In GTD how do I track projects with subprojects?

Question

I have been using GTD for several years now but I still find it difficult to manage projects with obvious sub projects that roll up into them. These are usually longer term projects with hundreds or possibly thousand of next actions to complete them. How do I properly track my projects with sub projects?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if I got your question right, but I give it a shot given the amount of tasks...

Don't split up later big tasks until you are near the moment that you need to start on them.

This will keep the amount of tasks in your GTD system low, so you don't suffer information overflow...

---

For example, a book writer has the following tasks:

• Think about the book.

• Write the book.

• Publish the book.

Of course, these tasks aren't really actionable in for example an half of an hour. That's why we need to split them up in smaller tasks according to the GTD system and The Pomodoro Technique; now, don't do this for the later big tasks to prevent an overflow of tasks.

• Think about the book.

  • Think about the environment.

  • Think about the personages.

  • Think about the plot.

• Write the book.

• Publish the book.

Some days have passed, the general idea has been noted down.

• Write the book.

  • Write the prolog.

  • Write the first chapter.

  • Determine how many chapters the book will need.

  • Write the remaining chapters.

• Publish the book.

Some days have passed, the book has been written; and so on...

Answer 2

Longer term projects are defined as short term goals in Toodledo. If you have even bigger projects, I use the long term goals but that's never really needed.

Answer 3

I usually define project name as "Project/Subproject" and it works fine for me. I use MyLifeOrganized for projects/tasks tracking. It has pretty good dependency and next actions tracking.