4 ms·

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 an

by 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.
    - cJ0th 10y ago
      All very true but what I meant to say (but didn't actually articulate) is that when you apply GTD it becomes clear that you need priorities. Let's say you are well versed in a new technology that is quickly gaining popularity. Now you are unsure whether you want to write a book about this technology. Maybe it becomes THE standard book on this topic! Otoh, you could apply at a company where you can work on a project that uses said technology. There are obviously pros and cons to both ideas. One Scenario: You start writing the book because it seems to be the more fulfilling job. Some months in a stronger, competing technology arrives. Now you think: Was starting the book a good idea? If I had taken the job at least I'd have earned a paycheck and had something to put on my CV. In hindsight you may realize that you crave a more secure lifestyle etc. The time has passed so there already would be a gap on your CV if you don't finish the book. So maybe finishing the book is not a bad idea. At least you can demonstrate that you've done something successfully during the last couple of months. Let's assume finishing the book would take two more months. Could you easily complete it when everything is already outlined with GTD? Further more, could you easily abandon it when everything is already outlined with GTD?
- criddell 10y ago
  > 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. Do you have more advice related to this? For example, there are literally hundreds of little hobbies and projects I'd like to work on or get better at. For 20 years now (sigh) I've wanted to learn how to play guitar. I've taken lessons from different teachers, I've bought music for pieces I want to play, I've joined online communities, and even bought a second guitar to keep at work thinking it would be a nice thing to have for those times when I'm stuck on a problem. Other than the toy songs in a Hal Leonard book and a few scales, I can't play a single thing. All it takes is regular, deliberate practice, right?
  - mikekchar 10y ago
    One thing that is familiar to me is your first sentence "there are literally hundreds of little hobbies and projects". I have something I call the "rule of 3". It says that you can do 3 things in your life well. I pick one of those things to be my job. I pick another to be interacting with my family and friends. That leaves exactly 1 other thing. You can do hundreds of things very poorly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I dabble at cooking. I love it. It's fun. I used to live in Ottawa, Canada which conveniently has a branch of the Cordon Blue cooking school. I considered coughing up the $60K per year tuition (cough, cough) to learn to be a chef. But cooking is not my one thing. I love it, but I'm actually fine with being relatively crappy at it. If you want to be a good guitar player, you have to decide to be a guitar player first. A guitar player plays his/her guitar every chance they can get. A guitar player enjoys playing his/her guitar. Once you learn to be a guitar player, you may decide to become a good guitar player. You may not. You certainly can't do it the other way around. If you do not want to be a guitar player (as evidenced by the fact that you do not want to play your guitar and you avoid playing it even when you have the chance), there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Personally, I would also like to have become a good guitar player, but I have absolutely no interest in being a guitar player. So I restrict my guitar playing fantasies to my dreams and video games. This gives me the time to do what I actually want to do. One other thing I should point out. There is nothing saying that you can't change your mind about the 3 things you want to do well. Of course, if you change your mind every day then nothing good will come out of it ;-) But if you get to a point where you are thinking, "You know what? I'm happy with what I've done and I don't want to continue", that's completely OK. It just gives you time to do something else.

by barking 10y ago

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.
  - cJ0th 10y ago
    All very true but what I meant to say (but didn't actually articulate) is that when you apply GTD it becomes clear that you need priorities. Let's say you are well versed in a new technology that is quickly gaining popularity. Now you are unsure whether you want to write a book about this technology. Maybe it becomes THE standard book on this topic! Otoh, you could apply at a company where you can work on a project that uses said technology. There are obviously pros and cons to both ideas. One Scenario: You start writing the book because it seems to be the more fulfilling job. Some months in a stronger, competing technology arrives. Now you think: Was starting the book a good idea? If I had taken the job at least I'd have earned a paycheck and had something to put on my CV. In hindsight you may realize that you crave a more secure lifestyle etc. The time has passed so there already would be a gap on your CV if you don't finish the book. So maybe finishing the book is not a bad idea. At least you can demonstrate that you've done something successfully during the last couple of months. Let's assume finishing the book would take two more months. Could you easily complete it when everything is already outlined with GTD? Further more, could you easily abandon it when everything is already outlined with GTD?
criddell 10y ago
> 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. Do you have more advice related to this? For example, there are literally hundreds of little hobbies and projects I'd like to work on or get better at. For 20 years now (sigh) I've wanted to learn how to play guitar. I've taken lessons from different teachers, I've bought music for pieces I want to play, I've joined online communities, and even bought a second guitar to keep at work thinking it would be a nice thing to have for those times when I'm stuck on a problem. Other than the toy songs in a Hal Leonard book and a few scales, I can't play a single thing. All it takes is regular, deliberate practice, right?
- mikekchar 10y ago
  One thing that is familiar to me is your first sentence "there are literally hundreds of little hobbies and projects". I have something I call the "rule of 3". It says that you can do 3 things in your life well. I pick one of those things to be my job. I pick another to be interacting with my family and friends. That leaves exactly 1 other thing. You can do hundreds of things very poorly. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I dabble at cooking. I love it. It's fun. I used to live in Ottawa, Canada which conveniently has a branch of the Cordon Blue cooking school. I considered coughing up the $60K per year tuition (cough, cough) to learn to be a chef. But cooking is not my one thing. I love it, but I'm actually fine with being relatively crappy at it. If you want to be a good guitar player, you have to decide to be a guitar player first. A guitar player plays his/her guitar every chance they can get. A guitar player enjoys playing his/her guitar. Once you learn to be a guitar player, you may decide to become a good guitar player. You may not. You certainly can't do it the other way around. If you do not want to be a guitar player (as evidenced by the fact that you do not want to play your guitar and you avoid playing it even when you have the chance), there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Personally, I would also like to have become a good guitar player, but I have absolutely no interest in being a guitar player. So I restrict my guitar playing fantasies to my dreams and video games. This gives me the time to do what I actually want to do. One other thing I should point out. There is nothing saying that you can't change your mind about the 3 things you want to do well. Of course, if you change your mind every day then nothing good will come out of it ;-) But if you get to a point where you are thinking, "You know what? I'm happy with what I've done and I don't want to continue", that's completely OK. It just gives you time to do something else.