« Hopping into the Twitter river | Main | Best & Worst Practices of Doing - Part Two »
March 21, 2009
A day of doing work as it appears
Despite the impression some of you might have of black belt GTDers like me, I am not always a next action machine. I relish my downtime. Today, for example, I have NOTHING on my calendar. Ahhh....the possibilties!
So if we consider my latest post on the Three Fold Nature of Work and Doing, my day looks like this so far:
1. I've scanned my pre-defined work (just the calendar--nothing there--moving on to #2)
2. I've defined any new input by processing my inboxes (email and some others--nothing to handle there other than decide--moving on to doing work as it appears)
3. I looked at what I feel like doing (my husband and I started negotiations about which movie to see)
Are my lists at zero in order to feel free to do whatever shows up? Far from it. They've never been longer. But they are completely current and my inboxes are at zero. I know that nothing on those lists has my attention right now. I may scan one or two action lists today, especially my "Out & About" list since I'll be heading to the Big City for a movie and will want to handle anything we can while we're there. But otherwise, it's a free day to do whatever shows up.
If you see us each going into a different movie, you'll know how the negotiations went.
Posted by Kelly at March 21, 2009 09:10 AM
Comments
Kelly,
That is so refreshing to hear! The Three Fold Nature of Work has been one of the hardest concepts for me to get...but I am getting there.
Likewise, I spent 3 hours processing today and no "doing" time. Once every commitment was off my mind and in my system I did a quick scan. The world would not end if I did none of it so that's what I did. We took the Harley out of mothballs up here in Minnesota and went for our first spring ride. I could enjoy the time and knew that if anything did occur it could always be captured on my ever-present Notetaker Wallet or pocket digital voice recorder.
Thanks for your open sharing and trust you and John had a great time.
Posted by: Grant Hiesterman at March 21, 2009 03:51 PM
After an early morning engagement, my wife and I headed out to enjoy a five hour drive and gawk at the beauty of The Adirondacks coming to life before our eyes. Did we have nothing on our lists? Hardly! But what we did have were current systems that held all the "stuff' of our world until we got back.
Speaking of being back, we've been in the office six hours now so it's time to go home!
Thanks, Kelly.
Posted by: Dean at March 21, 2009 07:11 PM
Great post Kelly, quick question is your "Out & About" list a replacement for @Errands, just from the actual wording it seems a bit more casual. Can you enlighten me on this thanks
Posted by: Jorge Ledesma at March 31, 2009 05:56 AM
Hi Jorge,
I get bored with my list names sometimes so I switch them up. Out & About is just my current name for Errands.
Kelly
Posted by: Kelly at April 4, 2009 04:29 PM
