Back to Basics: Projects
One of the things that is so hard to grasp about “next actions” or “tasks” is that they are single actions – buy something, call someone, go somewhere, look something up. In and of themselves, they have no end goal other than their own immediate completion.
People don’t think like that way, for the most part, and it is the challenge of productivity experts like David Allen or Stephen Covey to lead their students to do so. The first thing a newly-arrived student of productivity wants to put on his or her list is “write novel” or “write grant proposal” or “acquire Acme Co.” or “sue Google” or “save marriage” – big, huge undertakings that can’t just be “done”. You need a plan, you need resources that you probably don’t have immediate access to, you need coordination with other people, and you need time.
These big undertakings are projects — “bundles” of actions devoted towards the achievement of some goal. In the lingo of GTD, a project is anything that takes more than one action to accomplish. I’m not a big fan of that definition, because it gives no sense of where to divide the stream of motion and time into discrete “actions”. At a small enough scale, everything requires more than one action to accomplish – to brush my teeth, I have to wet my toothbrush, apply toothpaste to the brush, open my mouth, brush my the back of my furthest-back molar, then brush the back of the one in front of it, and on and on through the bicuspids and incisors and the tops and fronts and gums and…
But brushing my teeth is not a project. Nor is sharpening a pencil, or driving to work, or calling the power company with a question about my bill. Common sense tells me that.
What, then, is the defining feature of a project? For me, a project is not about the number of actions but about the outcome of those actions. A project is a set of actions that are intended to bring about a transformation in my life. Brushing my teeth is a change (dirty to clean) but it’s not a life transformation.
Writing a book is a life transformation – you become an author. Saving your marriage is a life transformation. Building a company is a life transformation.
But the transformation doesn’t have to be that drastic. A project can be part of the bigger transformation of your life – writing that grant proposal so you can launch that social program so that you can build up your organization’s community profile so that you can build up your own career – those are all little transformations directed at the big transformation of becoming a philanthropist (or maybe becoming the President of your company).
Even those little transformations change us, though – they move us in meaningful ways towards life goals, and nobody except the shallowest of people reach life goals without changing along the way.
Heavy stuff for a project, yes? But I think that this internal view is important, because from it flows the motivation to continue plugging away at something over days, weeks, months, or years. Looked at this way, projects become less a way to organize our tasks — which the productivity gurus frown on, anyway — and more a way of structuring our lives.
On a practical note
Of course, projects are a way to organize our files as well. Unlike a todo list or contextual task lists, which are meant to be referred to constantly, project files only need to be referred to when you’re actively working on that project. Your task list cuts across your projects, telling you what to do and when, while project files tell you what you need to know to work on your project.
Because of this, project files can “live” safely out of the way most of the time, being taken out only as needed. Active projects should be within reach, but not in your main working area. A desktop file box or desk filing drawer is ideal for active projects, unless your projects consist of things like “Invade Syria” or “Build skyscraper complex” — in which case, you’re going to need at least a file cabinet just for active files.
Into your active file goes everything meaningful associated with that project. Evaluate everything before filing it — is the information on it something you’re likely to need to complete the project. If not, leave it out of your project file.
One thing you probably are going to want to make sure goes into your project file is a plan. You can buy planning paper at your local office supply store, download templates from DIY Planner, or make your own — the important thing is that you have a few essential pieces of information:
- Objective: What do you hope to gain by completing this project?
- Requirements: What resources do you need — materials, but also personal contacts and skills you might need to develop — in order to complete the project?
- Milestones: What “chunks” of the project do you have to do, and by when do you want or need to do them?
- Actions: What are the actual tasks you need to do in order to finish the project?
Including a list of actions or tasks in your project plan is, I should say, very un-GTD — the whole point of which is to focus your attention on the very next thing you have to do to move the project forward. If you’ve developed that “mind like water” flow state, more power to you; I, and most other people, like a little more to go on than that.
When a project is finished, the folder moves from your readily available active files to long-term storage — a filing cabinet or file storage boxes. Not everything in the file needs to be kept, though — make sure you weed out everything but the essentials. In many cases, you won’t have anything in your file worth keeping, and that’s fine — empty the folder, slap on a new label, and use it for your next project.
Projects are important because they are the basic building blocks of a meaningful life. Actions can advance our projects, but they can also move us away from our goals. Having a set of well-defined projects, then, can help make sure our actions and goals stay in line.
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Dustin Wax
Dustin M. Wax is a freelance writer and project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.
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Comments
Emmett says on August 15th, 2008 at 11:00 am
I have an issue with the “transformative” label. I don’t consider writing my tenth webapp as transforming me, it’s just another accomplishment. I don’t view finishing the remodel of my living room as transformative as I’ve remodeled every other room of my house. But they can’t be relegated to “tasks”
Wouldn’t a simpler definition be “Any task that cannot be accomplished in a single day.”? I say this because that is how people often look at the difficulty of tasks they’ve chosen. At least thats how I break up huge projects, I think “What can I get done today or tommorow?”
