How to integrate already managed professional tasks into my GTD flow?

1

I am the owner of a small software development company, and I'm trying to apply GTD to my life.

My company is involved in several projects that are currently being managed with Asana (bugs, features, etc). This makes it easy for the team to know what is going on and what needs to be done, apart from all the obvious benefits of using project management tools.

Considering GTD as a system that should "manage" all my life's tasks (including my professional life), it seems to me that tracking the bugs I should fix (I code as well), and managing other developers tasks (in my "waiting for" list), is the "right way" to do things. On the other hand, it seems stupid to have repeated/overlapped information in my GTD system and Asana (where myself and my team already know what has to be done).

I am seeing the following options:

  1. Not adding work specific tasks to my personal GTD system (which breaks the GTD "rule" that there is no difference between home and work);
  2. Accepting that I'll have a bunch of repeated tasks in separated systems and find an optimal way to deal with that;
  3. Using Asana as my GTD system and trying to merge things somehow (although I dislike Asana as a GTD tool).

Are there other available options? What is the best way to deal with this "issue"?

PS: I have checked this, this and this, but I don't think these questions/answers really apply.

Michael Siegwarth

Posted 2017-04-05T19:57:57.667

Reputation: 106

Answers

1

Repeating tasks (option 2) is always silly because it is inefficient.

I see no reason to merge things (option 3).

Option 1, in an extended form is what you want. While in essence from a task or project management point of view home and work are the same thing, it is entirely reasonable and practical to separate the two. You manage them in the same way, but you have two completely separate processes. So option 1 is entirely reasonable.

When you have information floating around in your head that you want to write down, yes you now have two places to go, but it is very clear which one you should write it down in.

When you're at work you will only look at Asana and not your home system. But if you have a thought that relates to home, put that down in your home inbox.

Your emails obviously should be separate too. Everything about work is separate for this to work, because that makes tasks and information very clear at all times as to which place they should go into. If there's a blur between home and work then the system might fail because you'll end up with a situation where you don't know where a task or piece of information is - home or work. That's why this way needs a clear separation.

As to using asana for gtd - you can use tags for next actions and/or other things, or you can use the 'my tasks' area as the inbox, next (today), later, follow up. I use an entire project for my inbox, and add random tasks into it, before moving them to right place when I do that. On my mobile phone I have that project as a widget so I can add tasks very quickly.

Nathan Keen

Posted 2017-04-05T19:57:57.667

Reputation: 11