Ep. 326: Complete Projects Inventory  ## Metadata - Author: [[Getting Things Done]] - Full Title: Ep. 326: Complete Projects Inventory - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/8d089b30-be57-4a71-8f9c-79f277da7730 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Write Projects As Clear Outcomes** - Define a project as a multi-step outcome achievable within about a year and state clearly what done looks like. - Use a verb and a clear desired-outcome phrase so each project answers "what does done look like?". Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez We don't make a difference. It's nothing more than a multi-step outcome achievable within a timeframe up to a year. So it's anything and everything that you've said yes to, or you didn't explicitly said no to, that it's going to require more than one action step. Or sometimes it's easier to understand more than one sitting. In other words, or sometimes it's also easier to understand is no matter if I have the full day to actually do all the steps, its nature is one that I cannot possibly complete it. Because I will take one step then that would be in the hands of someone else and until that comes back to me then I cannot move on to the other step etc so it has a time frame of up to a year um Can it be more than a year yes so if it's 12 months and I don't know three hours still qualify let's not take it so like by the book it's just a timeframe that we're giving you. And the reason for giving you this timeframe is because your projects list, and we'll see more of that later, but you probably already know that it's the driver of your weekly review. That's why it's very important to have a complete project inventory or to have a complete projects list because that ambient stress that gets created around us throughout a week, we're Able to calm it down. We're able to release it, to let it go once we come back to our projects list on a week to week basis. And we get to see and ask ourselves, am I still committed to this outcome? Where am I in relationship to my current reality and my desired outcome? What more, if anything, can I do, think about, come up with that brings me closer to my outcome? And that's a good percentage of what happens in the weekly review. Or I should say it's, it's the heaviest weight to lift during the weekly review, that kind of thinking, thinking about each and every one of your projects, how far, how far am I from my Desired outcome? What more can I do to come close to my desired outcome? And always have that next action or next actions identified. ([Time 0:09:19](https://share.snipd.com/snip/79266cfd-6676-489f-9c56-e3fecff0ed7e)) - **Use Someday/Maybe To Offload Non‑Committed Items** - Move items you are not committed to act on into Someday/Maybe to reduce cognitive load. - Review Someday/Maybe during your weekly review so nothing is forgotten but remains non-committed. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez It's very simple and very straightforward it's nothing more than potential projects or next actions that you're not yet committed to move on you're not doing anything about it it doesn't Mean you may not do something about it sometime in the future but you're not doing anything about it at least not for this week maybe some people think of it that short time frame like no I'm not i'm not moving on this i'm not committed to this but again there's a whole world out there for someday maybes i mean i have folks that organize their someday maybes as bucket list Items um i have people that are organized someday maybes or quarterly Sunday maybes yearlies because you know, they want to kind of have different tiers or timeframes within, within Even their Sunday maybes. It's a personal preference. I only have one Sunday maybe list me personally. But I've seen all different variations. What, what, what you all, all you have to remember is exactly what says there. I am not yet committed to move on. Would I be next week? We don't know. And we don't have to know until you do your weekly review next week. And then at that moment, you ask yourself again, well, I'm not ready to, I'm not, I'm not committing to moving on this thing yet fine let's wait on to the next week it's really up to you see As long as you renegotiate agreements with yourself on a weekly basis you're not breaking agreements and that's a very powerful teaching from gtd it's not that you're procrastinating You're not forgetting you're not ignoring it you're not denying it you're being conscious about your decision and saying, I'm not moving on to this thing this week either, etc. ([Time 0:13:53](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cdf16bbc-2a84-4591-a7d0-b3829277cfa1)) - **Update Projects List During Review** - Update your projects list by confirming each project states the desired outcome and contains a verb. - If an item isn't a project yet, move it to Someday/Maybe to keep your projects list accurate. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez They're actually someday, maybe based on the definition I just gave you potential projects or next actions that I'm not yet committed to moving on. So take the next five minutes, make sure you have all your projects defined in desired outcome terms. Make sure all your projects have a verb. Make sure all your projects answer to the question what does done look like. And if they don't belong on your projects list, but your someday maybe, move it over to your someday maybe. ([Time 0:17:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9255bb9d-0fc4-49e1-9fa5-6f1907cd8bb5)) - **Mine Current Activities For Hidden Projects** - Mine current activities (calendar, next-actions, agendas, pockets) for hidden projects and add them to your projects list. - Check small reminders and handwritten notes: if they require more than one action, make them projects. