2014 Completion Core Challenge

[jireland]

Dear GTD Connect members,

I read the following Weekly Review Reminder a couple of weeks ago just before sitting down to do my Weekly Review:

Dear Julie, What most has your attention now? If it's specific and known, then the Weekly Review is great for ensuring a clear space from which to tackle it. If your attention is on a vague sense of overwhelm and unclear open items, the Weekly Review is the Grand Elixir.

A task left undone remains undone in two places - at the actual location of the task, and inside your head. Incomplete tasks in your head consume the energy of your attention as they gnaw at your conscience. They siphon off a little more of your personal power every time you delay. No need to be a perfectionist, that's as debilitating in an imperfect world, but it's good to be a completionist. If you start it, finish it - or forget it.--Brahma Kumaris

As I was moving through my review I became acutely aware that many of my action items had been sitting on my lists for a REALLY long time. I mustered the courage to look at just how out of my integrity I was by letting these incompletions sap my energy. So many of them seemed more like have tos, and not someday maybes, and yet I just haven't made them a priority. I felt really yucky about the prospect of moving into a new year with this residue of incompletions. I figured that if I am experiencing this, there just may be a few other folks in our community that are as well, so I decided to update the Dusty Actions Core Challenge that I have done in the past:

I am calling this one 2014 Completion Challenge, and my invitation is, as we move closer toward the end of the year, to up your game with your Weekly Review, asking:

1) What is going to give me the greatest relief (and/or win) to complete by the end of the year?

2) What if I could move into a new year relatively residue-free by completing some of those actions that have been lingering on the lists for awhile?

And schedule time to complete those actions! Or have the courage to move them to Someday Maybe. I would love for us to all rally in support of each other ending the year as rock star completionists!

Take good care,
Julie

 

[CassRussell]

I want to be a 'rock star completionist'

I have a number of things on my list that I would really like to complete before the end of 2014 so I can have a 'residual free' start to 2015. I coach my clients on this stuff all the time and here I am leaving things on my list that I either need to just DO or move to someday maybe. Will report back on my progress.

thanks for the challenge Julie!

 

[jireland]

Hi Cass....thank you for joining me in this challenge! I was on a long flight yesterday and I got really inspired to complete some of these lingering actions. It was very empowering and energizing.

Who else wants to join this party? :-D

 

[Oogiem]

1) What is going to give me the greatest relief (and/or win) to complete by the end of the year?

2) What if I could move into a new year relatively “residue free” by completing some of those actions that have been lingering on the lists for awhile?

I SO need this right now. My One Little Word for this year has been Complete, but I've felt really frustrated that I never did complete anything beyond the first month's scrapbook tasks. My lofty goals of completing many nagging projects this year has not happened. So as I head into my year end review as we come up on the Solstice I am going to really look at what prevented me from completing all those things I identified last January.

I am also going to look at my current list of projects and actions with an eye to what can I knock off easily and quickly or what will give me the most bang for the buck right now. I suspect that one of them is either reading or else putting back on the shelf the 30 or so paper books taking up space on my desk in the To Read pile. I see it every morning and all through the day and it is depressing. Maybe I need to clear off a shelf and put not yet read books there but not on top of my desk? I doubt even I can finish 30 books in the next 3 weeks… I might knock off 6 or 7 but that is probably about it.

One huge one that I know will give me a lot of mental space is defining the huge security/inventory/declutter group of projects regarding our house and farm. Some very good friends had their house burglarized and lots of very valuable stuff was taken. The thieves even stole their car. There has been a rash of major break-ins in the valley and the sheriff, FBI (stuff crosses state lines) and local police departments are all working the cases. However, it was a huge wakeup call that you really need to know what you have, verify that it is insured or be wiling to self insure, and remove the excess stuff so it's easier to see what's gone if the worst case happens.

My husband and I have been doing a major mind dump of everything related to that issue and have a file about an inch thick of papers with long lists of stuff to deal with. It's overwhelming. I know that having a better plan for how to handle everything would sure help me. I keep waking up at night and making even more notes to get added to the lists. We need to evaluate those lists and pick a few projects we can finish so we have a "win" . That should give us the strength to continue.

