#2. What do you do with....
- Thread starter roakleyca
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severance1970
Registered
There's not much you can do to structure recurring actions into a system without becoming overly familiar, and therefore numb, to the action triggers. One way to stay conscious of regular practices is to stage irregular reminders in a tickler file. Ask yourself when you think you'll need a reminder to practice more regularly, and drop a note in the appriopriate file.
For repeating actions to be ritualized, some folks like to keep a weekly matrix form in which you check off whether (or how many times) you did yoga that week. This kind of "information radiator" can be helpful when kept in a prominent place. Other options include rewards, pairing with someone, blocking out regular time in your schedule, or finding accountability partners (e.g., "bookend" sessions by calling each other before and after). I'd like to hear other suggestions as well.
S
Scott Moehring
Guest
The key is lowering resistance in the simplest way
Couple simple thoughts.
1) Use a 3x5 card in your Tickler file (see the reference section for easy instructions) to remind you. Plan it forward a couple days. When it shows up, keep the card out to remind you, then put it back in the file for the next day you want to be reminded.
2) Make sure you are thinking in terms of Very Next Actions. Writing "Practice Yoga" on the card is not really a Very Next Action. "Put yoga mat on the floor" is. "Put on yoga clothes" is. The difference is subtle, but important. You are shooting for the absolute minimum resistance. There should be no thinking required to act.
3) Use David's "put it in front of the door" technique. If you have the space, and have the clothes and mat, then put the clothes or mat someplace that you have to touch them in order to do other things. Force yourself to touch the tools, and you will have gotten past the reminding as well as the first level of resistance. Tie it to the time of day you want to exercise. Where will you usually go at that time of day? Where can you put the mat so you will have to interact with it at that time?
Best,
Scott
Couple simple thoughts.
1) Use a 3x5 card in your Tickler file (see the reference section for easy instructions) to remind you. Plan it forward a couple days. When it shows up, keep the card out to remind you, then put it back in the file for the next day you want to be reminded.
2) Make sure you are thinking in terms of Very Next Actions. Writing "Practice Yoga" on the card is not really a Very Next Action. "Put yoga mat on the floor" is. "Put on yoga clothes" is. The difference is subtle, but important. You are shooting for the absolute minimum resistance. There should be no thinking required to act.
3) Use David's "put it in front of the door" technique. If you have the space, and have the clothes and mat, then put the clothes or mat someplace that you have to touch them in order to do other things. Force yourself to touch the tools, and you will have gotten past the reminding as well as the first level of resistance. Tie it to the time of day you want to exercise. Where will you usually go at that time of day? Where can you put the mat so you will have to interact with it at that time?
Best,
Scott
Borisoff;48901 said:Why you need to practice yoga regulary? -> Define outcome first otherwise your "regular" can disappear in a week or two from your calendar
I like that. Project Yoga is one of the only projects in my life where I really understand why I'm doing it!
- It leads to my larger life goal of "Become a Yoga Guru"
- It fullfils my values of Peace, Freedom, Happiness, Balance, Strength, Flexibility, Hope, Playfullness, Calmness in MIND BODY AND SPIRIT
- It connects me to my own divinity and the divinity in others.
- It heals my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wounds
- It enhances my relationship with my wife (we often practice together)
- It may lead to a career change - Yoga teacher before Yoga guru.
Wow, that felt good. I'm going to practice tonight -- wether it's in my calander, tickler, project or NA list or NOT!
Good feedback. It's nice to see we have different ideas for what to do on something that should be so easy!
Ryan
For tracking things you want to do every day (or every x days), I highly recommend http://www.joesgoals.com/
It's really simple to use and it's free. I've got some things I'm trying to do "more regularly" as well - language study, stretching, taking photos. Having these all on my goals page lets me at a glance look over the past week and see what I've been doing and what I've been neglecting.
It's really simple to use and it's free. I've got some things I'm trying to do "more regularly" as well - language study, stretching, taking photos. Having these all on my goals page lets me at a glance look over the past week and see what I've been doing and what I've been neglecting.
G
gtdlater
Guest
Well I'm not satisfied with my solution.
I made a list of projects that occur on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. So far there are 42 of them. Here's a partial list:
1. clean bathrooms (monthly)
2. pay electric bill (monthly)
3. pay water bill (monthly)
4. Hygiene (daily)
5. Tennis (weekly)
6. Basketball (weekly)
...
42. Pay HOA bill (monthly)
I really don't want to review these everyday. I don't want to process and decide on a next action every day either. I do want to complete an NA for most of them everyday though.
The next action, "pay for electric bill" changes throughout the month. Before the bill arrives the NA would be in wait for. Once it arrives an NA would go on @Internet, and then once I pay it the NA moves to wait for again to see if it goes through.
Also I don't want to tickle it because most NAs related to these projects, which have to be decided daily (yuck), should all be done ASAP and not on a specific day.
Changing outcomes you are committed to are managed in the weekly review, right?
Also bills can be paid anytime before a certain day. Would you just tickle it for tomorrow and then keep tickling it for the next day until it wets its pants or worse?
I made a list of projects that occur on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis. So far there are 42 of them. Here's a partial list:
1. clean bathrooms (monthly)
2. pay electric bill (monthly)
3. pay water bill (monthly)
4. Hygiene (daily)
5. Tennis (weekly)
6. Basketball (weekly)
...
42. Pay HOA bill (monthly)
I really don't want to review these everyday. I don't want to process and decide on a next action every day either. I do want to complete an NA for most of them everyday though.
The next action, "pay for electric bill" changes throughout the month. Before the bill arrives the NA would be in wait for. Once it arrives an NA would go on @Internet, and then once I pay it the NA moves to wait for again to see if it goes through.
