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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 :)

mdl's picture

Great thread!

Thanks everyone for all the info here!

I really like the idea of keeping project planning separate from project lists and next action lists. By all means, get everything out of your head (mind maps, OmniOutliner, index cards, whatever). But I think one of the points of GTD is to trust intuitively that you will know what the correct next action is as the project progresses. I'm realizing that this means putting only true next actions on both my project and next action lists. Actually, in the conventional GTD method, at least as far as I understand it, everyday work is done from a simple list of projects, not multiple project maps.

The benefit of this is that it forces you to reiterate and reevaluate as things change. (I've never correctly anticipated the steps of a larger project from the start). This method also ensures that lists keep refreshing. Once one checks off an action, the trigger would be almost automatic: "what is the correct next action here?" Reviews would then be the time to sync one's lists with one's project reference material (deadlines, necessary steps, mind maps), to make sure nothing has been missed. From my own experience, it's easy to confuse getting everything out of one's head with trying to control everything in advance. The former is the state of flow that everyone raves about. The latter does not allow enough room for adaptation and flexibility. (I'm speaking from my own experience of stale and bloated lists.)

The one exception to this method, I suppose, would be projects with imminent deadlines and a lot of steps. Sometimes, you just need to map everything out and plow through it. But in such emergency situations, I temporarily work from my urgent project list and forget everything else for a while.

 
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