*sigh*

I just wish I could "bonsai" my ever growing task list is all!

Sounds like the most wonderful past time though, Mr Allen! Will we see an "end" product someday perchance?

I am a budding bonsai enthusiast, myself. It looks like you have a pretty good start. I love your weekend garden pictures. Please keep them coming.

Years before discovering GTD I realized pruning, Bonsai or otherwise, is amazingly therapeutic -- and I knew why. That branch right there? (snip) It will never need to be pruned again. Task completed. Ambiguity and uncertainty: zero.

Your comment "taking a break from thinking" reminds me of a wonderful little book by Winston S. Churchill, "Painting as a Pastime." It's not so much about painting as about the restorative powers of hobbies -- and Winston had a lot on his mind, especially from 1939 until 1945.

Churchill didn't use the term "mind like water," but this book convinces me he would have been a staunch advocate of GTD.

To paraphrase Alfred North Whitehead, operations of thought are like cavalry charges--they must be used sparingly and then you have to rest the horses.

Looking and seeing and snipping seems like just the horsing around necessary when preparing for--or recovering from--a major bout of thought.