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Neverending projects
Adam Byrtek | Sep 22 2007
Organizing even the simplest multi-step activities into projects is one of the most powerful ideas brought to me by GTD. I had assumed that a project has to be something big, involving whole team for a long period of time, but after reading the book I understood how dividing one's activities into discrete projects can help with organization. However refining the project list is not as easy as it looks like at the beginning. I found my ways to do it right, but I'm stuck when it comes to "neverending projects". For example in my small company we are having ongoing recruitment, people submit their applications, we have to contact them, arrange meetings and reply in time. This is like project that never ends, because creating separate projects for every candidate doesn't really make sense. The same goes for prospect customers, and many other situation. By definition project should lead to completion, so what is your suggestion to deal with such "neverending projects"? Adam Byrtek 4 Comments
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 How about changing your definition of project?Submitted by dellis on September 29, 2007 - 12:56pm.
"By definition project should lead to completion, so what is your suggestion to deal with such “neverending projects”?" I define it as actions get completed, projects hold actions together in a grouping. The projects may or may not get completed. i.e. I have projects called, "Car Maintenance" and "Home Maintenance" Those puppies are never-ending, but it is nice to have a place to put things like "Mow the lawn" and "get oil change." From your recruiting example, I would create a new project for each position available. This would not be a never-ending project because the goal is met once someone is hired for that position. The next actions for each project would be very similar and you could create a template/checklist of actions that are required for each new hire. » POSTED IN:
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