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'Injunctions'

I have trouble trying to integrate into the GTD system one particular type of inbox items - I call them "injunctions". Stuff like "Whenever I am talking on the phone, remember to take notes and ask the name of the person I've been talking to", or "Before rolling something out, bounce it around a bit and ask people if it is easily understood", or "Remember to tag emails according to the new system I set up", or even "Use the new Quicksilver trigger enough for it to become set in motor memory".

They could be projects... yet the only 'next actions' are repeating the 'injunction' enough that it becomes a habit. The context is, obviously, whenever I am doing other actions. The less often that action happens, the more difficult it is to remember to do so-and-so the next time you do that action ("From now on, place stamp in the lower-left corner of the form, not the lower-right" - for a form you might have to fill in any day, unpredictably, but maybe not for weeks.)

How do you prompt yourself to create such habits? At this moment, I have a list that goes into my Weekly Review, with such items categorized as "Doing now, must continue"; "Habit set"; "Not even begun doing this". It is helpful, but not entirely.

aef's picture

What I have is: A list...

What I have is:

A list of reminders/injunctions to read at the beginning of each (week) day.

A similar list to read each week (at the weekend).

Reminders set up so I notice them when doing certain activities (eg a note taped to
the telephone.)

And recently, a book for recording performance on habits I want to change; I record
what I've done in those respects at the end of each day.

aef

 
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