A False Dilemma: Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review?

[Matt_M]

I am asking the second question you posed. "Or are you asking which one is more important from a "make it a habit"/track the time spent doing it, perspective?"

I am trying to decide which behavior is best to monitor.

Well, I won't cop out and say "track both". As stated, I'd track the weekly review as it's the more strategically important habit. If your weekly reviews are spent largely on just processing then that is an indication that you need to spend more time each day getting your inbox down to zero. Not helpful I am sure but as you said, it's a false dilemma.

However, a common problem that folks have is that during either the weekly review or processing their inbox, they start doing the work which makes the processing take much longer. That could be the root of the issue. Other problems include things such as having a system/tool that you just don't like using/interacting with or needing to reset expectations with people providing inputs into your system (e.g. letting people know that they may be waiting for 24 - 48 hours for a reply to their email) causing you to get overwhelmed.

I don't want to go too off topic and turn this thread into a solution'ing session, but I suspect the root issue(s) here is not which activity you track the time spent on it but something else entirely.

I hope this helps

 

[DKPhoto]

Hello, all. I am highly interested in self-monitoring, and I'm trying to decide which item I should track *indefinitely* from GTD. I've narrowed my focus to Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review.

As part of this thought experiment, I (you) can only pick one item to monitor.

I know it's a false dilemma, but I would like to know:

Which is more important? (Or, at the very least, which item would you track?)

Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review?

I emailed David A. a version of this post, and his answer was, "Whichever gets this thing off your mind."

Thank you for participating!

I’ve no idea what you mean by self monitoring, but it seems to me that is exactly what GTD is.

As priorities constantly change I would ask the question “what day of the week is it?” For me, Monday to Thursday inbox zeroing would be the most important, and Friday the Weekly Review would be.

I know that’s not playing the game bit i always was a spoilsport!

 

[topshelf]

I’ve no idea what you mean by self monitoring, but it seems to me that is exactly what GTD is.

As priorities constantly change I would ask the question “what day of the week is it?” For me, Monday to Thursday inbox zeroing would be the most important, and Friday the Weekly Review would be.

I know that’s not playing the game bit i always was a spoilsport!

Spoilsport indeed. By self-monitoring, I mean tracking.

Thanks for commenting!

 

[topshelf]

However, a common problem that folks have is that during either the weekly review or processing their inbox, they start doing the work which makes the processing take much longer.

Guilty. Thank you for coming back to this thread to follow up.

 

[DKPhoto]

@gtdstudente

I was once told that the tone of an email is set by the reader NOT the writer. I would argue that it is the same for forum posts.

Personally speaking, I find the formatting of your posts incredibly hard to read, yet you obviously spend a lot of time on the formatting. I would never format a post in the way you do, so when I read them I can't easily recognise where you are trying to put the emphasis.

I am now at the point that I pass by your posts because of this, which is an incredible shame as you clearly are a knowledgable, positive contributor to this forum.

I'm by no means a grammatical expert, and I mean all of this in a friendly, positive, and hopefully helpful way. Here's a smiley to prove it .

I have been told that I come across as brusque and short in emails, which I think also proves the point in the first line.

 

[gtdstudente]

@gtdstudente

I was once told that the tone of an email is set by the reader NOT the writer. I would argue that it is the same for forum posts.

Personally speaking, I find the formatting of your posts incredibly hard to read, yet you obviously spend a lot of time on the formatting. I would never format a post in the way you do, so when I read them I can't easily recognise where you are trying to put the emphasis.

I am now at the point that I pass by your posts because of this, which is an incredible shame as you clearly are a knowledgable, positive contributor to this forum.

I'm by no means a grammatical expert, and I mean all of this in a friendly, positive, and hopefully helpful way. Here's a smiley to prove it .

I have been told that I come across as brusque and short in emails, which I think also proves the point in the first line.

DKPhoto:

Thank you for your reply which is understood as kindly honest . . . thank you very much

Agreed perhaps everyone should be vigilant in avoiding wasting any time and any effort . . . why read a student when one can read the Master?

Also, you gratefully have one thinking further:

One can only give their best while accepting "Sometimes you 'win' and sometimes you 'lose'" which seems to be a much more productive perspective in keeping one's peace of soul than futilely attempting the impossibility of trying to please everyone?

When one has done their best then one has done their job?

Good GTD job, thank you very much

Ps. Whatever it might be worth to you, the written language is a fifth degree of language, yes like a fifth language vs. a second language as commonly understood when learning another language . . . Thinking or Listening is everyone's first/second language? :

1-or-2. Thinking, 2-or-1. Listening, 3. Speaking, 4. Reading, 5. Writing, 6. Formatting?

