Hey You.
Yeah, you who doesn’t get (and maybe doesn’t care about) GTD, and wondering what’s it about…I’m going to fill you in.
Frankly, I have to sell you an idea.
That’s right. The big secret. Coming up is everything that’s part of the basic system (and you won’t have to buy a damn thing.)
But first, I’m going to throw in a quote here. Kristen, a dear friend, once said to me, when I felt totally overwhelmed:
“Even an Elephant can be eaten, just one bite at a time.”
It really resonated with me. I felt overwhelmed by crap in my life because I was trying to eat Elephants, and just didn’t realize it.
I want you to take a moment and think about all the things in your life that you want to do.
You see, your problem is twofold:
First, is clutter. You’re cluttering your brain with all sorts of stuff, because you don’t have a system you trust. You make notebooks, carry Palm Organizers, create folders and ideas lists…and only small parts of them actually happen.
Second, you try to eat Elephants.
You make a to do list. To do lists fail.
Have you ever looked at your todo list and seen a couple of the big things on it and go, “I’ll do that later.” And then it goes on tomorrow’s list. And the next day’s list. And you keep this up until either it’s at critical mass or that you delete it?
It’s because you made a mistake - one that causes you to procrastinate or just ignore those things that you try and do in life.
Your mistake is what should and shouldn’t be on your to do list
I can hear you thinking, c’mon Jeff, that’s pretty simple. Yeah, if it’s so simple, why do so many people adopt this workflow? With a passion, no less? It’s because nobody ever sat down and gave them (or you) a system. It leaves no piece in your life unturned. And for the first time (for 99% of us) we can relax, and see everything.
In fact, you shouldn’t ever use a To Do list. There are many things on your ‘list’ that are actually projects. Read that again. (Here’s your Elephant.)
You should be figuring out instead what the Next Action you can do is. If you can’t physically “do” something, and/or it has multiple steps, it’s a project, not an action!
You should have a list of Next Actions instead (and it’s not the same!).
And those Next Actions you can take (to forward all of your projects), they’re very specific. Some you can only do at work. Some at home. Some you can only do at the Supermarket or on the phone. Why should you even look at your “home” items when you’re at “work?”
If you said, “So I don’t forget”, it’s because you don’t trust your system.
So, if you can relate, you should be using Getting Things Done.
It’s not a To Do list. It’s not an index card system. It’s not a database.
It’s a workflow
Coming up…..A breakdown of the workflow.
