What to do when you lack discipline to get things done

[TheGuitarist]

I first discovered GTD around 2007. I bought the book and did some half hearted attempts to implement. I will admit that most of my issues were due to lack of discipline. That said, at that time in my life, I was single, living alone in an apartment, and while my job (software engineer) was mentally challenging, it felt like all the lists and such were too much scaffolding for me to deal with. In my mind at the time, there wasn't enough actual responsibilities to justify a productivity system. It's easy to let things slide when you live by yourself and have no one to hold you accountable. Overall, I became more interesting in reading about productivity and listening to productivity podcasts than actually being productive.

Flash forward to now, I'm deeper in my career, have a wife and kid, and own a home. Now I'm swamped in responsibilities, and because I'm no longer living just for myself, there's more of an incentive to be better and get things done.

My struggles are:
- I'm sometimes terrified to look at my own next action lists, because there's so much to do, and some of them I'm for a lack of better term, "afraid" to start, because they're intimidating. I always forget to check my calendar everyday. The lack of trust in my own system probably isn't helping.
- I have limited free time with a 1 year old child, especially on weekends. I understand and accept that personal time is limited in these early years with a kid, but I'm more frustrated that I find it hard to get things done around the house, despite how much I enjoy spending time with my son and my wife.
- Since it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing, hence the avoidance of the todo list. Even if I take time for myself and hobbies late a night when I'm alone and everyone else is sleeping, it feels like I should be doing something else.

It feels like GTD works best when you are already well disciplined, and I'm struggling more now than I would be had I actually practiced more 15 years ago when I first learned of GTD. I admit that my problem may not be GTD, its discipline, but where do I go from here to improve? Just keep trying?

 

[cfoley]

Long action lists also don't suit me very well either. Here are some tactics I use:

• I limit my project list to things that I have a good chance of progressing in the coming week.
• When free time is limited, I have one just-for-fun project activated. I find that when only one is available, I am more likely to find some time to do it.
• I do something similar with DIY. One active project at a time.
• When clarifying and organising, my default is to put things in my Someday/Maybe list instead of my project list. This is difficult for me and I often allow more onto my projects list during the week than is sensible.

During my weekly review:

• I move things to Someday/Maybe if I have allowed too much to creep into my lists.
• During the weekly review, I pause to think about projects that I did not progress in the last week. Am I REALLY going to progress them next week?
• I look through my Someday/Maybe list for things I need or want to activate. The above stuff only works if I trust myself to bring things back from Someday/Maybe. To help me do this, my Someday/Maybe list is divided between a short list that I review weekly and a longer list that I review quarterly.

Sometimes...

• I may end up with more free time than I expected. If I decide to spend an unexpectedly-free weekend on DIY, I can always scan my Someday/Maybe list for projects to activate.

 

[HelenM]

I first discovered GTD around 2007. I bought the book and did some half hearted attempts to implement. I will admit that most of my issues were due to lack of discipline. That said, at that time in my life, I was single, living alone in an apartment, and while my job (software engineer) was mentally challenging, it felt like all the lists and such were too much scaffolding for me to deal with. In my mind at the time, there wasn't enough actual responsibilities to justify a productivity system. It's easy to let things slide when you live by yourself and have no one to hold you accountable. Overall, I became more interesting in reading about productivity and listening to productivity podcasts than actually being productive.

Flash forward to now, I'm deeper in my career, have a wife and kid, and own a home. Now I'm swamped in responsibilities, and because I'm no longer living just for myself, there's more of an incentive to be better and get things done.

My struggles are:
- I'm sometimes terrified to look at my own next action lists, because there's so much to do, and some of them I'm for a lack of better term, "afraid" to start, because they're intimidating. I always forget to check my calendar everyday. The lack of trust in my own system probably isn't helping.
- I have limited free time with a 1 year old child, especially on weekends. I understand and accept that personal time is limited in these early years with a kid, but I'm more frustrated that I find it hard to get things done around the house, despite how much I enjoy spending time with my son and my wife.
- Since it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing, hence the avoidance of the todo list. Even if I take time for myself and hobbies late a night when I'm alone and everyone else is sleeping, it feels like I should be doing something else.