Bert says on August 15th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Hey,
Thanks a lot for the back-to-basic articles! These are going to be bookmarked…
Speaking of which: is it possible to tag this article back-to-basics? That makes it easier to find. Some of the articles in this series do have this tag, others not.
Keep up the good work! I’m looking forward to the next post,
bert
VegeBrain says on August 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Here’s a few of my reactions to this post.
First, as far as I can tell the distinction you draw between tasks and projects is simply one of size. Little transformations like sharpening a pencil are actions; big transformations like writing novels are projects. I agree with you that Dave Allen’s distinction isn’t quite helpful (one action is a task; more than one action is a project), but I don’t find your distinction quite convincing either.
I get the feeling the distinction should be some kind of quality instead of size. It’s pretty obvious that a project contains other things than an action, such as goals and requirements, but currently I’m at a loss for exactly what the complete distinction is or should be.
In any case, I appreciate your pointing out that projects contain tasks; somehow I didn’t get that from reading GTD; in fact I’ve kind of fallen into putting actions into my projects. However, I think it’s important that some actions need to be pulled out of projects and added to the action lists.
A good example would be a project of overhauling an engine and you find you need a tool of some type. Adding the buy tool action to the project doesn’t help because you want to know to buy the tool when you’re at the tool shop, not at home working on the engine. What I do is add the action to the project and then copy the action into my next actions list, in the section for what to buy while at the tool shop.
eoh_nl says on August 15th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
The purpose of breaking down projects into single actions (tasks) is that you can fit those tasks in “the big picture”. I usually have different projects at hand and different tasks. All tasks are in the task list. So i can see which have to be done at a certain time or place, without getting lost in a single project. Contexts makes it easy to bundle project tasks and single tasks, like things to be done at a certain place.
And i never clean out a project folder!! My prime asset is information. That little note in the folder that looks unimportant now might be invaluable someday.
Michael@ Awareness * Connection says on August 16th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I like your question on the definition of project. I always wondered about the fact that it depends how fine-grained your distinctions are as to what becomes a project. I’m enjoying the series. Nicely done.
מוטי ויסברוט says on August 17th, 2008 at 3:27 am
מוטי ויסברוט
I like tge question on the project , very good thinking .
מוטי ויסברוט
DanGTD says on August 18th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Great article.
There are many types of projects. What is normally known as a project is a collection of tasks/next actions. But we shouldn’t forget the bigger picture projects, that contain the first-level projects. I’m refering to 10,000ft-40,000ft types of projects, or Goals how others name them.
Mighty says on August 18th, 2008 at 6:44 am
“project files only need to be referred to when you’re actively working on that project.”
I like this! Too often I get distracted by the little things related to a project. I worry. I flit from task to task; check one file after another and before long, I get lost in the process… Thanks for this article. It’s a great reminder on completing projects. :)
Amdrea says on August 18th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I just wanted to tell you that I love your work. I have no substantive comments today, but I wanted you to know that I’ve enjoyed these Back to Basics articles very much. Thank you.
MiGrant says on August 19th, 2008 at 10:08 am
I agree with Emmett that a project doesn’t need to be “transformational”, but I also see your point about the granularity of “actions”. Behind David Allen’s explicit definition of a project as a goal that requires more than one physical action, there’s implicit in GTD a definition of an action as something that can be accomplished without having to think about it too much. David often talks about “cranking widgets” — the idea is that (as long as time, energy, and context constraints permit) I should be able to take an action from my list and get going on it right away without first having to think through just how I’ll approach it. The thinking should already have been done during the weekly review or project planning. Brushing your teeth requires more than one “physical action”, but to the extent that you have to think about it at all, it’s all one task.
FrugalNYC says on August 21st, 2008 at 8:59 am
I believe the definition of a project is a personal one. It does have a time element that is longer than a task and it should require more than one “task”. Once you decide what is a project, stick to it. The most important piece is putting it into action. David Allen’s definition is a bit spartan for my taste, but he does say that’s up to you to decide. Thanks for your view on this Dustin.
eoh_nl says on August 24th, 2008 at 11:32 am
B2B: Program management
In the corporate world there is something “above” projectmanagement: program-management. Usually program management is a tool for change management on a big scale, like reorganisation. Under this there are many projects. On a personal level this can be used for certain goals. While underneath this, many projects can be run. The program could be: “improve your life”. Project evolving from hat may be “improve my relations with my family”, “get more dates”, “be more creative”. Program management is more output-oriented. Which projects do i have to create, and which projects dont contribute to the “big picture”.