GTMD (Getting Too Much Done)

[MilWill]

Hello all,

First post to the forums, and rather new to GTD. I have been working my way through the book for sometime now, and have already reaped some of the benefits. I have to admit I am not full into the into the process as of yet, however I have noticed a disturbing trend...

The more I get done, the more I have to do.

I work in an environment in which there is never enough time, or resources, and we are driven by deadlines. This results in a priorty system in which only the most critical of projects receive attention, and the rest are put in the organizations "Someday/Maybe" file.

Since I am already getting more done, I find myself having more free time, which I immediately fill with these other projects (which are important, despite the reduced priority). As far as I can tell, there is no light at the end of this tunnel.

Does anyone have any words of wisdom, or similar experiences?

Thanks,
~M

[kewms]

By "free time" do you mean uncommitted time at work, or personal time?

If you are getting more done during time that you would be spending at work anyway, that's a good thing. If your company has a brain, it should shower you with praise, cash, and promotions. If your company is successful, there will always be more work to do, but presumably your amazing productivity will allow you to partake of the company's success, leading to more responsibility (and more money).

If you find that this "extra" stuff is eating into your personal time, then it's up to you to draw the line. Maybe you want to split the difference, giving half of your newly free time to the company and half to yourself. Maybe there are personal projects that you've been ignoring, and you want to use your newly free time to tackle them. That's a discussion to have with your boss, not us. Although it will probably be a more productive discussion if you're able to point out (tactfully, of course) how you are getting so much more done than anyone else, and how you think you should be rewarded with more free time and/or more cash.

Generally speaking, though, you've discovered the great pitfall of productivity. If you handle responsibilities well, people give you more of them. The old saying about how if you want a job to get done, give it to a busy person most definitely applies. Again, greater responsibility should be accompanied by greater rewards. If it isn't, then you may want to use your newly free time to explore other options.

Katherine

[jkgrossi]

Generally speaking, though, you've discovered the great pitfall of productivity. If you handle responsibilities well, people give you more of them. The old saying about how if you want a job to get done, give it to a busy person most definitely applies.

Or as David puts it, "The better you get, the better you better get."

[flexiblefine]

Since I am already getting more done, I find myself having more free time, which I immediately fill with these other projects (which are important, despite the reduced priority). As far as I can tell, there is no light at the end of this tunnel.

If there is no light at the end of that tunnel, don't go racing down there too quickly.

It's great that you've improved your productivity, and that you are able to get more done than you used to. You should be rewarded for this improvement, either by your company or by yourself. Don't forget to take the opportunity to give yourself some sort of rewards when you get things finished, even if you just take a break to walk down the hall.

Knowing that there is always more to do and feeling like you're the only one who has to do it is a nasty trap that can leave you feeling overwhelmed. Do the work that's yours, but make sure you allow time to recharge and renew yourself, too.

[sonia_simone]

Maybe try and use some of that freed-up time to take more breaks--go have a walk around the block or something.

And if your job isn't showering you with love for being so brilliant and productive, you could use the time to work on your resume!

[treelike]

If increased productivity is creating more work for you then, if you enjoy the work, then that's good.

If you don't enjoy the work, assuming you have set hours, then I would say that it's still good. (I have found that keeping busy makes the time go faster so it doesn't seem so long until time to go home!)

If it's causing you to lose time from your personal life, and you're unhappy about that, then that's bad. Create a project which deal with this issue (maybe by speaking to boss, looking for other work, even ways to appear less productive to colleagues?! or whatever)

As far as "no light at the end of the tunnel", well I guess that's life. Last time I went through a tunnel it was exciting and great fun (an actual tunnel underground). Maybe you should see it as lots of tunnels rather than one big one.

Everyone has too much to do and that's the whole point. When you're in control of what you're doing and what you're not doing- that's as good as it gets.

[MilWill]

Thanks everyone for your insightful responses, they have been helpful and given me some things to think about. I have actually been rewarded very well over the course of the year, a total of over 20% in three different raises, two of them, "out of cycle". To give you a frame of reference, many good employees have received a single raise of 2-5% in the past year.