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez Current activities, it's everything that potentially, where potentially there is a project camouflage or hidden, or that somehow you didn't see. And it's everything that it's, you want to think of it. It's, it's like ground level, ground level, or very close to you in terms of the surfaces around you. So, um, it can be the stuff that you wrote a moment ago from your mind sweep, right? Or it could just be anything else or whatever else from your mind. It can be stuff that might be sitting on your calendar. Like if you take the time in a moment to check your calendar from last week, that may trigger a project of something that occurred at a meeting and that you didn't capture, you didn't add To your system. It's nowhere, but somewhere in your mind. If you look at your calendar for next week, maybe also there's something walking towards you that you haven't seen, and it's actually a project that you have overlooked, let's say. So calendars can easily trigger projects that are needed on our list. Your next actions list. Sometimes we're very good at adding next actions, but not taking a moment of asking ourselves, is this next action part of a project? Does this next action belong to a project? Am I done when I complete this next action, or is this part of a multi-step outcome? So pause for a moment and think about it. If there's something there that, again, meets our definition of a multi-step outcome achievable up to a year or within a year, then add it to your projects list. Your agendas list, same thing. You might have items in there to talk to someone about or discuss with someone about that item itself. It's part of a project that's missing from your list um sometimes there are things that somehow ended up on our briefcase our bag our purse our pockets on top of our our our tables at the Office or at home that that little piece of paper itself once done doesn't get me to done, done, because it belongs to a project. There's still more work to be done. So check that out. Obviously, if you are working from home, check around your home office. And if you're working for work, check around your work office. As well, if not, close your eyes and scan and see what can you remember from either one of those environments that can potentially be reminding you of a project that needs to go on your List. ([Time 0:18:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c809ab99-ee5d-4b8d-9c33-992af940d71a)) - **Map Professional Areas Of Focus** - Create an Areas Of Focus map (4–7 items) for professional roles to orient priorities and spot gaps. - Use that map to ask where you're falling short and what needs course correction. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez Horizon two in GTD is what we refer to as your areas of focus and responsibility. These are kind of your ongoing, they never get to an end. We don't complete them. They don't finish, unlike projects. Health when are you done with your health probably as soon as you lose focus of on on your health you're going to need a project on your list related to health so it's these are all things That as soon as you lose focus or you stop paying attention to them you need to course correct or you need to make adjustments you need to do something about it to bring them back to standard To bring them back to cruise control so your areas of focus require maintenance. That's another way to think about it. And I'll give you a couple of examples just to give you an idea of what we're referring to. And we're going to start first with professional and then I'm going to do personal. So let's imagine that you are human resources. You know, you have a human resources role, talent and development, recruiting, whatever it is that you have you're a human resources person well within your role you probably have Anywhere from four to seven very clear areas of focus they usually run between four and seven on average doesn't mean that if you have more it's wrong or if you have less it's wrong i'm Giving you an average so you can have part of your role means that you're responsible for hr admin company culture legal hiring organizational development you belong to committees And training and development i mean you can see it clearly on the image here truth is that that's good if you have this that's already good enough in terms of giving you a map of what your Areas of focus are and allowing you to use this as an orientation tool. Meaning anytime I go, am I really fulfilling my job? Where am I falling short? Where can I do more? If you just look at this, it's a map that gives you enough information to know where, if anything, you need to course correct or make improvements or do something more. ([Time 0:25:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8342fcfc-c645-4f40-b263-9e5d25cb961b)) - **Create Personal Areas Of Focus Maps** - Build personal Areas Of Focus (relationships, health, recreation, etc.) and expand only as needed. - Review them monthly to detect maintenance needs that may trigger projects or actions. