{"id":21883,"date":"2023-01-26T14:10:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T22:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?p=21883"},"modified":"2024-02-26T21:58:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T05:58:21","slug":"choosing-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing what to do"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Engage\"<\/a>The five steps of GTD workflow are Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, and Engage. When it’s time to Engage, people often ask how to choose from what may be long lists of tasks to do. That’s when it’s helpful to use the criteria for choosing:<\/p>\n

Context<\/strong> \u2013 What place, tool, or person will the action require? This is the first limitation for choosing\u2013it has to be. If you\u2019re not in the right place, don\u2019t have the right tool, or access to the required person, you can\u2019t take the action.<\/p>\n

Time available<\/strong> \u2013 How much time do you have to take the action? If you have 20 minutes, only consider actions that you think will take less than 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/strong> \u2013 What is your energy like to take the action? Have you been in back-to-back meetings all day and you’re tired? Or are you just finishing your morning coffee and feeling alert and enthusiastic? You\u2019re probably already considering this more than you realize when you choose what to do.<\/p>\n

Priorities<\/strong> \u2013 What\u2019s the most important one to choose based on your roles, goals, long-term strategy, and purpose?<\/p>\n

How do you know what your priorities are? This is where GTD’s Horizons of Focus\u00ae<\/sup> model comes in. GTD defines \u201cwork\u201d from six different horizons, corresponding to different altitudes of perspective.<\/p>\n

HORIZON 5: Purpose and Principles<\/p>\n

HORIZON 4: Vision<\/p>\n

HORIZON 3: Goals and Objectives<\/p>\n

HORIZON 2: Areas of Focus and Accountability<\/span><\/p>\n

HORIZON 1: Projects<\/span><\/p>\n

GROUND: Calendar\/Actions<\/span><\/p>\n

Your priorities are determined from the top down\u2014i.e. your purpose and values will drive your vision of the purpose being fulfilled, which will create goals and objectives, which will frame areas of focus and accountability. All of those will generate projects which will require actions to get them done. Every level of that is valuable, but the Areas of Focus level in particular can be helpful for setting priorities.\u00a0 Know what your job really is and saying \u201cno\u201d will come a little<\/em> easier.<\/p>\n

Finally, look at how you\u2019re spending your time when you Engage.\u00a0 This is where the Three-fold Nature of Work model comes in. It\u2019s a useful way to look at how you spend your time:
\nDoing pre-defined work<\/strong> \u2013 Choosing from work you already clarified and put on your calendar & Next Actions lists<\/p>\n

Doing work as it appears<\/strong> \u2013 New things that show up that you choose to work on<\/p>\n

Defining work <\/strong>– Processing new inputs (swing back to Capture, Clarify, and Organize)<\/p>\n

Of those three, where do you spend more time than you think you should? And which one doesn\u2019t get enough of your time?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The five steps of GTD workflow are Capture, Clarify, Organize, Reflect, and Engage. When it’s time to Engage, people often ask how to choose from what may be long lists of tasks to do. That’s when it’s helpful to use the criteria for choosing: Context \u2013 What place, tool, or person will the action require? … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Choosing what to do”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18633,"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":[1,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-productivity-tips","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nChoosing what to do - Getting Things Done\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it's time to choose what to do from what may be long lists of tasks, it's helpful to use the GTD criteria for choosing.\" \/>\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\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Choosing what to do\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it's time to choose what to do from what may be long lists of tasks, it's helpful to use the GTD criteria for choosing.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-01-26T22:10:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-27T05:58:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DA_Sitting_wBig_Smile_Outside_LoRes_72DPI.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"758\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Forrister\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Forrister\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John Forrister\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/70ae12caed20f00c81b3d14c55267c2d\"},\"headline\":\"Choosing what to do\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-01-26T22:10:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-27T05:58:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/\"},\"wordCount\":439,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DA_Sitting_wBig_Smile_Outside_LoRes_72DPI.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2023\/01\/choosing-what-to-do\/\",\"name\":\"Choosing what to do - 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