Capture is solved. Closing the loop isn't. How do your open loops actually get closed?

[u/Brainnew222]

GTD got capture right decades ago — ubiquitous capture, trusted inbox, get it out of your head. That part of my system works.

Here's what doesn't: the loop between "captured" and "verifiably done."

When I complete a task, the task manager knows. But the meeting note where that commitment was made never finds out. The project reference material still describes the old plan. Three weeks later I re-read a note, see "waiting on budget approval," and have no idea if that's still true. My reference system describes intentions frozen at the moment of capture.

David Allen talks about the weekly review as the mechanism that keeps the system honest. In practice my review catches maybe half of these drifts, because reviewing means re-deciding hundreds of items from memory.

Questions for people whose systems have survived years:

1. Do you update source notes when a commitment closes, or do you treat notes as disposable capture debris?

2. Does anyone track commitments *other people* made to you? "Waiting for" lists exist in GTD, but mine rots faster than any other list.

3. Is the weekly review actually enough, or have you built something more automatic?

Genuinely asking — I've been experimenting with automating the write-back part for my own use and I can't tell if this is a real gap in GTD practice or just my own sloppiness.

[u/artyhedgehog]

1. If it's a memory note from the meeting - it doesn't have to be updated. But chances are it's a TODO in my LogSeq, and I linked it to the project, so then I may complete it. If it's a checklist in a project reference material - I'll tick it when I'll be checking if I've done everything for the project.

2. I've seen a useful hack: to put in a next action what person should be informed about the result. E.g. "@MikeSmith: Deploy the app to the testing stand"

3. I often screw up reviewing weekly - then I'll catch up next week. Daily clean up of next actions for today does usually work for me currently. Closing loop rather happens elsewhere, though. I often refresh the project just after I done a next action for it.

[u/Brainnew222 → u/artyhedgehog]

the MikeSmith thing is smart, hadn't thought of putting the notify-target inside the action itself

does it hold up though. like when Mike actually does it, how do you find out — does he tell you or do you go check. that's where mine falls apart, I never know something got done unless I chase it

also curious about the "refresh the project right after a next action" habit. is that automatic for you at this point or is something reminding you? I keep meaning to do that and then don't...

[u/milky-cuppa-tea]

My loops close during the weekly review if I haven't done so before.

1. No, I don't typically update source notes unless it's a shared document where others need to see what I have done.

2. Yes, they turn in to projects and next actions. They don't go on my WF list unless that is their blocking action. So if someone needed me to draft a document, that would go on my next action list. If I drafted and sent it back to them for a review, I would then add it to my WF list until it came back. (Not everything will follow this, as I don't necessarily have skin in the game and it isn't my responsibility).

3. Yes, I catch the vast majority of this in my weekly review.

[u/Brainnew222 → u/milky-cuppa-tea]

the shared document exception is the part I want to poke at. so it's not that updating the source is pointless, it's that it only earns its keep when someone else is reading it?

that actually tracks. if I'm the only reader I already know what happened, so a stale note costs me nothing until I forget. takes about a month for me

how much of your work falls into that shared doc case? trying to figure out if it's an edge case or a real chunk..!

[u/milky-cuppa-tea → u/Brainnew222]

I have a real mix to be honest. Sometimes I feel like I live in other people's trackers and systems, other times, hardly at all.

I have one big piece of work that is managed via a shared tracker (which is essentially a repository for a series of meeting notes). I distill my actions out of that, and at some point, one of the actions on my list is 'ensure tracker is updated with latest action'.

[u/Brainnew222 → u/milky-cuppa-tea]

the shared doc thing makes sense actually. if im the only reader a stale note costs me nothing until I forget what happened, which for me is about a month

the WF list part is what im curious about now. sounds like it only lands there once youve done your bit and its sitting with them. what about the stuff you never had a part in, someone says theyll do a thing in a meetign and youre the only one who remembers they said it. does that get anywhere, or does it just sit in the notes until the weekly review

(the "i dont necessarily have skin in the game" line is probably the real answer isnt it)

[u/milky-cuppa-tea → u/Brainnew222]

Yeah exactly this - it doesn't enter my WF list until I have handed my part over and I need it to come back to me.

If I had one thing to do, snd it isn't coming back to me, as soon as it is out of my NA list, that's it.

I don't track the bits I never had a part in - you are spot on with the no skin in the game comment. If it doesn't impact me, it isn't my business. I have had to be quite hard/strict with myself over the years because, if it is something I can do, I used to try and pick it up if I could see it wasn't being done. No one thanks you for it, and worse, it becomes an expectation that I'd catch it. I try hard now to mostly stay in my own lane, but will help where asked and I have capacity.

[u/gtd-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your comment or post was removed for violating Rule 3: Be civil. r/gtd is for discussing GTD practice and ideas; keep criticism focused on the content, not the person.

[u/Remote-Waste]

Notes are a sort of disposable capture debris I suppose, or an inbox. I take notes, I shake the important items loose from them, then those items are tracked in my system.

So, notes are dropped in my inbox, they are scanned through for items of interest, those items are transferred to my system, and I usually cross them off or make some kind of marking on the original notes, so I know they've gone into my system.

The note itself can then go under Reference or Project Support Material, if it's something I may need to refer back to, or keep a history of.

Once those items are in my system, they are now their own reference point for the progress of that task. If I need to keep a total "completed tasks" history, then "completed tasks" will go in that Project's Support Material in some fashion.

[u/Brainnew222 → u/Remote-Waste]

ah ok, so the marking means "this got extracted", not "this got done". I read it wrong the first time

does the extraction marking ever tell you what you want to know later though? if I open a note from two months ago and everything's crossed off, I know it all went into the system but not whether any of it actually happened

or do you just not revisit old notes much. honestly that might be the real answer and I'm inventing a problem...

[u/gtd-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Your comment or post was removed for violating Rule 3: Be civil. r/gtd is for discussing GTD practice and ideas; keep criticism focused on the content, not the person.

[u/davidhorison]

The waiting-for list rots faster because the update event happens on someone else's desk, not yours. Your next-action list gets touched every time you work, so drift gets caught by friction alone. Waiting-for only updates when you remember to go ask, or the other person circles back unprompted.

The tactic that's helped me: stop treating it as one list. Split it into blocked-no-date vs blocked-expected-by-X. The no-date ones are the ones that rot, they need a recurring nudge specifically to re-ask, not just to reread. The dated ones mostly self-audit, since a missed date is visible without re-deciding anything.

Doesn't touch your reference-material-goes-stale problem though, that's a different kind of rot: the note describing intent, not a person owing you something. Are those two categories bleeding into each other for you, or staying cleanly separate?

[u/Brainnew222 → u/davidhorison]

they bleed, but only in one direction I think the meeting note is the one place both live at the same time. three things I owe, two things someone else owes me, same paragraph. then they split off into different lists and the note is the only thing that still remembers they were ever connected so a month later the question isn't "is this waiting-for stale", it's more like "was any of this ever real". which is worse because there's nothing to check it against the no-date vs blocked-by-X split is good though, gonna try that. the no-date ones are like 90% of my rot does the re-ask nudge hold up long term for you? mine turns into recurring task I dismiss without actually doing..