From GTD...

[alexpgp]

You can't organize what's incoming - you can only collect it and process it. Instead, you organize the actions you'll need to take based on the decisions you've made about what needs to be done. [emphasis mine]

I've translated the daily report, have soaked myself in reviewing procedures and console handbooks, and so am taking a break and improving my mind musing about what I've read recently in David Allen's Getting Things Done.

It could be that, in attempting to better organize my life, I am chasing a chimera. Perhaps what I am engaged in right now is simply a more subtle variation of the behavior exhibited by many dieters when they chase the mirage of that "magic pill" that'll let them continue to eat huge quantities of foods, yet still lose weight.

In my case, I find myself continuously... I don't know... backsliding (?) from the ideas set forth in time- and life-management systems I've tried to implement. For example, the eagle-eyed reader will have noted that, in distinction from past years, I did not revise my beginning-of-year resolutions in 2005. I did not do so primarily because it became clear that despite my intentions, I had failed - very nearly completely - to follow through in consistently comparing my results against the goals stated in the resolutions (once a year is not enough) or in making day-to-day choices with those resolutions in mind. And frankly, leaving aside the issue of how well or poorly the resolutions themselves were addressed, if it comes down to a choice between rendering lip service to an idea or no service at all, I think the former is a lot less destructive ("one less open loop to worry about," to borrow a phrase from Allen).

And yet, I feel compelled to go on trying, after modifying my approach. Which is why I'm reading GTD.

In reading GTD, I am encouraged. Allen tries to address some issues that I never was able to successfully handle, say, using the Franklin system. The poster child in this regard was the feeling of helplessness I experienced when my carefully laid out plans were routinely wiped out by events, or the demands of my boss/coworkers/whomever. When I actively used the Franklin approach, I used to get really down when it came to transferring undone to-dos from one day to the next, because it seemed I got so few of them taken care of.

Here's what Allen has to say about one's calendar:

Those three things [day-specific events, time-specific events, day-specific information] are what go on the calendar, and nothing else! I know this is heresy to traditional time-management training... but such lists don't work, for two reasons.

First, constant new input and shifting tactical priorities reconfigure daily work so consistently that it's virtually impossible to nail down to-do items ahead of time. (Amen!) ... Trying to keep a list in writing on the calendar, which must then be rewritten on another day if items don't get done, is demoralizing and a waste of time. (Amen, again!) ... Second, if there's something on a daily to-do list that doesn't have to get done that day, it will dilute the emphasis on the things that truly do. [emphasis mine]

After two "Amens" (and very nearly a "Halleluliah!") I grok this last, hard.

And return to work.

Cheers...

Comments

[kf6gpe.livejournal.com]

I've been working through bits of GTD, and for me, the critical thing has been optimizing my review/action steps; the weakest thing for me has always been going through the things I need to do that I capture --- before reading GTD I didn't realize the extent to which I captured / kept things that weren't actionable, and never filtered the captured items for the actionable things, relying instead on my short-term memory to tell me my next steps.

Ouch. :)

I firmly agree with him about calendaring, as you do. :)