3 years in GTD: summary

[Borisoff]

Just wanted to share. I'm more then 3+ years in GTD. There were ups and downs. Still with GTD. It's a real system that gives you an overview of all your commitments at all the levels from Runway to Life Mission. The things GTD couldn't do for you are:

- Motivate you
- Choose the action to do
- Do the action

Motivation is your inner work to uncover the purpose that would motivate you to DO all your next actions with ease (I can tell you that I didn't uncover my purpose yet, still hope it comes one day so I'm motivated to DO). Even if you have no purpose but DO what you decided to DO you would have a very productive business of life. And choosing the action is not that important if you DO what's there in the system. So my 3+ lesson is:

GTD provides you with the tools needed to transform any information into doable load of actions that you could access anytime you wish to choose what you need or want to do next. Motivation could give you inspiration to do faster even without sleep. But the only thing that moves that system is you with a help of DOING.

 

[Barb]

A few months ago, I was forced into an unexpected temporary abandonment of my system. My father was in the hospital...blah blah blah. It's been a long time since I felt truly out of control!

I don't know if I'm ashamed or proud to say that, after the 3rd day of tailspin, I stayed at my dad's house for a morning (instead of going to the hospital) and recreated my entire system on paper. After I did that, I was able to orchestrate the many things you have to do in such a situation, keep my business running, arrange shipment of clothes, medications, and other personal items to keep me going, as well as answer an endlessly ringing telephone with his many friends checking on him at night.

I'm sure now that I wouldn't be able to just dump the GTD methodology and do something else. I was way beyond what David refers to as "scuzz factor"...I was downright miserable!

 

[ellobogrande]

A few months ago, I was forced into an unexpected temporary abandonment of my system. My father was in the hospital...blah blah blah. It's been a long time since I felt truly out of control!

I don't know if I'm ashamed or proud to say that, after the 3rd day of tailspin, I stayed at my dad's house for a morning (instead of going to the hospital) and recreated my entire system on paper...

I suggest you be proud of what you did and give yourself some well-deserved credit. You went through a traumatic experience that totally reconfigured your priorities and you dealt with it very well.

Being at your father's side 100% of the time was THE most important thing to do for a while. When other things started to fall out of balance, you processed that new information and took action to keep the wheels on in spite of the trauma.

David Allen once said that it's not possible to stay in a productive state 100% of the time. The key is to recognize when you've fallen out of it and take action to bootstrap yourself back into it. It sounds to me like you did a marvelous job of that. Bravo!

-Luke

 

[ellobogrande]

A few months ago, I was forced into an unexpected temporary abandonment of my system. My father was in the hospital...blah blah blah. It's been a long time since I felt truly out of control!

I don't know if I'm ashamed or proud to say that, after the 3rd day of tailspin, I stayed at my dad's house for a morning (instead of going to the hospital) and recreated my entire system on paper...

I suggest you be proud of what you did and give yourself some well-deserved credit. You went through a traumatic experience that totally reconfigured your priorities and you dealt with it very well.

Being at your father's side 100% of the time was THE most important thing to do for a while, but when other key things started to fall out of balance, you did what you had to do to keep the wheels on and get those things off your mind. That way you could REALLY be there for him.

-Luke

 

[sdann]

Barb, I fully agree with Ellobogrande. Feel proud.

 

[TheProductivityMan]

Great post!
I just finished reading GTD.

Although I actually found that it motivated me, maybe not in the traditional way though. It motivated me by forcing me to try a new way of accomplishing things.

Practically changed my life