6 ms·

There is way more advice in David Allen's well-known book Getting Things Done, and there are many things to help with this like the Action Day Planner notebook.

There is way more advice in David Allen's well-known book Getting Things Done, and there are many things to help with this like the Action Day Planner notebook. Allen's method is better than many others. Still I have to admit that personally this self-motivation stuff has never appealed much to me. I'm using the just do it - or procrastinate method.

barking 10y ago
My experience of david allen's GTD is that it's a little bit like dieting. Every now and then I go on a diet because I'm depressed about my weight. Every now and then I start using GTD because I'm feeling overwhelmed by the work that needs to be done. Both make me feel better for a little while but I lack the willpower to stick at them.
- mikekchar 10y ago
  > I go on a diet because I'm depressed [...] > I start using GTD because I'm feeling overwhelmed [...] > I lack the willpower to stick at them I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's not willpower you lack. You stop feeling depressed, or you stop feeling overwhelmed (at least a little bit). That's why you stop. One of the things I learned when I was studying Japanese is that I couldn't sustain my negative motivation to study. I could only study every day if I truly wanted to study every day. It is said that if you keep one eye on the goal, you only have one eye for the path. For long term goals, it's important to concentrate on making your daily activities the goal, because the long term goal will not actually come in time to satisfy you. Another way I tend to look at it is that people think "I want to be slim" or "I want to get things done". It's not actually what they want. Rather they are thinking, "I want to have become slim" or "I want to have got things done". The key to success is to change your point of view so that the act of becoming slim (dieting, exercising, etc) or the act of getting things done (working) is what you desire. Instead of thinking, "Those are crappy things that I must endure", you must think "Why do I dislike those things and what can I do to change my point of view?" Hope that helps!
  - cJ0th 10y ago
    > You stop feeling depressed, or you stop feeling overwhelmed (at least a little bit). That's why you stop. Could be. Another problem would be doubt: Is there any value in what I do? With some goals like loosing weight it is obvious. But how about: should I write that book? The method is very efficient no matter what you do. That is, you approach your goal with 100 miles/hour and not walking speed. If at some point it becomes clear that you followed the wrong goal you wasted a good amount of energy. I think knowing this can paralyze you.
    - mikekchar 10y ago
      I think that "Is there any value in what I do" a good question, but perhaps you can think about it differently. For example, "Should I write a book?" If you start to write a book and don't finish, have you wasted your time? If your answer to this question is "yes", then maybe writing a book is not a good idea for you. Again, it's getting into that category of wanting to have written a book, not wanting to write a book. Instead you can decide to write. It might be a book. It might not be a book. In fact, if you have never written a book before, probably it's much better not to aim at writing a book. For example, even if you want to run a marathon some day, you don't get up out of bed, never having run before and say, "Today I am going to run a marathon". Instead you get up and run. You do that every day for a year or so and then you start thinking, "Maybe I'll run a marathon". I think people get confused because they see people just write a book, or run a marathon or whatever. If you are Stephen King, you can wake up one day and think "I'm going to write a book" because you already have all the skills you need to organise and maintain yourself over the period of time you need. You also know that writing is something you feel comfortable doing day in and day out. And although I can do many things that Stephen King can't do, I can not just decide to write a book. It takes experience to get to that point. Another trick that I use for this kind of thing is to think about what I currently do that feels like a waste of time. For example, sitting around and watching mindless TV. It's easier to think, "I'm not going to watch TV today". But the question is, what are you going to do? Suddenly the world opens up. You can do anything. Maybe it is running. Maybe it is writing a book. Maybe it is programming. You aren't wasting your time, but you also don't need some paralysing overarching goal either.

barking 10y ago

My experience of david allen's GTD is that it's a little bit like dieting. Every now and then I go on a diet because I'm depressed about my weight. Every now and then I start using GTD because I'm feeling overwhelmed by the work that needs to be done. Both make me feel better for a little while but I lack the willpower to stick at them.

mikekchar 10y ago
> I go on a diet because I'm depressed [...] > I start using GTD because I'm feeling overwhelmed [...] > I lack the willpower to stick at them I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that it's not willpower you lack. You stop feeling depressed, or you stop feeling overwhelmed (at least a little bit). That's why you stop. One of the things I learned when I was studying Japanese is that I couldn't sustain my negative motivation to study. I could only study every day if I truly wanted to study every day. It is said that if you keep one eye on the goal, you only have one eye for the path. For long term goals, it's important to concentrate on making your daily activities the goal, because the long term goal will not actually come in time to satisfy you. Another way I tend to look at it is that people think "I want to be slim" or "I want to get things done". It's not actually what they want. Rather they are thinking, "I want to have become slim" or "I want to have got things done". The key to success is to change your point of view so that the act of becoming slim (dieting, exercising, etc) or the act of getting things done (working) is what you desire. Instead of thinking, "Those are crappy things that I must endure", you must think "Why do I dislike those things and what can I do to change my point of view?" Hope that helps!
- cJ0th 10y ago
  > You stop feeling depressed, or you stop feeling overwhelmed (at least a little bit). That's why you stop. Could be. Another problem would be doubt: Is there any value in what I do? With some goals like loosing weight it is obvious. But how about: should I write that book? The method is very efficient no matter what you do. That is, you approach your goal with 100 miles/hour and not walking speed. If at some point it becomes clear that you followed the wrong goal you wasted a good amount of energy. I think knowing this can paralyze you.
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    I think that "Is there any value in what I do" a good question, but perhaps you can think about it differently. For example, "Should I write a book?" If you start to write a book and don't finish, have you wasted your time? If your answer to this question is "yes", then maybe writing a book is not a good idea for you. Again, it's getting into that category of wanting to have written a book, not wanting to write a book. Instead you can decide to write. It might be a book. It might not be a book. In fact, if you have never written a book before, probably it's much better not to aim at writing a book. For example, even if you want to run a marathon some day, you don't get up out of bed, never having run before and say, "Today I am going to run a marathon". Instead you get up and run. You do that every day for a year or so and then you start thinking, "Maybe I'll run a marathon". I think people get confused because they see people just write a book, or run a marathon or whatever. If you are Stephen King, you can wake up one day and think "I'm going to write a book" because you already have all the skills you need to organise and maintain yourself over the period of time you need. You also know that writing is something you feel comfortable doing day in and day out. And although I can do many things that Stephen King can't do, I can not just decide to write a book. It takes experience to get to that point. Another trick that I use for this kind of thing is to think about what I currently do that feels like a waste of time. For example, sitting around and watching mindless TV. It's easier to think, "I'm not going to watch TV today". But the question is, what are you going to do? Suddenly the world opens up. You can do anything. Maybe it is running. Maybe it is writing a book. Maybe it is programming. You aren't wasting your time, but you also don't need some paralysing overarching goal either.