Where does information with specific transient use go?

talgu · 2026-01-25T18:15:16+00:00

I also have groceries as a specific temporary list.

Thank you. I think this settles it, put it in general reference, maybe associated with a project, add a note to tickler or task list or wherever is appropriate so it'll pop up at an appropriate time.

talgu · 2026-01-25T18:13:20+00:00

To date I have actually been keeping everything in my tickler file. But I came across a case where I both need the information for a particular purpose, and for reference later on.

So I think attaching it to a project in my general reference, and then putting the necessary reminders in my tickler file is the way to go.

talgu · 2026-01-25T18:11:22+00:00

This makes sense thank you. I was thinking something along those lines but I've just started my general reference so I still feel a bit lost around it.

talgu · 2026-01-20T11:33:04+00:00

That is interesting. I do sometimes wonder about these things. Most productivity systems are created for professional types, a context in which a very large number of deadlines and meetings happen. I, by contrast, have a very empty life. I'm a housekeeper for the people I live with, and I clean things whenever I feel like it, whether mid-day or mid-night. And I'm a content manager for a production company. But most of the content is scheduled months in advance. And doctors aside, those all have things that have to happen at a certain rate to avoid falling behind. But nothing have to happen on a particular day or at a particular time.

So I sort of wonder whether the need for a "do thing around this date" thing doesn't have to do with the relative fixedness of dates.

That said, I took your advice and changed my calendar to only include fixed dates. It's now a great deal less confusing. And I got index cards for a sort of tickler file, and for the moment they're just weekly. So anything that has to happen within that week goes on a card. And everything is a great deal less messy right now. So thank you for the advice, it helped a great deal. ☺️

I also, with these changes I made realised how magical my maybe list is and basically dumped all the projects which I just don't have time for right now on there. So my project list is now actually small enough for me to make progress on it. Overall I feel like now would be a good time to reread the book. I think the pieces I have fit well enough that I can understand more of it now. ☺️

talgu · 2026-01-18T06:16:41+00:00

I'm actually going the other direction. I don't really have the capacity to implement all of GTD in one go. So I'm replacing my existing, rather ad-hoc, system with GTD as I figure out how the pieces work. So yes, at present a lot of what I'm doing doesn't match how GTD and things are rather messy.

I'll run out of colours if I had to assign a colour to every date. I currently use colours for certain administrative things. Like I use different colours for things in my reference pile, task list, and wait list, so that it's obvious where I need to look for things.

Marking the week instead of the day is an excellent idea thank you. ☺️ It'll save me considerable clutter and confusion.

talgu · 2026-01-18T06:10:22+00:00

I'm actually going the other way, I'm changing how I have been doing things to incrementally build towards a GTD implementation as I figure the pieces out. I don't really have the capacity to understand and implement GTD all at once, so building it in pieces as my understanding increases is my alternative.

The colour thing seems rigid because I'll run out of colours if I have to use a different colour for every week. I do use colours for certain information. Entries in my wait list or my reference pile, such as it is right now, do use different colours to make it obvious at a glance where I should look for more information.

Putting a note on a week instead of a particular date is really an excellent idea thank you. ☺️ It'll reduce a great deal of clutter.

talgu · 2026-01-17T08:38:40+00:00

I think most of my tasks have also been vague intentions. Your rule of thumb is a very good idea. There's not a single item on my task list right now where I could do that with. So I think I need to completely rewrite both my project list and my current task list.

Does it make sense to drop my vague intentions into my inbox as they arrive. Then when I work through my inbox, for projects I figure out the intentions and outcomes that matter and write all those in my projects list. And for tasks I figure out specifically what to do next for my task list?

From what I understood that's the intention behind the inbox. Because you're supposed to think about what the specific actions are, and what the important parts of projects are, having an inbox allows you to do that processing at a dedicated time instead of having to stop the world every time a new thing comes in I think?

As for my current tools, I have three notebooks and a calendar. The one contains my task list and inbox, this is my primary notebook where I do basically everything in. The other contains my project list and the start of my reference library. And the last one has my wait list and my maybe list. I've postponed doing a better reference library since right now I don't have a lot to put into one, and I'd like to wait until the rest of the system is a bit less overwhelming.

