I think there's more than one issue here

I suppose it's that GTD doesn't do everything for you -- in fact getting GTD to work involves making your system much like my morning routine. Something you can do without thinking, so it's actually the easiest way to behave.

Not sure I've really answered you questions, but I hope it's useful.

Steve

What we're talking about here is the development of habits. This doesn't fit very well into the runway or 10,000' level of GTD but it begins to make sense around 20,000' and upward. My boss, through whom I learned about GTD, keeps index cards posted on his bulletin board of current priorities, overdue deliverables, etc. I think this might be more effective for you than trying to granulate such an ambiguous outcome.

I think what you're talking about here are "habit-changing" projects.

I put the actions for these on a daily checklist, trying to make them as physical as possible. For example, I, too, have recently tried to give up coffee. I've weaned myself from it slowly. (Used to be at 4-5 cups a day). For my "give up coffee" project, I write on my list:

Schedule time to drink one cup of coffee

(One cup is now my daily limit - I find it helpful to write the task down positively - I schedule my one cup of coffee on my daily agenda so I can look forward to it.)

Instead of "get healthy," I make my project more concrete--e.g., weight < 200.

Then on my daily list I put:

Run

On my home list I put:

Plan healthy meals for next week

Hope this helps!

I was having a similar issue to you but what I decided to do is create a weekly checklist in Excel; days of the week across the top and then the habit you want to achieve down the left hand side. If you succeed in the habit for the day you get a tick and if you fail you get a cross. So a habit would be 'no coffee' or 'shave' or whatever. Works really well for me and in your weekly review you can look at it and see where you need to focus your attentions. If you're looking for help on forming habits check out zenhabits.

You replies will be very helpful, thanks!

This is something you need to be reminded about but may not necessarily have a next action. The next action may just be reminding yourself about this on a more frequent basis.

If you have a digital implementation, put it onto a calendar and set an alarm to automatically email you or pop a window up periodically to remind you of this goal.

If you have a paper implemenation, put it on your next actions list and just know that this is where you will be reminded of it even though there is no next action connected with it.

Berko is right about the higher levels connected with this goal as well. There is more vertical thinking that needs to be done. Answering the question why you want to stop drinking coffee will no doubt make you aware of higher level outcomes and goals related to this desire of yours. And those higher level outcomes will have projects and next actions that need to be taken with them.

But it is good to recognize that not drinking coffee is something you need to be reminded about more than it is something you need to do. So it's really a question of where in your system it is best to remind you about it -- and how often you need to be reminded about it. Wherever that place and frequency fits the best is the place where that item should go.

Hope that helps.

I'm reading a great book on changing habits - One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. It advises *very* small steps to making a change. For example, drinking less coffee: Drink one ounce less for a week, then two ounces less, etc. Also, you might get some ideas from this post: http://www.davidco.com/forum/showpost.php?p=47200&postcount=2 -

I guess it depends on why you're not looking at them. A few possibilities come to mind. 1) It is a new habit, which you haven't yet cultivated. 2) You're repelled by the actions you've committed to. 3) Your work and life are still structured to reward (or require) reaction to urgency/crises. If you can figure out the causes, you can make progress on making structural changes that support the new behavior.

Regarding forming new habits, here are a few resources:

From Organize Your Work Day In No Time by K.J. McCorry: 21 days to form new ones, with daily repetition. 90% of normal behavior is habits!

o just do it
o set realistic expectations for yourself
o develop consistency
o ask for support from your colleagues, spouse, or friends
o get back on track if you get out of the habit

Establish Habits

1) Be Patient
2) Start small
3) Be Concrete
4) Write it down
5) Prepare in Advance
6) Reward yourself
7) Link Habits - An effective way to establish a new habit is to pair it with an established habit
8) Seek Support
9) Go Public - One way to increase your sense of accountability is to tell other people about your effort

SNAP Habit Training

SNAP:

1) S: Start Strong - Launch the new habit decisively.
2) N: No exceptions - Never make an exception to the new habit.
3) A: Act when prompted - Act >>on every emotional prompting,<< i.e. whenever you want to act on the new habit, be sure to do so!
4) P: Practice! - Do it every day. Exercise the new habit every day.

Finally: Installing a new habit and breaking an old one

Excellent round-up of habit resources, cornell. I'm bookmarking your post for future reference.

If you can't think of a next action, then the next action is "brainstorm actions for this project"...