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez Let's say now we're talking about you as a human being, right? Not as a person that has a job. Well, what are my areas of focus and responsibility and or interest that's another way of think of it to think of it well relationships recreation career health energy spiritual self-development Household community creativity this is all me these are all things that matter to me well and within each and every one of them there's more right when i think of relationships what do I mean well i mean my family i mean my relatives i mean my pets and when i think of recreation what what is it that i like for recreation the movies and hiking and camping and travel and tennis And instagram i mean facebook sounds so outdated um and reading and food wine whatever you name it right um creativity watercolors poetry baking photography gardening health by exercise Nutrition you know yoga meditation practices, or however you want to think of it, et cetera. Of course, there's a deeper tier here. Because look at just how family expanded just in a minute, right? My three kids, or my two kids and my wife, or whatever it's true. So in terms of that, let's say my wife, Sandy, well, what about our quality time and support? And Sarah, my daughter, what about her education, her health, her creativity, her extracurricular activities? I mean, life, we live lives way more complex than we give ourselves credit, believe me. So there's plenty here that you can use your time in this next activity to either identify again, the main four to seven, or go deeper as time allows you. Because what I'm going to ask you to do in a minute, I'm going to ask you to update or create, you don't have them, your areas of focus maps. ([Time 0:29:42](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b8498b60-b771-4df6-94a8-cfafc3b82fd0)) - **Turn Area Maps Into Actionable Items** - Scan your Areas Of Focus to surface projects, next actions, or Someday/Maybe items and add them to the right lists. - Only add as projects those outcomes that require weekly thinking or multi-step effort. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez The example that I gave a moment ago, I think, is not necessarily because one of your areas of focus demands attention from you as in having to do something to bring it back to balance. That equals a project. It may just equal a next action. So it doesn't have to go on a sequential or or hierarchy structure like horizon two should generate a horizon one that should generate a ground level item no you can go from horizon two Areas of focus to a ground level item a next action go to the movies that takes care of recreation for me for example or it can definitely no, here's a project about this. It's not just calling my mom because I forgot to call her in the past few days. I really want to organize a trip with my mom because it's been too long that we haven't spent time together. Therefore, I'm going to organize a trip with mom to, you know, fill in the blank, to Hawaii. Therefore, that's a project. So now I need to add a new project onto my list, which of course will require that I add a next action. Because what it is true is that for every project, there has to be a next action. But not for every area of focus has there to be a project and a next action or a someday maybe. ([Time 0:38:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5e6fd62c-9898-4d57-ae44-040a95724efc)) - **Simplifying Todoist Helped Tracking** - Jeremy simplified his Todoist setup and found it easier to track projects and next actions. - Simplifying tools made defining and acting on projects much clearer for him. Transcript: John Forrester So just thinking that through just now, I made it much, much simpler and therefore a lot easier to define things on track. Fantastic. Ana Maria Gonzalez Easier, it's always better, Jeremy. So good job. Thank you. Simple. ([Time 0:41:01](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e08d3a92-fb39-427c-a644-e802d6d13fb8)) - **Higher Horizons Reveal Preparation Projects** - Higher horizons (goals, vision, purpose) are time-framed outcomes that help spot missing projects. - Thinking 2–5+ years ahead reveals preparatory projects you might otherwise miss. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez We're just going to take it as one big one. And the intention here is to do it a little bit more like light touch. This is not designed to be intimidating because sometimes for folks, when asked the question of what's your purpose, it can be intimidating. It's intimidating for me. Like I hate when they ask that question. Why do you want to know kind of thing? So we're just going to do it just to keep on helping you again, complete your projects list. The intention for all of this is mining for projects and to see if there's anything out there that can potentially be a project that needs to be added to your list. So horizon three, it's very simple. Think of this horizon as outcomes. The outcomes that belong to horizon three are often referred by goals and objectives. And lots of companies, you know, they have goals that they need to achieve within two years or three years or whatever length of time. So that would be what belongs to Horizon 3. Some people refer to it as objectives. Usually these are defined during strategic plan sessions or year-end planning sessions. Those are the opportunities at companies that we define these goals and objectives. Personally, you can just think about, you know, what would I like to be through by the end of 2026? Or why would I like to be true in the next two years? So this horizon is about two years from now. Then horizon four, the title we've given it or we've defined it as vision this is again just outcomes no different but further out in the timeline or further out in your time frame four To five years from now so here you can think uh take a moment to really grab things that are more like way out there like I know in four or five years, I'm going to move to another country. Or, you know, I know in four or five years, my kids will be out of college. So now what? Or I know in four or five years, my kids will be starting college. So now what? Have you prepared financially for that? Or do you need a project? So when you think out, that helps, again, trigger projects in case they're missing from your list. ([Time 0:43:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8db657ed-e94f-4775-a1fe-7703e9bbcb5e)) - **Goals Often