Discussion Forum > Work Breakdown Structures
Welcome Conor!
Systems like Autofocus don’t rely on anything like a Work Breakdown, though if you choose to break down the details of a project, you could just put the individual elements into your List. Or, you can put the Project name in your list, and keep a work breakdown somewhere else. Or, in most cases, I don’t find an exhaustive breakdown even useful. Do as David Allen suggests and figure out the Next Action and put that in.
There are abundant variations of these themes, but none of them around here require maintaining a complex and complete work breakdown. Do what’s useful to getting you moving forward.
In your essay example, I would note that you can’t Edit Essay until well after you’ve started writing it, but you might find outlining and drafting introduction to be useful tasks, and Editing can be added in when you are ready.
Systems like Autofocus don’t rely on anything like a Work Breakdown, though if you choose to break down the details of a project, you could just put the individual elements into your List. Or, you can put the Project name in your list, and keep a work breakdown somewhere else. Or, in most cases, I don’t find an exhaustive breakdown even useful. Do as David Allen suggests and figure out the Next Action and put that in.
There are abundant variations of these themes, but none of them around here require maintaining a complex and complete work breakdown. Do what’s useful to getting you moving forward.
In your essay example, I would note that you can’t Edit Essay until well after you’ve started writing it, but you might find outlining and drafting introduction to be useful tasks, and Editing can be added in when you are ready.
September 27, 2022 at 0:59 |
Alan Baljeu
Alan Baljeu
Welcome, Conor.
Tasks in all my systems can be entered at any level. So for the example given you might start by having the task "Write Essay" on your list, and then you can break it down into smaller tasks. Or alternatively you can leave it as "Write Essay" and just go through your standard procedure of outlining, draft introduction, edit, etc, all as part of the "Write Essay" task. It's up to you.
Another important point is that you don't have to do tasks in one go. if you are writing an essay you will probably have several sessions. If you are writing a book you will have a whole lot more.
Personally I find some projects need breaking down and others don't. And some have different needs at different times.
Tasks in all my systems can be entered at any level. So for the example given you might start by having the task "Write Essay" on your list, and then you can break it down into smaller tasks. Or alternatively you can leave it as "Write Essay" and just go through your standard procedure of outlining, draft introduction, edit, etc, all as part of the "Write Essay" task. It's up to you.
Another important point is that you don't have to do tasks in one go. if you are writing an essay you will probably have several sessions. If you are writing a book you will have a whole lot more.
Personally I find some projects need breaking down and others don't. And some have different needs at different times.
September 27, 2022 at 1:00 |
Mark Forster
Mark Forster
+1 for adding at least 1 next action to a project...I have found Dave Allen to be correct that often my resistance to taking the next step on a project is that you haven't recognized what the next action actually is. My lists are a mix of tasks and projects, and some of my projects are very explicitly broken down (particularly if it is a repetitive project like bookkeeping for my business, or yearly taxes, where I have optimized the process over the years and want to take precise steps in a precise order. Or I might just put "work on the garage" because the task is simply to walk into my garage, identify something I want to work on or organize, and spend some time doing it.
September 27, 2022 at 13:16 |
Cafe655
Cafe655
Piling on here. While there is no requirement to break down tasks, it can be helpful to understand a psychological advantage that can come from doing so.
Specifically, if a task is so large and all-encompassing that it causes paralysis around that task, sometimes even just "doing a little" on the task can feel impossible. This can be especially important for tasks that you care a lot about, and therefore may have more perfectionism around. In such cases, you can try to do the mental gymnastics required to let yourself "just do a little" on a task that seems big in your list. Or, another option is to simply write out a smaller, simple, "next action" compromise task that doesn't get the whole thing done, but which at least gets something started. This is where I think task breakdown has its best rewards. It can be much easier to get started on the next step in a task if it is explicitly written down and engaged with separately from the "big goal."
Now, given that, I'd probably lean towards saying that most of the time, either the goal task (GTD's outcome/project) or the next action are probably the best ways to write something down. Trying to get really specific and breaking everything down to all of the various pieces ahead of time hasn't been something that I have seen work out really well for me or most other people, unless you are working on something large enough that breaking them into their own sub-projects allows you to engage with the big idea in parallel on a number of fronts. But as long as there is a linear dependency between actions, forcing you to take one action before another, I don't find writing the whole chain down to be that beneficial.
Specifically, if a task is so large and all-encompassing that it causes paralysis around that task, sometimes even just "doing a little" on the task can feel impossible. This can be especially important for tasks that you care a lot about, and therefore may have more perfectionism around. In such cases, you can try to do the mental gymnastics required to let yourself "just do a little" on a task that seems big in your list. Or, another option is to simply write out a smaller, simple, "next action" compromise task that doesn't get the whole thing done, but which at least gets something started. This is where I think task breakdown has its best rewards. It can be much easier to get started on the next step in a task if it is explicitly written down and engaged with separately from the "big goal."
Now, given that, I'd probably lean towards saying that most of the time, either the goal task (GTD's outcome/project) or the next action are probably the best ways to write something down. Trying to get really specific and breaking everything down to all of the various pieces ahead of time hasn't been something that I have seen work out really well for me or most other people, unless you are working on something large enough that breaking them into their own sub-projects allows you to engage with the big idea in parallel on a number of fronts. But as long as there is a linear dependency between actions, forcing you to take one action before another, I don't find writing the whole chain down to be that beneficial.
September 27, 2022 at 21:15 |
Aaron Hsu
Aaron Hsu
I am curious about the necessity or advisability of listing tasks by project vs. a more detailed breakdown of tasks. I have always resisted work breakdowns, since I dislike the process of arbitrarily deciding what tasks make up a larger task or project. Nevertheless, it is something that has been recommended time and again.
Are these systems designed to overcome that need, or do they work best when a task is as specific as possible? I notice that the examples given are often of a more general nature ("Write Essay" instead of "Outline Essay," "Draft Essay Introduction," "Edit Essay," etc.).
Thanks for all of the work you do creating, refining, and assessing these systems!