I want to create a new “actionable” status list that I might call (say) “Later”, that is half way between my “Next Actions” and my “Someday-Maybe” list.
What would you suggest would be the best way to achieve this?
To get clear I have about 50 to 100 actions on my “Next Actions” list (ie. my “Do ASAP”), but this is too many for me to scan several times per day in my Daily Scans. But I don’t want to move them into my “Someday-Maybe” list because I have about 400 tasks there already and I don’t want to lose them there as I know I will want to make them live “fairly soon” it’s just that I don’t yet know exactly when…
Should I:
A) Create another Tag called say “.Later” (or similar)?
==> Downside: It would clutter up my Tags, and be quite easy to appear by mistake
B) Move it into a new Area called “Later”?
==> Downside: I would need to remember what Area it was really in when I make it live in the Next Actions list again
C) Use the Waiting list?
==> I don’t use the Waiting list much at present, but if I do in the future the would become a problem.
Here is the workflow I use and find avoids the issue you mention here. I usually break down my day by areas. So when I sit down to work, I filter by the area I’m working on right now. Then the 100 or so next actions I have are filtered to an easy 10 or so to pick from. I click the focus icon on those that I’m committing to do right now and then work from the focus list.
I would not create an area called “later”. That would really break the natural workflow of GTD. I’d probably use the either a tag or the waiting list.
Can you say some more about that? Roughly how many Areas do you have - and what sorts of thing go into them?
And how do you actually use Context?
And how do you plan your day in terms of Context?
[Aside: One of my problems is that I work form home and most of my stuff happens from the single Context of @PC!]
Also how often do you review which of your lists and roughly how many tasks are typically in each of said lists?
Either way do you take my point about having too many tasks in the Someday list means that it’s very easy if you move stuff into Someday that it slightly gets lost in a sea of Someday tasks?
On reflection I think part of my problem is that I am semi-dyslexic and reviewing a long list of say 100 items even once per day is difficult and may not always get completed.
Out of interest are you also using sort order in order to indicate the relative priority between tasks?
As an aside from what I can see, even having a “Focus on Today” list isn’t very “GTD”, no? Although personally I find it crucial!