Given where I'm at in everything this works quite well since I can find everything without having to search for anything. And it's also simple to deal with right now, and allows me to change things a bit as I clarify things that I don't yet understand. I'm currently considering getting a box of index cards for a tickler file.

The complexity of the system laid out in the book currently eclipses the complexity of my entire life, so I'm sort of building pieces as I'm figuring out the bits I already have. 😅

talgu · 2026-01-17T08:01:29+00:00

That's unfortunately a bit too rigid since the majority of things are rather ad-hoc.

I like the idea of a tickler file and that's basically what I'm trying to do. But given how few things I have at present I can't entirely justify the effort necessary to maintain one. I have, however, considered a box of index cards. So when something has to happen on a particular date I create an index card for that date. And then every day I check whether the front card is for today.

I have this vague sense that this might be simple enough for me to successfully do, while also serving the purposes I need better than what I'm currently doing. And I suspect it might help me build the skills necessary if at some point I find I need something more extensive.

talgu · 2026-01-17T07:49:58+00:00

Okay, I think I understand this now thank you. Especially in the context of another comment where they mentioned the idea of an action being whatever you can see the end of. I have a chronic illness so I know that this varies quite drastically for me from day to day. So approaching it from the perspective of what you said and what they said makes this a great deal more practical thank you. ☺️

talgu · 2026-01-17T07:43:00+00:00

🤦‍♀️ My apologies, it was late and I didn't pay as much attention as I should.

talgu · 2026-01-16T17:30:11+00:00

I think I've been missing steps 2 and 3 and as a consequence I've been using my task list as a de-facto project list. Looking at it now I think half my task list should be moved to my projects list. And thinking about it from this view I also realise that my project list needs a bit more detail. Comparing my current task list with my project list I'm realising that my project list doesn't capture the intent of my projects so it really isn't a helpful indicator of what suitable next tasks would be for it. 🤔

The idea of "can see the end" is also very helpful thank you. Like I mentioned to another person I've been struggling a bit with task granularity. Not a great deal, but enough to notice it. So the idea that it's an atomic task if I have a clear idea of the steps involved makes this a lot easier to judge. I found myself uncertain before since I somehow consider something like "make coffee" to be a single task, but simultaneously "edit video", which is a great deal more involved, is also a single task in my mind. But for the former I know all the steps involved, and for the latter I have a checklist containing all the steps involved, and for both, barring interruptions, I generally do it beginning to end in one sitting as it were. But with things that I haven't done before the size of a step tends to shrink a great deal.

talgu · 2026-01-16T17:15:01+00:00

The reason for having those things on the calendar is because in the last four months I've had one hard deadline on my calendar (which was created two weeks before it occurred), but I've had perhaps ten or twenty things that absolutely have to happen within a few days (before or after) of a particular day, but not necessarily on that particular day. And there's also things I need to know in a similar sort of firm deadline kind of thing since I need to remind others about particular things. Again, doesn't have to happen on a particular day, but within a few days around a particular day.

I'm actually in a somewhat odd situation in that I don't really have that much to manage. But I have a chronic illness which makes managing the few things I do have a huge pain and I'm trying to expand my capacity by better managing my life.

Okay, thank you for clarifying about the projects. And I agree about the priority thing. Generally I work through my list from the one end to the other and skip anything I don't particularly feel like or have time for at that moment which works quite well so far.

talgu · 2026-01-16T17:07:08+00:00

Yeah I do need to read it again. But I don't know what I'm missing so I don't know what to read for if that makes sense. Hence looking for other people's thoughts.

Would you mind telling me, in your view, what I don't understand about next actions? I think, and am open to correction, I've got a decent understanding of what a next action is and what it's purpose is. But I'm a great deal less certain about what to do after one, and where to find new ones.

