Get Everything Done

In the Secrets book, page 62:

"Asking more creative questions (as dealt with in Chapters 5 and 6) needs to be re-established in our lives. As with any other routine it is important to make it a regular habit – ideally a daily one."

Any suggestions on how to incorporate questioning as described in the Secrets book into a long list? Could each question be a separate item on the long list? Or is it better to write and answer the questions apart from the list?

I realize that some of the items on my long list I need to think about, and that is why they are remaining. Perhaps these need the questioning method.

Aaron,

Thanks for the reply.
I realize that I am asking questions, and I do put them on my long list. Sometimes they are in the form of a question, but not always. If I have to make a decision, I might write "list pros and cons for .........". The underlying questions are "What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages". Or I might write the name of a task with a question mark after it, meaning "Make a decision whether to do this or not" or "Should I do this or not?"
Some of them are research questions. There is a creek that flows nearby. Where does it come from? Where does it go? However, I might write "find creek on a map", or google the name of the creek or goole "headwaters of ...creek". So I am writing down a task to find the answer to the question.

However, referring to the Secrets book, although questioning in general is recommended, specifically it is questioning about your low-level systems that is recommended. Some examples of questions are "Where is this going wrong?" - "What are my 5 best ideas?" and write the answers down for five days in a row without referring to answers from previous days and then compare them.

So this is the act of thinking (although the visible action a la GTD is writing). This is or is similar to brainstorming, or meditating, where the source of the information is coming from within. In some meditation practices, you ask yourself questions on the subject of meditation. These questions went back in history to Aristotle and Cicero and were a part of education in logic or rhetoric, and were known as topoi, or topics, or loci, or commonplaces, and were part of the process of invention, of generating ideas. The types of questions were "What is the definition?" "What are the parts?" What are the qualities?" What is its opposite?" I haven't found this very useful for myself, but it shows that asking questions of yourself to think about has a long history.

It seems that this process of thinking, brainstorming, meditating, or soul-searching could be most useful on the items of long standing where no action is being taken. "Why am not using the fitness center when I am paying dues for it?" - procrastination. Or I am not processing my papers. I realize that I am using my dining room table for my computer work, paperwork, and eating, or other things, but the table is not big enough. "Where is this going wrong?"

Where to keep the answer to the questions?
When I have notes to write concerning tasks, or answers to research questions, I might write them on the next page in my composition book, where I keep my long list, and future dates, etc.
The recommendation of writing 5 days in a row - it seems better to write these on loose leaf paper and keep them separate.

This process of questioning is perhaps different than processing a long list or to-do list, when one is action mode, perhaps moving quickly from one item to another. In that case, the slow moving items or the procrastinating items can get bypassed for other items that will move quicker.
Perhaps it would be better to do the questioning, or meditating, or soul-searching in its own session apart from processing a long list; maybe going to a different place or desk; maybe its own notebook. Sometimes there is an emotional or psychological block that is causing procrastination, or it could that one is not committed, or one hasn't coming up with a good system, or one hasn't planned the project. Although the questioning or thinking could be an item on the long list, it seems better to do it separately, so it is taken seriously, and slow down from an action mode .
I remember Cal Newport writing that he has a thinking chair, where he thinks. I forget if he said he has a notebook.

I tried the Questioning technique, but I used separate pieces of looseleaf paper for each day, and I had trouble keeping them in order. Perhaps keeping them in separate composition book would work better, so the pages are kept together.
However, I wonder if there is benefit to Questioning if one is already using a catch-all list to catch brainstorming ideas. I also make notes as I go along as I think of things. I find I have plenty of ideas, more than enough, and they can clog up a long list. Sometimes, I collect them onto a separate page, if they are ideas. Also, the Secrets book did not use a catch-all list, or long list, and perhaps the Questioning technique served the same purpose.