Stress Fracture

I am not a real Getting Things Done cultist — any more — nor do I follow folks like Merlin Mann. Currently, anyway. But I am a big user of todo lists, because otherwise I would not remember to do anything. That’s not an assumption; I’ve experienced it many times and it is a very unpleasant feeling and frankly I have enough weighing me down as it is. So, I make lists, causing my wife and I to regularly reenact a scene from Kim Possible.

The key issue that comes up again and again to bite me when I get lazy about todo items is one discussed at some length into GTD, and with good reason: telling the difference between a todo item and a project. In theory, it’s simple. A todo item is, well, one thing. A project is multiple things. (And furthermore, it’s not necessarily just a single list of things. It’s a graph. Most often it’s a DAG. Anyway.)

In practice, though, it can be pretty deceptive. Let me give you today’s example. I dropped by the accountant’s office to pick up my copy of my tax return, including an authorization form my wife and I need to sign and give back so that I can actually get my taxes filed. I made a point to somehow not forget this on the way back to my office and dutifully added a todo item for doing that to my todo management on Hiveminder. All’s well and good, right? No? Did you catch my mistake? It took me a while to notice it myself.

Simple enough: that’s not one item. It’s two. (More, conceivably, but for my purposes it’s at least two.) First we have to sign the form. Then I have to return it. What makes this separation critical is that they can’t be done in the same contexts; signing the paper is something that is in practice going to have to get done at home, since we both have to sign it. (In fact, this is another place that could be broken into two items — me signing it and her signing it. This is what I mean by not a simple list — those two items are independent. But taking the form back depends on them both.) But I can’t take the form back at home. I have to do so while out during the day.

A small thing, perhaps, but it’s mistakes like these that can lead to todo items that just sit and rot because they always appear to be out of context or too big to do right now or whatever. One of the things I like about Hiveminder is the ability to put todo items into a dependency graph like I’ve been hinting at — I’ll never see the item “take the form back” until I’ve checked off the item “sign it.” No reason for me to look at items I can’t do. A related feature is the ability to hide todo items until a future date — perhaps because they can’t be started until then, or perhaps, as is often the case, I’ve just decided they aren’t a priority right now compared to other things and I’m deliberately procrasting in a controlled fashion. In fact, I use this feature for a third scenario: when I’m waiting on a response or action on someone else’s part. I hide the item until, say, next Monday, at which point it’ll reappear on my list and I can decide if I need to nudge the appropriate party or whatever. This feature is roughly analogous to the tickler folders in GTD, but much less embarrassingly named.

Anyway, my point here is not necessarily to plug Hiveminder, although I do find it exceedingly well thought out for the above reasons and a few more. My real point is this: if you are overwhelmed by your todo items, it may be because your list is actually full of projects. You can’t do a project. You can only do what GTD calls the Next Action (although, as I say, in reality there may be more than one per project.) And if you’re staring all the time at all the things you can’t reasonably do right now, you’re only making yourself feel more overwhelmed. People look at me aghast when I say that I’m looking at my todo list and it has three items. Don’t be confused; there are many more than that — I’m just not looking at them.

Something to consider if you’re a fellow listmaker, or thing you might need to be.

R