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Leslie Harradine
Managing Chaos
One of the things we talk about in GTD is that in life and work today, not only do we have to be good at checking things off our lists but we also have to be good at managing change. Managing change means being comfortable with chaos. I’ve noticed two types of chaos: the chaos of creativity vs. the chaos of over creation and incompletion.
Chaos by its very nature has imbedded within it disorder or turmoil. When we are in the process of creating anything there is going to be some level of chaos because we are moving from the unknown to the knowable. If you plan your day based on all the “known” stuff you need to get done and someone shows up at your desk and says, “I need this now!”, you are going to have to incorporate this unknown into your day which often creates a different order to the day than you originally thought. It’s the ability to manage and integrate the chaos of the unknown quickly that will give you a leading edge in getting things done in your life.
What most people are faced with is the chaos of incompletion. When you have chaotic undefined “open loops” pulling at you, it becomes very difficult to be creative because you’re spending your time doing one of two things: either reacting to the turmoil in an attempt to get some sense of control over it or developing strategies to avoid dealing with stress of the chaos that is surrounding you. Neither one of these approaches leave much room for excitement when new things show up because each new unknown adds to the pile of stress. When you’ve gotten everything out of your head and processed it onto the appropriate list so you can relax about it all, then when new things show up unexpectedly it’s a lot easier to access your ingenuity because you have the psychic space to do it. New opportunities are then welcomed because you will naturally be tapping into your creativity. Most people I’ve met are eager to utilize their talent and skill in positive ways. The first step is to do this more fully is to clean up the chaos of incompletion so there is freedom to engage in the chaos of creativity.
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