I would say yes. I mean maybe you're not alone, but a next action is a next action. By definition there cannot be two next actions. Only one can be done. As you state, all the peripheral mental attributes you are assigning to your problem you are creating and I do not see any software except I guess for a excel spreadsheet with one task per cell and you just move to the top whatever you feel like working on when you feel like working.
A next action means you are at the point that you need to DO something. The fact that you are making a conscious choice to not do it no software can control. Based on your description me personally I would just have every single task coded as "hide the branch in the to-do" and just un-tick that box on whatever I was actually going to do at that moment or just have every task for a project live and chose or use a gantt chart but i do not feel there is ever multiple next actions. There might be multiple actions that can be done that really do not affect the timing of that actual stage of the project your in, but you can only do one at a time so chose and do it and move to the next. On Thu, Mar 1, 2018 at 8:21 AM, John . Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello > > PROBLEM > I have been finding a psychological problem with using just one "Next > Action" for each project. > > Part of the problem is that as a core principle, it seems that the more > times I look at something and fail to execute it, the harder that task > gets. i.e. The more I put something off, the higher its psychological > 'resistance' becomes. > > So what I find is that if I fail to execute that any given next action > within a few days, it suddenly becomes much harder - stupidly hard to > execute. And if I only have ONE next action for each project, then the *whole > project* becomes blocked because of individual "stupidly high resistance" > next actions. > > In fact, over time, it's all too easy to end up with lots of important > projects being blocked in this way. > > The honest truth is that personally I find it all too easy for important > stuff to get put off for no good reason. And I find that it gets put off > for the bad reasons that > - it's not urgent (yet), > - nobody is chasing me for it (yet) and > - part of me doesn't want to do it yet because it's hard. > But what is worse is that having looked at it a few times and failed to do > it, I now start to have the habit of failing to execute that task. > > [ASIDE: It turns out I am not alone in this procrastination. Did you ever > see Tim Urban's TED talk on this? > https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_ > master_procrastinator ] > > > POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS > One solution is of course to have *more than one* Next Action per > Project. The problem is that although MLO has a "Next Action per Project" > view, there is absolutely no way (that I am aware of) to get individual > tasks that are not technically the next action within their MLO Project to > appear on any "Next Actions per project" view in MLO. > > The result that I don't normally use this Next Actions view, at all. > > Instead, I flag up tasks for today manually (using Stars). The down-side > of course of this method is that once I've ticked those tasks off as > completed, there is no next task automatically on my list, so the project > can stall again for that reason. > > Also, if I make too many next actions for each project visible on any > given day, then either > A) I can become overwhelmed by too much stuff on my screen at once OR > B) if I fail to complete them all within 2 or 3 few days, > their psychological 'resistance' can soon start to build... and I now start > to become numbed to seeing some of those tasks... and they fail to call me > to action. > C) Or both! > > Yes, I have experimented with "Complete Subtasks In Order" but in > practice, I wind up getting confused with tasks being hidden from me > accidentally and I wind up living in "All Tasks" views, that are of course > cluttered up with stuff I have deliberately wanted hidden from view for > now. > > Yes I have experimented with creating multiple sub-projects within a > Project, but I find that fiddly & very artificial. I find it easy to get > confused about what really is a Project and what is just a way to get tasks > to appear on my Next Actions view! > > Am I alone in wanting some simple way to flag up individual tasks to > appear in the Next Actions view? > > J > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. > To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/ > msgid/mylifeorganized/1285611e-2973-4a55-9625-1b753db29948%40googlegroups. > com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/1285611e-2973-4a55-9625-1b753db29948%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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