{"id":2952,"date":"2009-12-29T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T17:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/?p=2952"},"modified":"2014-02-03T14:32:49","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T22:32:49","slug":"what-is-or-isnt-a-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2009\/12\/what-is-or-isnt-a-project\/","title":{"rendered":"What is or isn't a project?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A computer programmer implementing GTD asked David Allen about projects:\"solve1\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m confused about (and I’m sure you are extremely bored with this question, but from the books I couldn’t work out the answer) – how do you size projects?\u00a0 I’m continually having problems working out what is or isn’t a project – and getting lost in the confusion.<\/p>\n

I’m a computer programmer.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to design systems and then build them.\u00a0\u00a0 A typical “task” of mine will last 6 months – and involve maybe 800 real hours of my own work.\u00a0\u00a0 There will be all sorts of things inside that that can be done simultaneously, things that I have to wait for and so on.\u00a0 Is the whole thing a project?\u00a0 Or do I break it into individual projects of do the first screen, do the second screen, do the back end?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I even have trouble with the concept of next actions – because more often than not nowadays everything is done for you – my task of “build a content management system” – actually becomes “find a content management system” – sitting on Google looking at products, downloading them, trying them etc.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This task could take me anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 days – and I don’t have any idea before hand how long it might take – most of what I do is investigative.\u00a0 For instance, “fix the credit card processing” –\u00a0 that’s my task – but at first I don’t know what’s wrong with it – I have to try things until I do find out – and it could easily take me the next 8 hours solid work just to identify a problem, or I might find it right away.<\/p>\n

GTD seems to work brilliantly if I have lots of tiny jobs to do and keep track of (such as in my personal life) – but in my professional life I can’t figure out at all how to integrate the concepts of projects being composed of many sub-projects and more importantly of tasks of which the duration is completely unknown and unpredictable.<\/p>\n

Any suggestions you could give me would be greatly appreciated.<\/p>\n

David’s reply:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good questions, and my answers are likely going to be simpler than you think.<\/p>\n

First, anything you can finish in a few months needs to be reviewed at least once a week – that’s why I call them “projects”, so they sit on that list and get looked at with rigor during the Weekly Review. If they’re as complicated with sub-projects as many of yours likely are, then you just need to drill down another level in the Weekly Review on each one, identifying the “moving parts” – i.e. the ones that are not dependent right now – and ensure that you have next actions on each one, as appropriate.<\/p>\n

“Next action” doesn’t mean short – it just means that you know exactly where the action happens and what it looks like. <\/strong>So it could be a 20-hour action – you’re just clear that it’s at your computer it moves forward instead of the hardware store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A computer programmer implementing GTD asked David Allen about projects: I’m confused about (and I’m sure you are extremely bored with this question, but from the books I couldn’t work out the answer) – how do you size projects?\u00a0 I’m continually having problems working out what is or isn’t a project – and getting lost … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What is or isn't a project?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[27,32],"tags":[745,69,46,94,100,109,118,123],"class_list":["post-2952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-allen","category-productivity-tips","tag-david-allen","tag-implementing-gtd","tag-implementation","tag-project-planning","tag-tips-and-tricks","tag-gtd-best-practices","tag-weekly-review","tag-projects","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is or isn't a project?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A computer programmer implementing GTD asked David about projects:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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