Ep. 333: Super Lists for You - Getting Things Done

Podcast Summary: Getting Things Done – Ep. 333: Super Lists for You (October 22, 2025)

Main Theme:
Jon Forester hosts an in-depth webinar on refining and optimizing your GTD (Getting Things Done) lists—projects, next actions, waiting for—to help practitioners make their lists more actionable, attractive, and stress-free. The episode focuses on identifying typical list issues, clarifying outcomes and actions, and enhancing your lists to support productivity practice at any level.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power (and Pitfall) of Lists (00:00–04:00)

Having lists already puts you ahead of “99.9999% of people," who still use email inboxes or memory for task management. (A, 00:25)
The real challenge: Ensuring your lists attract rather than repel you. You should look at your lists and feel called to act.
David Allen’s classic warning:
“Many lists are amorphous blobs of undoability.” —David Allen (A, 01:40)

2. What Makes a 'Super List'? (04:00–06:00)

Lists should:
- Be clear and actionable—no ambiguity about outcomes or required actions.
- Be subdivided (especially Next Actions) by context, so you only see what’s actionable in the current circumstance.
- Adapt to your style: subdivide by personal vs. professional, by person, etc.

3. Building a Better Projects List (06:00–16:00)

Project Definition:
“A project is a result to be accomplished within a year requiring more than one action.” (A, 06:28)
- Longer than a year? It’s a goal or objective; less, it’s an action.
Common Issues:
- Unclear outcomes (“Retirement plans,” “Manage sales team”).
- Mistaking areas of focus or long-term goals for projects.
- Action items that actually belong elsewhere (subprojects, one-off actions).
Memorable Quote:
“What you want is for your projects list to have items where, when you read that project name, you know what the outcome is.” (A, 10:38)
Crowdsourced Examples:
- “Liquidate my inventory” (multi-year, could be split into smaller annual projects).
- “Declutter my house” (chunk into rooms or categories).
- Overuse of vague verbs like “execute” or “optimize”—replace with something more specific.
Tip:
Use indenting or subprojects only if they help you visualize and take action—otherwise, keep it simple.

4. Next Actions That Actually Work (16:00–25:00)

Improving Actionability:
- Avoid vague statements: “Figure out plans,” “Bob,” “Work on design project.”
- Clarifying Example:
  “'Figure out plans for London sales trip' could be 'Email Jake about plans for the sales trip.'” (A, 14:45)
Common Pitfalls:
- Names with no action (“Bob” or “Mom”)—clarify what needs to happen.
- Projects disguised as actions and vice versa.
Sequence and Dependence:
“A next action can’t be dependent on anything else happening first.” (A, 21:41)
Waiting Fors vs. Next Actions (20:30–25:30)
- If you’re waiting for someone (e.g., “Send budget to Stan when Anna sends it back”), it belongs on the Waiting For list, not Next Actions.
- Suggestion: “When Anna sends it back, send budget to Stan” (Waiting For)—or store the next step in project support materials until trigger happens.
Community Wisdom:
- Don’t fool yourself with a “catchall” next actions list—it’s often unclarified projects.
- “My bet after watching this for years: Projects move along faster when they’re clarified and paired with a clear next action.” (A, 19:50)

5. Optimizing the Waiting For List (25:36–32:00)

Common Issues:
- Single names (“Marcus,” “Kiki”) or generic items—add context and action.
Best Practice:
“The first obvious thing here is we want to put a date on those. Not the due date, but the date you added it to your waiting for list.” (A, 26:58)
- Knowing how long you’ve been waiting tempers impatience.
- Also add expected due dates if relevant—but don’t treat them as calendar appointments unless truly time-specific.
Memorable Quote:
“Ideally you get to trust your other lists as much as you trust your calendar. Then your calendar has less clutter and you accomplish just as much, if not more.” (A, 31:10)

6. Context: Cycles of Practice & GTD Growth (32:08–End)

Insight from David (D, 32:08):
- Everyone goes through GTD cycles—initial inspiration and learning, then stabilization and plateau, then renewed inspiration.
- Re-engage with resources as you grow:
  “Many people have read Getting Things Done more than three or four times. Every time they read it, they get something new out of it.” (D, 33:22)
- Encourage using GTD Connect as a resource library you revisit at new stages.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

The Problem with Vague Lists:
“Many lists are amorphous blobs of undoability.” —David Allen (A quoting, 01:40)
On Projects That Aren't:
“Manage sales team isn’t an outcome you’re likely to achieve; it’s more of an area of focus that spawns its own set of projects or next actions.” (A, 09:20)
On Clarity:
“When you read that project name, you know what the outcome is… You did the thinking when you created the project or caught it in a weekly review.” (A, 10:38)
On Action Verbs:
“If you’re seeing something like execute, finalize, optimize on your lists—do you know what that means? If it’s not granular enough, it could be improved.” (A, 12:30)
On Waiting For Dates:
“Adding a date that you started waiting for it is really helpful… It tempers my impatience.” (A, 27:25)
On Calendar Overload:
“People tend to turn their calendar into a list of reminders that aren't really calendar items… Start trusting all your other lists.” (A, 31:15)
On GTD Learning Cycles:
“I think you’ll find yourself going through cycles… Every time you come back, you find something new.” (D, 33:22)

