"DOING"

Have you noticed that when you start to implement GTD you quickly become aware of what your weaknesses are in terms of self-management?

Mine is the doing. I'm happy to plow through the inbox and make the front end decisions and get everything nice and tidy - even plan some projects, etc., but then its "ok, now what?" I know David Allen recommends the energy priority and time considerations when deciding on what to do, but I havent been successful at getting that done. I still tend to flounder, but now in a much more organized way! :roll:

How about you? Anybody out there slain this dragon?

DM

What I've found that helps is strictly adhering to the 2-minute rule; I've realized that there were a lot of 2-minute actions that I deferred. It's helped me to "do" a lot of things that I might have otherwise let slide.

An apt quote:

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison :D

Dave

I have discovered different "people" on my own internal committee.

I have one who loves to create, to make big vision, and to wonder about it all. That's the person who wanders into a bookstore and starts to pick up books on Quantum Physics...just for fun!

Then, there's another part that just LOVES to check little boxes of completed actions! Enjoys seeing completion, completion, completion.

I've run into small "speed bumps" in my own productivity, however, when I've tried to call on both parts of me at the same time. So, I built in automated ways to manage my energy, thought and action... My own Getting Things Done.

Perhaps the most important lesson I ever learned is to start off by ALWAYS writing things down as soon as I am aware of them. This has meant, in the past, that I'll stop in the middle of a conversation, dinner, phone call or even while delivering a seminar!, and write something down. (The *form* may change, as sometimes I collect the vision into my own voice mail machine at the office.)

Then, I let the Next Action piece come in. Picking up that piece of paper or message, I ask, "What's the next action?"

This process, mixing vision with action, has allowed me to get a LOT of things done, with a sense of relaxed control.