How Many “Next Actions” Should You Have For A Project?

When you identify a project that you need to work on, how many ‘next actions’ should you write down initially?  Let’s discuss that with GTD author David Allen.

---

Key Points:

1. Should one define all the next actions for a project from the beginning or just the first action?
2. Consider listing all actions for a project but David Allen’s has offered advice to list only the first action.
3. David Allen explains that project planning involves defining components, and creating a list of next actions for each component is part of the planning process.
4. The emphasis is on creating the necessary components for a project and determining the moving parts that have actionable next steps.
5. The content briefly discusses the idea of sorting next actions by context rather than by project, as recommended on the GTD website.

Transcript:

I’ve had several conversations lately about how we define and set up projects, according to the GTD methodology. Because of that, I asked David Allen, our resident productivity guru to talk a little bit about that. Hi, I’m Dave Edwards. Before we get to David Allen’s thoughts, have you checked on my online and on demand course pathway to productivity and better time management? You know, I’ve been studying productivity for many, many years. And that’s actually what got me to getting things done. I put everything that I’ve learned and tried into this course. It has elements of GTD but goes way beyond that. I share ideas and a wide range of things that will make you more productive. Find out more at Dave Edwards media.com, and click on courses. So here’s the question I often get. Someone asked if when they set up a project, should they define all of the next actions it will take to complete that project from the very beginning. In other words, when you write down a project, like buy a new car, you put on all of the next actions that you will start today, until the day that you drive off the dealer’s lot with your new wheels. My answer was, well, if you can think of all of them will write them down. But after I made that point, another viewer challenged me saying that David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done makes it clear that you should only write down the first action that you will need to take to finish the project. Well, frankly, that got me thinking if I was right or not, I mean, I can think of things that I’ll need to do to buy that car from researching different models to arranging financing to a test drive, should I write them all down. But the one action item actually sounded appealing. So I went to the source, David Allen, I hate to admit this to you, David. But sometimes when I look at a big project, I can easily come up with a next action. But then I want to write out the whole list of next actions that will take me to the conclusion of the project. And then I started trying to perfect that list. And I get kind of tied up in that, that deep process.

Forgetting the next action will define the next action, right? What you you’re planning process really defining components? You’re not You’re not, I’m going to call Fred that I’m gonna call suit, no, call Fred and see what happens. You might then decide not to call suit. Right? Call Fred. See what happens based upon this thing you want to create out, we need to create a draft of this, I call Fred, he can’t do it. He’s on vacation or whatever. Okay, what’s next, but you have created draft. So creating the components of a project is project planning, and that you need to do as much as you need to do so you feel comfortable that I could keep control of this thing. And then look across all the components and say, what are the moving parts right now that we actually could have a next action about?

Why didn’t they teach us all this in school?

I have no idea.

So David says one next action will lead to another What do you think? Leave a comment below or email me at Dave edwards@outlook.com. I guess this reminds me of something that I read on the GTD website about how once we have a next action for a project or multiple next actions for multiple projects, we should sort them by context. Sorting next actions by context, not by project can initially seem awkward. Some people are used to having multiple files, piles, notebooks, documents and spreadsheets related to a project with next actions for the project. buried among all that information. Next Action Lists don’t replace project plans, we would just call that data project support. In our experience, it rarely works to have current next action stored with Project Support for day to day action management. Hey, in case you don’t already know, I chat with GTD Author David Allen on a fairly regular basis. Don’t miss any of our conversations, subscribe to the channel below. I’d really appreciate it