[OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Marcelo de Moraes Serpa]

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Hey guys,

That might sound like a silly post, but I'd like to know if you use
anything other than TODO for your tasks. My personal information management
system has evolved from David Allen's GTD, so I tend to use a todo keyword
only in items that describe things I can actually do (usually very
specific).

When I started with org, I'd use NEXT as the todo keyword (as in "NEXT
action" or "what's next"). Then, I rolled back to the classic TODO (I don't
remember exactly why right now, though).

I'm inclined to say that the keyword could affect the way you look at the
items, somehow, at least subconsciously, in a way that one *might* be
better to use than another; I might be wrong, and it might not matter at
all.

What do you think; and what word do you use as your TODO keyword?

Cheers,

- Marcelo.

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Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Bastien]

Hi Marcelo,

Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:

> What do you think; and what word do you use as your TODO keyword?

I use 

NEXT(/) TODO(t) STRT(s) WAIT(w@) | DONE(d) DELEGATED(D@) CANCELED(c@)

The difference between NEXT and TODO is because I want to always keep
less than 10 NEXT items on a project, but I still want to distinguish
between TODOs and those entries without a TODO keyword.  If I had only
TODO, there would be often too many entries without a TODO keyword.

I use STRT mostly in combination with a Read/Write/Watch tag, to spot
things I started to Read/Write/Watch.

I check WAIT once in a while for pending tasks.

The rest is quite common I guess.

I tried to avoid keywords proliferation and I stabilized this setup 
over the years.  My main issue was about this NEXT/TODO distinction, 
but I found out it's more a matter of discipline than of semantics...

HTH,

-- 
 Bastien

Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[John Hendy]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 10:54 PM, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
> Hi Marcelo,
>
> Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> What do you think; and what word do you use as your TODO keyword?
>
> I use
>
> NEXT(/) TODO(t) STRT(s) WAIT(w@) | DONE(d) DELEGATED(D@) CANCELED(c@)

I use something similar, but don't have a start or delegated tag.
"Next" is key, in my opinion and I use it for the same reasons as
Bastien. I have lots of todos and it's nice to scan through them
during the course of a week and mark those "next" that I know need to
be done... next.

Makes it much easier to do this regularly and then work on the next
items vs. identifying something to do next and then having to re-scan
the massive todo list every time for a good thing to work on.

I use "wait" as well, though one issue I've had is forgetting about
them. Though, I put my wait after the "|", which perhaps doesn't make
sense. Seeing Bastien's list makes me want to think about rethinking
that. Or adjusting the "todo" date to reflect when I need to follow up
about why I'm waiting or with to whom I've delegated the task.


John


[...]

>
> HTH,
>
> --
>  Bastien
>

Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Samuel Wales]

On 8/19/12, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
> I tried to avoid keywords proliferation

Me too!  This is what I use:

(type "REF(e)" "NAKA(i)" "META(=)" "GOAL(G)" "QUESTION(Q)"
"NOTE(O)" "ASK(?)" "TELL(+)" "EXPECT(E!/!)" "SUGU(g)"
"WHENEVER(R)" "WHEN(W)" "AFTER(-)" "NEXTREPEAT(.!/!)"
"STARTED(r)" "NEXT(n)" "NEXTKA(j)" "PLAN(t)" "TODO(T)"
"STUCK(S)" "MAYBE(y)" "DOUBTFUL(l)" "NANI(A)" "WAIT(w!/!)"
"SOME(s)" "VERIFY DONEISH(v)" "FACT(f)" "BEKI(b)"
"NEOWHEN(N!/!)" "CONVERSATION(c)" "DONEKEEP(p)"
"MOOTKEEP(P)" "DONEKAKEEP(()" "MOOTKAKEEP())" "MOSTKEEP(;)"
"RESULTS(')" "CHUU(X!)" "ONGOING(X)" "ASSERT(X)" "|"
"MOSTKA(L)" "MOST(M)" "DONEKA(k)" "DONE(d)" "DUPLICATEKA(u)"
"DUPLICATE(D)" "MOOTKA(K)" "MOOT(m)" "WAKARANAI(a)")

:)

I will be adding a few more soon.  :)

Samuel

-- 
The Kafka Pandemic: http://thekafkapandemic.blogspot.com

Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Bastien]

Samuel Wales <samologist@gmail.com> writes:

> "STUCK(S)" "MAYBE(y)" "DOUBTFUL(l)" "NANI(A)" "WAIT(w!/!)"
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I like these two :)

-- 
 Bastien

Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Mike McLean]

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On Aug 19, 2012, at 10:59 PM, Marcelo de Moraes Serpa <celoserpa@gmail.com> wrote:

> What do you think; and what word do you use as your TODO keyword?

I use:

(sequence "BACKLOG(b!)" "TODO(t!)" "DOING(o!)"  "|" "DONE(d!)")