Pps. Always found it puzzling as to why academic Communications Majors were deemed by many as a light-weight major

 

[Gardener]

Does that mean: "bad GTDer . . . very, very bad GTDer . . . no more GTD for you" ?

No one has said that, so it strikes me as a strawman.

Anyone can implement any part of GTD any way they want. However, when using a system, there is value in understanding what the original, un-altered system is.

I could try to make cacio e pepe with blue cheese instead of pecorino. But to do that, or at least to communicate about that, I have to understand what others regard as cacio e pepe. I start with a common defined standard, so that I have a frame of reference for discussion.

I can write a fictional scene in close omniscient, distant omniscient, first person, third person limited, close third person limited, etc., etc., etc. Or I can mix those at will. But it's useful to understand what those are, and when I'm mixing.

For the reason(s) above, perhaps it could be said for that and for many other reasons as to why GTD falls very short and greatly disappoints in being cult? Cults always have a 'kick-out' mechanism?

To understand and communicate a definition is not to be in a cult.

 

[Gardener]

I definitely vote for the weekly review, assuming that the weekly review includes cleaning out the inbox. To me, cleaning out the inbox daily instead of weekly just makes your system a little more clear and sprightly. To never do the weekly review would result in the system deteriorating over time, until it's largely unusable.

 

[gtdstudente]

No one has said that, so it strikes me as a strawman.

Anyone can implement any part of GTD any way they want. However, when using a system, there is value in understanding what the original, un-altered system is.

I could try to make cacio e pepe with blue cheese instead of pecorino. But to do that, or at least to communicate about that, I have to understand what others regard as cacio e pepe. I start with a common defined standard, so that I have a frame of reference for discussion.

I can write a fictional scene in close omniscient, distant omniscient, first person, third person limited, close third person limited, etc., etc., etc. Or I can mix those at will. But it's useful to understand what those are, and when I'm mixing.


To understand and communicate a definition is not to be in a cult.

Gardener,

Much, much better expressed . . . thank you very GTD much

 

[gtdstudente]

I definitely vote for the weekly review, assuming that the weekly review includes cleaning out the inbox. To me, cleaning out the inbox daily instead of weekly just makes your system a little more clear and sprightly. To never do the weekly review would result in the system deteriorating over time, until it's largely unusable.

At least having an empty inbox is a nice 'Launch-Pad' for the Weekly Review?

 

[gtdstudente]

No one has said that, so it strikes me as a strawman.

Anyone can implement any part of GTD any way they want. However, when using a system, there is value in understanding what the original, un-altered system is.

I could try to make cacio e pepe with blue cheese instead of pecorino. But to do that, or at least to communicate about that, I have to understand what others regard as cacio e pepe. I start with a common defined standard, so that I have a frame of reference for discussion.

I can write a fictional scene in close omniscient, distant omniscient, first person, third person limited, close third person limited, etc., etc., etc. Or I can mix those at will. But it's useful to understand what those are, and when I'm mixing.


To understand and communicate a definition is not to be in a cult.

Is satire still satire if the satire is pointed out?

 

[topshelf]

I definitely vote for the weekly review, assuming that the weekly review includes cleaning out the inbox. To me, cleaning out the inbox daily instead of weekly just makes your system a little more clear and sprightly. To never do the weekly review would result in the system deteriorating over time, until it's largely unusable.

Thank you for taking the time to comment!

 

[gtdstudente]

Hello, all. I am highly interested in self-monitoring, and I'm trying to decide which item I should track *indefinitely* from GTD. I've narrowed my focus to Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review.

As part of this thought experiment, I (you) can only pick one item to monitor.

I know it's a false dilemma, but I would like to know:

Which is more important? (Or, at the very least, which item would you track?)

Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review?

I emailed David A. a version of this post, and his answer was, "Whichever gets this thing off your mind."

Thank you for participating!

topshelf:

You clearly brought a great GTD concern to the GTD Forum . . . GTD good on you and thank you very much!

Think both GTD practices have value and therefore saying NO "zero-ing IN" would be undermining GTD practice in general and undermining the Weekly Review in particular and therefore NO "zero-ing IN" would be a counter-productive GTD constraint/practice on this end

 

[DKPhoto]

1-or-2. Thinking, 2-or-1. Listening, 3. Speaking, 4. Reading, 5. Writing, 6. Formatting?

What about seeing?

Having opened up to you about this I have been pondering as to why I have this problem.

I believe that it may be because I am a photographer, so a visual person. A strong visual will often have contrast and/or patterns. I think my brain sees your use of colour before it sees anything else, so is trying to interpret the colour not the words.

Also you use three dots a lot … and again my brain sees the pattern of dots, and not their grammatical intent.