It feels like GTD works best when you are already well disciplined, and I'm struggling more now than I would be had I actually practiced more 15 years ago when I first learned of GTD. I admit that my problem may not be GTD, its discipline, but where do I go from here to improve? Just keep trying?

I think a lot of us feel like this sometimes, particularly early on in your GTD practice. So firstly you're not alone!
For intimidating NA lists, I'd look at the following:
are they really discrete next actions? Or a big chewy problem? If they're too chewy, you need to cut them up first. So I have a project to scan all my Dad's photographic slides. He had 100s and I've inherited them earlier this year. "Scan the slides" is waaaay too big of an action. I started with "research slide scanners" and then went to "set up and test slide scanner" and next will be "pick out the first box of slides for scanning." That way I'm progressing but not overfacing myself with a terrifyingly huge chunk of work.
If you have multiple NAs for one project that could all be done now, try pulling them into a project support list instead, and just pick one for your list. Maybe the easiest, or eat the frog and do the hardest.
Consider your commitments - do you honestly have too many? I saw a guy on Reddit recently who was just starting out on GTD, and he already had 4000+ entries in his capture tools! That's too much. Look at what you can park for later (someday / maybe), trash, outsource or delegate.
Use your contexts, and there's no harm in setting a sub-NA list of "stuff I need to clear this week" for example.
Lack of trust is a great insight. You'll need to keep working with your system and refine it to suit you, and the trust will come. You can always scan over things whenever you feel you need to.
Calendar - eh, it depends on how much time-critical stuff you have. It's a good habit to get into, as your little one will start having more things to do and places to be in a very short time. Try setting an alarm on your phone?

With a very small person, getting things done round the house is way harder. Be fair to yourself, and to them! One of the benefits of GTD is being ok with what you're not doing. By capturing all of it you should be able to let it out of your head and actually enjoy some downtime. Your little person will soon be out at school, and this time won't come again!

Since it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing, hence the avoidance of the todo list

you've put yourself into a bit of a vicious circle there. Accept there is ALWAYS something you COULD be doing, but is right now the time for it? That's where you NEED to know what's on your lists. When I get a bit like this, I'll try and set aside a chunk (or several chunks) of time and try and knock off some of those niggling tasks.
You might like to have a look at "Make Time" by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky as they go into a lot of depth about how to actually make time to do stuff.
Oh and believe me, I am one of the worst disciplined people I know. GTD has helped me so much towards becoming an actual functional adult human

 

[FocusGuy]

@TheGuitarist

I agree GTD is great but one of the common mistake I did was to examine each item with the same importance. I was late today and just end my weekly review (usually done on Friday - I decided in my task manager to focus per week)

So for answering to you, I have a simple list of all my project for the week. It does mean I have to finish them during the week. It means I decide to make something with them each week even if the relative and only task last 5 mn...

In practice :
I have 30 projects on my weekly list.
Only 2 are high priorities. Eg I need to focus all my energy on these 2...
3 are must project eg I have to make them but they are secondary.
FYI the project list is printed and added in my paper note book.

All others are May projects.

Each morning I choose some project and some tasks they go on my today's list..
That's my map for the day.

One of the great advantage of Gtd is to clarify the stuff. It gives me a focus about what I want to do and what I don't. Anything else goes into someday may be. I erase all I can during my weekly review. If it comes back it may means I have under evaluated the item or my project.

A good practice may be to evaluate your engagements Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, and on horizons H4

 

[Cpu_Modern]

Let me be straightforward with you, @TheGuitarist :

• I don't think you have a problem with discipline at all.
• I don't think you have that much of a problem with GTD or any other productivity system either.

