How do you deal with "on hold" projects?
Hi everyone,
I am searching for a way to deal with stalled projects or projects that I have decided I don't want to be involve in for the next days or weeks. I am curious about what strategies and techniques you are using to deal with this.
One way I can use is create a task "Later/Maybe next week" with an importance set to none and move my projects under that task when needed.
Another way is to move the importance slider of "on hold" projects to none.
Are these approaches in line with the Life Balance philosophy?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Martin
(1 vote)
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Sure... capture ideas, filter, and work steadily
Life Balance is a good idea capture tool, and that's great, but the flip side of that is that there is still only so much energy to go around, and some projects may have to wait their turn.
I find that there is a combination of techniques that I use -- like using "complete subtasks in order" and occasionally setting some project importances to none, (for now) or shifting into a specific outline section to mull over until the idea is ripe -- You do want to keep the list focused on the ideas that really count and that you are motivated and ready to do now.
The only caveat is to make sure that if there is a "heart's desire" type of project, that you don't put that all the way on the back burner. There are projects that are meaningful and IMPORTANT, that we sometimes don't give ourselves permission to pursue. You want those projects to be represented in your list, so that they are at the forefront of your attention, urging you to make little steps towards those goals all the time.
Usually, you can tell the difference between the "this idea is not ripe" projects and the "When I do this, it will be SOOO COOL" type of projects. The difference is often to be found in the emotional content of the goal. Accepting the "heart's desires" projects is often something that takes a little bit of courage, and a lot of patience, so the extra visibility in Life Balance can REALLY make a huge difference in those projects.
Another thing to consider is that you may just run into a temporary obstacle or need to wait for another person or resources to be available before you can continue with a project. Sometimes that is a signal to create a little subproject to figure out how to remove that obstacle! I have to do that a lot! Ha! :-)
Great question! I hope that is helpful and provides not just techniques, but also some food for thought as you work with your own projects.
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Great response... and a suggestion
Great response Catherine!
I would like to make a suggestion to add a visual clue on tasks with importance sets to none. An icon and grey text plus an icon (for people having problems with colored text) could be examples of visual feedbacks.
Thank you very much for you insight.
Martin
Places (=GTD Contexts) as timeframes not just locations
Hi Martin,
"Later/Maybe next week" strikes me as fundamentally similar to "Someday/Maybe" and "Waiting For". In LB I use Places to represent both of these states (of a project or task). Seems to me it could work well for you too; it's easy enough to switch the Place back to it's "real" Place like Errands or Home once you decide to actively re-engage with the project.
-Earl
hidden projects
Earl,
Your suggestion is good. However, there is a point I am still missing. When you change the place of a project, its tasks are still visible in my list. I think you I need to set the importance to none also to completely hide the project.
Am I missing something?
Martin
Places (=GTD Contexts) as timeframes not just locations
Hi Martin,
If you want the tasks of a "Later/Maybe next week" project to not be visible in your To Do List, and you like my idea of using a temporary Place called "Later/Maybe next week" for the project, just set the hours of that Place such that it's always "closed", and then uncheck the "include closed places" checkbox above your To Do List. I just ran a test in LB and confirmed that this approach is somewhat more cumbersome than I originally thought, because every task in the project (not just the project itself) has to have its Place set temporarily to "Later/Maybe next week" in order to not appear in the To Do List. But that may not be such a problem if your "Later/Maybe next week" projects are rarely pre-planned in detail.
Regards,
Earl
P.S.: somewhat annoyingly given my very long-time LB use and support, I'm still considered a LB rookie on these forums, requiring adult supervision by a forum moderator before my posts appear. Apparently this can be fixed if enough people give nice votes to my postings. If you and other LB forum folks would do that (see "Overall rating" below and click the little stars), I'd appreciate it. :)
Yes folks, please make use of the stars...
Yes folks, please make use of the stars for posts that are useful and interesting, and reward yourselves for good behavior in our Life Balance community!
Sadly, Stuart and I do have to protect our site from... copious quantities of canned meat products. Hence the moderation.
We do not need to protect the site from Earl. :-)
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*