{"id":5241,"date":"2011-08-19T15:52:18","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T22:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/2011\/08\/19\/"},"modified":"2011-08-19T15:52:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T22:52:18","slug":"how-much-time-should-be-spent-defining-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2011\/08\/how-much-time-should-be-spent-defining-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How much time should be spent defining work?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2011\/08\/WorkflowMapImage.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5243\" title=\"GTD Workflow Map\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2011\/08\/WorkflowMapImage-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"210\" \/><\/a><\/em><strong>Question: <\/strong>In your book, you talk about the 3 kinds of work:<\/p>\n<p>1\/ Pre-determined work<br \/>\n2\/ Doing work as it shows up<br \/>\n3\/ Defining your work<\/p>\n<p>What percentage of a person&#8217;s time should be dedicated to defining work?<\/p>\n<p><strong>David Allen:<\/strong> No rules here.\u00a0 &#8220;Defining work&#8221; usually takes about 30 seconds per input (email, notes, paper, thoughts, etc.), which means 30 to 90 minutes a day for most professionals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>If you want a great guide to help you define your work, grab the <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.davidco.com\/store\/catalog\/GTD-PROCESSING-AND-ORGANIZING-DIAGRAM-ILLUSTRATED-COLOR-VERSIO-p-16193.php\">free GTD Workflow Map<\/a> illustrating the steps for processing &amp; organizing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: In your book, you talk about the 3 kinds of work: 1\/ Pre-determined work 2\/ Doing work as it shows up 3\/ Defining your work What percentage of a person&#8217;s time should be dedicated to defining work? David Allen: No rules here.\u00a0 &#8220;Defining work&#8221; usually takes about 30 seconds per input (email, notes, paper, &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2011\/08\/how-much-time-should-be-spent-defining-work\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;How much time should be spent defining work?&#8221;<\/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":[64,564,565,569],"class_list":["post-5241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-allen","category-productivity-tips","tag-three-fold-nature-of-work","tag-inbox-zero","tag-processing","tag-processing-email","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>How much time should be spent defining work?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Allen answers, &quot;What percentage of a person&#039;s 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