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November 04, 2007
The 2AM Worry Club
Any of you in the 2AM Worry Club? You're sleeping peacefully and your inner committee wakes you bolt upright in bed to remind you of something you missed, need to do, should have done, need to track down or have to figure out. With reasoning out the window, some part of you wonders if maybe your boss/coworker/client is up too and you should just call? Sure! They'll just love that.
In my experience, the reason that happens is that in the mind's effort to be a loyal servant for feeding the conscious brain incompletions, it has no idea that 2AM is not the best time to be thinking about that thing. So for lack of a better choice, it thinks it should worry about it to at least make some progress on it. Next time, try writing it down. It's hard to organize it in your brain on a mental "not now" list when that's not how your brain is designed to work. Consider that it's your brain's job to feed you what it thinks is not complete. Writing it down is a way to bring it to completion, at least temporarily.
If I wake up with something on my mind, I write it down and leave it in a place I know I'll see when I get up in the morning. My mind lets it go. It doesn't mean I've solved the issue or problem, but it's off my mind. In the morning, I look at what I wrote and ask two questions: What's my desired outcome with this thing? What's the next action? Those answers go into my system: Calendar, Projects list, Action lists, Waiting For list or Someday/Maybe. Simple as that.
I'll often name something a Project that I'm just trying to get some clarity about. The Waiting For list is also brilliant for those 2AMers where I'm waiting to hear about or get resolution on something. The weekly review ties it all together to give me consistent review of all of these lists and to reinforce the idea that it's OK to let it go.
Do you have any 2AM kinds of things grabbing your attention? What would you call the project around any of that? What is your next action or is there anything you are waiting on?
Posted by Kelly at November 4, 2007 04:51 PM
Comments
Kelly,
If I understand correctly, your @Action lists contains work related items such as calls, email, etc. Do you have an @ calls list or are they just included in the one @Action list?
Thanks
Posted by: Mitch at November 5, 2007 10:15 AM
Kelly,
I have no problem writing thoughts down in the middle of the night. I have a huge problem being able to read my writing the next morning!
Posted by: Randy at November 5, 2007 01:37 PM
I began jotting down my 2AM worries about 1/2 a year ago, a time during which I really began to apply GTD fully (yes, I had a partial method before). Some of these can be very mundane ideas, others though seem to be the ones I don't want to face; they range from finally cleaning out some files to really changing a part of my life. I would never have thought it, but I'm more comfortable now, as I face rather than ignore these worries. I must admit though, there are a few worries I have not put either in my someday/maybe files or in any other project or NA lists.
Posted by: Silke at November 5, 2007 02:32 PM
I read once that the reason things seem so much worse at 2 am is that that is when we are the most vulnerable - we are in a deep state of sleep and even when we waken we are not thinking clearly or moving very well - therefore things seem worse than they really are. Sometimes for me it is helpful to remember that it really is true - things will be a lot better in the morning after a good night's sleep.
Posted by: Liz at November 5, 2007 07:16 PM
Hi Mitch,
I break my Actions into contexts rather then keeping all of the items on one big list. If you think of the people, places & tools you need for your work and personal life, that will pretty much define your contexts. I don't split personal vs. work. A call is a call and an email is an email to me. Typical contexts are:
Anywhere
Agendas
Calls
Computer
Errands
Home
Office
Hope that helps!
Kelly
Posted by: Kelly at November 5, 2007 07:35 PM
You're right Randy--that does happen!
Silke--David Allen says: When you find out what has your attention, then you'll really find out what has your attention. Then when find out what has your attention, you'll REALLY find out what has your attention. And so on...
It can really be like an onion unpeeling and I think you've got the profound subtlety of GTD. Well done!
Posted by: Kelly at November 5, 2007 07:43 PM
I am a part of the 2AM worry club with the bed side blackberry.
Posted by: Sreeram at November 6, 2007 06:27 AM
I found jott.com works great for these and other inconvenient flashes of recall. It's a free service (for now at least) that you call (I have it on speed dial on my cell) and talk into and it transcribes the message and emails it to you. Works a lot better than scribbling in the dark and remembering to find the note in the morning.
Posted by: Joshua Long at November 18, 2007 08:31 PM
