[bigcloits]

One action ... becomes 12 tangents.

It amazes me how often I act on something that’s due with the intention of returning to OF soon to choose something else to do that’s due ... but I get side-tracked by action in question, and I end up doing a dozen related actions instead of returning to OF.

I call this this action “halo effect”. Every action seems to be surrounded by a swarm of undefined semi-related actions. They may simply be the next actions for the parent project (which I can certainly get caught up in), but what makes the halo effect so interesting is that it is downright amazing often the tangents are completely original ideas. What is all this stuff that I hadn’t previously captured?! It creates the impression that defined, captured items in OF are the tip of an iceberg.

Working, in short, generates and inspires new actions. Which is great in some ways, but also makes it difficult to make headway on the actions that were already defined ... and there are always plenty of those.

I don’t really know how to control the action “halo effect.” Here’s one idea: regard every action as a source of inspiration for other actions, and instead of doing them, try to aggressively capture them instead.

Anyone have any other ideas for reining in the “halo effect”?