The power of asking "What’s the next action?"!

June 23rd, 2008         Email This Post Email This Post       Print This Post Print This Post

A main component of the Getting Things Done system by David Allen is asking yourself "What is the next action?" regarding any "stuff" that comes your way. He says the question forces clarity - it makes you decide RIGHT NOW what the very next physical action is, as opposed to leaving you ambiguous about how to move forward. If you have many projects ongoing, even if they have several "waiting on" items, ask yourself "what is the next action?" and see if you come up with a way to move your project forward!

Besides for the added clarity, the question empowers you, and according to The Now Habit by Neil Fiore it also addresses many causes of procrastination:

  • According to NLP, our speech is a indication of how we think. If you ask this question, you are presupposing that there IS a next action that you can take. YOU can do something about it! How empowering!
  • Procrastinators usually have lots of negative (and unhelpful) self talk - who is to blame, etc. This question immediately focuses you on the future instead of the past.
  • If you focus on the end, you get discouraged because you have no roadmap on how to get there. This question forces you to figure out the next step.
  • It stops you from panicking about how big and overwhelming the project is by making you focus on individual actions.

Ask away - "What’s the next action?" - how are you going to implement this question in your life?

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Posted in Planning, Principles, Procrastination, Subconscious, Time Management, Traits