Getting Things Done

PART TWO
list—say, "Finish new home renovations"—or do you write
up
each of the subprojects as an individual line item?
Actually, it won't matter, as long as you review all the compo-
nents of the project as frequently as you need to to stay produc-
tive. No external tool or organizing format is going to be perfect
for sorting both horizontally across and vertically down through
all your projects; you'll still have to be aware of the whole in some
cohesive way (such as via your Weekly Review). If you make the
large project your one listing on your "Projects" list, you'll want to
keep a list of the subprojects and/or the project plan itself as "proj-
ect support material" to be reviewed when you come to that major
item. I would recommend doing it this way if big pieces of the
project are 
dependent 
on other pieces getting done first. In that
scenario you might have subprojects with no next actions attached
to them because they are in a sense "waiting for" other things to
happen before they can move forward. For instance, you might
not be able to start on "Renovate kitchen" until you finish "Rewire
basement." However, you might be able to proceed on "Finalize
landscaping" independent of either of the other subprojects. You
would therefore want a next action to be continually current on
"Rewire basement" 
and 
"Finalize landscaping."
Don't be too concerned about which way is best. If you're not
* sure, I'd vote for putting your Big Projects on the "Projects" list
and holding the subpieces in your project support
material, making sure to include them in your
Weekly Review, If that arrangement doesn't feel
quite right, try including the 
active 
and independent
subprojects as separate entries on your master list.
There's no perfect system for tracking all your
projects and subprojects the same way. You just need
to know you 
have 
projects and, if they have associated
components, where to find the appropriate reminders
for them.
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How you list
projects and
subprojects is up to
you; just be sure
you know where to
find all the moving