Monday, May 1st, 2006...7:38 am
Baby Steps
One of the biggest problems I have encountered in my personal implementation of GTD® is putting little things into practice on a consistent basis.
Where does this become a problem? When I fail to get that note I really should have taken, when I sit down at my computer in the morning and let an email derail all of my good intentions for the day, and when I decide I would rather watch this hockey game on TV than do my weekly review.
Truth is, GTD® is a discipline. No one says it is easy, at first. For it to work, some of us must change some habits. Some of us will need to adjust our perspective. Some of us will have to reprioritize our lives. Some of us may have to do all of the above.
For me, its still a work in progress.
What happens when we work at changing a habit? We fall. It will happen from time to time. Success depends on us getting back on the horse. But the key is working to build consistency. To build consistency and turn something into a habit, means we must focus on being good at the little things.
Any coach will tell you that championship teams are built on consistent mastery of the fundamentals. The little things make the difference between champions and “also rans”. Many who can master little things, and can inspire others to do the same become great leaders.
So if we fall off the horse this week, get back on.
Remember that if we are consistent on the little things…the fundamentals…we will have success.
Lets not let ourselves get discouraged out there.
- Jason
7 Comments
May 1st, 2006 at 12:15 pm
I agree. In fact, I’ve started calling it a “discipline,” to emphasize the nature of the change.
May 1st, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Fortunately GTD has a number of backstops that can help if you fall off the wagon, or get the cart before the horse. One of the simplest ways to get back on track is to perform a Daily Review or a MindSweep.
Try it, it works wonders!
Side Note:
I wonder if the rising gas prices is causing me to use transportation metaphors!
May 1st, 2006 at 8:58 pm
Hear hear!! Excellent post! Habit change is so difficult. I am one of those who has serious trouble with this. But, I keep trying, and I figure one of these days things will stick.
I’m much better than I used to be.
Coming from a self-professed “disorganized fool”: GTD has been the best system for implementation for me. The concepts make complete sense, and they work extremely well when they’re implemented.
The important thing is not to give up after failure. If our psyche realizes we mean business, it’ll eventually do the hard work it doesn’t want to do. M. Scott Peck’s comments on procrastination keep coming back to me… we pick short term pleasure and longer-term pain over short-term pain and longer-term pleasure. This holds true for much more than personal planning. We short-shrift our own improvement, and apparently like it in the short-run. Or at least I do.
May 2nd, 2006 at 3:59 am
I agree completely. It doesn’t seem realistic to expect that a person can just start being organized in a short period of time, it takes practice.
What’s great about GTD is that it’s all common sense and once you accept it, organization comes naturally.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Thanks for all of the comments.
Matt, at times, I feel that it is an exercise of beating my mind into submission.
Speaker, a mind sweep or brain dump is always the first thing I do when I start getting uncomfortable with my workflow. I always feel better after doing a brain dump.
Allen, I always feel like I am a recovering procrastinator…”Hello, my name is Jason, and I am a recovering procrastinator.”
Mirko, I agree. The better we become in practice, the more natural the process becomes.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Consistency and habits are certainly the way to go. I’ve found that I just have to keep trying whenever I fail at implementing new habits.
I’ve been working on making gtd a part of my routine for months. I’ve had little successes here and there, the main one being a newly developed habit of always writing things down. I can’t count on myself to remember to do something, and if I do remember it, sometimes it doesn’t matter. But seeing it in print on my computer when I look at my list of to-dos makes a big difference in how “committed” I feel toward that project or task.
The habit I most want to develop next is the daily review. I still slip up terribly when it comes to getting all my stuff collected and into the system, and I sometimes still forget to look at my calendar every morning, although I’m getting better at it!
Like Mirko said, it takes practice.
May 24th, 2006 at 9:48 am
As a follow-up, I highly recommend the book “Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment” by George Leonard. He’s an Akido master, but the lessons apply to GTD, as well as many non-trivial pursuits. Excellent book.
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