- in the [[{4.4} what is the getting things done methodology|gtd method]], a `next action` is the most immediate and concrete thing you can or must do right now to get closer to a desired outcome. - anything that requires more than one next action is considered a [[{4.4c} projects in gtd|project]]. - next actions are stored in lists by [[{4.4b1} store next actions by context|context]]. - we’re often told to plan by defining some goals, dividing them into more manageable projects, and breaking the projects into smaller ““bite-sized”” tasks. - these projects and tasks are pre-defined and arbitrarily scoped; they become noisy. - next actions are distinct from these component tasks – you are defining *only* the next physical thing you can do. - for example: - if i’m feeling hungry, my desired outcome might be to feel satiated. - my next action is not to “go eat”, but to walk to my kitchen, to check what ingredients i have, to decide on a meal, and then all of the individual steps in preparing that meal. - if i have a report due, my desired outcome might be “manager has received report”. - my next physical action is not to “send report”, but maybe to open my laptop, to find the report scope, to create a new document, to outline the first section. - these steps sound tedious to define, but in practice, we are not listing each of them out the way we might with traditional task planning. we are *only* deciding the very next granular step to take. - this isn’t to say that you *can’t* define multiple steps or tasks for a project, just that this type of planning should be used as reference *from which you create* next actions – they should not be considered next actions themselves. - see also [[{4.4b2} parallel vs sequential actions]].