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Why ‘Next Actions’ Make Big Projects Easy to Tackle

One of the key ideas of Getting Things Done, is the ‘next action’. Like much of GTD it’s a simple idea that makes a big difference.

Next actions are the steps you take to complete a project. For example, your project may be ‘sell my old CD collection. That’s a typical to-do list item, but it’s not something that you can do in one go — so it lingers on your list. Forever.

To decide what the next action is, you need to think of the next physical step required to move the project forward. For selling your CDs, you need to decide how you are going to sell those CDs. On the Internet or at a store? Your next action is ‘find the phone number of local music shops’. After you complete that, your next action is to call music shops to see how much they pay for old CDs. Then you may want to ‘research eBay and Amazon auctions online’ to see if they are better options.

Next actions improve upon the idea of breaking down a project into small steps for two reasons. First, you’re only need to think of one next action at a time. This way you don’t get overwhelmed by trying plan every step from start to finish. Second, by thinking of the next physical step, you force yourself to clarify exactly what needs to be done — and don’t end up with a nebulous, undoable to-do list.

So take a look at one of your big projects, define the next action and get started.

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Header photograph by visualpanic

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