Working through resistance and relief of a long list

Jen

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I'm new to gtd and am just in the process of getting the system up and running for my home life before diving into gtd for work. I thought this would be the easy stuff but it's been more of a challenge than I expected.

As I've found the start of the process quite tough I just wanted to share my feeling for others out there going through the same thing. After an initial flurry of enthusiasm I came up against real internal resistance to listing my loops and then finding the next actions. It left me feeling really anxious and showed me that I'd been hidding from thinking about lots of stuff.

Having pushed through to a nearly completed NA list I'm starting to feel better about the process. The sheer length of the thing makes me feel slightly more justified in feeling overwhelmed at times.

Next job is to clarify my projects and to start pushing some of the NAs into someday/maybe, which is where they've been in reality. It's certainly enlightening to see everything listed out together
 

TesTeq

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After an initial flurry of enthusiasm I came up against real internal resistance to listing my loops and then finding the next actions. It left me feeling really anxious and showed me that I'd been hidding from thinking about lots of stuff.
Good job!

Everybody feels the same after taking the GTD (red) pill.

Suddenly - when we choose knowledge and freedom - we can see the truth of reality.
 

Castanea_d.

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Jen, welcome! TesTeq is right; we all run into this.
Something I found helpful on the topic of resistance is the book "The War of Art" (Steven Pressfield). It can really de-rail us at times and keep us from doing the things we should.

Once you get going with it, GTD helps cut down on the resistance, because instead of a bunch of nebulous big and complicated things weighing on us that we don't tackle because it it challenging just to figure out which end of it to grab hold of and start, we have them written down and for anything bigger than a simple one-time TBD, we have thought about it and come up with a "next action" that is a little easier to tackle - thus less prone to resistance.

Of course, I write this as I sit at my computer desk, having finished my supper twenty minutes ago, when I need to get up, wash the dishes, and get back to working on these things!

All good wishes to you.
 

Ravine61

GTD'R 4 Life
Hi Jen;

As others have commented on this strand, what you are going thru is so very common...I know how completely overwhelmed I felt, when I first began implementing the GTD methodology (via OmniFocus)....what I slowly but surely realized, is that GTD was forcing me to identify and own some very bad work habits that I had created over the years....

I applaud you on your self honesty and allowing the feelings and realizations to surface! & keep coming back to this forum to share..I have found it a wonderful place to gain support and motivation, as well as comraderie! Best of Luck to you on your GTD Journey!
 

Jen

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Thanks for all the kind words. I'm keeping moving forwards, but still a way to go. It's been quite a revelation and relief to push big chunks of my lists into s/m. The weekly review is my new point of resistance but I'm trying to do it slightly more comprehensively each time
 

TesTeq

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Thanks for all the kind words. I'm keeping moving forwards, but still a way to go. It's been quite a revelation and relief to push big chunks of my lists into s/m. The weekly review is my new point of resistance but I'm trying to do it slightly more comprehensively each time
Great! Someday/Maybe list is your best friend! You can entrust your dreams to it and it will never forget!
 

Oogiem

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Thanks for all the kind words. I'm keeping moving forwards, but still a way to go. It's been quite a revelation and relief to push big chunks of my lists into s/m. The weekly review is my new point of resistance but I'm trying to do it slightly more comprehensively each time
It generally takes a couple of years to really get GTD down and even then we are all still learning.

You might try breaking the weekly review into pieces, I still find that if I don't keep on top of processing daily that when I get to review time I spend so much time clearing inboxes I never get the review I need. For me the breakthrough came when I realized that, yes, it is true that you will most likely need an hour or more EACH DAY to just handle the new incoming stuff. Once I got it down to where I can process faster and do it consistently, weekly reviews went much better.
 

Jen

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Can I ask, how fully processed are your s/m items? Mine are a mix of next actions, projects and vague statements at the moment
 

mcogilvie

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Can I ask, how fully processed are your s/m items? Mine are a mix of next actions, projects and vague statements at the moment

Just as you say. I try to be clear but a certain precise vagueness is sometimes needed :).
 
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Oogiem

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Can I ask, how fully processed are your s/m items? Mine are a mix of next actions, projects and vague statements at the moment
Mine vary from detailed project plans that are currently on hold to pie in the sky wishes. If I find myself capturing a project or action several times that usually means that it really doesn't belong in someday/maybe. Or I decide that I will go ahead and do the project planning on it to get it off my mind but still leave it there.
 
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