Why don't we do what we know is good for us?

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody, have apply GTD for about 2 years.

The method is great. It makes life simpler. Anyway, my current problem is I just don't do my NA. It's not that the outcome is not what I want. I don't know why, but am I not motivate to do it? :?:

For example. Doing Yaga for 30 mins a day, 3 times a week will improve my health. But when I see this NA(Yoga for 30 mins) in my @home.. I skipped and do other thing (such as reading book, talking, etc).

Any suggestion?

Sugarglider Palm
p.s. Also read the thread about ThinkTQ, sound like it could help?? :wink:

 

[Busydave]

Get a real clear focus on how bad you feel when you skip yoga. Really focus on it. Memorise it. Immerse yourself in it. Wallow in self recrimination, regret, and self loathing.

Now, the next time you consider skipping yoga, it will be easy to remember how bad you felt the last time you skipped it.

Dave

 

[Busydave]

Maybe that was a little drastic.

What I meant was: a day looks completely different at the start and the end. At the start of the day, speaking for myself, I wonder how I can guarantee some happiness. This type of thinking will steer me towards things I really like doing (in your case this is reading, talking to friends).

But at the end of the day my thought patterns can revolve around guilt and regret, “why did I read instead of doing my yoga?”

If you can think like it’s evening when it is still morning, you will anticipate and intercept these regrets by doing the things that you might otherwise have skipped doing.

It’s kind of planning your moods – ask yourself in the morning “Come this evening, what things would I most like to have accomplished today?”

Call it regret management.

Dave

 

[Anonymous]

I just started working out again -- no excuses. I get more energy that way even though you have to exert some energy initially to get motivated. Now I just can't stop.

 

[ScottL]

LOL I just got home from work early and am going to do yoga before dinner.

Let me ask you--why do you do yoga? Do you notice a difference in the way you feel (more relaxed, peaceful, etc)? If not, you are just doing it because of some perceived long term benefit. That kind of motivation is VERY difficult to sustain (I know, I'm a doc and also do "wellness consulting"). Do you attend any yoga class? Keeping up a home practice without it is difficult.

If you have noticed differences after doing yoga then focus on them...remember how good it feels afterwards. If not, then the next few times you do yoga notice how you feel before and afterwards. Focusing on the positive might be more effective then the opposite.

OK my 2 minutes is long up and it is time for my yoga.

Scott

Oh and things you need to do are different. Find Mark Forster's (sp) web site and read the article called something like "I'll just get the folder out"

 

[stargazer_rick]

Many times I will list an almost ridiculously small next action on my NA list and this is just big enough for the rest of the project to hide behind so that I don't focus on the overall picture (like spending a whole, entire 30-minutes exercising).

As an example of this, I think that even David Allen himself said somewhere that he adds next actions of "put on exercise clothes". He may not have the energy to exercise, but he does have the energy to put on the exercise clothes. After he gets the clothes on he can always renegotiate the agreement with himself, but he usually feels like working out once he gets dressed for it. This may work for you and is a fantastic example of what an actual next action should be.

We each have to find our own proper size for a next action. For me it is very small but for others you may be able to include bigger next actions and not get overwhelmed with them. You may want to try a next action like "put on yoga clothes" or "roll out yoga mat" or whatever works for you. [Can you tell that I don't yoga? ]

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you every body

Thank you every body, I will try the methods you given me as see what is best for me. : >

 

[Jason Womack]

Re: Why don't we do what we know is good for us?

Anyway, my current problem is I just don't do my NA.

The Important Things

Last week a client asked how they could more accurately prioritize their work "ahead of time." After a short conversation, I understood she wanted to have a very short list that would stay current through the day, "no matter what interruptions" showed up.

In order to work on "the most important thing," I specifically address three topics:

• Energy
  Attention
  Intention

Priotization takes place moment to moment. At ten thirty on Tuesday my attention might be on one of dozens of things. My energy may be low because I traveled all day on Monday. My intention could be to work that thing I "think" I should complete.

In the seminar GTD seminar [ http://www.davidco.com/pdfs/gtd_inhouse.pdf ] participants practice a proven methodolgy to identify, define and capture all the things they have attention on (eg: their priorities). When this inventory is complete - it usually takes 1-3 days to get it ALL - it's much easier to manage the flow of work via your energy and intentions.

Create your entire list of open loops, next actions, and projects and next Tuesday at 10:30 pick the one next action that:

You have attention on; and
You have energy to work on; and
You have an intention to complete.

 

[Anonymous]

In terms of yoga, I suggest the President's Challenge to you..

has been helpful to me to get an "instant payoff" .. even if it is a red star.


http://www.presidentschallenge.org/

In terms of generic motivation to get stuff done .. I've found Stuart Lichtman's work very helpful .. here's a link to his free minicourse on Cybernetic Transposition ... you can ignore the "hype" about money .. it's really a goal-achieving methodology which works on any goal.

http://www.anything-fast.com/success/?fid=brochureguru

 

[Anonymous]

About 21:40 last night, I come back here to get the advice. Someone advice me to visit http://www.presidentschallenge.org/ . This is very amazing. When I go there and go through the the register process, you know what happen? Yes, I just go up stair, rollout my yoga mat and begin exercise. After complete it, I go back to the site and update my first log. Very amazing!!!

 

[CosmoGTD]

That is obviously a get-rich-quick, wishful thinking, magical thinking, overhyped, absurd, extreme unverified anecdotal testimony scamola of the first degree.
Also, his "Quaternary theory" of the human brain is "unique". I wonder if he will get the Nobel Prize for neuroscience?