Let me explain how I read your post (and thank you btw for opening this thread with a decent, workable post):

1. You start with how bad you are, lack of discipline, not doing GTD properly, regrets, blah blab blah buhaa - sounds admirable, but if you believe this yourself, I have a bridge to sell to you.
2. Between these lines you manage to describe your problem:
   1. "I understand and accept that personal time is limited"
   2. "it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing"

"I personally believe [they] don't have maps…" - Miss Teen South Carolina

David Allen talks about maps a frequently, because (sic) a lot of people don't have maps and my guess is you are one of them.

This lack of maps is what is causing your problems.​

​

This becomes apparent if you think about what you said about your life right now.

Why do you have to "accept" that personal time is limited when you have a child? Shouldn't you be eager to spend as much time with your kid(s) as humanly possible? I see a severe lack of awareness there, about what your priorities should be and why…

• but, dear Guitarist, let a rock 'n roll band make that point much better than I could

Got it? So, how are you gonna perform parenting wise…

So, there is a perceived conflict between limitation of personal time and a feeling that there is always something to do around the house…

A conflict that isn't real, as I would suggest.

I'd like to suggest to you, to not only raise your awareness regarding your inner attitude regarding the one most important person in your life, but also regarding your other most important person in your life.

I am not a "relationships expert" by a long shot, but I can't help but think you are avoiding issues "around the house" when it's not really about the house…

But judge for yourself, don't feel compelled to answer to any of that.

Now, how do we get the maps? ​

By severely groking the GTD Horizons of Focus would be a start. Here are three videos were David Allen talks about this:

1. On the calming effects of the Level 2 map.
2. Setting Priorities with GTD
3. Feeling good about NOT doing something.

Paraphrasing an often recited self-help trope: on your deathbed you won't wish you just had rolled the garden hose together a few more times.

Hope this helps.

Take care!

 

[TheGuitarist]

Thank you all for your responses. I think the problem is in fact, more a focus/map problem than discipline. So in light of that, I'll rephrase something from my last paragraph: "It feels like GTD works best when you have well defined areas of focus and priorities".

Maybe I was focusing too much on lists and the infrastructure itself than focusing on why I was setting up a system in the first place.

To clarify what I wrote, because in retrospect, it does sound too negative:

"I understand and accept that personal time is limited"

I meant that in the sense that I recognize that my areas of focus are primarily family/house related, and I'm good with that! It just a big change from what I was used to most of my adult life.

I am not a "relationships expert" by a long shot, but I can't help but think you are avoiding issues "around the house" when it's not really about the house…

I'm not sure what you mean by this, the stuff I'm referring to is self imposed goals/creative pursuits and not all of it is "honey do" lists from my spouse. its just that because I haven't properly prioritized things, the long list of projects hits me like a tidal wave, when instead I should feel ok not tackling all of it because not all of it is equally important.

I'll be reviewing the videos you posted and make a bigger effort to clarify my areas of focus.

 

[gtdstudente]

I first discovered GTD around 2007. I bought the book and did some half hearted attempts to implement. I will admit that most of my issues were due to lack of discipline. That said, at that time in my life, I was single, living alone in an apartment, and while my job (software engineer) was mentally challenging, it felt like all the lists and such were too much scaffolding for me to deal with. In my mind at the time, there wasn't enough actual responsibilities to justify a productivity system. It's easy to let things slide when you live by yourself and have no one to hold you accountable. Overall, I became more interesting in reading about productivity and listening to productivity podcasts than actually being productive.

Flash forward to now, I'm deeper in my career, have a wife and kid, and own a home. Now I'm swamped in responsibilities, and because I'm no longer living just for myself, there's more of an incentive to be better and get things done.

