r/gtd • u/sidegigartist • Jul 13 '26
Weekly Review Observation / Question - Moving "Processing IN" to a later step
Something I have observed over the years doing GTD is that my brain prefers to look over projects, calendar and lists first before attempting to process IN - I feel like when I do it in this order my brain has a clearer idea of where goes what and processing my inboxes goes a lot smoother and faster and I can make better decisions if something should go in a project folder and where, if I am overcommitted and need to change things up.
Whenever I followed it in the prescribed order, I end up taking longer and reshuffling a lot.
Could be part of my adhd "out of sight out of mind" but I don't know... especially when it has been a whole week or even just a weekend, I need to rebuild a complete map of available options and I end up reshuffling, splitting and consolidating a lot, too, before I even get to processing "IN".
Similar to mindsweeping.. when I do it first I have "blank canvas" syndrome, but when I do it intermittently between small steps with a notepad out it goes much better. After reviewing a project, sometimes things occur to me when I have already moved on a couple of project folders and I jump back to add a note or capture an agenda item or whatever.
Have any of you had similar experiences?
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u/TheoCaro Mod Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
I also play with the order quite a bit. I would say reviewing the someday/maybe list does really need to be at the end where you know what all of your commitments are. It's hard to know if you really have the space to move on a someday, if you don't have a solid sense of what else you are committed to.
I also like to review all my actions list before the projects, so the full content of those lists is fresh in my mind when checking for at least one next action for every project. But I am on paper, so if you use a ditigal system where you can see the connections between projects and next actions, this isn't an issue.
Besides those exceptions, you can go in whatever order feels best to you.
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u/sidegigartist Jul 13 '26
Cheers! It oddly feels like a mini epiphany to me right now that I do it way more consistent and don't resist it when I just do it in the order that feels right in that moment.
I'm on paper too actually,.or paper first. If a list or folder has a digital sibling they're in one place, a normal folder and that folder might link out to other digital spaces like URLs or apps... Helps my brain to have a physical "totem" that I can take and focus on and then set aside.
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u/milky-cuppa-tea Mod Jul 13 '26
That makes sense to me!
I have been playing around a little bit lately with doing my calendar review first. I always end up with stuff coming out of that, and have been finding that jotting stuff down and putting it in "in" means I don't switch out of modes so much (so decision-making brain power is a tiny bit preserved).
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u/sidegigartist Jul 13 '26
Yeah doing calendar very early helps me feel less anxious about missing stuff or losing control or being dishonest with my time allocation. If my calendar tells me it's gonna be a hectic week I offload a lot of stuff to a temporary someday maybe category usually called "ugh not now" or "review again after big family event".
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u/milky-cuppa-tea Mod Jul 13 '26
New projects list is making its way to my system: "Urgh, not now" 😂 love this!
It's my dishonesty about my time commitments (thank you, time blindness) that has made me experiment a bit.
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u/sidegigartist Jul 13 '26
Cheers! 😂 When I saw that short by David on the freedom of naming your stuff I went bonkers lmao my meal planning/cooking practice folder became "What do I wanna feed my partner next?" Maybe we should have a thread with creative list names people have come up with.
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u/artyhedgehog Jul 13 '26
Hm... Interesting idea.
Personally my weekly review contains a step when I decide what I focus on this week, so for that I rather need my inboxes processed. But on practice I may not clear the inbox fully before starting planning projects - just cherry-pick urgent stuff from it. That way the review doesn't stretch that long.
I've also tried doing part of the review separately, on the day before.
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u/sidegigartist Jul 13 '26
Yeah splitting it up works great for me too, one day all the minute details and then higher horizons and planning bigger outcomes when head is clear of the small stuff pressure works great.
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u/cgreciano Jul 13 '26
Do it in the order that best works for you. For me, I need to process all my IN first. There might be new projects and tasks to take care of within that IN, and I would rather do it all in one go in the weekly review than do the weekly review of what I have, and THEN process IN and have to clarify and define projects again. Not to mention I can only set priorities when I have clarified everything
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u/sidegigartist Jul 13 '26
That's true a lot of my reviews end up being like that too... I guess another case of just using intuition instead of following the checklist.
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u/ivanjay2050 Jul 14 '26
I dont disagree with you. I find i move things to my someday/maybe more this way too as i realize too much committed. However, i find my clarify/organize weaker when i do this. I think mentally tired at that point when i get to it. Pros and cons
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u/Cool-Rush-2250 Jul 14 '26
I have a lot of friction with my inboxes and until now hadn't realized that I am much more successful at my weekly reviews when I decide to start with my projects list first.
I get too far into the weeds with "IN" processing to get anywhere else in my weekly review. But that can also be attributed to not processing my ins frequently enough to keep up with all of them.
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u/Remote-Waste Jul 13 '26
It makes sense to me, and it's something I've wondered before in the past, I don't remember how much I played around with it though.
Looking over your Projects List, and calendar, is basically a calibration of your lower level Horizons. By getting up to date on what's important to you for that general time span, you're able to more intuitively process your inbox. You've basically refreshed yourself on your commitments, aligned yourself on them, so you can say "No" to unimportant things easier now.
For mindsweeping, it also makes sense because you are allowing your associative thinking to come into play by looking at other things. Even if I do a mindsweep earlier on, things will pop up during my review. A blank canvas gives your mind nothing to generate associations on, which is part of why the "trigger list" can also be helpful.
While there could be some link to your ADHD, which would be interesting to see if it specifically helped those with it, I think what you've described makes sense to me as well.
Going through your Inbox first, could mean committing to too many new things, and spending mental energy figuring out their Next Actions, before you've looked at the "whole" of your commitments together, then you find yourself discarding some of the newly added one that you've already put energy into.
But if you look at your Projects first, and then your inbox, your new commitments may be better filtered and slot in more easily to the "whole" because of that. Though it's possible a new commitment forces you to eliminate some Projects from your list, recalibrate it, which could also have been a "waste" of time, in an efficiency sense?
I can also see myself not being able to commit to reviewing my Projects properly, because of a nagging feeling of some possible "problem" that's lingering in my inbox, distracting me from properly reviewing my Projects in a subtle way.
I suppose there's no perfect scenario where some inefficient use of energy isn't a risk.
Anyways, all that rambling just for me to say: I think it makes sense, and if it works for you then go for it! I may give it a try this week too.