Timestamps for Important Segments

00:00–04:00: Opening and purpose; why improving your lists matters
04:00–06:00: Defining "Super Lists"
06:00–16:00: Common project list issues and examples; clarifying outcomes
16:00–25:00: Next actions: common pitfalls, clarifying verbs, separating Next Actions from Waiting Fors
25:36–32:00: Best practices for Waiting For lists; adding context and dates; integrating with calendar
32:08–End: David's reflections on GTD practice cycles and making the most of GTD Connect

Closing Takeaways

Clarify every item: Projects should describe clear, achievable outcomes; actions should be specific and actionable now.
Distinguish & subdivide: Separate projects, next actions, and waiting for items, and subdivide by context when helpful.
Refine verbs: Avoid vague or overused verbs—specify exactly what needs to be done.
Track waiting for: Add dates and details to waiting for items for context and easy follow-up.
Revisit your system: Improvement is ongoing—expect to revisit and refine your lists repeatedly.
Trust your lists: With careful setup, your lists (not just your calendar) become trustworthy guides for action and stress-free productivity.

This episode provides concrete, practical insights for anyone looking to level up their GTD lists, whether you're a beginner or a battle-tested practitioner.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Foreign Hi everyone, this is Jon Forester and we're here for a webinar super lists for you. This webinar is about helping you make your GTD lists better. Just the fact that you have lists puts you ahead of 99.9999. That's an exact measure that many people in the world, because that many people in the world are still carrying things around in their head or they think their email inbox is their list manager. You actually have lists of projects and next actions and waiting fors and things like that. So good for you. This is about making those lists a bit better. Ideally, you'll see some things that you can improve and if you're already doing all of these, it'll be just a time to pat yourself on the back and say, I am doing really well. What makes a super list? Essentially you're attracted versus being repelled by the list. I bet at times you've had the experience of looking at a list or an item on a list and just kind of shaking your head and going ugh. And and switching to something else. Either changing the channel literally on the TV or changing the channel in your mind or on your computer, on your phone, just switching away, say, because the list didn't attract you. So the idea here is we're going to see if we can improve those lists so that they attract you, so that you look at your lists and go, oh yeah, and you're called forward to do things with what's on those lists. Here's David's quote about list improvement. And I'm going to read this not because you all don't know how to read, but because there are some people who will be listening to this recording audio only. David says many lists are amorphous blobs of undoability. How do you like that word amorphous without form? We're going to see what we can do to get your lists to being something other than amorphous blobs of undoability. What we'll cover, we're going to look for some common issues with lists. We're going to look at your projects lists, next actions lists. And again, those could be by context. Generally, these days most people have their next actions list divided into contexts. The assumption is that you're not always in the same place. So it's helpful to have your list split up so that you're only seeing the list that you can do at that time. Also, you're waiting for list and you may have those subdivided into various lists too. Some people divide personal and Professional. Some people have them divided by people. If they have a lot of waiting fors from specific people. You may have your list subdivided in some way. We're going to start with projects and move right along. A project is defined as a result that can be accomplished within a year requiring more than one action. Well, I have some that are 13 months. Is that okay? Sure, that's fine. So this is just a. To help to get things off your mind and a working definition of projects. If you. If we start splitting hairs too much, we can get bogged down in hairsplitting. Instead of accomplishing what we're here to do. For the moment, let's just say that it's a project is a result to accomplish within a year requiring more than one action. And again, if you want to split hairs, we can start getting into the definition of an action. Is an action something you can do in five minutes? Or if I sit here for an hour, is that considered an action? I've always found it useful to say an action is something you can do in one sitting, more or less. Of course, different people sit for different lengths of time and most of us sit too long. So think of it as something you can do. That's a very granular defined chunk there that, that doesn't have to extend into another day or something like that. If it requires more than one of those actions, it's a project. That's a pretty simple definition of a project. If it's going to take much longer than a year, it starts to move up into being a goal or an objective or, or a larger vision that you have. So the difference there is timeline. And if it goes way higher up to your highest level, your life purpose, then that's something you may not ever really feel as though you accomplish. It's something you work toward your entire life. But for projects, we're saying within a year that require more than one action. We're going to dive right into the details here for projects lists. These are some examples. What could be better? So have a look at these and think about it and consider what might be better. Get car detailed. Create website for garden club retirement plans. Plan vacation to Yosemite. Manage sales team okay, I've got a couple of responses so far. Retirement plans could be better. Need a clear outcome for retirement plans. Manage sales team is more of an aof. What does DUN look like for manage? I think they can all be improved. Okay. As I said at the beginning, I'm dealing with a set of pros here. So here we go. We're going to look at each one. Retirement plans. Retirement plans could definitely be better because it doesn't really say what