My struggles are:
- I'm sometimes terrified to look at my own next action lists, because there's so much to do, and some of them I'm for a lack of better term, "afraid" to start, because they're intimidating. I always forget to check my calendar everyday. The lack of trust in my own system probably isn't helping.
- I have limited free time with a 1 year old child, especially on weekends. I understand and accept that personal time is limited in these early years with a kid, but I'm more frustrated that I find it hard to get things done around the house, despite how much I enjoy spending time with my son and my wife.
- Since it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing, hence the avoidance of the todo list. Even if I take time for myself and hobbies late a night when I'm alone and everyone else is sleeping, it feels like I should be doing something else.

It feels like GTD works best when you are already well disciplined, and I'm struggling more now than I would be had I actually practiced more 15 years ago when I first learned of GTD. I admit that my problem may not be GTD, its discipline, but where do I go from here to improve? Just keep trying?

@TheGuitarist,

First and foremost . . . love the hash tag name: "TheGuitarist"

"What to do when you lack discipline to get things done"​

Perhaps the following thought might be worth considering / doing / trying in regards to Next Actions:

'Plow' through what is being Avoided/Dreaded . . . in order to Savor what is Enjoyable

Easier said than done . . . agreed . . . absolutely

Start with the 'smallest' Avoided/Dreaded followed with the 'smallest' Savor . . . like Rest-&-Reflection . . . to slowly build-up momentum/traction?

Thank you very much for your GTD post

As you see GTD fit

Ps. For whatever it might be helpful / worth. . . . Herein, the definition for the term: 'Discipline' is "Commitment Fulfillment"

 

[gtdstudente]

Let me be straightforward with you, @TheGuitarist :

• I don't think you have a problem with discipline at all.
• I don't think you have that much of a problem with GTD or any other productivity system either.

Let me explain how I read your post (and thank you btw for opening this thread with a decent, workable post):

1. You start with how bad you are, lack of discipline, not doing GTD properly, regrets, blah blab blah buhaa - sounds admirable, but if you believe this yourself, I have a bridge to sell to you.
2. Between these lines you manage to describe your problem:
   1. "I understand and accept that personal time is limited"
   2. "it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing"

"I personally believe [they] don't have maps…" - Miss Teen South Carolina

David Allen talks about maps a frequently, because (sic) a lot of people don't have maps and my guess is you are one of them.

This lack of maps is what is causing your problems.​

​

This becomes apparent if you think about what you said about your life right now.

Why do you have to "accept" that personal time is limited when you have a child? Shouldn't you be eager to spend as much time with your kid(s) as humanly possible? I see a severe lack of awareness there, about what your priorities should be and why…

• but, dear Guitarist, let a rock 'n roll band make that point much better than I could

Got it? So, how are you gonna perform parenting wise…

So, there is a perceived conflict between limitation of personal time and a feeling that there is always something to do around the house…

A conflict that isn't real, as I would suggest.

I'd like to suggest to you, to not only raise your awareness regarding your inner attitude regarding the one most important person in your life, but also regarding your other most important person in your life.

I am not a "relationships expert" by a long shot, but I can't help but think you are avoiding issues "around the house" when it's not really about the house…

But judge for yourself, don't feel compelled to answer to any of that.

Now, how do we get the maps? ​

By severely groking the GTD Horizons of Focus would be a start. Here are three videos were David Allen talks about this:

1. On the calming effects of the Level 2 map.
2. Setting Priorities with GTD
3. Feeling good about NOT doing something.

Paraphrasing an often recited self-help trope: on your deathbed you won't wish you just had rolled the garden hose together a few more times.

Hope this helps.

Take care!

@Cpu_Modern,

Your Post is most appreciated

Agree . . . "Mapping" here removes a lot of friction that can stop me in my tracks before even starting

Purpose is very helpful . . . perhaps even necessary to overcome conscious, unconscious, and sub-conscious, etc. frictional obstacles and "Mapping" is very efficient of objectifying one's purpose and purposes?

