Finding the Next Action

One aspect of GTD that I love is the emphasis on identifying the next action. The idea of the next action takes you from the abstract to the concrete. My project is ‘refinance mortgage’, but my next action is ‘call current mortgage company’. Once that’s done I might have something like ‘make a list of mortgage companies to call’, the ‘call mortgage companies’. It may sound like more trouble than it’s worth, but the truth is that if I break down the overwhelming prospect of ‘refinance mortgage’ into do-able steps, I’m more likely to get it done. Baby steps, small bites.

Remember that anything with more than on step is a project. Until you break it down, it’s just an idea. Don’t overwhelm or get ahead of yourself. You can only do one step at a time anyway. Sometimes the projects we really want to do are the ones we procrastinate on the most. We hold this great thing out for ourselves for someday instead of taking an action (however small) today. Because maybe we’ll fail. Other times we are putting something off that we think is going to be awful and so it just lingers there, being awful forever until we do it. Do yourself a favor – get started or cross it off the list.

Once you start to think in terms of concrete next action steps, not only will you start to accomplish more than you thought possible, you’ll also be able to lead groups to do the same. Try it today.