[Giorgio Valoti]

Since the introduction of the singleton projects I began using them more and more. Now I begin to wonder if I’m using this feature too much…
I’m asking it because one of the main principles of gtd is the next action, if I remember correctly.

So I’d like to know how do you use singleton projects?

[Craig]

My singleton projects are filled with actions that are "one and dones" - one action is required and then that objective is complete. So they have no relation to one another, for example

SINGLETONS
- call for haircut
- iron shirts
- subscribe to journal

Obviously singling out a "next action" from among these unrelated actions makes little sense.

This is different from a PARALLEL project, which is made up of actions that, though not dependent on each other, are related. For example

SOLICIT IDEAS FOR AD CAMPAIGN
- call Mary for ideas
- call Joaquin for ideas
- email Karin for ideas
- brainstorm 20mins. on what makes ads successful

Here any of the items COULD be done next, so OF will set all as "Available." OF also recognizes the topmost action as a "Next" action. Thus, one could give priority to the Mary task by making sure it is on top. Only it will appear in a list of Next Actions, but all four will appear in a list of Available actions, due to the project being set as Parallel (a.k.a. "Actions must be performed in order" = unchecked). I myself am not wholly convinced of the logic of distinguishing a next action from a parallel project, so I almost never use the "Next actions" view, but some in these forums apparently find the feature useful.

I used to have just one Singleton project - now I have one for each of my "areas of responsibility" (which also have corresponding folders in the Project mode).

[curt.clifton]

Originally Posted by Giorgio Valoti

Since the introduction of the singleton projects I began using them more and more. Now I begin to wonder if I’m using this feature too much…
I’m asking it because one of the main principles of gtd is the next action, if I remember correctly.

So I’d like to know how do you use singleton projects?

Any goal that can be completed in a single step goes into a singleton bucket. If it takes two or more steps, it's a project. Sometimes I find that what I thought was a singleton is really a multi-step project. In that case I select the singleton action, hit Shift-G to group it under a parent project, add the subsequent actions that I can think of, and move the parent and children out of the singleton bucket.

[vocaro]

Originally Posted by Giorgio Valoti

So I’d like to know how do you use singleton projects?

I create just one singleton project called Miscellaneous, into which I dump all my little one-step actions, such as "Sell xxx on eBay", "Send xxx a birthday card", etc.

If anything requires two steps, I put it into a normal project.

[MEP]

I just have one "Singleton" project that collects my singleton actions. Even a lot of my "single action" actions wind up in large organizational projects. For instance, the aforementioned "call for haircut" action would wind up in my "Personal Maintenance" project (non-sequential, made up of a lot sub-projects (action groups)) as would "iron shirts". "Subscribe to journal" would end up in my "Professional Development" project.

I organize most of my actions into large super-projects that roughly coincide to specific long-term goals in my life. "Professional Development" is actually called "Practice Design" in my case and includes things like "sketch daily" (an action), "take advanced rendering course" (a sub project) and "subscribe to new design magazine" (also a sub-project). Each of my topmost projects (except for "Singletons") represents a specific life goal and then all of my actual projects (like "complete client project" or "write research paper for art history") is filed as an action group under those larger projects (or under another action group under those projects -- the hierarchy rarely gets more than two action groups deep though sometimes it edges up to three).

This way, I have some notion of my progress toward my overall life goals just by looking at what's been getting done in each super-project and, more importantly, every task I add to my action list is organized in terms of how it advances those goals. If a task doesn't fit into one of my major super-projects, I often decide just to abandon it right there since it doesn't actually serve any of my personal goals. Sometimes, I'll collect these "unfiled" tasks and projects in a someday/maybe file (separate from OF, I use VoodooPad for someday/maybe among other tasks) that I consult during my 30,000-50,000+ ft. reviews to determine if I might need to consider some new life goals or if could better structure my super-projects to reflect my life goals.

Consequently, I have very few actual singleton actions -- usually zero or one, rarely more than three.

[Giorgio Valoti]

Right now I have four singleton projects:

• Single tasks: the default singleton project
• Repeating: singleton actions that I have to check every day/week etc
• Domains to check: this could go with “Repeating”, I guess…
• Shopping list: the same here; I could move onto single task

Perhaps I’m also using too coarse grained actions and when I’m doubt I drop them into Single Tasks while I could open a new project…

[LizPf]

I also have lots of singletons, and I keep them in different folders depending on my area of responsibility.

But I use OF a bit differently than many. I use what are labeled Folders as ways to divide my work into responsibility areas: Housewife, Kid1, Kid2, T-Shirt Designer, etc. Each of these has at least one Singleton Bucket. Housewife has more; one for each major part of the house.

This helps me group my work, so if I'm working on the kitchen this week I can Focus on Kitchen and see both my singleton kitchen tasks (clean out cabinet X to get rid of the moth infestation, I hope that one never repeats!) and multi-step Projects (get and install shelving)

I've been told I'm not following "True GTD Principles" by organizing things this way, and so be it. I've always been an iconoclast ...

--Liz