At least this guy understands fragile human nature, human weakness and fallibility, and the desire for something for nothing, that induces people to buy countless billions in lottery tickets.

That guy wants YOUR money, so he can "make easy money through internet viral marketing".

In terms of generic motivation to get stuff done .. I've found Stuart Lichtman's work very helpful .. here's a link to his free minicourse on Cybernetic Transposition ... you can ignore the "hype" about money .. it's really a goal-achieving methodology which works on any goal.

http://www.anything-fast.com/success/?fid=brochureguru

 

[Busydave]

Coz

Stop sitting on the fence … what do you REALLY think of Lichtman?

Dave

 

[alsa]

The best thing to do is to think about what in the course of, say, a month you want to be the most proud of -- and there lies your answer!

 

[CosmoGTD]

I think i am going to steal his advertising slogans..

"Wanted: People Who Need Money FAST!"
"How To Get Lots of Money For Anything FAST!"

Who DOESN'T need money fast?

Sign up for that one, and you could get spammed into oblivion.

There is a sucker born every minute.

Only In America.

Coz

Stop sitting on the fence … what do you REALLY think of Lichtman?

Dave

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe you just don't like doing yoga. Maybe it's boring. Maybe you can get the benefits of yoga doing something else that feels better, is more fun, or ties in with another task - such as dancing, weeding, housecleaning, etc.

I agree that doing something just because it MIGHT improve your life over the very long term is not very motivating. You need to tie it in with something more gratifying over the short term.

I don't do anything on a regular basis that I don't either enjoy over the short term OR derive obvious benefit from over the fairly short term. There are too many things that "might" or were "supposed to" make my life better over the long term that I spent months doing and not seeing much or any benefit from. So I dropped those activities.

 

[ScottL]

I hate to take this a bit OT, but I had to reply to the last poster. I also believe this makes an important point having nothing to do with yoga per se.

"I don't do anything on a regular basis that I don't either enjoy over the short term OR derive obvious benefit from over the fairly short term."

Wow...do you take vitamins? Wear a seat belt? Eat everything you feel like, or watch you weight? Have life or apt./house insurance?

"I agree that doing something just because it MIGHT improve your life over the very long term is not very motivating. You need to tie it in with something more gratifying over the short term."

Or find other ways to motivate yourself. There are lots of things that are appropriate and in our best interests which would be helpful for us to do. Some provide short term gratification (yoga actually will for many people). But if you want or would benefit from something, and there is not immediate or short term gratification, visualize the outcome of doing it....really see yourself enjoying whatever benefits you would have. Now visualize what would happen if you did not do it.

David Allen has a video clip on making change permanent which (I think--haven't watched it in a while) relates to this:

www.davidco.com/video_audio.php?SID=e2d9839bd943cc4ca8fb28769d251356

 

[Busydave]

Scott

You make a great point on a topic that I have been mulling over for the last few weeks.

I had to think long and hard to figure out what things make me feel really fulfilled. I realised that there are two main categories for me: positive feedback on a piece of creative work; and the personal satisfaction of getting a big task finished – the garden overhauled, a room redecorated, etc.

But on the other hand, take the seven categories of health, family, financial, Intellectual, social, professional, and spiritual. There is general agreement that we should cultivate all of these areas – if one of them falls behind, a general sense of imbalance creeps across our lives.

In one of his bulletins, Don Wetmore points out that if we make one small improvement in each of these seven areas every day for a year, then we will have made approx. 2,500 general life improvements when the year is up.

I know that may sound a little simplistic, but it highlights the point that there is a huge amount we can be doing to make our lives feel better.

However, it’s unlikely that we will get a noticeable buzz out of any of the above. Only when we look back after a year and do a self scrutiny for general satisfaction levels will we be able to see the benefits.

These are two very different types of things: the big once off assignments with the big satisfaction pay-off, (and the resultant self-esteem boost), and the general maintenance/improvement projects. (Even using the word project here can blur the issue: DA defines a project as a task with more than one step … but general self maintenance never ends, so it is not really a project in this sense).

The confusion between different types of goals can sabotage 30,000 to 50,000 foot thinking sessions. The prospect of sending a draft novel to a publisher beats the hell out of the prospect of walking or praying for fifteen minutes a day. Both are equally important to a person, and it would be tragic if they were graded by the immediate elation they generated.

Neglecting the balance between the seven areas will cause a sense of dissatisfaction that will probably just feed the desire for more big pay-off projects, which will just perpetuate a vicious circle.

The seven areas is a good checklist to keep to hand during the weekly review. I’d say most of us consider exercise and diet during the weekly review – but it seems to me that all seven areas are on the same level as physical well-being: they just aren’t talked about as much. DA reminds us that we can be kicked into higher level thinking from time to time by a big life event: the chance of a great job in another country for example.

But if we make sure that we are not neglecting the seven areas on a week to week basis, there will be a pay-off at some deep level. At the very least you should be able to look back after a year and realise that things just seem a little more stable than they used to. You will FEEL better.

I think it was Daniel Goleman who said that a huge amount of our lives is effectively spent on mood management – we steer things and gravitate towards things to make us feel good. The big pay-off is always attractive, but if you accept that the seven areas need to be gently cultivated also, you will gain a long term sense of contentment.

Its not an “either/or” scenario.

Dave