The tasks haven't changed at all and yet I am convinced that I have been more interested and productive since the change.  The brain works in strange ways! 
Aside from just enjoying the look of the colours, the change has a practical purpose which allows me to find my different contexts more quickly, as each has a different colour.  I think this has definitely helped me to improve my processing speed.
I guess that sometimes the old saying "a change is as good as a rest" really can ring true.  So I would recommend that if your lists are feeling a little stale, then even a small change can help you reconnect and get back on track.

Changing up contexts

While completing my weekly review last week I made a fairly radical change (for me) to the way my lists are managed.  As I reviewed my @office list, which had extended to over four pages and was not pleasant to work from, I made the decision to change things up and split the contexts.  It's not something I would normally do.  The @office has been working well for me for a couple of years so this was a pretty big step, but it was worth it.  My workload has been steadily increasing over the past 6 months and one office list just isn't quite cutting it anymore.  So I now have 3:

- @office

- @websites

- @minutes

These are the contexts that make the most sense given what I have on my plate right now, but I am giving myself the freedom to change them up as things shift around, and return to just one list if things calm down.  I already feel much more comfortable and more engaged with my lists and managed to get an action done yesterday afternoon that had been on the list for rather too long!

 

It took my review to get me thinking at that higher level for long enough to realise that I needed to make the change. The review is such an important part of my GTD journey; it gives me the chance to hold back the world for an hour every week and check that everything is on track.  I often find I am my most productive in the hours after the review, secure in the knowledge that what I am doing is what I should be doing, and what I am not doing can wait.

Drilling down to the Next Action

My @Office list had started to become an inbox and not a next action list. It happens really slowly so you don’t notice at first, but suddenly you find it more difficult to act on those actions; you read down the list jumping those that sound “difficult”. Using action words at the beginning of each point is so vital; I had things like “Meeting with X” and “Minutes of X meeting” on my list – what did that mean?! Arrange a meeting? Look at notes from a meeting? Consider the need for a meeting?

The feeling of relief gained from cleaning up my lists and really drilling to the next action has made them something I can work with again. And a real plus point: my list has shrunk by a third! There was a lot of stuff that actually should have been a project, or a Someday/Maybe, or were actually two minute actions (if only I had defined them properly in the first place). An hour later and my list is truly manageable and actionable again!