>Lastly, if something might require action someday, but not now, it is added to the someday list. These are things that you want to remember, but shouldn’t be cluttering up your ‘next actions’ list. Things like ‘Learn Japanese’ or ‘write a book’ go here.
So let's take "learn Japanese" as the example, because that is a goal of mine and I already am engaged in achieving this goal.
Before having any awareness of this GTD concept, I simply have been studying flashcards daily (anki, 5 new words a day), and when I get a chance read and do exercises from a Japanese grammar book I bought. Down the road, I know I need to at some point engage in watching Japanese TV, listening to radio, and finding Japanese speakers to engage with in conversations to improve my reading ability.
I know these things because I already learned Chinese and I figured out the smaller steps to break down, but how on earth would I break these into "actions" (from the article - "Every project should have an "next action") if I had no concept of how to learn a language?
For example, another goal I have is "become a dank ass motorcyclist - drag knee!" Right now I just putt around in the Santa Cruz mountains and do what I can, but what would I put for "next action" for this project? I guess schedule a track day?
Basically, how do I learn to break large tasks I know nothing about into "actionable items?"
> how on earth would I break these into "actions" [...] if I had no concept of how to learn a language?
If you don't know how to break a larger task into actions, you are simply unable to perform the task, regardless of whether you use GTD or not. What GTD does is make you consciously aware of the process of breaking down larger tasks into smaller actions.
> Right now I just putt around in the Santa Cruz mountains and do what I can, but what would I put for "next action" for this project? I guess schedule a track day?
It sounds like you think that the "next action" needs to be different from the previous one. It is not. If you want to learn the piano, you can just perform the action "practice the piano for 30 minutes" every day, unless you decide that you want to take a different "next action" at some point.
So in the GTD system, an action can be a permanent, do-every-day thing? How would you decide it's "done" then? (assuming lots of long-term goals require "practice x for y/times per z" events)
You may pick a piece you want to play of modest complexity and difficulty. You're "done" when you can play it. But are you really? No, you just pick another, harder, piece.
The practice is to get you to that skill level. If you simply enjoy playing, you may never be done. But you know that each day you have allocated 30 minutes or so to practice.
So let's take "learn Japanese" as the example, because that is a goal of mine and I already am engaged in achieving this goal.
Before having any awareness of this GTD concept, I simply have been studying flashcards daily (anki, 5 new words a day), and when I get a chance read and do exercises from a Japanese grammar book I bought. Down the road, I know I need to at some point engage in watching Japanese TV, listening to radio, and finding Japanese speakers to engage with in conversations to improve my reading ability.
I know these things because I already learned Chinese and I figured out the smaller steps to break down, but how on earth would I break these into "actions" (from the article - "Every project should have an "next action") if I had no concept of how to learn a language?
For example, another goal I have is "become a dank ass motorcyclist - drag knee!" Right now I just putt around in the Santa Cruz mountains and do what I can, but what would I put for "next action" for this project? I guess schedule a track day?
Basically, how do I learn to break large tasks I know nothing about into "actionable items?"