Monday
Jan052009
Projects, on-going activities, and areas of responsibility
Monday, January 5, 2009 at 10:49PM
In What's In A Name - GTD Project Naming Conventions, reader ispir asks Is it area of responsibility? and includes nice details to his question. Following is my answer and how it helped him. I invite you to email me similar questions - I'm happy to give my 2¢.
Note: Thanks to Pascal Venier for suggesting sharing my answer with you.
This is a great question, and I'm happy you gave examples.
First, you're correct that this is category of on-going work that is outside of Allen's daily workflow method. This could fall under Allen's Area of Responsibility, if structuring your life that way works for you. (I don't personally use a list like this. Instead I have these in my mind, and, when I need to review, I review an on-the-fly mind map of my life.) The Area of Responsibility in this case might be "Maintain Blog." This area involves multiple activities, such as writing posts, responding to comments, and updating look-and-feel, say. Thinking hierarchically, "Maintain Blog" could come under a higher realm like "Establish myself as an expert in __."
problematic project name "keep the blog uptodate"
Quite so: This is not a project, though "create blog" and "promote blog" would be good ones. For something that doesn't have a fixed end, consider creating a checklist that reminds you of the activity as often as you need. This might be daily or weekly for your blog, for example. I have a weekly one that includes blogging, along with entering the week's receipts for my accounts and getting together with my wife.
The way it works is the checklist activates an action. It might be short one you can do at that moment (i.e., two or five minutes), but otherwise it should go on your actions list. Of course now the problem is you have to ensure you're looking at it - that you make it a habit. One approach is to put a repeating event in your calendar. This works great for me. The day you put it on doesn't matter, but I prefer earlier in the week to give me a leeway to get it done within a few days.
You can apply any habit-forming method to this. An interesting starting point is Effectively forming new habits. (This is doubly interesting as it talks about the "21 days to form a habit" origin.
some of my project names are:
Let's look at these.
Thanks again for the meaty question.
It was satisfying to hear that he implemented my advice:
Note: Thanks to Pascal Venier for suggesting sharing my answer with you.
The Question
Now I am in the middle of my weekly review. I just have bad feeling about a project name, and search gtd project naming. thanks for this sharing. the problematic project name is "keep the blog uptodate". so there isn't any clear finish. therefore I thought this should not be a project. but then what is it? is it are of responsibility? some of my project names are:
- finish phd
- apply gtd
- save money
- improve salsa
- write my inner world
- write weakly status report for work
- apply unschedule
- call house owner to arrange house rent
My Answer: Projects vs. On-going Activities
This is a great question, and I'm happy you gave examples.
First, you're correct that this is category of on-going work that is outside of Allen's daily workflow method. This could fall under Allen's Area of Responsibility, if structuring your life that way works for you. (I don't personally use a list like this. Instead I have these in my mind, and, when I need to review, I review an on-the-fly mind map of my life.) The Area of Responsibility in this case might be "Maintain Blog." This area involves multiple activities, such as writing posts, responding to comments, and updating look-and-feel, say. Thinking hierarchically, "Maintain Blog" could come under a higher realm like "Establish myself as an expert in __."
problematic project name "keep the blog uptodate"
Quite so: This is not a project, though "create blog" and "promote blog" would be good ones. For something that doesn't have a fixed end, consider creating a checklist that reminds you of the activity as often as you need. This might be daily or weekly for your blog, for example. I have a weekly one that includes blogging, along with entering the week's receipts for my accounts and getting together with my wife.
The way it works is the checklist activates an action. It might be short one you can do at that moment (i.e., two or five minutes), but otherwise it should go on your actions list. Of course now the problem is you have to ensure you're looking at it - that you make it a habit. One approach is to put a repeating event in your calendar. This works great for me. The day you put it on doesn't matter, but I prefer earlier in the week to give me a leeway to get it done within a few days.
You can apply any habit-forming method to this. An interesting starting point is Effectively forming new habits. (This is doubly interesting as it talks about the "21 days to form a habit" origin.
some of my project names are:
Let's look at these.
- finish phd: Sounds like a good one. This may be what I call a "master" project if it involves multiple "sub-projects" like "finish index," "host peer review," etc. And don't forget an importante action/project :Celebrate!
- apply gtd: What specifically does this mean? Is "GTD is up and running" clearer?
- save money: I suggest making this one really specific, e.g., how much you save, and by when. Check out Creating S.M.A.R.T. Goals.
- improve salsa: Yum!
- write my inner world: Sounds intriguing.
- write weakly status report for work: This one goes under the on-going category I talked about above.
- apply unschedule: I'm guessing you refer to Neil Fiore's The Now Habit. (For more see How to Unschedule your work and enjoy guilt-free play.)
- call house owner to arrange house rent: This sounds more like an action to me, unless it involves more steps than the call itself, such as "Find number of house owner," "Review rent status," etc.
Thanks again for the meaty question.
His Results
It was satisfying to hear that he implemented my advice:
Hey I am surprised that you gave me such a detailed answer. Thanks a lot. I use your advices and finally what I do is that:
- remove almost all the projects to another list such as responsibility
- create a new project list which are much more concrete and finishable.
- the new projects name are described the outcome in past tense
- my project number is doubled now, because of that responsibility have different projects. in this case your example is great: instead of uptodate blog "writing posts, responding to comments, and updating look-and-feel".
these changes boosts my gtd. thank you very much