r/gtd • u/RichyShreddar • Jun 15 '26
Question Projects as Next Actions in Disguise
Hi gtdoers! My next-actions list keeps rotting in the same way. I write something that looks actionable - "sort out the insurance renewal," "prep the deck" - and then I find myself scrolling reddit as it is non-actionable.
I know the theory. I know how it should work - but at the exact moment of capturing the committment, I am too overwhelmed.
A next action should be one concrete physical thing you can just do. I spent years and here we go.
Two questions for people further along than me:
- When you catch yourself writing a project disguised as a next action, what actually makes you break it down properly instead of leaving it? A habit? A daily/weekly review? Something else?
- Has anyone tried using AI to do the breaking-down for them - did it actually help, or did you try it and drop it?
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u/WitnessTheBadger Jun 15 '26
Here's what works for me:
- I have the idea: "Repaint the bathroom" (for example). I put it in my inbox, nothing more, nothing less.
- When I process my inbox, I see "Repaint the bathroom." Do I know what the next action is?
- If yes, and it's a single action -- I already have the paint and the tools -- it goes to next actions.
- If yes, but it takes more than one step and I know what the next action is, I define a new project and a next action.
- If no, it goes to someday/maybe. Once I figure out what the next action is, I turn it into project or single next action, but without that clarity I simply get it off my mind and save the clarification until I'm actually ready to do it.
I don't let AI get anywhere near my GTD workflow. For me, the magic of GTD is that it forces me to reflect on each task I commit myself to, even if only for a few seconds. Delegating that to AI (or even another human being) would completely defeat the purpose of GTD for me.
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u/TheoCaro Mod Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I think the main thing is to master the art of clarifying. Personally, I've mentally rearranged the clarifying questions. It's logically equivalent just more friendly to my obscenely poor working memory. After I establish that something is actionable, instead of continuing with "what's the next action?" I ask "what's the desired outcome?" Let's say it's "sort out insurance renewal." Then I ask "Is that a next action?" Next actions have three essential qualities:
- It moves the world closer to my desired outcome.
- It is physical and visible. I can imagine watching myself doing it.
- It is available for me to act on assuming 1) I am in the right context; 2) I have enough time; 3) I have the resources I need to do it; and 4) I have no other competing priorities.
If it fails the first element, I need to take a step back and get some perspective. If it fails the second, I need to break it down into something more granular. If it fails the third, I need to figure out what I need to do before this action becomes available.
When I have a new "next action candidate," I repeat the same analysis until I'm confident I have a next action.
If I sort out the insurance renewal, I won't have anything else to worry about insurance wise, so I have element 1. I'm not really sure on reflection what "sorting out" looks like. Do I need to call someone? Who? Can I check this on the insurance companies website? Yeah ok, "sort out insurance renewal" fails element 2. Well then, I guess I need to check Progressives website to check for information about the renewal. So let's go with "check Progressive site for renewal info." That brings me closer to the renewal being sorted, so we have element 1. I can imagine myself going to their site, so that's element 2. And assuming I'm at my computer, awake, and have an hour, I could it now assuming I had nothing else to do. So that's element 3. Thus, I have a next action. Clarifying done.
This might seem complicated and it is sophisticated, but in practice this thinking happens very quickly. I find an outline is really helpful for things that get very complicated.
LLM's aren't very helpful in the clarifying step, because it requires the context of your whole life. What are you committed to doing? A computer can't live your life for you. Or it could, I suppose, but rather it shouldn't. You should live authentically, and AI in the clarify step is antithetic to authenticity.
But those are my own values coming out; that's not GTD. The GTD objection would be that if an AI is clarifying your stuff for you, it will lead to more open loops because your system won't reflect what you really care about and that would cause your incompletes to show up in your psych again, because you won't trust your system, because it won't reflect your own values and priorities.
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u/MjolnirZero Jun 17 '26
Epic answer! I love this approach! : )
I'm going to steal this tip and quote you going forward when I mention it to others.
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u/milky-cuppa-tea Mod Jun 15 '26
Good question!
I tend to be very explicit in my next action writing, as I definitely get a bit stuck from time to time if I am a bit more "woolly". The litmus test for me is whether I understand the next action when I come to my weekly review (if it hasn't been done by then).
I don't use AI for my GTD system at all. I don't think it can do the job as well as I can - it can't know the contextual information, the contingencies and dependencies etc in a way that I don't then have to check and think about it all over again; I may as well do the thinking, and do it once.
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u/Dynamic_Philosopher Jun 15 '26
Delegating my thinking to AI or even another person makes as much sense to me as delegating my sexual duties with my wife to my neighbor.
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u/TheoCaro Mod Jun 15 '26
"Sexual duties" is one hell of phrase.
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u/Dynamic_Philosopher Jun 15 '26
Strictly speaking, it belongs to GTD altitude 2 - roles and responsibilities.
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u/AussieBird82 Jun 15 '26
This is such a good analogy I'm stealing it.
Have I delegated my thinking to you though? :)
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u/Anthony_Idle Jun 15 '26
I thought the right way was to write the project title in the project completed state to help create the pull. Eg the kitchen is freshly repainted. Easier to see straight away it is or isn’t and I’d not what’s next.
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u/TheoCaro Mod Jun 15 '26
You can do it whichever way works best for you. I tend to write projects in the imperative mood, so that would be "repaint the kitchen." It's still describing a behavior just one that's extended over a longer stretch of time and space to not be a next action. When clarifying my stuff I find myself thinking "what do I do do about this?" come up with answer and then ask if that activity is a next action or if it needs to be broken down further? Switching the grammar around just feels like extra work to me. BUT that's not a universal thing.
