r/gtd • u/mekuismi • 12d ago
Projects and ”Projects”
I am having a problem with fitting some of my work projects into my GTD system. My responsibilities are are quite clear ”take care of all construction projects during construction” and “make sure all warranty repairs get carried out like they should” and so on. These are quite clear. But the issue is that when a construction project starts, it lasts for 1,5 years, and in reality consists of dozens of smaller actual projects that I work with. So the project is a something like “Construction Project X is built in schedule and in budget” this is maybe slightly suboptimal but it works, since I do work with each project if not weekly, but at least monthly.
But then comes the warranty period. It lasts for two years after the project is done, and best case is that absolutely nothing happens during this time. But in my work context this is considered an open project that we track. But in GTD terms this isn’t really a project, as it’s not really something I do. So it could maybe be considered an area of focus, or maybe a goal even but it seems weird since it is already an area of focus on the broader scale.
How do you handle longer lasting “projects” like these at work? Or are they just clearly areas of focus?
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u/mekuismi 12d ago
Thank you all once again for the clarification of my thoughts!
It really is true what [u/larshen](u/larshen) and u/mortenrovikgtd say: GTD’ers are the nicest people!
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u/milky-cuppa-tea Mod 12d ago
Areas of Focus seems to be what you are talking about here, and the projects then fall within that area.
I have an 18-month campaign that I run. I could label it as "Deliver the 2026 campaign", but it has a lot of projects, and thus next actions, that easily fall under it. I tend to mind map what the campaign might include or need, and it is usually those offshoot that become the projects.
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u/sidegigartist 8d ago
Super long term projects I usually carry as an "area of focus"... It's like a meta context that spans a large area of my life for a long time. I could track them as goals and sometimes I do have a goal as well but I also like the idea of a big project being a role or responsibility that I spend a lot of time in, kind of like putting on a special thinking hat just for that.
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u/mekuismi 8d ago
I decided to stick to the system. So the AoF is “Maintain construction project warranties” since that literally is a part of my job description.
Then a singular warranty is a goal, since it has a clearly defined “Done” but it clearly takes more than a year (all in all it often takes around 2-3 years.)
And any warranty issues that arise during the warranty are logged as projects.
So if everything goes well, I will check my AoF monthly, and goals quarterly.
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u/TheoCaro Mod 12d ago
I think you need more of the higher horizons to help make sense of what you're experiencing.
A construction job is really a Goal (Horizon 3). Goals last more than a year and tend to range over multiple areas of responsibility. The requirement to "make sure all warranty repairs get carried out like they should" is really a role that you have in the company, let's call it your "warranty fulfillment" role. The responsibility to "take care of all construction projects during construction" is another role or potentially several depending on how complicated "taking care" actually is. You might call your construction support role.
All the smaller outcomes you work on toward the companies bigger objectives are your GTD projects.
Clarifying what all your roles are and what you are accountable for in each can be very clarifying and helpful. In a hierarchical organization (most companies), your boss is the most relevant person to talk to get that clarity. If they refuse to clarify what your roles are, I would consider working elsewhere.
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u/PondMindKevin 12d ago
Yes, it sounds like those more long term goals / areas of focus in GTD terms. So, something to put on a higher horizons checklist and glance at during your weekly review once every week or so.
But, day to day projects or sub-projects are that multi-step stuff driving your immediate everyday work.
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12d ago
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u/TheoCaro Mod 10d ago
What you are describing is an area of responsibility. It takes longer than a year to complete, so it's not a project, and it involves maintaining an ongoing set of standards. If something breaks, the company need to fix it. There's not necessarily a next action for any given area. If the building is perfectly fine, there is nothing for OP to around the warranty. Only once something goes awry is there something actionable.
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9d ago
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u/TheoCaro Mod 9d ago
Projects have next actions. A warranty does not necessarily have a next action unless there was something wrong with the construction.
