Using GTD to Establish Habits

[K2Karen]

I’m just getting started with GTD and have blocked out the next couple of days to get set up.

I have a question about using GTD to achieve goals relating to habits. For example, I have a goal to establish a daily meditation habit.

I can see that I could put a next action of “sit”, but that doesn’t seem to capture the “daily” part.
Or I could calendar an item called “sit”. But it isn’t really associated with a time.
Or I could set up a project of “establish meditation habit”, with a next action of “sit today”. And then a next action of “sit tomorrow”.

I’m curious if any particular way more effective?

 

[jmarkey]

I prefer putting an untimed event on my calendar for about 30 days or so until the new habit is formed. If I skip a day, I delete the event for that day. After 30 days, I can look back to see how I did. I would put Meditate.

 

[MarkTAW]

A little remembered part of GTD was called, I believe, "Automatic Success Mechanisms." I.e. putting your briefcase in front of the door so you remember to take it. Finding a habit you already have and intercepting it with something else.

If you want to meditate for a certian period of time each day, I'd suggest you find something you already do that's negative to replace it with what you want, like watching TV or eating chocolate cake. Just make that mental connection TV -> Meditate. Set your TV to a specific channel that will remind you to meditate or something. Sort of like tying a piece of string around your finger.

 

[Brent]

Interesting question here.

I have a similar habit: Strength training. I've found my best solution is to put a paper with "STRENGTH TRAINING" written on it in big letters in my Tickler file. I pull it out at the beginning of my day, put it (along with others) on my desk, and work through them as I have opportunities.

I've also found that I have to set aside a particular time in my day to accomplish certain regular activities. If something is truly important to me, I need to schedule other things around it.

 

[kewms]

I use Sciral Consistency (http://www.sciral.com/consistency/) for recurring tasks, including habits I'm trying to establish or maintain. It takes care of the reminder and tracking aspect.

In my GTD system, I put the upper level goal that the habit is intended to support in as a project, then put the short term goal ("go to gym 10 times in March") in as a subproject. I usually don't bother adding the regular habit to the NA list, since I refer to Consistency instead, but you certainly could do so if you wanted, or you could make the time part of the hard landscape in your calendar.

Katherine

 

[airolg]

Update Habit Routine

I will preface that I'm probably the least organized person you've even come across. :lol: I'm also a perfectionist and it's killing my workload.

I've been trying to do GTD for a bit now and have not been too successful and have been spinning my wheels. I seem to have to have everything GTD figured out, just to get started. I really need a bit of hand-holding.

That said, how are you habits working out for you? Any results you could share?

I have about 20 things that I want to remember to do each day. Feeding the dogs type things, walking 10,000 steps, knitting 10 rows on a baby blanket (the baby will be two soon) and other things that really aren't so terribly important in the grand scheme of things, but things that would be okay to skip a day or two so they wouldn't actually be habits.

Would it fall into GTD if I made a list of these daily tasks, go to the tickler file, pull the list (maybe in a plastic cover sheet/check off with dry erase marker??) and do them as a 15 or 30 minute task?

Or would it be better to put each one of them in as a separate entity?

Care to share their successes? Anyone?

 

[morrisok]

Identify where/when habits occur

I would begin on deciding (in GTD terms) the context of each of these items and where the reminder would be best located. For something like feeding the dog a note on your coffee maker might be the best place for a reminder, personally my dog is more than able to let me know if I forget to feed him

Something like the blanket sounds more like a project. If you can knit in many places maybe your first action would be to collect all your materials into something you can carry with you. Then you can have a next action in your @Anywhere context to "Work on Blanket". If your carrying with you it might quickly become a habit to pull it out and work in it during some downtime.

So, basically my advice is to go back to basics - decide where/when the activity you want to become a habit occurs - and then set up a system to reinforce the habit.

 

[airolg]

Thanks!!

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

I really think I'm trying to work from a to-do list again rather than GTD.

My one dog will remind me, the other one would starve first. If they'd only eat at the same time!!

I need to schedule time to work on the blanket...July will be here before you know it. Should I make the blanket an appointment to be sure it's finished in time?

Here's what happens...I do all the @computer stuff and the day is over...I never to get the @anywhere, @home, etc. projects.

I really think I need to re-read the book again; I clearly do not have a system in place that works for me. I keep getting stuck and giving up GTD for a day or two in procrastination.

 

[morrisok]

What I decided to do

This thread got me thinking about a habit I need to develop. I want to make sure that I go through a series of stretches each morning for my back and legs as suggested by a chiropractor.

I'm terrible at doing this.