I treat my Task sequence as a form of a non-visual Kanban. I self-impose workflow limits on the number of items that are allow to be DOING (currently in process) and TODO (committed to doing). I use BACKLOG for items that I have captured but not necessarily committed to yet. I try to always select work from my DOING list. If that has space available in the workflow limit I review my TODO list and “pull” into DOING. If the TODO list has space available, I review BACKLOG and pull forward into doing. I have agenda view for each of these “Kanban Lanes”.

I have a grand thought of someday writing an agenda view or mode that looks like a Kanban board -- I've seen some of what can be done with respect to views in Emacs from the ~calfw~ package, so it is just a matter of time.

Other's have mentioned ideas like waiting on someone else, needs to be verified, etc. I keep those as a separate ~org-todo-keywords~ sequences so that I can use ~S-<left>~ nearly exclusively as my keystroke to “pull” an item forward in the value stream. So for completeness, my task sequence also includes:

(sequence "WAITING(W@)" "VERIFY(v@/!)" "|" "NOT_DONE(N@/!)")
(sequence "ERRANDS(E!)" "|" "DONE(d!)")
(sequence "RECURRENT(!)" "|" "DONE(!)")

I only have to use a direct task selection (not S-<left>) when moving a task out of the main flow into WAITING or VERIFY or moving a task back from WAITING or VERIFY into the main sequence. 

HTH

Mike


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Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Bastien]

Hi Mike,

Mike McLean <mike.mclean@pobox.com> writes:

> I have a grand thought of someday writing an agenda view or mode that
> looks like a Kanban board -- I've seen some of what can be done with
> respect to views in Emacs from the ~calfw~ package, so it is just a
> matter of time.

Just a thought: isn't this already possible with Agenda Blocks?  

You get the columns as rows, but you get the various categories
displayed at once.

-- 
 Bastien

Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Mike McLean]

On Aug 21, 2012, at 6:50 PM, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:

> Hi Mike,
> 
> Mike McLean <mike.mclean@pobox.com> writes:
> 
>> I have a grand thought of someday writing an agenda view or mode that
>> looks like a Kanban board -- I've seen some of what can be done with
>> respect to views in Emacs from the ~calfw~ package, so it is just a
>> matter of time.
> 
> Just a thought: isn't this already possible with Agenda Blocks?  
> 
> You get the columns as rows, but you get the various categories
> displayed at once.

That is what I am doing now as my “non-visual” version. It actually works pretty well. My thought is to create something like one of the online Kanban boards for more visual impact.

I didn't elaborate before since the question was about TODO states, but I have 4 Kanban-named views in my ~org-agenda-custom-commands~; one view each for BACKLOG, TODO, and DOING so that I can look at each stage individually and a fourth with all three of those blocks as you suggest to get them all at once.

With Org babel, and my org-mode configuration being a ~.org~ file, I also manage to achieve DRY. My three individual agenda blocks are defined once, and the complete view just references them with <<>> noweb syntax.

Did I mention how awesome Org mode is ? I should have :)

Mike

Re: [OT][GTD] GTDish next action "todo" keyword, could that influence your productivity in any way?

[Marcelo de Moraes Serpa]

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Hi Mike,
>
>
> With Org babel, and my org-mode configuration being a ~.org~ file, I also
> manage to achieve DRY. My three individual agenda blocks are defined once,
> and the complete view just references them with <<>> noweb syntax.


Could you elaborate a bit more on that? This looks pretty interesting (I
haven't put org-babel to use yet).

- Marcelo.

On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 8:17 PM, Mike McLean <mike.mclean@pobox.com> wrote:

>
> On Aug 21, 2012, at 6:50 PM, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
>
> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > Mike McLean <mike.mclean@pobox.com> writes:
> >
> >> I have a grand thought of someday writing an agenda view or mode that
> >> looks like a Kanban board -- I've seen some of what can be done with
> >> respect to views in Emacs from the ~calfw~ package, so it is just a
> >> matter of time.
> >
> > Just a thought: isn't this already possible with Agenda Blocks?
> >
> > You get the columns as rows, but you get the various categories
> > displayed at once.
>
> That is what I am doing now as my “non-visual” version. It actually works
> pretty well. My thought is to create something like one of the online
> Kanban boards for more visual impact.
>
> I didn't elaborate before since the question was about TODO states, but I
> have 4 Kanban-named views in my ~org-agenda-custom-commands~; one view each
> for BACKLOG, TODO, and DOING so that I can look at each stage individually
> and a fourth with all three of those blocks as you suggest to get them all
> at once.
>
> With Org babel, and my org-mode configuration being a ~.org~ file, I also
> manage to achieve DRY. My three individual agenda blocks are defined once,
> and the complete view just references them with <<>> noweb syntax.
>
> Did I mention how awesome Org mode is ? I should have :)
>
> Mike
>
>
>
>

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