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Next actions: Both physical _and_ visible
Merlin Mann | Sep 17 2004
Just a GTD quickie, but something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. 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.” [ch. 2, pg. 34; emphasis mine]. I’m finally realizing that this subtle change in thinking can have profound effects on the way you look at the stuff in your life. 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.
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. 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. 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:
I imagine a lot of people roll their eyes at this kind of self-absorbed minutiae-tracking, and a lot of people certainly don’t need it. But, for me, turning anxieties into projects and projects into discrete physical behaviors has a lot of appeal. It takes all the pressure off your brain and puts it back where it belongs: on your eyes, on your hands, and on that fat ass you need to get into gear. More on GTD
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 I've also recently started with...Submitted by Jeremiah (not verified) on September 17, 2004 - 9:59am.
I've also recently started with GTD, haven't been doing this for long. I've been diagnosed with Adult ADHD, and I have to say that using these methodologies has really helped me start to get back on top of things. Merlin, reading your tips and experiences has also helped out a great deal. It's been very beneficial to see how people are putting this system together - I've been able to look at what has and hasn't worked for other people and determine if I think I might experience the same outcome, given what little info I have. Creating a physical representation of my memory space has been the biggest help by far. I used to make vague lists, just as you described, with only 2 or 3 items on them (clean office, grocery store). Now they're about 7 to 8 times longer, but I have a discrete set of specific tasks that I need to accomplish, which makes the whole process much much easier. » POSTED IN:
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