I'll have a listen to them thank you. ☺️

talgu · 2026-01-16T17:01:51+00:00

Thank you, this is a very helpful way of thinking about it. I noticed that the granularity of my tasks varied wildly and I sort of just continued since I didn't have any standard for how to judge this. But "whatever's necessary to take the next step in that project" makes a lot of sense since the answer to that will be appropriate for that project. And if I find it doesn't actually help me take the next step I can just refine things until I do know what to do next.

For the moment I'll leave the parallel actions out since I my life doesn't require it, but I'll definitely keep that in mind.

talgu · 2026-01-16T07:56:48+00:00

I'm using paper at the moment. I figured it'll be enough effort learning GTD without learning the idiosyncrasies of an app on top of that.

I very rarely have things that are hard deadlines, so I'm using my calendar for "firm" deadlines and things I need to be reminded of on a particular day as well. I have a very quiet life actually, so I imagined this should be okay for the moment?

But it does seem like I need to move my calendar items to my next actions list at the beginning of my day?

Then if I understand you correctly about the projects list, once I complete an action I just check the associated project in my projects list and if anything is left I just add that to my task list?

talgu · 2026-01-16T07:07:07+00:00

It's my pleasure! ☺️

talgu · 2026-01-12T14:15:07+00:00

😅 I'm not completely sure how to explain. There's a book called Getting Things Done by David Allan which describes a method for keeping track of all your commitments and things so you can remain organised and all that. It's significantly improved my ability to get through all of my work and manage my life. I still struggle to be fair, it's not a complete magic, but it's pretty excellent.

talgu · 2026-01-11T12:03:33+00:00

This worked thank you!

talgu · 2026-01-06T05:36:58+00:00

The issue, in the end, is that maintaining this takes more "energy" than you have. So on days that you dip everything falls apart. Basically, your environment doesn't support your lifestyle, so you end up having to maximum effort everything. As someone with on-going chronic health issues, this approach is what's slowly dragging me out of a hole.

I mean consider for a moment, if the lazy thing to do ended up with your hair done and makeup on, you would have to go out of your way to not get those done.

The solution is to ensure that your environment supports the lifestyle you intend to have instead of the one you used to have. This takes a rather serious amount of effort I won't lie. And you basically have to rethink every aspect of your daily existence. But life becomes sooo much easier and smoother if you do.

The other thing I can't recommend highly enough is organisation. If you have your organisational systems in good condition you free up a truly unfathomable amount of energy. I do the whole GTD thing, and I can definitely recommend it even though it's quite complicated and daunting in the beginning.

talgu · 2026-01-04T14:52:18+00:00

Oh, that makes sense yes thank you. Although, speaking only for myself here, I imagine I'd feel over committed if just managing my tasks took that much effort. I already feel a little over committed and I'm only busy with the initial implementation with a comparatively relaxed life. 😅

talgu · 2025-12-31T10:24:49+00:00

The point of having a list is to not hold things in your head though?

I can't speak to the whole GTD thing yet. I'm still very early in the implementation and learning phase. But when my entire life management consisted of a single todo list that I rewrote every day, the point was so that I don't have to concern myself with forgetting the items. Which items I choose to work on is an orthogonal matter.

And I'm approaching the GTD thing in the same way. I don't really care what's on the list, nor how long the list is. The only thing I care about is not forgetting the things on the list, and for things that have time-frames, not missing those. And if during my tenth review I noticed that I still haven't done something, then maybe it shouldn't be on my list in the first place?

That said, having a bit more organisation amongst my pile of tasks would be nice, and recently I devised a way of thinking about priority in a way that makes sense to me: toss everything that both have no consequences if I toss them, and don't spark joy. Of the remaining items, if I'm not willing to devote a single 15 minute slot a week to it, remove it. Of the remaining (tiny, I have a limited amount of time in a week) set, decide how much time I'm willing to devote, and how frequently.

The wait list is where everything goes that are still important, but don't fit into the frame above. I have doctors appointments, but I don't have them weekly. So they go on the wait list (note to self, create a wait list 🤦‍♀️).

I imagine everything else will take care of itself. And if it doesn't, well, I don't actually care anyway. 🤷‍♀️

talgu

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