Also I don't want to tickle it because most NAs related to these projects, which have to be decided daily (yuck), should all be done ASAP and not on a specific day.
Changing outcomes you are committed to are managed in the weekly review, right?
Also bills can be paid anytime before a certain day. Would you just tickle it for tomorrow and then keep tickling it for the next day until it wets its pants or worse?
Cpu_Modern
Registered
gtdlater:
Well, I think in general, whenever you have a "series" of items it is worthwhile to install a sub-system, a process or however you want to call it. For example you batch next actions in contexts lists.
So IMHO what you have here is a real oportunity () to enhace your system. This would be a project in itself: find perfect/good-enough sub-system to deal with recurring action.
I don't have such a system myself, but I want to repeat a warning that people dealing with this tend to overlook: If you check the same list everyday, you will become numb to it.
Well, I think in general, whenever you have a "series" of items it is worthwhile to install a sub-system, a process or however you want to call it. For example you batch next actions in contexts lists.
So IMHO what you have here is a real oportunity (
) to enhace your system. This would be a project in itself: find perfect/good-enough sub-system to deal with recurring action.I don't have such a system myself, but I want to repeat a warning that people dealing with this tend to overlook: If you check the same list everyday, you will become numb to it.
gtdlater;48937 said:
Bills live outside my GTD system. As they come in, they go in an envelope sorter on my desk. Once a week, I batch process everything in that sorter into Quicken, and write any checks that need to be written. (Quicken tells me which ones.) This system predates my use of GTD and works well: why change it?
Hygiene lives outside my GTD system. I don't need to be reminded about it, it just happens.
I track all other recurring tasks in Sciral Consistency, a nifty little matrix that lets you set fuzzy intervals for tasks and uses colors to show you what is due or past due.
Katherine
M
MzUnderstanding
Guest
Do you need an NA before the bill arrives? Would the bill not serve as a tickler to add the NA to your list?
When I have items like this I put them in the date folder of my system. During my weekly review I go through the folders for the dates that fall on that week and add those things to my daily calendar or next action list and then move the folders to the back of the box again.
When I have items like this I put them in the date folder of my system. During my weekly review I go through the folders for the dates that fall on that week and add those things to my daily calendar or next action list and then move the folders to the back of the box again.
Establishing a habit...
Hmmm. I think that your positive outcome is:
the habit of practicing yoga weekly/daily is firmly established.
Bunches of useful NAs have been suggested, take your pick, whatever speaks to you, but make it an appointment in the short term, keep it and reward yourself.
The psychodynamics answer is of course that you need to use GTD to handle the 21 days it takes you to establish the habit:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=786165
Hmmm. I think that your positive outcome is:
the habit of practicing yoga weekly/daily is firmly established.
Bunches of useful NAs have been suggested, take your pick, whatever speaks to you, but make it an appointment in the short term, keep it and reward yourself.
The psychodynamics answer is of course that you need to use GTD to handle the 21 days it takes you to establish the habit:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=786165
G
gtdlater
Guest
I wonder what they say in the seminar
How do you reconcile that with, "review your lists as often as needed to keep them off your mind"
It seems to me you are saying that people will become numb to GTD since it involves reviewing mostly the same lists everyday.
Cpu_Modern;48939 said:
How do you reconcile that with, "review your lists as often as needed to keep them off your mind"
It seems to me you are saying that people will become numb to GTD since it involves reviewing mostly the same lists everyday.
tnoyce;48956 said:
Yes! I think it's crucial to define the successful outcome of such projects as the establishment of a habit. Use GTD and next actions until you begin to do something automatically. I've always been very bad about flossing my teeth, but I made it a project and begin to put the action on my daily list--and lo and behold, I now floss my teeth daily without even thinking about it. Same with running--I feel gross now if I go a day without running--all because about a month ago I made it a project to start running. The 21 day time-span sounds just about right.
On a related note, I think it can be really helpful to create a daily checklist each day--of the stuff you MUST do that day. You're motivated to do the stuff (e.g., floss, run, etc.) because you want the satisfaction of checking it off your list.
Cpu_Modern;48939 said:
That's why it's important for the lists to keep changing. You actually have to do and check off stuff on the list--then it changes. If you let a list stagnate and never check anything off, you will become numb to it.
If you're talking about recurring actions here, then my recommendation would be to write the actions down anew each day and check them off as you do them. This will give you the satisfaction of getting things done and checking them off. If I were to stare at exactly the same list and never act on it or mark anything as done, I would indeed become numb to it. But if I'm doing the stuff on the list and gaining a sense of accomplishment, there's no way I become numb to the stuff on the list. Rather, it's empowering to think, "Wow, I've been really disciplined and doing all this stuff each day!"
Lists become "numbing" only if you're procrastinating.
G
gtdlater
Guest
project lists don't change that much
Project lists don't change that much, but no one is warning others about them. That's exactly what I have, a recurring projects list.
What's this about 'Bills aren't in my system'? If you're doing GTD everything that has your attention is in your system or you are not using GTD, but you are making lists and things so maybe that's good enough.
Project lists don't change that much, but no one is warning others about them. That's exactly what I have, a recurring projects list.
What's this about 'Bills aren't in my system'? If you're doing GTD everything that has your attention is in your system or you are not using GTD, but you are making lists and things so maybe that's good enough.
Actually at the Roadmap class in Chicago yesterday, he said (paraphrasing) that if you have a system for your bills that works, then that's fine because it means that you have a collection method, a way of looking at NAs in context (look at the top of each bill..), and a project reference system.kewms;48981 said:
Nobody says that every list has to be in the same technology. I'm using a 70-page college bound binder for my NA/WF contexts, but 3x5 cards for my SMs. So far, so good.