Get Everything Done

I am experimenting with this rule:

1. Whenever I have filled up my last page with tasks, I draw a short, doubled line below it as a message to my subconscious that "this page is a unit".

2. When I've drawn that "closure line", I check all items on the page again whether they are are time-sensitive or have deadlines, and if this is the case, I write small reminders in my calendar.

This takes away my fear I might forget something urgent, miss something or the like, and I feel more relaxed this way. Maybe I'll drop that rule once I make the experience that most of my reminders are obsolete when they come up, but in the moment, as a beginner, it helps.

Any comments welcome.

Some people call this "emergency gtd" .
Great for control, useless for perspective.

http://lisapeake.robertpeake.com/archives/37-Emergency-GTD.html

Rainer:

Could you explain where you see similarities between what I am describing and what this blog entry about "emergency GTD" is describing? I read it carefully, but I don't understand what one has to do with the other. Is it the wrong link, maybe?

Andreas,

perhaps I misinterpret your intentions, but to me the similarities are:

The motivation is the negative emotion that important or urgent tasks might be missed. This emotion is no nonsense but realistically based on the experience that things have fallen through the cracks in the past. After the list has been written the list's items are checked to see if there is something very urgent or time-sensitive and the special items are scheduled.

Again, I might be wrong, but I don't see much difference in first writing a list and second decide which items are endangered to fall through the cracks, or to do it the other way around, first deciding what's urgent and then adding not-so-urgent items.

Anyway, no matter how you look at it, it remains the same: you take items from your master list and schedule them on your calendar when you feel that these items are too time-sensitive.
There are several related posts at http://www.markforster.net/forum/post/700571

OK, but what do you suggest? Of course I am afraid I might miss an urgent deadline - for what reason else should I set reminders? (I am not "scheduling", I am simply noting "X due friday" in the appropriate week.)

Sorry, Andreas, but obviously you misunderstood my post. Or perhaps my post was too short and imprecise. Anyway, I neither critizied what you are doing nor did I say it is pointless, I only said that it's good for control but useless for perspective.

My point is that when you are in a situation like yours you have to choose between playing it save (having additional reminders) or developing some perspective for your future at the risk of some tasks falling through the cracks.

As I wrote in another thread I too schedule tasks if necessary, or write short closed lists for mornings.