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May 30, 2005
What lurks below the runway?
Here's a very interesting insight about procrastination shared with me by one of the brightest clients I've dealt with, Cole Bitting (founding partner - Flagstone Securities). He's referring to the horizons of focus (runway = actions, 10,000 = projects, 30,000 = goals, 40,000 = vision, etc.) we refer to in GTD.
I had a thought about your altitude metaphor. There is the below ground (below runway??) view. I find getting to that level on of the most valuable. This view comes from examining Tasks where the next step is clearly thought through, but I still avoid like the plague. For these tasks, I have to go below ground. Personally, I will usually shut off all stimuli (unusual for me), close my eyes and dwell on feelings and associations, not thoughts. These impressions are slippery, but once cornered, usually fess up a rich vein of 50,000 + 40,000 + 30,000 foot stuff. Objectifying these vague feelings and impressions is compellingly valuable. One example that I'll give is that I had an old BMW 325i convertible, with cracked rear window plastic. I knew exact who to call, where to take the car, how much the repair would cost, and had the money to afford the repair, but I would not make the appointment. All I had to do was call the number on the task. But I didn't. In fact, when that item was inevitably the top item on my list, I'd jump to the bottom and work my way higher. Avoidance. Which begs the 'why?' question - a question itself which is often avoided or without reasoned answer (the 'uh - I dunno' answer - like the one I get from my kids all the time). To me, finding crystal clear Next Actions that provoke such avoidance is the most valuable part of GTD that I have to-date discovered. In fact, I could imagine that this line of thought could add a lot of scope to the vertical dimension of your GTD construct.
Another perspective on procrastination, where we tend to avoid things that don't have enought meaning, OR have too much meaning. As mentioned in a previous blog, it reminds me of the terrific exposition of the topic by Steven Pressfield in The War of Art - that resistance will be in proportion to the proximity of expressing who you really are.
Posted by David at May 30, 2005 08:55 AM
Comments
So I'm curious: Did he ever figure out why he didn't replace the plastic?
Posted by: jac at May 30, 2005 11:21 AM
In a similar vein, this article talks about cringe-busting your task list
- http://www.43folders.com/2005/05/cringebusting_y.html
... items can sometimes linger on your list a lot longer than you'd like, and it can be tricky to understand exactly why that is in each case. I'm convinced cringing is often a factor... - Merlin Mann
Posted by: Bryan at May 31, 2005 05:44 AM
I haven't caught up with "The War of Art" and will do so based on the good reviews I'm hearing.
I found "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore to be helpful to me. I've drifted at times into what I'll call "complex avoidance" such as throwing myself into helping other family members to the exclusion of my own progress in career, personal development or other Quadrant II activities.
My feelings of needing to stabilize such situational crises before I could focus on my own goals also masked my avoidance and gave strength to the notion that I had to just fight through it until the crisis was resolved.
There may be times when that's the only option, but upon becoming more peripherally aware of impressions (in a similar manner as C. Bitting, and helped by Fiore) I can recognize the new nature of the challenge.
Once again, GTD for me is a crucial component in my toolbox: 7 Habits says "Be Proactive", TNH helped me better understand what my barriers were relative to proactivity, and then GTD helps me drive Next Actions, which were *not* the one's I'd originally targeted before I'd addressed the real challenge & issues.
Posted by: Mark Cioni at May 31, 2005 07:30 AM
I grokked the term "under the runway" immediately and put it to use - posing the question "what's lurking under?" up front is beautiful, turns up stuff like not contacting folks because feeling guilty about not having contacted them in too long... often just facing up to unfinished business on the inside defuses its power on the outside - thanks!
Posted by: Grace at June 4, 2005 01:18 PM
I was thinking about this also. Specifically, I was thinking of overcoming this resistance, to borrow Steven Presfield's term. And I thought that one way would be to simply confront this resistance with a greater amount of sheer will power. Sometimes we simply "don't feel like it" and there doesn't seem to be any legitimate reason for the delay. Possibly the actual reason is too clouded to be discovered and removed, or the effort required is not justified by the value of the task for the value of the task. On the other hand, sometimes there may be a legitimate reason for the delay, such as being low on energy. In cases like this it may be better to identify and acknowledge the reason and deal with it before attempting the task. If I follow the runway metaphor, I would say identify the debri on the run way and call in the cleaning crew to clear it up before take off.
Now, knowing that our minds sometimes play tricks with us I have to come back to the first solution of simply wiling yourself to do it. The debri on the runway may simply be a mirrage and you can fly right through it.
That leads to a question of when is the block real and legitimate and when is it just a figment of one's imagination? The answer to this question should allow us to apply the appropriate fix or cure. The act of answering this question may sound simple but it requires standing back, perhaps taking the vantage point inside the control tower with all the instrumentation showing the actual picture of the sunway. It's like standing back or outside of one's head. Perhaps imaagining that it is someone else who is grappling with this problem and they coem to us for advice. The we may be able to objectively look at the situation and see the way through clerly. Again though, care needs to be taken for ths exercise not to become the focus as resistance wins. Short circuiting the problem may be hat is called for. Simply just do it. Dont get sucked into more mind games. Keep it simple. Know yourself and be honest with yourself.
... just thinking out loud ...
Posted by: Slawek at June 4, 2005 07:27 PM
Slawek, et al
Great thinking. Is hesitation due to intuition or discomfort? As we progress as a species we may come up with some criteria for determining that...
David
Posted by: David Allen at June 4, 2005 09:23 PM