The recognition and financial rewards are very nice, and I reflect on this when I am feeling overwhelmed or stressed out.

My question came more from a place of... does it ever end? ...the work waiting to be done. Maybe it doesn't, I especially appreciated this response.



Everyone has too much to do and that's the whole point. When you're in control of what you're doing and what you're not doing- that's as good as it gets.

Maybe this is an attitude I need to try in work in there... ;-)

[kewms]

Most companies are more than willing to keep loading work on you indefinitely. If that isn't what you want, then you have to be the one to draw the line.

Are the rewards worth it? What, if anything, are you leaving undone in your personal life? If you would like some amount of personal time back, what's the next action to achieve that goal?

For a lot of people, it's learning how to say no.

Katherine

[MilWill]

They are not loading the work onto me as much as I am finding more time to take on more...

However there is always that expectation that once I start to take on more, I will continue with increasing levels of productivity, at work we love to call it "raising the bar", the problem is some also believe that; no matter how high you set it, that you can always move it up a little higher, even if others are struggling at the lower levels.

This is something I need keep a close eye on, and better manage in the future.

You mentioned a phrase that I heard once before "a personal life" ;-)
I exaggerate a bit, but yes, there is room for improvement there as well.

I have no problem with saying "No" even though this was not always the case, in fact I enjoy my work, but a balancing act is definitely in order, as it is not unusual for me to work until 12:00AM (at home) or on the weekends (also at home). Not because I have to, but because I have an overactive brain, have trouble sleeping, and like to keep myself mentally stimulated.

[MilWill]

The feeling that keeps me up until 12:00 a night doing "work", or for that matter, thinking about how to better manage it on a Friday night, is one compliments GTD very well.

It is best described in a book called "Flow:The Psychology of Optimal Experience"

From the description on Amazon

"You have heard about how a musician loses herself in her music, how a painter becomes one with the process of painting. In work, sport, conversation or hobby, you have experienced, yourself, the suspension of time, the freedom of complete absorption in activity. This is "flow," an experience that is at once demanding and rewarding--an experience that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi demonstrates is one of the most enjoyable and valuable experiences a person can have.

I just need to manage a bit more flow in the personal life, as I mentioned earlier.

[TesTeq]

They are not loading the work onto me as much as I am finding more time to take on more...

However there is always that expectation that once I start to take on more, I will continue with increasing levels of productivity, at work we love to call it "raising the bar", the problem is some also believe that; no matter how high you set it, that you can always move it up a little higher, even if others are struggling at the lower levels.
Decide what you want to do. Do you want to "raise the bar" or just to sit quietly and safely as an average employee? Are you really interested in your work? Do you like your company or is it just a safe cave where you want to hide?

[flexiblefine]

PS: don't worry, once the intital "buzz" of GTD wears off, its pretty easy to become a lazy, procrastinating slug again. It can be done.

Actually, that's exactly what led me to concentrate on trying to get over my procrastination. When knocking things off lists was new and exciting, I was truly Getting Things Done. When it became just the way I do things, some things started to stay on my lists, and far too many things were not getting done.

Now if only "overcome procrastination" were well-defined enough to be a project that could be broken down into next actions...

[Brenda]

Why not set up a project "overcome procrastination"?

Just decide:
What's the successful outcome?
What's the next action?

[TesTeq]

Why not set up a project "overcome procrastination"?

Just decide:
What's the successful outcome?
What's the next action?
It's classic catch-22 situation because you can procrastinate even when "overcome procrastination" project is defined.

As many other problems - procrastination can be overcome only from the outside of the problem area - you must find the real cause of the procrastination (in most cases some kind of fear).

[yurfi]

I think the problem that you have (as do I ) is that you've combined the GTD methodology with the old task methodology known as WLH "Work like hell"

I suggest using the time to do stuff for yourself. I know i should do the same :)

Combining WLH to any methodology is dangerous because it will alway leave you very stressed. Go to the gym, or out with your wife or your friend's wife whatever floats your boat.

It may seem counterintuitive but resting will make you more productive.

