If you’re not familiar, here’s the official definition:
“Our definition of “project” is any outcome you’re committed to complete that requires more than one action step. That can encompass quite a range of things, from “Replace tires on the car” to “Reorganize marketing division.””

The problem, here is that in my lines of work, “project” already has a precise meaning:
A project in business and science is a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

Now, if everyone I worked with agreed to change the definition of “project” to the GTD way, then everything would be fine.  The reality, though is that I have to work with most people who don’t “do” (or usually have even heard of GTD), thus making communication difficult – or at least, somewhat confusing at best.

That doesn’t mean we don’t need “something” to define a committed outcome, we do. I’m just using the word “task” for that outcome statement.

This seems to work.  I think have three major lists to work from:

- my projects. These are the things that involve other people, are managed by Microsoft Project or similiar, and use the accepted (varied) definitions.  When I talk to my staff about the “project for client X”, we all know exactly what we mean.

- then I have my tasks lists.  These are the committed outcomes, and usually – but not always, align to a higher level project. In many cases, a Project is Also a Task, but not all tasks are Projects.

- From there, I then have Actions .. the next action items to complete each task.

I’ve seen the Outlook GTD try to manage a similar issue … that of having “big projects” that require multipe “little projects” to complete managed by a “sub project” capability, which is sub-optimum in my view. By simply leaving the word “Project” as an externally defined entity, and managing at the runway level the Tasks and Actions.

The danger here … and one that I believe David may have been trying to avoid … is that systems other than GTD use the word “task” to mean something amorphous, and can itself be confusing when applied to GTD, and with GTD, the intent is to “break out of the mold” and not pigeoh-hole GTD with other time management systems.  The reality for me is that I spend far more time communicating with people about who “don’t do” GTD about projects than I do about sub-projects, tasks, or actions … so aligning the updated definition is much easier when it’s an “internal” shift than it is trying to explain my meaning to each new person I work with, or having to mentally translate between definitions.

So I work, day to day, from my actions list which are tagged to tasks, just as described.  Projects are reviewed at least weekly, usually as external commitments. And when talking with GTD’ers, I can mentally switch vocabulary and call my “tasks” projects, and we are all on the same page.

I’ve implemented this in pretty much every system that can implement tags.  My Contexts all start with an “@”, my Projects all start with an “+” sign, tasks with a “-” sign, and the actions are tagged to the task/project/context for which they relate. This works in Remember The Milk, GMail and Evernote, among others – as long as you keep your tagging relatively consistent,

Getting a list is as easy as clicking on a tag, my actions list is eveything not starting with a special character, and moving from one list to another

Another side effect of this technique is that an action can “appear” on multiple lists, just by adding the appropriate tag.

It seems to be possible to create a “mashup” application that will pull data from all of the above plus others, I’m still experimenting with that concept. I find that it’s easy to keep all the Actions in RTM, but reference needs links to GMail and Evernote … and sometimes Google Docs or Dropbox.  I’d also love to have a way to display appropriate task items from various PM tools such as RedMine.

Android is beginning to look like a promising platform for suh a mashup, while the iPhone’s lack of multi-tasking is seriously starting to cause frustration.

We went to Mammoth Cave, someplace I visited yearly in my youth.

While Lee and I had a great time, and there’s lots of little stories that will come out of this trip, the subject of this post is about finding my personal path … about silence.

During one part of the cave tour, the guide turns out the lights in the cave and everyone is silent.

And, during that five seconds, something happened.

I could see nothing, for the first time … in ever? (Even with your eyes closed, their is usually ambient enough light to see splotches through your eyelids.)

The silence itself was loud, people breathing, shuffling, hearts beating, and many sounds I could not immediately recognize … but it was still quieter than I can ever remember.

At the time, I remembered the experience, though it was cool, and thought little of it.

But that night, I had changed.

After getting home about 10:00pm with Lee, I sat in my Wife’s office and we discussed the day (and the tribulations of the last week, which had been seriously stressful).

We were talking about new opportunities, and up from … my center … just came a clarity of mind that is impossible to describe in words.

I knew I had been chasing a 20+ year old dream, that had not changed as I had changed.

And how that has effected my life in many ways, very few of them positive.

I realized my priorities in life had changed, but I had not recognized that change, so continue to act out of outdated paradigms.

In that five seconds of darkness and silence, I became more clear than I have been in a very long time.

What is next?

The insights received are still coming, and will continue to do so. The centeredness I feel now will ebb and flow, and I will begin to re-adjust my actions to my being.

It won’t be perfect.

And I will continue to look for that experience, to find the place, to re-center.

A question for you: where on earth can I go to meditate, to pray, to be alone, without light or sound?

Peace,

Nick

Over the past few months, I’ve been working with various people on searching for that elusive “life’s purpose”, and with that journey, change has certainly arrived. While I can’t claim to know exactly where I want to go as I move forward, I am much closer to the path than I have been at any other time in my adult life.

To continue the journey, the transformation, I need to let go of many things to make room for the new. So it’s time to let go of many things I’ve collected, especially those “digital goods” that take up mindshare, if not necessarily physical space. Over the next few months, I’ll be listing things I’m letting go of, hopefully to find a new home, before they are mothballed forever. To find out about the various auctions and sales, be sure to subscribe using the form on the right.

If you’ve been here before, you no doubt have noticed that the site is entirely different.

All the old posts and content, gone.

You may be wondering why.

You see, recently, I decided to “start over” on the Internet.

Over the past few years I’ve “dabbled” with marginal success in Internet Marketing. I’ve tried just about every technique there is out there – and created a few new ones, myself. I’ve promoted affiliate products, created ebooks, created software, auctioned stuff on ebay – if there’s an ethical way to make money on the Internet, I’ve probably tried it … and been relatively successful.

But there was something missing.

The key I’ve discovered is this: take what you already love doing and find ways to provide exponentially more value to exponentially more people – while creating ways to be compensated handsomely for the true value that you provide.

Do you share that vision?

If so, then I invite you to join my this Thursday night when I discuss exactly how you can do exactly that in six weeks or less.
Click here to sign up for the call:

http://www.easymembershipsites.com/tc/

Nick Temple
December 19, 2007

PS: The call will be recorded, so even if you can’t join us live, please do sign up and you will receive the final MP3 recording.