{"id":20149,"date":"2020-06-30T13:15:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:15:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?p=20149"},"modified":"2020-06-30T13:19:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T20:19:38","slug":"the-gtd-approach-to-linking-next-actions-and-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2020\/06\/the-gtd-approach-to-linking-next-actions-and-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"The GTD Approach to Linking Next Actions and Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common questions about implementing GTD is how to link projects and next actions. The recommendation in <em>Getting Things Done<\/em> is that you park your next actions on context-based lists \u2014 not as separate lists under each of your projects. Why does David Allen recommend that and what will you gain?<\/p>\n<h2>Sorting Next Actions by Context<\/h2>\n<p>Sorting next actions by context, not by project, can initially seem awkward. Some people are used to having multiple files, piles, notepads, documents, and spreadsheets related to a project, with next actions for the project buried amongst all of that information. Next Actions lists don\u2019t replace project plans\u2014we would just call that data \u201cproject support.\u201d In our experience, it rarely works to have current next actions stored with project support for day-to-day action management.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-17114 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/tags.png\" alt=\"contexts\" width=\"414\" height=\"34\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/tags.png 414w, https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/tags-300x25.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px\" \/><br \/>\nYour list management software may have a way to link projects and next actions and display them so you can see the action(s) associated with each project. If not, you can use a keyword in the project name and the next actions to achieve that. And the best way to put your mind at ease about projects and their next actions is to consistently do a GTD Weekly Review<sup>&reg;<\/sup>. <\/p>\n<h2>The Challenge<\/h2>\n<p>Think of the last time you had 20 minutes free and decided to work on a key project. How easy was it to dig through your project support to find the immediate next actions based on the tools, people, and places available to you at the moment? You probably chose to avoid it and do something else, especially if you knew there was still thinking to do on next actions in the project materials.<\/p>\n<h2>The Benefit<\/h2>\n<p>When your next actions are already defined and sorted by context, you can move more quickly, more easily, and more in sync with how you are naturally choosing what to do first\u2014by context. That way project support is the parking lot for future actions that are dependent on something else happening first.<\/p>\n<p>For more support on managing projects, check out the <a href=\"https:\/\/gtdconnect.com\/multimedia\/video.php?titleid=812&amp;trackid=1438\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anatomy of Projects webinar<\/a> on GTD Connect.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most common questions about implementing GTD is how to link projects and next actions. The recommendation in Getting Things Done is that you park your next actions on context-based lists \u2014 not as separate lists under each of your projects. Why does David Allen recommend that and what will you gain? Sorting &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2020\/06\/the-gtd-approach-to-linking-next-actions-and-projects\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The GTD Approach to Linking Next Actions and Projects&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The GTD Approach to Linking Next Actions and Projects - Getting Things Done\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2020\/06\/the-gtd-approach-to-linking-next-actions-and-projects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The GTD Approach to Linking Next Actions and Projects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most common questions about implementing GTD is how to link projects and next actions. The recommendation in Getting Things Done is that you park your next actions on context-based lists \u2014 not as separate lists under each of your projects. Why does David Allen recommend that and what will you gain? 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