Note Studio GTD Refresher
8. Defining a Next Action
One of the great things about GTD is that it forces you to think more rigorously.
It doesn't make you work harder, in fact it makes your life easier. But it encourages quick, incisive thinking, and eliminates
slopping thinking. Let's face it, most of us tend to be sloppy if we can get away with it.
This is really evident when we consider how you define a next action. Dave Allen covers this really well in his book "Getting
Things Done", and he gives even more info in his audio book of the same subject.
You see, one of the reasons we get stopped on a project is that we haven't clearly defined the next action. We have been sloppy.
A great way to detect this, is when you look at the next action and think 'I can't do that at the moment.' If you can't do
that, why not? Chances are, there's something else that has to happen first. So you haven't really defined your next action
properly. You've missed something. The result is that you have a next action that you can't actually do, and the project gets
stalled.
Dave Allen's audio book gives a great example where he takes a busy executive through defining a next action. The project
in question is "Get Car Serviced". He guides the executive through the process, taking him from an initially sloppy, undoable next action: "Get Car Serviced",
to a clear, precise "Talk to Bob to get the number of the car service people."
In this case, the Next Action identified by the executive was actually not the next action. He'd known for weeks that he needed
to book the car in, but hadn't done it yet. Why not? Was he a lazy person? No way - this person was a highly effective executive
in a big company. He was a smart person who worked hard. It's just that each time he had the thought "I should ring up and
book my car in for a service," something got in the way. He wasn't actually ready to take that action.
If you look at any list you've made of things to do, you'll probably find that it has the same problem. The next actions aren't
clearly enough defined, or properly thought out. You're left with actions which aren't actually next actions, but which actually
require more thought.
The crazy thing is, it doesn't actually take longer to do the proper thinking. It just takes a bit more discipline, of thinking
beyond the obvious.
The problem with a sloppy list of next actions is this: you're coming to the end of the day, getting a bit tired, but you
find half-an-hour where you might make some phone calls. You pull up your list of "At Phone" items, and immediately have a
problem. You need to phone someone, but you don't have their number. Or you need to call someone, but you don't have the information
you needed to have before phoning them. In short, you've got a list of actions that you can't actually do.
Compare that to if you have done all the thinking, and the "At Phone" items are ready to be done. Then you can zip through
five or ten action items in a half-an-hour period, and at the end of that half-hour, feel like a productivity hero.
GTD requires you to do more thinking at the front-end, before you start the tasks. The benefit of this is that when it comes
time to do the tasks, they are really, really easy to do.
If you have any project you're stalled on, ask yourself: 'what really is the next action on this project?' Chances are, you
haven't done enough thinking yet.
Note Studio and Next Actions
This is where Note Studio is really powerful. Note Studio is particularly good for quickly seeing all your next actions in
the current context.
Once you've rigorously defined the next action, I recommend having all the information you need to perform the next action
nearby, if possible. For example, if I need to call someone, I'll often paste their phone number into that action, so that
I can go ahead and make the call straight away. I'll try to paste (or link to) any reference information I need, for the same
reason.