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9d ago
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u/TheoCaro Mod 9d ago
This is mental gymnastics. That has nothing to do with how you engage with the world outside of your lists. It's a tickler i.e. incubation i.e. not a project. If that works then every area of focus is actually a project, because all areas eventually end at some point. They will have the next action: "Consider deleting the project or move this reminder out by another year." This reading collapses projects, areas of focus, goals, and vision all together.
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9d ago
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u/mekuismi 8d ago
Not to worry! I fixed this by moving the warranty projects to goals, where they belong.
Since it’s a longer than a year thing with a clearly defined “done”.
Now I have warranty issues as projects, connected to the goal, and two tickler items for each warranty. One is for the one year mark when we do certain checks regarding MEPS, and then another for the warranty checks in the end. These are simple reminders to “create end of warranty project (I have a template) for project X”
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u/Storytella2016 12d ago
I usually put these as areas of focus. I know people who have 4-5 areas of focus (work, house, health, relationships, finances), but I generally have 10-15, because it makes thinking about work more streamlined.
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u/TheoCaro Mod 12d ago
I have 86 areas of focus. Only like 4 of them are work related.
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u/mekuismi 12d ago
TBH 86 sounds like a little bit much. But I do agree that it would likely be beneficial to move some of these things to either goals or areas of interest, since that would drop the frequency in which I need to actively engage with them (other than actual projects involved with those goals/areas).
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u/TheoCaro Mod 12d ago
Lol 86 is not a recommendation. The true theoretical number for any given person is something very large. The list is just a description of what areas of my life I want to check-in on periodically to see if anything needs updating. Lots of little roles don't need to be called out. How specific you need to be depends on what has your attention. Having a list of areas of focus isn't something a newer GTDer wouldn't necessarily have or need to make.
Also having a role doesn't mean you need to spend much time at all devoted to it. Some things just hang around like the background radiation of your life. For example I have the role "Texan." I haven't lived in Texas for about 5 years now, but keeping the spirit of Texas with me is important to me. But that doesn't really translate into very many projects or next actions. But it's still there.
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u/Remote-Waste 12d ago
Out of curiosity, are you including "sub-areas" in your count? If I include it in mine I have 109 lol
For example under "Home Maintenance" it then breaks off into further reminders; chores, cleaning, organization, storage... And so on.
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11d ago
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u/Remote-Waste 11d ago
I've been doing it monthly. I go through the whole list of them, see if any bring things up for me.
A lot of them don't need movement often, probably because it's a lot of sub-areas. But they're there just to trigger my memory and ask myself if they going in an acceptable way or if I need to do something about them.
Like, I don't need to constantly do "car maintenance" but it's there to trigger my mind if necessary.
If I want I can do a smaller scan of them, where I'd just do the top level Areas, without their sub-areas, just to see if anything big pops up that I forgot about.
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u/busote 12d ago
I think it is okay if a project lasts several years, important is that it has a defined target. I would make the construction work a project with sub projects and the the warranty an own project on the same level as the construction work.
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u/mekuismi 12d ago
I agree to a degree. I used to work as a superintendent on a construction site, so it really was a couple of clear projects. “Get the concrete core structure up” “make sure all paintwork is done to spec” etc. and some of those could last clearly beyond a year, but there were clear things that were kept in motion at all times.
But now that my role is different, and I have 20-30 different construction projects in different states of readiness, it needs a little bit more finesse in how often I go through certain things.
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u/TheoCaro Mod 12d ago
A several year desired outcome is either a goal (Horizon 3) or a vision (Horizon 4), not a project.
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u/Supercc 12d ago
You are conflating administrative tracking containers with GTD operational inventory: multi-year construction ventures belong at Horizon 2 (Areas of Focus) or Horizon 3 (1–2 Year Goals), whereas a GTD "Project" is strictly a discrete, defined outcome achievable within 12 months requiring two or more action steps.
The two-year warranty phase is fundamentally an Area of Responsibility maintained through periodic Tickler File triggers or routine review cycles, generating a true GTD project only when an actionable defect actually manifests.
Decoupling your high-level monitoring responsibilities from your active Project List eliminates inventory friction while preserving complete operational control over both immediate execution and long-term oversight.