I decided today to set up a weekly appt with myself (on Friday) to review how many days in the previous week I've done this. My hope is that on Friday I can pat myself on the back for a job well done. After a month of this I'm hoping the daily stretches will have developed into a habit.

The danger here (which David warns about somewhere in the book I think) is if I don't do the stretches I'll feel bad and discouraged on my Friday review. I plan to guard against this negativity (if we're not kind to ourselves who will be?)

Maybe you could set a goal of completing 3 inches of blanket a week and have a similar review.

We can check back next week - I'll do 5 days of stretches - you do 3 inches of knitting

 

[airolg]

Agreed!

Done deal! Let's check in next Friday afternoon. I've made a daily recurring reminder to knit every day.

Although, I'm sure we are supposed to be accountable to ourselves, but I need the motivation to get me started! Thanks.

Now, I'm really, really, having trouble putting all this office crap in a physical bucket, can't I just leave it where it is and promise to process someday? I'm such a disorganize packrat...this is so painful.

I've been reading the forum carefully and there's quite a few good posts that I'm going to try to incorporate. I find having to refer to the book for support very distracting. I wish I'd highlighted the first time through.

 

[Day Owl]

Airolg, have you seen DA's book Ready for Anything? It lays out GTD principles and practices in very accessible and usable bite-sized chunks.

 

[severance1970]

I prefer putting an untimed event on my calendar for about 30 days or so until the new habit is formed. If I skip a day, I delete the event for that day. After 30 days, I can look back to see how I did. I would put Meditate.

I do pretty much the same thing, with one rather stern difference: if I skip a day, the next day becomes Day 1. It took me 3 times to get to 30 consecutive days of typing practice. Fortunately I enjoyed it.

 

[airolg]

Yes!

Airolg, have you seen DA's book Ready for Anything? It lays out GTD principles and practices in very accessible and usable bite-sized chunks.

I bought them at the same time. I assumed it was a reenforcement to the original rather than a restatement of the principles and was saving it for motivational/falling off the wagon reading.

I'll read it now then and see if it helps to clear the mud. Thanks.

 

[morrisok]

How'd the week go?

Well, I did 3 out of 5 days of stretching - so not a bad effort. How'd you do with your knitting?

My tracking method worked for me. I set up a recurring event in Outlook for Friday with a note about what I was trying to accomplish. I then listed out the days Saturday - Friday. Then each day I edited this Friday's occurance of the event and put an asterik next to the day if I did the stretching exercises. Since I'll only ever edit the upcoming Friday's entry I'll be able to track my progress (to some extent)

As for making progress on the pile of stuff, I had similar problems, I still have one filing cabinet I haven't gone through. But I decided to get as much cleared off as possible and start using GTD to get control of my everyday tasks. I came to realize as I got more of my work life/home life under control that the pile would slowly shrink and be dealt with. I also wanted to get used to the system and start to trust it before I finished going through all my old stuff.

 

[airolg]

An effort, at least.

Well, I did 3 out of 5 days of stretching - so not a bad effort. How'd you do with your knitting?

Thanks for checking back and congratulations! Keep up the good work! Your health depends on it!

I ended up blocking time to actually do it. I knitted three rows each on Tues, Wed and Thursday, but had to make it a priority--not sure that's a bad thing, but...

I think I've finally decided how (given the way I work) to implement GTD, and to get myself out from under my years of "spread it out so I don't forget it" syndrome, and that is to break up the mess into very tiny chunks until I have a place to put the phyiscal inbox. I'm going put the tiny chunks through the entire process from beginning to end so I can appreciate a trusted system. Hopefully then, I'll have reached a point that "collecting" could actually be a two-day event.

In another effort to implement GTD for me that I did yesterday was to begin a task list of the daily recurring tasks with checkboxes that I put in a protective sheet (checked off with a dry-erase marker) and plan on putting in my tickler file for that day (1-31 folders) so that I can get into the habit of actually looking in my ticker files! I actually pulled out the 20 folder this morning, but only after the Outlook reminder reminded me!!! I did everything I could on the list right then and there, most are less than five-minute tasks. The problem with that is that I'm not sure where to put the uncompleted worksheet (some can't be done until tonight) and the folder--leave it out all day until everything's checked off??? I did put the folder back so it doesn't get dog-earred.

At the same time, I have all these same tasks as recurring Outlook tasks as well, but the list might work better for me because the completed tasks serve (at a glance) as motivation to continue. I know there's a filter on tasks and I might play with that if this doesn't work for me.

I'm not sure which version I'll keep, but I need something to trust...I just have to find the one I can maintain easily and be fun for me so I continue using that method.