I do use 3 dots myself, though usually at the end of a sentence, to indicate a tumbleweed moment or a particularly weak joke ( often the same thing)!

Agreed that it is my problem, and that you shouldn’t try and satisfy all.
Many thanks.

 

[DKPhoto]

By self-monitoring, I mean tracking

I’m not sure what you are tracking or what purpose it would serve.

Is it merely a habit tracker? i.e “I did it.”

Would you track that you got to Inbox zero at some point during the day, or would you track the number of times times you got to it in one day?

Would you track the number of times you checked your email each day versus the number of times you got to inbox zero? Given that you should only handle each email once then these should be equal, so would be a useful measure of your efficiency.

Anyway, to play the game, i would say the Weekly Review, as daily inbox processing only deals with new inputs, whereas the Weekly Review covers both new inputs and existing commitments.

GTD is tracking all your open loops, so by tracking your weekly review your are by defa tracking everything.

There, no more spoilsport.

 

[gtdstudente]

What about seeing?

Having opened up to you about this I have been pondering as to why I have this problem.

I believe that it may be because I am a photographer, so a visual person. A strong visual will often have contrast and/or patterns. I think my brain sees your use of colour before it sees anything else, so is trying to interpret the colour not the words.

Also you use three dots a lot … and again my brain sees the pattern of dots, and not their grammatical intent.

I do use 3 dots myself, though usually at the end of a sentence, to indicate a tumbleweed moment or a particularly weak joke ( often the same thing)!

Agreed that it is my problem, and that you shouldn’t try and satisfy all.
Many thanks.

DKPhoto:

Thank you for your very kind GTD reply

Agreed "seeing" could deem written language a sixth language, and as such, formatting as a seventh?

Also a 'visualist' on this end and agree the the advantage of habitual knowing what the All/Life-Encompassing previously expressed colors represent: Areas-of-Focus colors represent in General: Divine, Persons, Engineering (Obstacles), Tools/Utilities, and Fiscal and in Particular: A's (Acceptance, Accuracy, Awareness, etc.), Healthy, Toxic, Props, Provisions

In addition to often omitting end points (periods), the use of ellipsis's . . . is to facilitate/slow-down cognitive processing, etc., while the omission of periods is to express a definitive conclusion(s) remains open. . . .

Hopefully, the above GTD perspective and use of the '5th written language' expresses a generous willingness to clarify expressed meaning(s)

In any any event it is a joy to professionally GTD collaborate with you and any other GTDer . . . agree that satire might be inappropriate for professional discourse . . . if so, my bad and my apologizes to any GTD undermining

Thank you very much

 

[topshelf]

I’m not sure what you are tracking or what purpose it would serve.

Is it merely a habit tracker? i.e “I did it.”

This would take me a long time to explain fully and is a little meta and outside the scope of this thread, but I am a therapist and am interested in self-monitoring as it is one of the best tools I have used with myself and clients. I've taken a lot from anecdotal experience and books. (I can provide some of my resources if you'd like.)

I am essentially answering this question:

If you were to monitor/track three to five items for the foreseeable future that you believed would predict “success,” however you defined it, what would they be? They can happen at any frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and must be influenceable.

For health, I track my exercise frequency
For relationships, I track dates with my spouse and kids.
For finances, I track our savings rate.
For personal development, I am experimenting with either tracking Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review.

 

[DKPhoto]

is to facilitate/slow-down cognitive processing, etc

Ahh, so you’re giving me room to think, but all i can come up with is tumbleweed-pretty much sums me up!

 

[René Lie]

This would take me a long time to explain fully and is a little meta and outside the scope of this thread, but I am a therapist and am interested in self-monitoring as it is one of the best tools I have used with myself and clients. I've taken a lot from anecdotal experience and books. (I can provide some of my resources if you'd like.)

I am essentially answering this question:

If you were to monitor/track three to five items for the foreseeable future that you believed would predict “success,” however you defined it, what would they be? They can happen at any frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and must be influenceable.

For health, I track my exercise frequency
For relationships, I track dates with my spouse and kids.
For finances, I track our savings rate.
For personal development, I am experimenting with either tracking Daily processing time – zero-ing IN or the Weekly Review.

Out of curiosity: how do you track these things - only the number of times and perhaps the content, or also some kind of quality or perceived "success"?

 

[topshelf]

Out of curiosity: how do you track these things - only the number of times and perhaps the content, or also some kind of quality or perceived "success"?

I track frequency, mainly. For exercise, I track the frequency, but I log my workouts separately, which is something I have done for years. For dates, I track frequency and content. For my savings rate, I track the dollar amount and percentage. Does that make sense?