Hide As Separate Lists** - People often hide goals by separating them from projects, which prevents action. - Moving goals into the projects list makes them visible and prompts follow-up actions. Transcript: Speaker 3 It's very recent, like maybe a few months ago. And I'm like realizing that I had a bunch of projects that were hidden in this goals list for some reason that I wasn't acting on, but I actually wanted to execute them this year, but I was Kind of... Ana Maria Gonzalez They were on another list. They were not on the progress list. Exactly. Speaker 3 In my head, I was not treating them as projects. I wasn't acting on them because I was like, yeah, those are goals. I'm going to act on them. I don't know. Yeah. But so just the fact that I started moving them into projects as they are, because they are my expectation of them being completed this year. Correct. And then I started acting on them. Ana Maria Gonzalez Yeah. Just my weird note about that. I mean, humans were funny. You know what I mean? Who knows what little crazy heads make up of things? Thank God for that creativity. But what you did and what you described, Ariadne, it's very common. I've seen it a lot. Some people actually created this titled Projects on Hold. ([Time 0:51:57](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0e908632-b4e8-4164-b731-9cd09e8d07e4)) - **Rename Lists To Match How You Think** - If your brain needs a different label (e.g., "projects on hold"), use it — what's essential is regular review. - Rename lists pragmatically to ensure you revisit and act on committed outcomes. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez I've seen it a lot. Some people actually created this titled Projects on Hold. Because it's not a project. It's not a goal. Not a someday maybe, don't you dare. It's a project on hold. And I go, if you want to call it a project on hold, because that's how your mind better relates. That works. What, what matters is your commitment to reviewing. And I think it's in the reviewing that we either do or don't do, where we start making all this kind of, you know, variations in forms, because our minds are very quick and very smart. And we often quickly conclude that it's a someday maybe, I'm not going to look at it. Andtd says that your someday maybe list is a list to review as part of your week to review so but it feels like it's you know someday maybe someone's like it's like neverland not not really All someday maybe is it's a list for potential projects that i'm not committed to move on yet. So it's a very simple definition, Ariane, but if you think about it, it's a powerful one. It's one that I need to be able to stand for because it's I saying I'm not committed to move on yet. That's a powerful statement. But if instead I put it on a project's own whole, these are all variations of someday, maybe to be honest. ([Time 0:52:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/73aa0a95-812b-4020-a160-96103c06490d)) - **Project Size Doesn't Determine Its Place** - Some projects feel "too small" to label, but size doesn't matter — multi-step defines a project. - Mislabeling small multi-step outcomes as single next actions hides work from weekly review. Transcript: Speaker 3 That one because it was and although it isn't the same app like i i could see the list was there oh yeah i know but my brain was like yeah but it's not they're not projects don't look at them And then i realized well i have to go back and look at them and then I realized that I was kind of not putting them in the projects category for my mind to actually go through them and and take Action. Ana Maria Gonzalez I'm telling you the projects list is the most liberating list is the and it's the nastiest list because it's the list that brings us back to peace, to clarity, to a sense of control, but It's the list that demands thinking. All the other ones, we can kind of like pretend they're there, but they're not there. The project list is heavy lifting, but it does wonders to our lives, right? But I understand. I understand the relationship. Speaker 3 Can I just make one more comment about Projects List? That also sometimes I think, or my brain thinks, when I say my brain, my brain thinks that... That's not us, it's the brain. No, it's the brain, it's not me. ([Time 0:57:33](https://share.snipd.com/snip/728b2cbd-d9b1-4f82-96e5-32202f06f696)) - **Err On The Side Of Adding Projects** - If an outcome requires weekly thinking, put it on the projects list; otherwise use a calendar reminder. - When in doubt, add it to projects — the worst case is an overrated project you can later remove. Transcript: Ana Maria Gonzalez Hard. And before we go on a break, just keep this in mind, guys. Often, if it's self-evident, it may not even have to go on your projects list, despite the fact that it's multi-step outcome. For example, my dad is coming to visit me from Spain. All I need is a reminder in my calendar to go get him at the airport, you know, at the time that he arrives. I don't need a project about that. It's kind of self-evident, everything that I need that needs to happen for him to stay at my house. If on the other hand, I had to move my children out of their bedroom to accommodate for a new bedroom. And I had to do, you know, make some logistical changes and there was a work involved to preparing for that's visit then that might not that might not be self-evident it may require my Mind to weekly focus on this outcome of preparing for that visit otherwise he's going to show up on a tuesday and nothing's going to be ready. So there are some things that even they are multi-step outcomes. If they're self-evident, you may not have to put it on a project's list. ([Time 1:00:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ca1b53b1-3293-4393-a526-ba4728c70df0))