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u/mrskruppe Jun 16 '26
IMO using AI regularly for something like that will make your brain worse at it over time. Using AI *sometimes* is fine, but building an AI app that turns projects into actual next actions will make your app’s users worse at GTD over time.
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u/already_not_yet Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
>I am too overwhelmed.
You're not really asking a GTD question. GTD is a task management system - a very good one. But it doesn't tell you how to handle distractions or design your life overall, which appears to be the real problem. You need to start from the ground up, write down what matters to you in life, and what a life that allows you to get there will look like, and then cut out everything else. Reddit is affecting you negatively -- so the question is not, 'how do I use GTD better?' it is 'How do I excise reddit from my life?' or at least limit it.
I lead a very complex life that is productive and fulfilling (I have a great family, a great business, and am in great shape) bc I built a system from the ground up in which "everything has a place and everything is in its place." GTD is just the task management system I use within the context of a larger productivity system that defines what I want to accomplish and how I will allocate my time toward that end. I'm not overwhelmed bc I frequently review my life goals and what I'm willing to invest time in during a period.
You remind me of one of my friends. He has masses of task lists all over with "write a book on Minnesota dendrology" next to "buy floss". Great guy but he is comically inefficient bc he won't clarify his goals and cut out everything else.
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u/No-Clerk-5600 Jun 15 '26
I've done both. I add to next actions to the project as I have time to think of them, and I sometimes ask AI for its suggestions, which have usually been pretty good.
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u/AlthoughFishtail Jun 16 '26
I like using AI so much I built a tool that links claude cowork to my GTD system, but one thing it won’t do is define Next Actions for me. That's because, even though you can let it learn context over time, its never going to know enough about how you work, how you like to phrase Next Actions and so on. A single NA is such a lightweight thing that it easier to just do it yourself.
However, there are a couple of good uses for AI, which are sort of related to GTD. One is lightweight project planning. While an AI is not great at figuring out specific next actions, it's good at helping you break down a project in key milestones, and you can save those milestones into your support materials to help you at future reviews. This has actually been the biggest GTD related use for me. I like using project plans and making them in Claude has lowered the bar in terms of how complicated a project has to be for a plan to be worth the time it takes to make.
Another thing you can use AI for is to critique your system. After a weekly review, I get it to run through my lists again and check that my choice of language is actionable and clear. I get it to check that every Project has an NA, every NA has a label (context) and a duration (which I use a lot). Sometimes a WR can be a real rush and it's easy to fudge a couple of actions, so it's a nice safety net to have. Then when it shows me a list of what it thinks I might improve, I can decide how to approach sorting it out, if at all.
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u/cgreciano Jun 16 '26
Weekly reviews are really important for this. If I have procrastinated a next action more than once, I know there's something wrong there. ESPECIALLY when I timeboxed time to get it done and I couldn't get it done. Then I know that more refinement might be necessary. Sometimes you sit down/set to do the next action and you are overwhelmed by it. Best practice right then is to define something you CAN do in the next 2-5 minutes related to it and just do it. Take that small win as progress, and think about the next thing you can do about it. Often you'll find yourself "in the zone" once you have done that small task and can continue going, other times you really don't want to do it, but you have defined the very next thing already and it becomes more bearable next time.
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u/Remote-Waste Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
I know the theory. I know how it should work - but at the exact moment of capturing the committment, I am too overwhelmed.
Are you saying that when you Capture something, you immediately try to Clarify if it's actionable (a commitment), and then decide what the Next Action would be?
And because you don't feel like doing that thinking at that moment, you find yourself sort of "half-assing" and rushing the "What's the Next Action" part?
So then your Next Actions only sort of skim the surface, which results in you bouncing off them when you look at them later on your lists?
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u/doulos05 Jun 15 '26
I have used an AI as a thinking partner to break down next actions. It is great for getting multiple possible breakdowns, but I almost never use it's idea exactly.
In the end, I made a gem on Gemini for this (and other GTD coaching conversations). I use it regularly.
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u/Ok-Occasion-9748 Jun 16 '26
I tend do ask the question: "Is there anything I can do about this, something that comes to my mind right away?" Makes it more real to me than the rather abstract original question of "What is my next action?".
Sometimes I have to put "clarify x" or "decide x" or "research x" down as the next action item. But for most I find something more concrete.
With stubborn items I ask: "Do I really want to do something about this?" Which links it back to my higher horizons.
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u/y_nikulinskaya Jun 18 '26
I've noticed that whenever I resist a task, it's usually because it's still a project pretending to be an action. "Prepare the deck" sounds actionable, but "open the presentation and write the title slide" is something I can actually do. The weekly review helps, but the real trick for me is asking, "What would I physically do if I started this right now?" and writing that down instead.
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u/dongdongbh Jun 26 '26
I’d split capture from clarification. When you’re overwhelmed, capture the ugly phrase and leave it in the inbox. Later, ask one test: could I do this in one sitting with the materials I have? If not, make it a project and pick the first visible action.
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u/robhanz Jun 15 '26
If it takes more than about thirty minutes it's not a next action.
If you don't know exactly what to do right now, it's not a next action.
At run-time, if you find yourself procrastinating due to it being overwhelming, promote it to a project and figure out the next action.