Thank you very much

 

[HelenM]

Let me be straightforward with you, @TheGuitarist :

• I don't think you have a problem with discipline at all.
• I don't think you have that much of a problem with GTD or any other productivity system either.

Let me explain how I read your post (and thank you btw for opening this thread with a decent, workable post):

1. You start with how bad you are, lack of discipline, not doing GTD properly, regrets, blah blab blah buhaa - sounds admirable, but if you believe this yourself, I have a bridge to sell to you.
2. Between these lines you manage to describe your problem:
   1. "I understand and accept that personal time is limited"
   2. "it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing"

"I personally believe [they] don't have maps…" - Miss Teen South Carolina

David Allen talks about maps a frequently, because (sic) a lot of people don't have maps and my guess is you are one of them.

This lack of maps is what is causing your problems.​

​

This becomes apparent if you think about what you said about your life right now.

Why do you have to "accept" that personal time is limited when you have a child? Shouldn't you be eager to spend as much time with your kid(s) as humanly possible? I see a severe lack of awareness there, about what your priorities should be and why…

• but, dear Guitarist, let a rock 'n roll band make that point much better than I could

Got it? So, how are you gonna perform parenting wise…

So, there is a perceived conflict between limitation of personal time and a feeling that there is always something to do around the house…

A conflict that isn't real, as I would suggest.

I'd like to suggest to you, to not only raise your awareness regarding your inner attitude regarding the one most important person in your life, but also regarding your other most important person in your life.

I am not a "relationships expert" by a long shot, but I can't help but think you are avoiding issues "around the house" when it's not really about the house…

But judge for yourself, don't feel compelled to answer to any of that.

Now, how do we get the maps? ​

By severely groking the GTD Horizons of Focus would be a start. Here are three videos were David Allen talks about this:

1. On the calming effects of the Level 2 map.
2. Setting Priorities with GTD
3. Feeling good about NOT doing something.

Paraphrasing an often recited self-help trope: on your deathbed you won't wish you just had rolled the garden hose together a few more times.

Hope this helps.

Take care!

APPLAUSE. This is the sort of higher-horizon thinking I aspire to and very occasionally achieve!

I just came across a quote on someone's blog which totally chimes with this, in summary "buying a new planner won't magically clean your house." (oh if only)
All the time management / productivity / whatevs won't do a darn thing if you really don't want to do something, and you can't manage time, you can only manage yourself. Productivity is really all about being effective, not about being busy. If it's not working, you have to dig in and ask yourself why?

 

[mcogilvie]

If you haven’t read it or it’s been a while, I suggest looking at David Allen’s collection of short essays Ready for Anything. I think it really distills the thinking behind GTD in a simple but profound format.

When my wife and I were new parents, and both graduate students, she shared with me some advice from another parent she had read: first things first, second things probably not, and everything else not at all. But first things run the range from next actions up to life purpose. Yes, there are things you may not get to for a long time. Someday-Maybe lists are a big help here, as is the weekly review. GTD is not going to make you super-efficient at dealing with crying babies. It can help you feel like you are making good choices in allocating time, energy and attention to important things.

 

[DKPhoto]

Thank you all for your responses. I think the problem is in fact, more a focus/map problem than discipline. So in light of that, I'll rephrase something from my last paragraph: "It feels like GTD works best when you have well defined areas of focus and priorities".

Maybe I was focusing too much on lists and the infrastructure itself than focusing on why I was setting up a system in the first place.

To clarify what I wrote, because in retrospect, it does sound too negative:


I meant that in the sense that I recognize that my areas of focus are primarily family/house related, and I'm good with that! It just a big change from what I was used to most of my adult life.


I'm not sure what you mean by this, the stuff I'm referring to is self imposed goals/creative pursuits and not all of it is "honey do" lists from my spouse. its just that because I haven't properly prioritized things, the long list of projects hits me like a tidal wave, when instead I should feel ok not tackling all of it because not all of it is equally important.

