It's all work? or is it?

[nunodonato]

Hi everyone,
Today I read the great article at GTD Times titled "It's all Work" - http://www.gtdtimes.com/2010/10/25/its-all-work/ . If you haven't read it, check it out!

Yesterday, I came across this article called "Reasons to keep your hobby a hobby" - http://bit.ly/bS94Io which seems to go a little bit in an opposite direction.

Would love to get some views from other GTDers

[nunodonato]

oops, can a moderator move this to right forum? :/

[Oogiem]

I'm definitely in the it's all work camp. But I do understand the issue about not making a hobby the way you get your money. I do not agree with the concept that work = income producing.

To me I have work projects in a variety of areas. One of them is spinning my own yarn and then knitting or weaving items from that. I can't tell you how many times I get told you should sell your knitting or weaving. Well first off the price I'd have to charge to even get minimum wage for my time makes it too expensive for anyone to buy the items I create. Second I'd have to worry about keeping items in stock and making things that sell. I do sell my handspun yarn, but I spin what I like and want to use myself and if it sells that is great but I don't count on my handspun to sell. What I do sell is the yarn I have spun for us at a commercial mill to match and meet customer needs. I'd hate to have to spin 50 pounds of the exact same yarn so for me becoming a production spinner would not be a good idea. But that doesn't mean I don't call my spinning "work".

I have a project right now that is in my GTD system which is to spin the cream Shetland into medium singles for weaving some cloth. I am tracking the actions, it has a defined outcome and I am actively working on it. In the GTD sense it's "work". OTOH I seriously doubt if I'll sell the resulting cloth or something made from it. So it's not a money making opportunity for me.

Income producing is something totally separate from the concept of work in my world.

Besides, how do you characterize things like cleaning the chicken coops out and trading the manure for fresh veges? It's work, and it offsets the need for cash income.

[Chulkova]

I think All Work approach doesn't work for 9 to 5 Employes. They have to do their responsibilities they paid to do not their home tasks. They have 5 to 10 time slot for home work!

[bishblaize]

I think All Work approach doesn't work for 9 to 5 Employes. They have to do their responsibilities they paid to do not their home tasks. They have 5 to 10 time slot for home work!

I think there's a bit of a misunderstanding here, because work = job and work = things to do. Its completely inappropriate to do my personal hobbies in the time im paid to do my job - but its completely appropriate to approach your personal life with the same focus, organisation and drive that you bring to your job.

GTD was borne out of David Allen's long years on the road, so he has no natural differentiation between job and non-job on a daily basis. if you're on the road 250 days a year, you cant consider that all as your job 24 hours a day, or you'd keel over aged 45. You have to have a way of balancing job and non-job. So GTD was borne from that mindset.

For me however the 9 to 5 thing gives me a natural set of boundaries to perform the different roles within. Im paid to do the things on my JD from 9 to 5, so I do those in the hours Iv agreed with my employer.Then when I get home I do the tasks associated with another role, that of husband/friend/hobbyist/etc.

The issue is not whether you should blur the boundaries - the issue is that lots of people are super organised and focussed at work, then get home, slump in front of the telly and get nothing done because they dont treat their whole life the same way.