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One idea that comes up regularly for
GTD practitioners is the idea of keeping a "daily to-do list," i.e., a list of tasks (
Next Actions in GTD-speak) that should be done that day. Keeping one of these is a traditional time management staple
[1], and one that Allen turns on its head. The reasoning is:
- The pace of modern life changes so fast that such daily plans are often invalidated by the first unforeseen event (e.g., an email from a client at 8:15 AM that requires your immediate attention).
- Having tasks on the daily to-do list that don't absolutely have to be done that day numbs you to other items that really do have to get done, leading to things slipping through the cracks and decreased trust in your system.
In addition, the regular copying forward of un-done tasks every day is tedious, and also leads to numbing or dropping them altogether (which makes the list out-of-date).
Allen's somewhat radical approach of eliminating daily to-do lists is reflected in two aspects of GTD: The
calendar (which contains items that can
only be done on that day), and a list of
Next Actions (a running list of items to be done as soon as possible). The way it works? During the day you first check the calendar, which determines the shape of your day, then check the Next Actions to see what to fit into the remaining time.
However, to help me focus I sometimes find it helpful to save the result of my daily review in a temporary plan. For example, today at work I was feeling a bit scattered, so it helped to write down my goals - read a paper, research an internal blog post, and check-in with my office-mate. None of these had to happen today (as opposed to my calendar's items for today, which I had to work around), and these tasks were all on my Next Actions list, but given my intuition, this was what I wanted to try to accomplish.
Crucially, at the end of the day, after checking off those I'd done from my Next Actions list,
I tossed my temporary plan. No tears, and no long goodbyes. And if something came up that invalidated the plan? Great! I could recycle the plan at any second, knowing that everything was out of my head and in my system.
In sum, my recommendation is if it helps to write up a temporary daily plan/goal, fine. But make sure it doesn't morph into a traditional daily to-do list:
- Create it based on your Next Actions list, i.e., as part of your daily review.
- Make sure to update your Next Actions list each time you finish an item.
- Avoid the siren song of keeping the list around longer than one day.
- Keep the list small - you want it to be just things you'd like to do today. Remember, you'll be throwing it away, so don't invest any time in it.
- Beware avoiding your system. As andersons puts it,
If you don't like looking at your lists each day or don't like reviewing them even when you truly need to, then something is not working for you. You will have to figure out whether you need to change your system, your habits, or your motivation. Or maybe all three.
RelatedAs usual, the davidco forums have tons of great advice. You may find the following threads helpful:
References
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