In my opinion, even these projects should not have a due date, unless it is a true due date - i.e. an externally driven deadline with associated consequences.
Another way to look at it is simply acknowledging that priorities change, as do circumstances. For better or worse, you can not know what your situation is x weeks/months/years from now. Measuring yourself against deadlines you came up with at a time you didn’t know that adds a level of stress to your productivity approach that I feel is exactly what the GTD approach is supposed to avoid.
I recommend reading the David Allen book if you haven’t yet, but I can tell you that for me personally it does 2 things above all else:
- It provides me with the peace of mind of a “trusted system”. i.e. if
I am managing my system right, everything that I don’t want to
forget is in there. - It allows me to see and focus on exactly the
tasks that make sense based on my current circumstances and
priorities, without being burdened by all the tasks I can’t or don’t
want to do right now.
Another point about due dates - If something is past due, it shows up in my Forecast View and in the custom perspectives I set up for it, marked red. I only want to see tasks in red that have actual consequences if missed (e.g. bills that are due, documents that need to be renewed) - without having these diluted by tasks that I have set due dates myself and that I can just defer. I would be too concerned to make a mistake in distinguishing the two and dropping the ball on an actual deadline.