[flexiblefine]

It's classic catch-22 situation because you can procrastinate even when "overcome procrastination" project is defined.

I wish overcoming procrastination were as easy as setting up a project and just doing the steps needed to mark it as complete... but procrastination is keeping me from doing those steps, as well as a lot of other next actions.

Procrastination has a lot of different symptoms, and I'm doing a better job of recognizing those symptoms and doing something to kick me out of my old thought patterns.

I know there are people who don't have this problem, and I'm glad for them. Beating procrastination breaks down into psychological actions, not physical actions, and psychological actions don't always have permanent effects.

[sonia_simone]

I am in love with the concept "WLH methodology." I hope you don't mind if I steal it for my team!

Procrastination is definitely a distinct animal with distinct issues--I believe there is a whole topic about that around here somewhere, a very useful discussion.

[treelike]

Even before I discovered GTD, I found that one way to beat (or at least help to beat) procastination is to just do ANYTHING. Even if it was just doing some housework, going for a walk or do something for someone that I had been putting off. After doing something I had a bit more energy to try other things. Action breeds action. Curiously, doing something totally different frequently led to acheiving things to with the thing I wasn't making any progress with.

One of the beauties of GTD is that you have always got a big list of ANYTHINGs to do- and you can be reasonably sure that there is an ultimate purpose to all of them. You've just got to give that little push to do one of them.

[flexiblefine]

One of the beauties of GTD is that you have always got a big list of ANYTHINGs to do- and you can be reasonably sure that there is an ultimate purpose to all of them. You've just got to give that little push to do one of them.

I agree -- one of my successful tactics for procrastinating less at work is to start the day with work instead of a bunch of mindless web surfing. Check my e-mail, process my inbox, and start doing things off my lists -- it sets a more productive mindset that lasts even after I take a web-surfing break later in the day.

Get started, and the momentum can carry you far.

[JDC]

As many other problems - procrastination can be overcome only from the outside of the problem area - you must find the real cause of the procrastination (in most cases some kind of fear).

It's not necessarily fear. I procrastinate like crazy about doing my taxes. It's not fear, it's boredom.

Add up how much money I spent on office supplies, add up how much money I spent on airfare, add up how much money I spent on phone calls, add up how much money I spent on postage.... Maybe there's some multiplication if I need to do currency conversion, but addition and multiplication stopped being interesting in grade school.

The whole process bores me to tears and I avoid it, but there is no fear.

[JDC]

Fear of being bored?
Cute. But no.

[JDC]

Doing taxes is not about basic maths anymore, as you can just plug the numbers into software these days, and it does all the calculations for you.
And why is typing a year’s worth of receipts into a software program any more interesting than typing them into a calculator?


Some people don't due their taxes, due to the fear of feeling STRESSED, DEPRESSED, angry, overwhelmed, arguing with their spouse, etc.
Some people don't do their taxes as a type of rebellion against being "forced" to do something.
And some people don’t do their taxes because the whole process bores them to tears.

That is, just breaking the task (Next Action) we are avoiding down to the very next physical action,
For me, divide-and-conquer seems to be the most effective strategy (something I discovered before I discovered GTD). I used to try to do my taxes all in one sitting. Now I do them piecemeal. Figure out the phone calls one day; figure out the mileage another day. It’s still boring, but it’s boring in small doses.


Let me also be clear that I am not requesting advice on this. I was simply making the point that procrastination is not necessarily the result of fear.

[Rainer Burmeister]

Some people don't due their taxes, due to the fear of feeling STRESSED, DEPRESSED, angry, overwhelmed, arguing with their spouse, etc.
Some people don't do their taxes as a type of rebellion against being "forced" to do something.
Some folks HATE doing their taxes, as there was a sense that it is going to cost them money, or be made aware of how much $ is going out.
Cosmo,

because of all the reasons you mentioned I gave up on doing my taxes several yeras ago. Now I pay a tax accountant for doing my taxes.

Rainer

[avrum68]

I can't think of an exception to this way of dealing with procrastination, and if anyone can, I would like to hear it.

