This could not have been more timely for me, E.

In addition to this helping me with a personal productivity problem that we both clearly shared, this is great advice for folks who’ve never had to delegate to people before, but want to be able to when the time comes.

I’m just (just) starting to ask for help with stuff I need from sources both on- and off-shore, and getting better at thinking in the way you describe has been challenging. But forcing myself to get out of my own head on this stuff — to pretend for a minute that this needs to be performed without my presence or input — has been useful. Also? Forcing myself to really think about a task often makes me realize I can totally get away with not doing it at all. Which is awesome.

Thanks for doing this, my friend — here’s to many more soon.

1. Very glad to hear Ethan is with Omni. That’s a lotta goodness in one place!

2. Two great GTD concept (again)! GTD is one of those things that is easy to learn but hard to master.

3. Now get me to work!

Very well said. I’m a college freshman and a GTD noobie (my book arrives tomorrow!)

Looking at my hPDA’s to do list, I realize that not only am I not delegating to my future self properly, I am not even giving him real tasks to do! I don’t have a to-do list in my hand, I have a this-is-due-at-this-point-in-time list.

Easily fixed. “Chemistry lab writeup due tuesday” Now has a project card that reads: “compile lab 2 data / outline lab report / write lab report / complete post lab questions” Much more bite sized. No wonder I was so intimidated before! Thanks for writing this.

This is a hack in best true sense of the word. A nifty fix to get me back on the road.

I’ve just left a job and feel ever so slightly ashamed about the poor documentation and un-done (and un-doable!!!) task list I left behind for my successor.

If I’d been clearer from day one by ‘delegating to my future-self’ I’d have done more, would have had less to handover and would have had a clear list to start (and probably finish) the documentation I never really completed to my satisfaction.

Off to revist my lists, thanks a million!

Delegating to future self is a gem. Great article. I’m going to revisit my whole system soon and this will help a lot.

I am (hopefully was) notorious for writing “poor” tasks. At the time I thought there was enough trigger to remind me, but in the end I would waste time trying to figure out what I meant.

Thanks for the advice P9

Outstanding!... Gave me one of those "why didn't I think of that?" moments. This was very helpful. Thanks!

Great tips! I have seen quite a few comments lately relating to this aspect of GTD — basically forcing you to use some portion of your productive time to “be your own assistant.” I think this gets to the heart of why we sometimes love and sometimes hate these tools. I love the results of organizing my world to help me be more productive. I deeply resent that I have to do it all by myself.

Another apt metaphor is to think about your system as an “inner dispatcher” instead of a personal assistant. I need to write the instructions as if they are going to be delivered to me later as work orders — then let “the system” determine priorities and tell me what to do next. If the dispatcher orders me to “work on the XYZ project”, I’m probably not going to get much done.

I have a tip that dovetails nicely with this: write a project name as if it’s been completed, eg- Bicycle is put together, XYZ.com is redesigned.

(I didn’t think of it, I read it somewhere.)

I like the insight, and I suspect the words needed vary from person to person, and from task to task. for me, an errand entry of “ACT” is enough. for others, buy Anti Cavity rinse is necessary. Like many aspects of GTD, customizing and “making it your own” is essential in sustaining over time.

Thanks for the post!

I find myself unconsciously seeing the amount of text I have written for a specific task/context as an indicator of priority.
However, I always forget that the length of my entry is always affected by outside factors like other pressing demands or exhaustion.
The length of my entries is never really the product of rational analysis.
Doing this, of course, would add an extra step — "Figure out how I want to jot it down and what code I'll be able to decipher later."

I like this approach, no codes, no shorthand. Just simple instructions that even your less intelligent 'monkey mind' can handle when it's time to stop thinking and start doing.

I'll give it a try and hope I can keep it up.

Excellent post, and really helped to clarify my thinking on the projects I’m working through at the moment. Reminds me of my favourite quote by Jonathan Nolan:

“It’s like a letter you write to yourself. A master plan, drafted by the guy who can see the light, made with steps simple enough for the rest of the idiots to understand. Follow steps one through one hundred. Repeat as necessary.”

I love the idea of imagining an idealised personal assistant when delegating to yourself… though admittedly my own internal PA is usually drunk, bleary-eyed, and has a problem with authority.

Is there a point of diminishing returns? Is there a point where the length of any given Action causes as much slowdown in scanning as the remembering of unwritten documentation?

I will put this into effect right away.

@List: Rewrite all existing actions in “delegating them to Larry” format

I collect like crazy, and then look at my todo list at the end of the week wondering why so little of it got done. And then realize, painfully, that it’s probably because I hadn’t well defined what “it” really was to begin with.

We’ve been told all along in GTD to make the next actions actionable, but I think knowing how to make them precise “enough” was the stumbling block. I think your technique is a solid way of getting around that by providing a framework to phrase the next actions in.

So, a sincere thanks for the advice!

love the info. it has given me ideas on how to make my work easier at my current job.

i look forward to delegating tasks to my other variations of self.

at my present job i submit detailed work request tickets and leave them in the unnassigned/new state. i put in enough details and information for a few reasons. 1) future self wont remember what present self knows. 2) new hires wont need handholding to do the task 3) managers and/or future self can prioritize. 4) interruption of new work doesnt take place of scheduled work.

if someone other than myself gets them they can do them without bothering me. usually I am that someone. if I have not provided enough detail the task becomes exponentially more difficult because I need to remember what i was thinking when i submitted it. if it is assigned to someone else (contract help, personal outsource assistant, etc.) by having detailed enough tasks plus attached documents and reference links, the future assignee can get the job done in short time and without further explanation or interruption to the work that matters.

the greatest benefit is that once submitted as a task i dont have to think about it any more.

my brain is free to work on the task at hand instead of the new task that just came up.

I love this tip. Being more descriptive also helps to make sure that (1) you’re really capturing the first task in the sequence, and (2) it’s actually a physical task. You have to get moving somehow.