The art of stress-free productivity is no different from any other art

Don't you ever feel frustrated having to follow so many principles and rules in the art of stress-free productivity?

Are there some of you who have been practising for a long time you still don't really get it?

I am currently in the progress of finishing a book written in the 40s by Mortimer Adler called 'How to Read a Book'. It is a practical book that proposes readers to adopt a set of behaviours if they wish to understand great challenging books above their intelligence level. The various acts in the skilled operations, including specific actions and rules one must take and follow, constitute the art of reading.

When we speak of someone who is skilled in anything - in the art of stress-free productivity or in the art of music - we are pointing to the fact that they possess the habit of doing it, not simply knowing the rules of which the habit is founded upon.

Anyways, I wanted to share a short passage from the book. I think it helps to frame the complexity of the art of stress-free productivity quite well.

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-Calvin

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Originally Posted by ctklai

I am currently in the progress of finishing a book written in the 40s by Mortimer Adler called 'How to Read a Book'. It is a practical book that proposes readers to adopt a set of behaviours if they wish to understand great challenging books above their intelligence level. The various acts in the skilled operations, including specific actions and rules one must take and follow, constitute the art of reading.

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So you should read a book to learn how to read books above your intelligence level? Interesting idea! :-)

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Originally Posted by author of the book

In order to forget them as separate acts, you have to learn them first as separate acts.

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It does not work this way. You cannot learn to properly bend knees or to look downhill while standing at the top of the hill. In GTD it is not possible to learn Collecting step without Processing and Organizing and Doing and Reviewing because you will end up with a big pile of unprocessed notes.

I think the best way to improve an element of the process is to focus on it while performing the whole routine.

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Originally Posted by TesTeq

So you should read a book to learn how to read books above your intelligence level? Interesting idea! :-)



It does not work this way. You cannot learn to properly bend knees or to look downhill while standing at the top of the hill. In GTD it is not possible to learn Collecting step without Processing and Organizing and Doing and Reviewing because you will end up with a big pile of unprocessed notes.

I think the best way to improve an element of the process is to focus on it while performing the whole routine.

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Just like skiing, being able to get things done with the least amount of effort and stress is a "skill" or an "art" (this is D.Allen's message to me in his book, and I can't speak for others).

An art or skill is possessed by those who formed a habit of operating according to its rules. Bending your knees, weekly review, keeping your back straight, keeping a master projects list, learn forward, determine next actions for projects...these are all rules.

It would be interesting to have responses from a variety of long time GTD practitioners about what's automatic for them.

As far as your analogy goes about standing on top of the hill and receiving instructions but not having to gone down the hill yet, I would say this is the equivalent of attending seminars, watching webcasts or reading the book if one is to be congruent with Adler's terms and image.

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Originally Posted by ctklai

As far as your analogy goes about standing on top of the hill and receiving instructions but not having to gone down the hill yet, I would say this is the equivalent of attending seminars, watching webcasts or reading the book if one is to be congruent with Adler's terms and image.

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OK, but one should always do three things to learn a skill: practice, practice and practice. Attending seminars, watching webcasts or reading the book is useful for gaining a theoretical knowledge but not a practical skill.

And yes - at the top of the hill the instructor gives preliminary instructions but then the whole teaching is done via feedback after a downhill ride. That's what I've learned when I was an assistant ski instructor.

Interesting topic. Had a question about, "It would be interesting to have responses from a variety of long time GTD practitioners about what's automatic for them."

Can you clarify what you mean by automatic? Does that mean practicing GTD without having to actively think?

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Originally Posted by ctklai

Just like skiing, being able to get things done with the least amount of effort and stress is a "skill" or an "art" (this is D.Allen's message to me in his book, and I can't speak for others).

An art or skill is possessed by those who formed a habit of operating according to its rules. Bending your knees, weekly review, keeping your back straight, keeping a master projects list, learn forward, determine next actions for projects...these are all rules.

It would be interesting to have responses from a variety of long time GTD practitioners about what's automatic for them.

As far as your analogy goes about standing on top of the hill and receiving instructions but not having to gone down the hill yet, I would say this is the equivalent of attending seminars, watching webcasts or reading the book if one is to be congruent with Adler's terms and image.

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Originally Posted by pgarth

Can you clarify what you mean by automatic? Does that mean practicing GTD without having to actively think?

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I'm reading The Straight-A Conspiracy book (don't ask me why :-) ).

It contains great learning advice for students and contains one subchapter about "automaticity".

When you encounter something new you learn it and create a weak neural path in you brain.

You strenghten this path by training - the solution finding process becomes automatic - a neural path in your brain becomes a multi-lane highway.

What was then difficult and new - now becomes obvious and serves as a building block for higher level skills learning process.

For example you need to "feel" hex and binary math to easily "compute" subnet addresses and masks.

Great question, I love that you brought that up!

I thought about it and an aspect of GTD that seems to be automatic at this point for me, is doing things that can be done based on where I am. For example, I find that immediately when on line at a Starbucks or anywhere else I have down time, I go right into my system to see what I can get done, based on my context. It has become second nature to me.

Another is mindsweeping. I tend to do it very often (not just at Weekly Review) but several times throughout any given week.

How about some other long time GTDers???

Sums up perfectly for me why it has taken so long to get GTD going. It took me ages to get and understand the organising of my next action list, then once going on that I focussed on a complete projects list, then on backlog, then focussed on organising my project support, then focussed on getting my paper inbox to zero, now focussing on getting my email inbox to zero... I've had to get each one going and memorised before able to focus on the next one. You need to be able to remember the earlier bits off by heart before moving on to the next challenge.

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Originally Posted by ctklai

It would be interesting to have responses from a variety of long time GTD practitioners about what's automatic for them.

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Are you asking if some of the principles were already automatic to us when we first started?

Or are you asking if after practicing for a long time we now find some things have become automatic?

If it is the first, then I will say that probably nothing was automatic, because it was all new to how I done things, and I had to put in effort to learn those new skills.

If you were hoping that you could read the GTD book and just automatically have GTD down pat, without effort, and without having to go through the learning process, then that is just not a realistic expectation.

However, if it is the second, then I have been practicing GTD for about 5 1/2 years now and what I find is automatic for me are, checking my calendar, then next actions lists at the beginning of the day, and my context lists throughout the day, the 2 minute rule (that was the easiest and quickest) and the weekly review.

For others things, I still have to remind myself, and am still working on are things like emptying my email inboxes (I don't always check my email everyday) using my tickler folder, and clarifying/managing/reviewing the perspective levels which you learn about in Making it all work.