I suggest heading on over to Yahoo Groups, search for The Now Habit, and observe the multitude of reasons why:

a) People procrastinate
b) Why GTD, The Now Habit, etc., don't work (for some)
c) Why "Just do it", while seemingly obvious, doesn't work for all procrastinators, all the time.

[flexiblefine]

But in the end, no matter what kind of procrastination it is, serious, or trivial, phobic, or even traumatic, it always comes down to...

-specifically identifying the Very Next Physical Action to be done.
-deciding on a specific time to do this specific behavior.
-then forcing yourself to carry out this Very Next Action for at least 5-15 minutes at least.
-keep repeating this cycle.

In the end, the only way to not procrastinate is to do the things you've been putting off. CosmoGTD is right about this.

No matter why we procrastinate (and we all have our own reasons) and how we end up fighting against it (again, we all have our ways), in the end we want to do the things we haven't been doing. The end point is the same, without exception.


Professional psychologists who have studied this for years suggest that once you figure out the specific behavior that you need/want to do, then when you don't "feel like" doing it, then you have to FORCE yourself to do it in that moment, according to a schedule, and then rinse and repeat this, over and over, until the avoidance response diminishes.
Any change in our thoughts and actions requires that we step out of our comfort zone. No matter whether we choose to look at it as "force" or something else, breaking out of our habits requires doing things we don't "feel like" doing.

In "The Now Habit," Neil Fiore suggests "persistent starting" as a way to help unlearn procrastination habits. This is pretty much the same thing CosmoGTD suggests above, just expressed differently. Get started, work for a while, and keep starting. Eventually we should learn to start on our own, without having to wind ourselves up with extra motivations and "force" ourselves to get to work.


The very act of carrying out this new behavior creates new learnings in the brain, so then the brain can learn that doing X, is not that bad, and its better to just do it.

CosmoGTD is not expressing this view as someone who sees his own procrastination as a powerful force that will be difficult to overthrow. For those of us in that position, "just do it" sounds a little contemptuous. "Just do it" doesn't show any respect for the 50,000-foot mountain we feel like we have to climb to overcome our problems.

There's no other way of doing things but to do them. You can't ask a pretty girl out for a Saturday evening without actually doing it, and you can't do the things you've been putting off until tomorrow without picking a step and doing it.

For those of us who have turned tasks into 50,000-foot mountains, we have to keep trying, step by step, until we learn that focus dissolves difficulty, and it's really not that bad in the end. (The mountain, after all, is imaginary.) But it's an ongoing process.

[kewms]

CosmoGTD is not expressing this view as someone who sees his own procrastination as a powerful force that will be difficult to overthrow. For those of us in that position, "just do it" sounds a little contemptuous. "Just do it" doesn't show any respect for the 50,000-foot mountain we feel like we have to climb to overcome our problems.

There's no other way of doing things but to do them. You can't ask a pretty girl out for a Saturday evening without actually doing it, and you can't do the things you've been putting off until tomorrow without picking a step and doing it.

That's exactly it. No matter what the goal, and no matter what the (internal or external) obstacles, in the end it comes down to identifying a physical action, and then doing it. To run a marathon, you start by lacing up your shoes and running around the block. To write a novel, you start by writing a paragraph.

I can actually see how a goal like "stop procrastinating" can itself contribute to procrastination. It's too big and vague to be doable. What's the desired outcome? What's the very next physical action?

Katherine

[ActionGirl]

Cosmo, that was a very helpful description of the problem!

It's hard to argue that fact that it eventually comes down to "do it," but I find that "just do it" sets off a more complicated response that usually doesn't result in getting it done.

[flexiblefine]

I consider "avoidance" and procrastination the same thing, I have even created a special GTD category called !ANTIAVOIDANCE, which lists the Next Actions I am resisting, avoiding and procrastinating. (sadly, I often AVOID looking at this list! The mind is a tricky thing.)
I've been considering doing something similar with my lists. I date each item, so I know how long things sit on my lists, but I find that I keep working my lists from the bottom up, so old items just get older. Having a special category to review each week may help me get some of these stuck items unstuck.