your your result is. What does done look like? As Melissa said, what does done look like? How would you know when you get there? So clarify is a way to clarify the outcome for retirement plans. Plan vacation to Yosemite. I'd probably say take vacation to Yosemite. You can call me a stickler, but plan vacation is a great outcome. If you're the travel agent and you're not actually going to go take vacation is what I would want to do because I'm the one that wants to have that outcome. I want to not just plan it, but actually experience it. Manage sales team, that one. Let's see what we do there. Ah yes. Whoever said areas of focus a few minutes ago was exactly right. Manage the sales team isn't an outcome that you're likely to achieve. It's more of an area that's got ongoing work in may spawn its own set of projects or just next actions without projects. But you don't really complete managing the sales team as long as that's still part of your job description. Have a look at your own projects list. Anything you see there. Do a quick scan down your own projects list. Is there anything there that you look at? And go the outcome doesn't really make itself clear to me when I look at that. What you want is for your projects list to have items on it where you when you read that project name, you know what the outcome is. It's very clear to you. You've already done the thinking before you're reading it. You did it when you created the project or caught it in a weekly review. Anything on your current projects list that you see that could be clarified or any projects that are really areas of focus. Once in a while someone has a project that's really just an action, not not a project. It once they do it, it's done one and done. So it's not really a project. It's rare. I haven't seen that very often in many years. Much more likely is what you have There is either a not clearly defined project or something that's an area of focus or something that's larger than a one year accomplishment. What can you do differently? Have a look during your weekly review or anytime you're looking at your projects lists and have that that filter on that says is the outcome clear to me when I just quickly read the the name of the project, it doesn't have to be the outcome in all that's the most exquisite, beautiful detail. But is it clear enough that when you just read the title of the project you go, okay, I know what that is, I know what done looks like. Got a comment? Yes, I have a project called Liquidate my Inventory. This is a multi year long area of my life. Though it's difficult to parse this goal into smaller chunks, I haven't found a better way yet. Yeah, I can see how that could take more than a year. This relation to online sales, I have a lot of stock I've been selling off for the last 10 years, slowly but surely. Yeah, I agree. Unless you, unless you have something that drives you to finish it within us within a year or less, something where you say no matter what, I have to have it done, then yeah, it's more like a multi year outcome. And you could call it, could call it a goal or an objective and split it into smaller chunks if that's workable for you. Like are there certain categories of items that you have a project of selling off and try to do that within a year or anything like that. And those divisions may get to be too artificial depending on what it is you're selling. Let's see, I have a similar example, Declutter my house. It's one big project, that one I've heard of from other people where, whether it's a garage or a house or a basement or something like that, you might be able to chunk that down into rooms or categories of things. Like if I had a big house and, and all the money in the world, I would have books all over the place. I, I would have every end table, side table and surface would probably have a book on it and most of them would be, have a bookmark somewhere in them or be open already. And that would be my decluttering project. So I could go around and declutter just the books. Or maybe there's something else that's a category within declutter that you could split it into. Let's see, I overuse the verb execute with my work projects. Execute, tasting event, execute, Ohio market, visit. Ah, that's a very, very keen observation. There are a few verbs like that that get overused because they're easy to, to say. But often there's something more granular, something specific that goes with what execute means. Similarly, I overuse the word optimize. Optimize? Yeah. Finalize. Yeah. Okay. If you'll see that on your list. Too often if you, if, if you're looking at a list of calls and the verb Is call at the beginning, you're in good territory. But if you're seeing something like execute, finalize, optimize showing in various next action lists, when you look at it, do you know what it means to optimize, finalize or execute? If it's not really clear to you or it's not granular enough, then that list item could be improved. Tend to accumulate smaller projects that could be lumped into one larger project. But then the specific goal posts become harder to track. The end result is that I have a really long projects list. There's nothing wrong with a wrong wrong with a long list except trying to say that tongue twister of wrong with a long list if the individual items on it are clear to you. Some people find it more useful to have a larger project and sub projects. Some people don't care for having sub projects and they'd rather just have a lot of smaller projects. That's what works for you, what attracts you to the list. It helps me to indent sub projects under the larger project. Yeah. So again, a lot of often this is comes down to what attracts you visually to the list. What does it when you look at the list, what do you see there that then says, okay, I want to start taking an action on this. Here we go to next actions and great questions and comments there by the way. Keep them coming. Again, what could be better on these sample next action items? These are not categorized by context. They're just some samples to show you kinds of things to look for to improve. Figure out plans for London sales trip. Second item is Bob. Third item is email Morton about the summit agenda. Next one is work on design project. After that is send budget to Stan when Anna sends it back.