In reality, I probably just need a lesson in logic and stop being emotionally attached to nearly everything that comes into my life.

 

[kewms]

For recurring tasks, I like Sciral Consistency. (http://www.sciral.com/consistency/index.shtml) It lets you set a repeat range, rather than just a repeat day. For example, there are lots of tasks that I try to do every week or so, or every month or so, but the exact date doesn't matter. So I've given Consistency a 6-8 day range for my weekly review, a 25-35 day range for my monthly backup, and so forth.

The useful part, though, is that a completed task doesn't just vanish into the ether. Tasks completed during their range get green squares, tasks completed too late get red squares, and tasks completed early get blue squares. So you can see at a glance how consistent you are and how much progress you're making toward your goals.

It's a shade expensive for what it does, but it's been so helpful to me that I've taken recurring tasks out of my Outlook list altogether.

Katherine

 

[billjw]

Just wondering if the thoughts are correct ...

I too am in the habit of not sticking to habits (there's a book title in there somewhere!)

However, recent thinking has lead me to believe it may not be about developing a habit but more about the value I see in myself. (This is not a "poor me" post)

What I mean is, I will happily put myself out for others, but not for myself.

If a friend asks me to come over at 6am to help him with his PC problems I will more than likely help. But if I say to myself, get up at 6am and go for a brisk walk, chances are I won't.

So I just wonder if the issue is really "forming habits" or could it be "valuing my well being more".

Just thinking out loud.

Bill

 

[K2Karen]

Positive Actions

I think we're on to something here...

Really, are we "forgetting" to work on the blanket, sit in meditation, go to the gym and workout? No...we just aren't placing a priority on it.

Here's what I've started doing, but I can't tell you whether or not it works yet.

All my projects are written on 3x5 cards--one project per card. I "reframed" the descriptions of the projects to be as if the project were complete. For example, "The beautiful baby blanket is complete and well-loved". Habits are also projects: "I have a daily meditation habit that sustains me." The point is that the card should remind me WHY I want to complete the project or what makes it of value for me. "Lose 10 pounds" isn't very encouraging. "I weigh "x" pounds and I look and feel great" reminds me WHY I want to lose the 10 pounds.

On the back of the card, I may write down a next action or any supporting notes.

Then...every morning (or even more often) I do a quick flip through the current projects. That's a trigger to take some actions. Flipping through the cards isn't discouraging--everything is written as a positive statement. It reminds me how great things will be when I do the actions.

If the card suggests a next action, I just write it on my next action list right then. This handles the repetition and the triggers.

--Karen

 

[Juno]

Habits = not really a project?

Hi I am a beginner here but I'm getting started and trying to find what is working for me. Part of what held me back are questions such as this - and I have decided that, for me, there is a difference between an actual PROJECT, with NAs, etc, and what would be another entity, a ROUTINE.

I think for yoga, meditation, etc., any daily practice, I would make that part of my routine list.

So far what I have is:

A routine for just getting up.
A routine for right after work (midday for me, and I work at home).
A routine for end of day.

These routines are short lists that just have about 5-6 simple things on them.

This would include any household things I do (that I need a prompt for and don't do automatically) and things like exercise, meditation, etc.

Eventually I might have different routines for different days, or a MWF and a TTh thing, but I'm starting very simply and seeing where it takes me. Weekends are more free-floating.

I also will use the idea of timeblocks that I have read about in these forums. So I might eventually have a timeblock with a broad theme in a ROUTINE, like Art Stuff, Garden/Plant Stuff, or Develop Promotional Materials.

A PROJECT would be specific and would have a card and NAs, such as

Hang Quilt
Make Brochure for Open House
Refinish Bench in Front Hall
Revamp Bill-Paying routine.

So My ROUTINE might call for an art/home enhancement timeblock on a given day or days.

WITHIN that timeblock allotted I could do NAs for my art/home PROJECTS (within context)

I can change around my timeblocks from week to week.

It is actually a project to make up the routine but then the routine is the framework for my life. (Trust me this will be flexible!)

So, if I wanted the daily meditation as in the original posting, I would put it on either my morning or evening ROUTINE. I would not call it a project.

I know this is wordy but I'm still figuring it all out!

Juno

 

[kewms]

This approach works very well for me. My suggestion would be to keep your "official" routine as close as possible to your "natural" routine that you're already following. For example, if your natural routine is to read the paper and have a leisurely breakfast, you might not have much luck trying to hop out of bed at dawn and go running.

Also, be sure to review your timeblocks every few weeks or months, especially at first. Keep what's working and change what isn't.

Good luck!

Katherine