{"id":145933,"date":"2023-02-23T15:16:35","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=145933"},"modified":"2023-02-23T15:20:57","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T15:20:57","slug":"what-do-you-call-yours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2023\/02\/23\/what-do-you-call-yours\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Call Yours?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Est. reading time: 4 mins. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some things come with a name that you adopt. My house for example already had a name when we bought it, which I liked straight away, learnt about its meaning to the person who built the house more than a century ago, and have grown to love it to the point where I sometimes forget that I didn\u2019t come up with it myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other things we get the opportunity to name ourselves, and this makes them instantly our own in a very special and deep way. Our children and pets are the obvious examples, although people also sometimes name their cars, bicycles, laptops and even handbags, which make them somehow more personal and more indispensable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we all started GTD\u00ae and learnt about the idea of dividing reminders of \u2018as-soon-as-possible actions\u2019 by context, we likely first tried the lists suggested: Calls; At Computer; Errands; At Office (miscellaneous); At Home; Anywhere; Agendas (for people and meetings); Read\/Review, as well as having separate lists for Projects, Waiting fors and things we may do Someday \/ Maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have learnt to love these suggestions from David Allen as your own, as I have with my house name, or you may struggle with some of them and find you only use one or two of these as your own and the others feel less useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David later in \u201cGetting Things Done\u201d, when discussing the \u2018The Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment\u2019 talks about his own use of a \u2018Before Trip\u2019 list and a \u2018Creative Writing\u2019 list, as well as other lists people he has worked with find useful. He also includes a warning question of \u2018How much structure is too much, for the potential value of it?\u201d. I won\u2019t reiterate the whole book here, although if you haven\u2019t had a re-read recently, I would recommend doing so at some point \u2013 which list will you put that on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, you don\u2019t need to use all the lists that David recommends; if a list means nothing to you, don\u2019t use it. You may have set up one of his lists and then find you never look at it; that\u2019s a good indicator that this list isn\u2019t right for you. My own experience of this was the \u2018Anywhere\u2019 list, I liked the idea of it but found that I didn\u2019t look at it, I assume because I was never \u2018at\u2019 Anywhere. Other people I work with love it and use it for brainstorming or listening to podcasts, etc. I would prefer to have lists called \u2018Brainstorm\u2019 and \u2018Podcasts\u2019, so everything is absolutely where the location matches the meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than considering David\u2019s list and then seeing how they can fit into your life, why not take a short time and write down everywhere you work and the different types of work you do and then come up with a completely personal set of places to put your action reminders?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, if you don\u2019t want to start from scratch, how about noticing from now on whenever you are somewhere that you want to see appropriate action options available to you and judging if you have the right list for that. So, if you are about to start exercising and you\u2019re struggling to find a suitable podcast or some new music, would a new list help next time? If someone tells you they are going to be 15 minutes late to the next meeting and you feel that isn\u2019t enough time to find something on your long \u2018Computer\u2019 list, would a new list of \u2018Quick Wins\u2019 help next time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples of how some people have renamed the classic lists:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Agendas: People; To Discuss; Meetings; Face-to-face; Talk to<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Anywhere: Brainstorm; Read; iPhone; Laptop; Pen and Paper<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Calls: Phone (to include WhatsApps, etc); Communications (to include MS Teams, Zoom, Slack, etc)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Computer: Apple; Mac; Computer Work; Computer Personal; Computer Home. Also, as so much of our work can be on our Computer, perhaps sub-dividing this into types of work: Finance; Sales; Reports; Reading; Excel; Creative Writing; Marketing<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • At Home: Home Office (very popular these days); DIY; Garden; 2nd<\/sup>-Home-Name (for those lucky few); Yacht-Name (for those really lucky few!)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • At Office: Some may feel this is \u2018out of date\u2019 since our increase in working from home, although many find this useful for their less frequent trips to the office (use printer, pick up items, drop off documents, etc). If you have two regional offices, have two, named by location \u2013 e.g. \u201cCanary Wharf\u201d and \u201cManchester\u201d.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Errands: Out and About; Buy; Town-Centre-Name<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Read\/Review: \u2018Must Read\u2019 and \u2018Nice to Read\u2019; Read and Respond<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Other lists I\u2019ve seen people use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    • Quick wins \u2013 similar to David\u2019s mention of \u2018Less than 5-minute\u2019<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Short and Sharp<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Hour plus<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Deep thinking<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Defining my future<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Toast \u2013 similar to David\u2019s mention of \u2018Brain Gone\u2019<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Sales development<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Client relations<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Podcasts<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Good to me<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Things I need money for<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Fun<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      Please do put your favourite adaptions\/additions in the comments below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I\u2019ll return to David\u2019s own words to end this: \u201cThere is no \u201cright\u201d way to structure your Next Actions lists \u2013 only what works best for you, and that part of your system will likely change as your life does.\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Est. reading time: 4 mins. Some things come with a name that you adopt. My house for example already had a name when we bought it, which I liked straight away, learnt about its meaning to the person who built the house more than a century ago, and have grown to love it to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":145934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_eb_attr":"","gtp_columnspro_styling":"{}","gtp_paragraph_styling":"{\"c2d8d307-1939-475d-864a-8d328ead82b2\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-c2d8d { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"4f384dd3-4a46-4e55-98f5-60ad02533992\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-4f384 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"0ad88ecc-b42d-4b2f-b7ba-b50bb33c07b6\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-0ad88 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"99023adf-5683-4020-977c-4ec9a7dfab5c\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-99023 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"8917ac7f-274f-4c78-ab07-a84ca90aa2ac\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-8917a { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"e2a3336b-523d-4ba1-8332-9d356cdf2262\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-e2a33 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"3ed0b616-57f7-4ca4-a536-3ed5be1632a9\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-3ed0b { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"fd9cd473-f85b-4feb-b57b-e48d8090f8fa\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-fd9cd { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"adf939ed-b1c7-4abe-a6c6-61ce1a67ae20\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-adf93 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"1b0057c6-ad4d-41e0-8068-4caab9b53aed\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-1b005 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"29df50fe-8868-49b6-958f-033d75c9cbd7\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-29df5 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"9cf11a14-b6d0-4740-8961-e05042323afe\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-9cf11 { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\",\"ce5cf4bf-7757-4c37-8946-4f2d2913b33b\":\" .gp-gutenbergpro-ce5cf { background-position-x: 50%;\\nbackground-position-y: 50%;\\nbackground-size: cover;\\nheight: px; }\"}","gtp_heading_styling":"{}","gtp_spacer_styling":"{}","gtp_video_styling":"{}","gtp_group_styling":"{}","gtp_cover_styling":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[321,19,3423,311,323],"tags":[51,53,157,62,79],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145933"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145939,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145933\/revisions\/145939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145933"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=145933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}