Thanks for starting this thread, I need the support and kick that ti will provide.

 

[klf]

Great idea, Julie! We all think about "new year's resolutions", but what about "old year completions?" That phrase "vague sense of overwhelm and unclear open items" caught my eye too, and I know that is where I am right now. Lots of turmoil as I leave one career and start a new one, so lets clean up the old to be ready for a fresh start!

 

[jireland]

I SO need this right now. My One Little Word for this year has been Complete, but I've felt really frustrated that I never did complete anything beyond the first month's scrapbook tasks. My lofty goals of completing many nagging projects this year has not happened. So as I head into my year end review as we come up on the Solstice I am going to really look at what prevented me from completing all those things I identified last January.

Dear Oogie,

I'm so happy to hear that this is relevant for you now (and I'm so sorry to hear about the burglaries). I encourage you to "challenge" yourself to really focus on just a FEW of those incompletions and commit to them, vs. trying to get as much done as possible between now and the end of the year. It sounds like (from the first paragraph of your post) that you need space and time to reflect. I encourage you to create the space for both "highly leveraged completions" as well as reflection time.

Thanks again for taking this on....I am fully supporting you!

 

[jireland]

Great idea, Julie! We all think about "new year's resolutions", but what about "old year completions?" That phrase "vague sense of overwhelm and unclear open items" caught my eye too, and I know that is where I am right now. Lots of turmoil as I leave one career and start a new one, so lets clean up the old to be ready for a fresh start!

Dear klf....thank you for joining us! It sounds like you are in a very exciting transition, and I so support you in moving into your new career "residue free". I am always emphasizing to coaching clients that "Someday Maybe" doesn't mean "Someday Never". It just means that, given everything that I am TRULY committed to right now, I will most likely need to move some actions and/or projects to Someday Maybe, knowing that I will be reviewing that list periodically and can always pull them back onto my active lists when I'm ready.

 

[Hrlakat]

Hey Julie / all -

Agree this is a great idea. For me, the big thing I wanted to complete before 2015 was making a new treasure map of my 30k/40k horizons. I scheduled last week to do just that so I wouldn't be rushed etc and could noodle as much as I needed. Glad to report that I completed it - yay!

Side benefit is that while I was procrastinating on making the new map, I got through a chunk of my backlog, made some new project folders, did a few fun things, etc.

The win that I'll throw in the pot for this challenge is getting my work GTD system up and running. My personal system is in omnifocus in my ipad, and I love doing my weekly reviews in omni. The problem with work is that I have to use outlook and we don't have approval to use omni at all with our mobile devices (it's currently under review by our IT folks). So I have to figure out how to "love" my work system with what's available to me.

Thanks for this challenge!
Heather

 

[DenaDahilig]

I'm in.

Here are my top five "big payoff" projects
Arts Council website current
Schedule (and actually GO to) four doctor's appointments... just routine, but I've been procrastinating
Italy photos posted online
Update budget
Finish migration to iMac (includes backups and Yosemite install)

All right, Connect... 17 days. I can do this.

Dena

 

[Barb]

I have one major incomplete project. I have a professional recertification I have to complete every 3 years which expires 12/31/14. I had NONE of the 60 hours required on the first of October. What's left now is 16 videos online--each 1-1/2 hours. I'm watching while I cook, address Christmas cards, and combining with just about anything else I can to get them finished. My goal is to finish by 12/21. I've never procrastinated on this before and BOY am I realizing why I shouldn't have done that to myself.

 

[Oogiem]

Well I've knocked off reading and returning 3 books from the stack to one person. So I can check off that project completely! I also have a short list of books I am willing to get rid of, to make space in the bookcases for a To Be Read shelf to get them off my desk. Today after we sort the ewes and move hay I'll tackle that project.

 

[PhillipUlrich1]

OK...I'm in! Thanks for the challenge, JI. Plane trip to PITT (delayed) helped me close out 4 and I closed out 5 more this morning during a staff meeting...kept kicking the can and finally admitted that I was kicking the can. End of year...piece of cake!

 

[Barb]

My recertification project is now complete (on 12/18) and I'm deep into my Christmas preparations now. Today and Monday will be very busy days, but I'll be ready to pick my father up at the airport on Tuesday. Happy Holidays, everyone!

