What's in a name - GTD project naming conventions

While coaching my wife in David Allen's Getting Things Done (her request - I swear!), I was asked what project naming convention to use, and I decided I hadn't given this enough thought. My first response was "start with a verb," but I realized I was thinking more of actions, rather than projects. I'm pretty clear that actions should start with a verb, but projects?

First, regarding actions, starting them all with verbs makes sense: Next actions should be named to reflect doing (as he says, projects can't be done, only actions), and verbs (for me, at least) provide a subtle psychological pressure to take action. Put another way, they're commands from my planning self (the part that makes decisions up-front) to my acting self (the part that needs concrete direction, and is easily side-tracked with things that are too big or too vague).

So how about naming projects? Given Allen's perspective on clarifying outcomes, we'd expect him to phrase them in terms of the desired outcome. Interestingly, in the section of the book where he provides a partial projects list (page 37), out of a few dozen examples, only three do not start with verbs ("August vacation", "Staff off-site retreat", and "R&D joint-venture video project"). Here are a few other perspectives:

• From the Belly of the Beasts: Getting Things Done: the Roadmap: Projects should be written in the form of completed goals. E.g., it's not "make a plan for", it's "implement".
  
• Status report on implementing the 'Getting things done' process: Project Outcome: As Allen suggests, I'm using active verbs and outcomes as the Project Names, e.g. 'Write & Publish Novel'.
  
• Issues with defining projects - top end: Frank Buck says: I phrase the project as a statement of what the project will look like when it's completed. I find it helps me see more clearly when a project is "done" and there is still work to do.
  
• Breaking it down: If you’re looking at your list and all you see is nouns, you probably have projects. Actions use verbs.

While I like the idea of a project name reflecting the desired outcome (it goes back to one of Allen's two big questions [1]), I have an issue with verbs in project names: I like the names in my project list to match their corresponding project folder labels as closely as possible, for easiest retrieval. Putting "I know how to speak conversational Spanish" is a great affirmation, but would make a lousy label. I'd probably use something like (brace yourself) "Spanish project" or "Spanish class."

I'd love her your thoughts - How do you name projects?


Update: I should have include a post to this nice piece by David Allen on projects: Defining “Projects” – a Key to GTD. It used to be a tip, but it's gone. However, Jason posted a copy of it on the thread How do you manage Projects?.


[1] I talk a little about them in Some David Allen "twos" - two reasons we procrastinate, and two kinds of problems.

"Interesting, but not useful," or Does it pass the scribble test?

As I get older, and after having adopted Getting Things Done to help keep my life sane, I find that I'm getting a little more conscious of how I spend my time, both at work (I've always been fairly focused there) and in life. Maybe it's the relentless ticking of the clock, but I'm getting more rigorous in addressing something my five year old daughter recently said: "Daddy, that's interesting, but not useful" (pronounced "in-stirring", and an amazing thought!)

To that end I've been re-evaluating the inputs I allow into my life, including my Bloglines feeds, the conversations I have, the books I read, and, generally, how I choose spend my time. Are they interesting? By definition they all provide something of value to me - information, stimulation, distraction, calming, etc. But are they all useful?

To help solve this problem I've come up with what I call the "scribble test"

Does reading, listening, talking, etc. cause me to break out my Ubiquitous Capture Tool and scribble like mad?

If so, you've got a live one! This came to me while listening to How to Think Like Einstein: Simple Ways to Break the Rules and Discover Your Hidden Genius. After a few minutes it was like automatic writing at a séance!

Like any test of this kind, it has limitations, based on what your reading goals are, but in my study of personal productivity, it's one way to decide whether a book's worth my time. (This is important due to the sheer number of books on the topic - Amazon gives me 217,182 hits for "organized.")

Do you have any metrics for evaluating your inputs?


References/Notes

• In Actually getting things done ... I mentioned the 50 page rule for books, and my 20 minute variation for movies. I'm still applying this brutally, though it's tough with movies - even bad ones draw me in.
  
• I like Kevin Kelly's comment (from Cool Tool: Arthur Ganson Presents a Few Machines):

  "Cool and useless. That's my definition of art."

  Ha!
  
• In On saying yes - 3 possibilities ... I mentioned five questions about accepting things into your life, taken from Marilyn Paul's book It's Hard to Make a Difference When You Can't Find Your Keys:
  • Does it give me energy?
    
  • Am I excited about doing it?
    
  • Does it bring me joy?
    
  • Does it connect me to the people I care most about?
    
  • Does it help me manifest my most valued goals?

My favorite GTD list? Waiting For!

