Hi Lisa Getting stuck doesn't make you an exception, it makes you human! When you state that you "try" to follow GTD as well, I suspect that you should perhaps look closely at the Weekly Review as a possible weak link in your implementation of GTD. As I have posted previously, I use the Weekly Review to limit the scope of tasks that I intend to accomplish in the upcoming week. I do this by scanning my outline and checking the parameter "Hide the branch in To-Do" for all of the tasks that I feel are beyond what I can accomplish in the next week. At the same time, I am designating certain tasks/projects/branches as Weekly Goals for those actions that I wish to place particular focus. When I complete this Weekly Review process, I have Context lists with limited number of tasks and with my Weekly Goals at the top of those lists.
Again, it is human nature to pick the easiest task to complete. Perhaps you might consider using that tendency to help you in accomplishing the things that matter most to you. Break down your Weekly Goals, or flagged items in your case, into the smallest manageable activity that you can. If I am faced with a 4 hour Weekly Goal activity vs a 10 minute Not Important/Not Urgent task, I will do the 10 minute task every time. But if I am faced between choosing a 20 minute Weekly Goal activity vs that same 10 minute Not Important/Not Urgent task, I actually will choose the Weekly Goal every time. Every time you are facing an important task that you find you are resisting, break it down. Can't seem to get around to doing your taxes, look for your W-2 form instead. It is truly amazing how doing one small action leads to another, and then before you know it, you have accomplished an important objective. I do have the same problem as you in terms of contexts. I work out of my home so my @Computer, @Internet, and @Phone contexts are included contexts of my @Office. Consequently, my @Office context can become a very long list of tasks, particularly if I miss my Weekly Review. In fact, at one time I had 175 tasks in my @Office context. I started using dates, flags, groupings, sorts, and customized views just so I could find or not lose the important and urgent tasks in my life. I decided that GTD wasn't working, In actuality, GTD without the Weekly Review wasn't working. So I hopped over and gave Mark Forster's "Do it Tomorrow" and Autofocus methodologies a whirl. But I eventually came back to GTD after realizing that GTD without the Weekly Review wasn't really GTD. The Weekly Review gives me a Top/Bottom planning view, while Context lists give me Bottom/Top execution, and it works quite well for me. The Weekly Review becomes all that more critical if your contexts are "artificial", as it is really easy to accumulate a lot of tasks in one context view. Best regards, Ron On Jan 8, 3:44 pm, Lisa Stroyan <[email protected]> wrote: > At 04:12 PM 1/7/2010, you wrote: > > >All of these methodologies have in common the idea that the user knows > >instinctively what task he should do next, regardless of what's on top > >of the To-Do list. > > Perhaps I'm the exception, but this is part of where I get stuck, and > I would love any thoughts you all have! (I try to follow GTD as > well). I find myself scanning my lists, but not for the task I > *should* do next, but for the one that is easiest to pick off and get > the sense of accomplishment from completing. That is why I need to > use Flags to mark the most important things of the day. I tend to > avoid them, otherwise...they feel too hard. > > Part of the issue is that I have a very varied lists of tasks, and > not a lot of structure imposed externally and lots of context > switching. I'm a homeschooling mom with an at-home business on the > side. I used to operate a lot on stress, but burned myself out. So, > I'm careful not to have many tasks that scream at me "you have to do > this right now!!" or leave them on my list very long. > > Another contributing issue is that most of my contexts are > artificial. I spend most of my productive/task time in my house, > with my laptop within reach, as well as my internet-connected phone > which goes everywhere I go. So @Computer, @Home, @Calls, all really > blend together. (And most everything is "@Computer" these days). > > Any thoughts? > > Lisa > > ---------- > Lisa Stroyan, mailto:[email protected]
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized?hl=en.