A great book that explains all this is...
The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook: by Edmund J. Bourne
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1572244135
I'm going to add that to my R&D list of procrastination books. Thanks for the pointer!


The interesting thing to me, is that this applies from the most grandiose of personal projects, to the most difficult procrastination and even mental health issues.
I think that's one of the most interesting things about GTD, too. You can use it to deal with things you have to do at work, you can use it to deal with clutter in your house, and you can use it to deal with things in your head.


The one area for me anyway, that is a little bit missing in GTD, is that sometimes, even after the Next Action is properly defined, we need to PUSH ourselves to do it. (Behavioral Forcing).
I've noticed the same "deficiency." GTD is not a motivational program -- it will help you figure out what to do next, but it won't make you take that next step. This is how GTD brought my procrastination into focus -- well-defined next actions were simply not getting done.

Even if GTD did nothing but bring my procrastination to light, it would have been well worth the reading and effort. But it has done more -- for example, I don't spend a lot of time looking for stuff because I decide where it belongs! (This drives my wife mad, by the way.)


But for me anyway, I know that no matter what it is that is causing me trouble, that once the Next Action behavior is properly defined, that it is going to take a PUSH to do it. If the Next Action is small enough, then it is doable.
That's probably the way I should look at my delayed next actions. Pick a small action, give myself a good nudge, and get going. I know that starting the day with work helps set up momentum that can carry me through the rest of the day, and I should look at my individual actions in a similar light.

[flexiblefine]

But a point I am making, for myself, is that in the end, even a tiny Next Action can cause us to feel very strong resistance. I have several blocks right now myself, dealing with some difficult, complex and emotion-based situations.
In my case, a lot of my delayed actions are derived from projects that I have built up in my mind to be Large and Difficult. When I do get started on them, they turn out to be regular, un-scary things. My anxiety isn't based on reality, but on perception.


I KNOW what the precise Next Actions are, but my brain is still resisting doing them. But that's ok. I know what they are, and they are in my !ANTIAVOIDANCE list, so their days are numbered.
I'd like to have the confidence that delayed actions' "days are numbered." I'll try to spend some time in my weekly review putting together a list of next actions to redefine or push, to get some of these old things done.


It was a revelation to me, that PUSHING myself to do these Next Actions, even though it feels very uncomfortable in the moment, often makes you feel terrific once they are DONE, and the ball starts rolling.
I seem to rediscover this fairly regularly -- why can't I remember this, or set up a persistent reminder? I know that getting started generates a lot of momentum, but I don't seem to remember it at the right times.

Moving this discussion into a new thread is probably a good idea, since we've drifted a long way from the original question. I'll see you over there...
http://www.davidco.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5012

[rwarren]

CosmoGTD writes:
I have even created a special GTD category called !ANTIAVOIDANCE, which lists the Next Actions I am resisting, avoiding and procrastinating.


This was a great suggestion! I created this category last Wednesday with three next actions that had been hanging around for several weeks: writing a letter, and writing two thank you notes. By Thursday, they were completed! All told, it took less than an hour to do them and they had caused me hours of guilt and grief.

Thanks, CosmoGTD!

[Gameboy70]

The one area for me anyway, that is a little bit missing in GTD, is that sometimes, even after the Next Action is properly defined, we need to PUSH ourselves to do it. (Behavioral Forcing). We often have the idea that if the Next Action is properly defined, that we will automatically do it, or "feel like" doing it. The psychological literature states this is not the case at all, and as a matter of fact, is very often not the case.Being too lazy to push myself to do anything, the only practical definition of Next Action for me is: the very next physical action that you're able and willing to take to achieve a successful outcome. I realized early on that if I put something on my action list that I wasn't willing to do, I was conning myself. Ignore this honest self-assessment, and you'll keep staring at the same next actions week after week. If I come up with a next action that's psychologically onerous or evokes a twinge of hesitancy, that's a signal that there's more thinking to do in determining the real next action, regardless of what "the" (some) psychological literature states. In my experience, procrastination results from unclear purpose, unclear outcomes (vision), or unclear actions.