Forums > Getting Things Done®

Unexpected sub-subtask and using folders as projects.

Author	Message
Transisto	Posted: Aug 20, 2010 Score: 1 Per GTD anything that has more than one step is a project and should have a precise and actionable Next action. With Toodledo, What do you do when you later realize a sub-task require more steps than you had expected ? Do you create a folder with the name of the task, and move all subtasks to become tasks of this folder. ??? Ain't it tedious ? Per David GTD example even buying a bicycle or dog required many steps, Was I Using TD that way I would have hundreds of unsorted folders and to me that would be a mess.
SRhyse	Posted: Aug 20, 2010 Score: 2 I think you're making the mistake of over organizing things. In the actual GTD book and most setups of people associated with it, the only solid connection between specific actions and 'projects' is you. It's tempting to want to have everything conceptually tied together and pretty in an overarching structure within any system you're using, but in the case of buying a dog- If there are subtasks of the parent task of 'buy a dog' you hadn't considered but need to do in order to get your canine, just adding them in as subtasks of that parent task on the spot seems like it'd suffice. As long as you know where they are, will see them when you can do them, and most importantly you do them in order to get a dog, then the system works fine. If you were merging companies and had a few projects as tasks in disguise like 'assess the people at the new company we acquired,' things that'll play out over the course of many weeks, months, or even years, you'd wanna consider breaking them up a bit. But not buying a dog. Unless you're looking to use that dog to win some Olympic dog contest in a really complex and elaborate life plan you've made, just list it as 'do x, do y, do z, get dog' ;).

Author

Message

Transisto

Posted: Aug 20, 2010

Score: 1

Per GTD anything that has more than one step is a project and should have a precise and actionable Next action.

With Toodledo, What do you do when you later realize a sub-task require more steps than you had expected ?

Do you create a folder with the name of the task, and move all subtasks to become tasks of this folder. ???
Ain't it tedious ?

Per David GTD example even buying a bicycle or dog required many steps,
Was I Using TD that way I would have hundreds of unsorted folders and to me that would be a mess.

SRhyse

Posted: Aug 20, 2010

Score: 2

I think you're making the mistake of over organizing things.

In the actual GTD book and most setups of people associated with it, the only solid connection between specific actions and 'projects' is you. It's tempting to want to have everything conceptually tied together and pretty in an overarching structure within any system you're using, but in the case of buying a dog-

If there are subtasks of the parent task of 'buy a dog' you hadn't considered but need to do in order to get your canine, just adding them in as subtasks of that parent task on the spot seems like it'd suffice. As long as you know where they are, will see them when you can do them, and most importantly you do them in order to get a dog, then the system works fine.

If you were merging companies and had a few projects as tasks in disguise like 'assess the people at the new company we acquired,' things that'll play out over the course of many weeks, months, or even years, you'd wanna consider breaking them up a bit. But not buying a dog. Unless you're looking to use that dog to win some Olympic dog contest in a really complex and elaborate life plan you've made, just list it as 'do x, do y, do z, get dog' ;).

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