i have translated this post into chinese, too. here is the url: http://mifengtd.blogspot.com/2007/06/gtd.html

thx.

I think it’s great that you’re using the MITs in your daily planning. That in itself has been a godsend for me. But you can incorporate this concept of Next Action in your planning as well. Here are some thoughts:

* First, your habit of starting with the end in mind is right on. I didn’t address that in this post, but it’s important to have a clear and defined outcome in mind. Otherwise, it’s hard to know what’s next.
* As for planning each step backwards, that may be necessary for some projects, and for simpler projects, you don’t really need that kind of detail. Just start with what’s next, and move forward from there. For those projects that you plan out in detail, with a list of tasks, that’s great … but put that in a separate projects list or page … for your to-do list, just include the next action for that project. When you’ve completed it, cross off the next action, refer to your projects list, and add the new next action to your to-do list. This way, you only have the items you can actually do on your to-do list, and you keep the project moving forward.
* If you’re already doing the MITs, keep doing that … but the next action concept is for things you do in addition to the MITs … or to help you create a do-able list of things you can chose from for your MITs each day.

Remember, as always, that you don’t need to make all these changes at once. If your system is working great, don’t worry about this concept. But if it sounds like this might take you to another level, give it a try, and see if you can make it a habit.

Keep up the great work, Ann, and thanks for the excellent comment!

However, I’ve semi-remedied this by using your Most Important Task concept….I have a little notebook that I keep my general to-do’s in, and then in back are projects and their to-dos. each night or morning (usually night) I go through the entire thing quick and pick out about 3-4 Most Important Tasks. I say 3-4 and not just 2-3 because some of my tasks might be strictly at-work-oriented, and others will be personal stuff, and others may fall in between, i.e. work I might do at home (I’m a student/Grad Assistant so it’s often easier to work at home than at a busy office where I have no way of limiting interruptions).

Either way, the Most Important Tasks helps me to concentrate on what really needs to get done each day. I havent totally mastered this system, but it seems pretty good so far.

(Wow, that was quite the rambling post–sorry about that).