 

[jireland]

Hi everyone,

I love the completion energy that we are building here! I have spent the day in deep reflection mode with my lists, really assessing my commitment level. I have a better sense now of what I want to complete by the end of 2014 (as well as how/when), and what I will need to renegotiate and/or move to Someday Maybe. Sending everyone blessings for a marvelous holiday and wonderful launch into the new year.

 

[Hrlakat]

Update #1: I pulled out all but the last three weeks email and threw it into my online archive in a folder called "backup". There's about 5000 emails in there, along with more stuff into outlook .pst files (I have no clue how full those files are)!

Followed the setup guide to get my Outlook tasks up and running, and am starting the processing step for around 300 emails (what's left of the last three weeks). One thing that tripped me up is that I was mixing actionable items and reference items in my projects folders - but that's because my work is split between multiple projects! So I fixed that by having a master folder with "GTD Projects" and "Reference", where I have sub-folders for each of my projects. This should help me differentiate my projects broken out by project, from other project stuff I might need.

We will see how this works out for me, but it feels much better to have the actionable stuff broken out from the reference stuff.

Still need to go through the rest of the setup guide and see what else I need to implement to have my system up and running before year-end.

Heather

 

[Barb]

Can you believe it? I FINALLY made that call to State Farm to reschedule my appointment to see the adjuster. Um...hail damage, 10/2013! WHY did I put this off?

 

[CassRussell]

Wow Julie - you've really started something here! I've been away for more than a week and while I was away I helped my Mum (Mom) clear up 2 things that have been on her list for at least a year (except she doesn't 'do' lists - instead relies on her memory - I can see how that's working ha ha) - we found her spare car key after much searching & I programmed her home phone. Simple things yet she felt so much better. I'll get her onto GTD yet

I've also cleared up these things so far that I will so much better about:
* put first article up on my website without any help (i.e. unsupervised - woo hoo)
* posted to my business Facebook page (unsupervised again - I'll be dangerous soon!) - been relying on others to do this for me all year
* put protective material under my handbags on the shelf in my bedroom (that's been on the list for ages!)
* hung vision board in office (on list at least 6 months)

For accountability here's what else I'd like to complete before the end of the year:
* updated my horizons of focus document (been 'working' on that since 22 October)
* decide new daily affirmations, print & put on bathroom mirror
* read 1 novel (it's been on my bedside table untouched for months & I even took it away with me for this past week's holiday)
* hang photos up (been on my list 2 years)

Ok, off I go. All the best to everyone else.

 

[Hrlakat]

Update #2: I maintained a backlog of about 100 emails over the past week, and drove it down to zero yesterday - who-hoo! So I did a "weekly review light" today - reviewed the emails in my action support and waiting for folders, a little work on my task lists - a small win for me as this is the first WR I've ever done for work.

Still haven't gotten my head around how to manage actionable emails, waiting for emails, and a set of task folders (so things sync properly to my iphone when I'm back) to get stuff done, but I guess that's typical growing pains. Some suggestions might be in the setup guide - didn't get to crack that open over the past week

In my personal system, I found some reside of outdated projects that I need to go through and review and keep or pitch. That's on the list for the coming week.

Happy New Year!

Heather

 

[PhillipUlrich1]

ok...enough procrastinating over the holidays....or enjoying some downtime, whatever you want to call it. 12/29 Update - All family docs loaded into online vault - been on my list for 5 months! Reviewing updated Wills...been on my list for 2 years...2 YEARS!! Honey Do list (items) all but complete and looking forward to rocking into 2015! Appreciate the nudge!

 

[DenaDahilig]

And then life miraculously gets right in your way and blows you a raspberry.

I'm about halfway through my list of 5 goals before 2015... and now it's all on hold. I'm heading out of town to move my 91-year old dad into a senior living facility this week... so that changes things up a bit.

The beauty of my goals list is that nothing is critical. My system is streamlined otherwise so that when something like this comes up I can take the time I need without freaking out. Believe me my father will be freaking out enough for the both of us.

Wish me luck. And patience. And deep, deep breaths.

Dena