OK, it's a bit silly to have a favorite Getting Things Done list (each one has a specific purpose, and all seem necessary), but lately I've felt a real kinship with my Waiting For. Why? First, unlike some of my next action lists (hey - I'm working on it), this one has lots of activity - adding items, checking them off, and needing frequent new blank pages (I use a paper planner for GTD). So it feels like I'm making progress.

Second, recently these items represent some exciting activities in my life, and provide positive events for me to look forward to. It's like waiting for a little gift to come in the mail - a kind of delicious anticipation. This is happening in part because I've been learning the joys of networking, and have been reaching out to new people. Hearing back from them is often a joyful surprise. It's also due to my taking a few more chances while exploring this field (i.e., moving outside my comfort zone), so there's danger as well as excitement. (David Allen says: "If you want to learn a lot, you'll choose to be out of the [comfort] zone.") I think of it as ripples from my "pebbles-in-the-pond" - my little attempt to, as Steve Jobs says it, "put a dent in the universe".

And finally, my Waiting For list is a reflection of the personal connections I have in my work and life, and I like the people in my life. Good stuff!

Does anyone else have a favorite? Better yet, a least favorite?

Pickle jars, text files, and creative idea capture

In Hold That Thought!, David Seah wrote a delightful piece about using a pickle jar to hold ideas he doesn't want to loose, but isn't ready to act on. The jar is (was) an actual pickle jar, and he wrote the ideas on small pieces of paper. There are a number of sweet ideas at work here:

• "Pickling" the idea is weirdly cathartic - you can get back to work, trusting that it's captured.
  
• The act of formulating satisfies the urge to follow up on it.
  
• The size of the paper also prevents you from writing too much.
  
• You can see that you've got the ideas queued up.

He goes on to say it works for him to have something that "encourages easy deposit but prevents casual withdrawal".

In my case I have a similar scheme for saving ideas, but with different goals in mind. My goal is to have an idea capture (not containment) system that supports rapid netting of ideas and the attendant minimal relevant information, including URLs, the main point, and any related ideas or posts. I store the ideas in a plain text file that I edit via Emacs, using the simple format that I talked about in My Big-Arse Text File - a Poor Man's Wiki+Blog+PIM. For example, my "ideas to blog" entries (168 of them as of today) look like this:

  ----
  IDEA: IdeaMatt: from JasonWomack: you teach what you most need to
  learn. in my case: ...
  (2005-11-15 21:40:42)
  ----
  IDEA: IdeaMatt: the irony of trying to set something up (take action)
  with people who need help taking action - slow email responses,
  unreturned phone calls, etc.
  (2005-11-15 14:38:14)
  ----
  IDEA: IdeaMatt: idea of copying todo lists when reach 1/2 full
  from "Time management for dummies"
  (2005-11-15 13:40:49)
  ----
  ...
  ----

Using the system is straightforward. To capture I simply switch over to Emacs, type it in (using completion and other features as necessary), plus two macros to grab a URL's title, and to finish an entry by adding the timestamp and "----" separator characters. To retrieve I just do an incremental search for "IDEA: IdeaMatt" (or use the occur function to list them all) and pick the next one that jumps out at me. Really, any list manager, text editor, etc. will work, but the most important feature is fast capture, so that you can get back to work and not procrastinate fleshing out the shiny new thing.

Finally, like David, I also periodically purge stale ideas, but I admit there's sometimes sadness letting them go - kind of like a plant that looked great in the store, but is now too much work to water.

What's your approach for capturing ideas?

We have to remember to...

Have you ever been around someone (e.g., a significant other, friend, or workmate) who regularly says something like "Remind me to ____"? You fill in the blank: "finish the report," "fix the bug," "make the appointment," etc. I had this happen this weekend while taking a day trip with another family. We were all in the same car, and I noticed that one spouse repeatedly brought up things as we travelled, including "We have to remember to pick up the pictures," and "Don't let me forget to install the snow tires."

Hearing this, and being a student of David Allen's Getting Things Done, I felt compassion for the person, having been there myself. I think what happens is she knows it's important, and also at some level realizes that her mind doesn't have the ability to remember when she needs it. So instead she resorts to verbalizing it repeatedly, in essence externalizing it (i.e., spreading it around) in hopes that it will "stick" somewhere reliable. In other words, it's a plea for help. This can be frustrating if you're the recipient of these; after a while I can start to feel like it's time for the person to just take care of it, not keep talking about it.

Luckily, there's a solution: Write it down on a list, and check it as often as needed to make it happen. Allen takes it further by encouraging us to:

• Write to-do items that are both small and concrete enough to make them realizable,
  
• keep all to-do items together on a single list,
  
• and to keep them up-to-date.

There's more to it (get the book for details), but I've found that doing this is a great start at curing the "We have to remember to..." blues.