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Choosing a daily GTD action plan

high octane moron: Revolving workflow strategies

I employ an informal Getting Things Done action strategy that’s similar to the one Chris lays out in his post. I often have a theme for a given day, where I choose an approach that’s suited to my mood, my energy level, and the kind and amount of work on my TODO list. (I’m especially a fan of days where I knock down “mosquito tasks” as Chris calls them.)

While they could be rotated throughout a single day, I am finding I like to commit to a single approach early in the day and generally stick to it for the day (possibly choosing a second approach at night). I don’t plan in advance what tomorrow’s strategy will be, because a lot of it is based on external factors like the number of new client requests I might receive in the morning. These are certainly nothing beyond common sense, and many of them are even laid out in the book and elsewhere, but it has helped me to list them out and think about which I am using at any given time.

Chris’s approaches include:

  1. alternate projects
  2. big chunks of time on certain projects
  3. complete as many small items as possible
  4. oldest first
  5. newest first
  6. squeaky wheel
  7. goal driven

How do you plan and choose your actions for the day?

About Merlin

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Bio

Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who created the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today, Back to Work, and Kung Fu Grippe. Also? He’s writing this book, he lives with this face, he suffers from this hair, he answers these questions, and he’s had this life. So far.

Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written in the past few years is an essay entitled, “Cranking.”

 
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