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A 'Next actions' question -GTD newbie question

Hi all ,
After reading most of the "getting things done " book , there is one thing that I don't really understand as far as Next actions are concerned.

Let's say that I have a project which is to mail some books to a friend of mine .So first I need to get her adress :this contains of an action of emailing her ,then waiting for her reply.
Then there's the action of packing the books [@home ] and then there's an "errands" type of action of going to the post office and mailing it.

What I can't figure out ,is whether I should have all those listed as next actions in their separate contexts ,for the same project ,at the same time -ort should I enter the first action,then complete it ,and only then add the next action to it's context? I mean ,in most cases there are numerous and dependent actions in a project ,which belong to different contexts,right?

I'm using the "nextaction" tracking tool for managing my next actions,and there's no way of defining dependency there -but the mail question is ,how is this supposed to work,the real-GTD way?

Thanks :)

solidsnot's picture

kGTD lists every NA you...

kGTD lists every NA you put under a project. If you assign that NA a context then it is listed under that Context in the Contexts page. kGTD then colors purple (default I believe) the top NA not checked off so as to indicate it's your NA.

Example:
Project = Health Physical
NA1 = fill out all these silly Navy forms
NA2 = Physical appoint. at blah blah time at blah blah place
[INDENT]subNA1 = don't forget boots from office (I need em for my uniform, long story)
[/INDENT]
[INDENT]subNA2 = wear uniform to appoint. ;)[/INDENT]NA3 = eye exam at some date after the physical
NA4 = Dental exam at some date after the eye exam.

This is exactly how I have it laid out in kGTD.
I don't know if that's how you guys do this stuff but it makes sense to me to have it like this. Back to kGTD, NA1 and subNA1 would be colored purple at this time telling me that these are my very next Actions for this project. When I print it out and stuff it into my Levenger Pocket Briefcase, I can tell by the handy purple color what I'm supposed to be doing next. All other NA's listed under projects are colored black indicating they are in the chute, so to speak.

Hope this isn't too redundant..

 
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