I'll be reviewing the videos you posted and make a bigger effort to clarify my areas of focus.

Have you read “Making It All Work” by David Allen? He goes into more depth about the higher horizons and areas of focus, and it felt like the missing piece for me.

 

[Oogiem]

- I'm sometimes terrified to look at my own next action lists, because there's so much to do, and some of them I'm for a lack of better term, "afraid" to start, because they're intimidating. I always forget to check my calendar everyday.

It's normal to struggle initially and I think it realistically takes at least a year to even get moderately comfortable with GTD because it's so different from other systems.

Get used to the fact that there is always going to be more for you to do than you can do in one lifetime. No one dies with an empty todo list. The key is deciding what is really important to you and finding a way to accommodate that.

Also, you are clearly managing a lot of things that you may not recognize you are doing well. Find and celebrate those even if it's somethign tiny.

Now to some nitty gritty options:

First off what are you using for contexts? I believe many of the issues are that people don't use context enough. Just because you can do many things anywhere doesn't mean that is the easiest or most efficient way to operate. So IMO when in doubt make another context. Think of what it would take for you to sit down in a context and crunch through the entire list without needing much if any other material other than the necessary items/place/person etc that you need for those actions plus your project support materials

What level of list length is comfortable for you? Long lists can mean different things to different people. For example I actually do just fine with a bunch of different contexts (I have 39 of them right now) and I don't mind long lists. I have 3 contexts that contain respectively 97, 73 and 113 next actions. For other people that is overload.

How are you using someday/maybe? I do in depth reviews quarterly in addition to weekly and i'll activate projects for that quarter that I may never get to.I'm ok with that, other people might not be. I also break out my someday/maybe into groups of similar things. So I also have a lot of S/M lists.

• I limit my project list to things that I have a good chance of progressing in the coming week.
• When free time is limited, I have one just-for-fun project activated. I find that when only one is available, I am more likely to find some time to do it.
• I do something similar with DIY. One active project at a time.
• When clarifying and organising, my default is to put things in my Someday/Maybe list instead of my project list. This is difficult for me and I often allow more onto my projects list during the week than is sensible.

Has it right. If you are really overwhelmed then one tactic that works for a lot of people is to radically limit what is on your action lists and how many projects you are working on.

Pick a few things that are critical that they happen and dump nearly everything else into Someday/Maybe and give yourself time to learn how GTD works.

Hang in there, it does make sense for a lot of people over time and we are ALL practicing and none of us have finished.

 

[FocusGuy]

@TheGuitarist

Yes I alway remember than context are just option. Possibilities. As everything change and as there are so many incoming stuff it is quiet impossible to do what is on the list. The context is a collection of "May choice" exept one for me the today context (flag) which is a must do per day. There is a silly thing. It took me years to understand that GTD is just an inventory of my engagement. These engagement are divided in 2
one is the actionnable (the may ) and the other is the might (= someday) what means it could never happen.

GTD gives peace because it stops the spinning in my head. It is an objective bird eye of possible choice. GTD help to choose. To decide. The tool is just a tool helping for that inventory.

What is the most difficult is not for me GTD. The most difficult is to choose what means to give up. Life is un predictable. If I make a choice it means that I give up something else. If I do the question is did I made the good choice ? Sure I don't know the answer I will know it later.
This is why I spent a lot of time trying to examine the un predictable. It is different than a weekly review. I do it after. It take almost 2 or 3 hours to decide. Sometime I postpone or give up some projects I have clarified in my weekly review. I make a choice for something more important. Each time I have the feeling everything is collapsing. It is the signal for me to stop and examine my engagement with a fresh eye.

GTD is not a perfect system. It has a lot of missing parts. But it is an astonish system. David made an incredible system which saved my life many time and helps my mental health to be quiet and peaceful.

 

[gtdstudente]

It's normal to struggle initially and I think it realistically takes at least a year to even get moderately comfortable with GTD because it's so different from other systems.

Get used to the fact that there is always going to be more for you to do than you can do in one lifetime. No one dies with an empty todo list. The key is deciding what is really important to you and finding a way to accommodate that.

Also, you are clearly managing a lot of things that you may not recognize you are doing well. Find and celebrate those even if it's somethign tiny.

Now to some nitty gritty options:

First off what are you using for contexts? I believe many of the issues are that people don't use context enough. Just because you can do many things anywhere doesn't mean that is the easiest or most efficient way to operate. So IMO when in doubt make another context. Think of what it would take for you to sit down in a context and crunch through the entire list without needing much if any other material other than the necessary items/place/person etc that you need for those actions plus your project support materials

What level of list length is comfortable for you? Long lists can mean different things to different people. For example I actually do just fine with a bunch of different contexts (I have 39 of them right now) and I don't mind long lists. I have 3 contexts that contain respectively 97, 73 and 113 next actions. For other people that is overload.

How are you using someday/maybe? I do in depth reviews quarterly in addition to weekly and i'll activate projects for that quarter that I may never get to.I'm ok with that, other people might not be. I also break out my someday/maybe into groups of similar things. So I also have a lot of S/M lists.


Has it right. If you are really overwhelmed then one tactic that works for a lot of people is to radically limit what is on your action lists and how many projects you are working on.

Pick a few things that are critical that they happen and dump nearly everything else into Someday/Maybe and give yourself time to learn how GTD works.

Hang in there, it does make sense for a lot of people over time and we are ALL practicing and none of us have finished.

I first discovered GTD around 2007. I bought the book and did some half hearted attempts to implement. I will admit that most of my issues were due to lack of discipline. That said, at that time in my life, I was single, living alone in an apartment, and while my job (software engineer) was mentally challenging, it felt like all the lists and such were too much scaffolding for me to deal with. In my mind at the time, there wasn't enough actual responsibilities to justify a productivity system. It's easy to let things slide when you live by yourself and have no one to hold you accountable. Overall, I became more interesting in reading about productivity and listening to productivity podcasts than actually being productive.

Flash forward to now, I'm deeper in my career, have a wife and kid, and own a home. Now I'm swamped in responsibilities, and because I'm no longer living just for myself, there's more of an incentive to be better and get things done.

My struggles are:
- I'm sometimes terrified to look at my own next action lists, because there's so much to do, and some of them I'm for a lack of better term, "afraid" to start, because they're intimidating. I always forget to check my calendar everyday. The lack of trust in my own system probably isn't helping.
- I have limited free time with a 1 year old child, especially on weekends. I understand and accept that personal time is limited in these early years with a kid, but I'm more frustrated that I find it hard to get things done around the house, despite how much I enjoy spending time with my son and my wife.
- Since it feels like there's always something to do around the house, there's never a sense of relaxing, hence the avoidance of the todo list. Even if I take time for myself and hobbies late a night when I'm alone and everyone else is sleeping, it feels like I should be doing something else.

It feels like GTD works best when you are already well disciplined, and I'm struggling more now than I would be had I actually practiced more 15 years ago when I first learned of GTD. I admit that my problem may not be GTD, its discipline, but where do I go from here to improve? Just keep trying?

@TheGuitarist.

For whatever it might be worth, @Oogiem prompts a possible GTD strategy/trick/tip that you might deem worth considering:

Focus on a particular Project that offers the most 'completion freedom' while actually allowing the Context / Next Action(s) lists “Distract / Interrupt” whenever any Next Action item(s) “Distracts / Interrupts” in the midst of any particular Context . . . in this way other Projects can also be moving forward to their completion while avoiding their potentially 'stand stilling' themselves and other Projects as well ?

 

[fooddude]

I find people make the system too complicated. And make the mistake of trying to record all the next actions of a project. There is only one next action for any project.