Busy trap

M

Muhanad

0
As I pointed out in another thread I'm very productive these days. I get and make tons of calls. I have a lot of meetings. I'm getting tons of emails. My inbox is at zero daily. I have processing time daily from 16 to 17. And I have weekly review weekly. GTD works.

Three months passed and I see no progress in my projects. Nothing changed inspite of my super productivity. I feel terrble. I now understand that I do a lot of stuff but no real life changing stuff. No real important stuff that changes it all. It could be one meeting or one call that worth a month. It's a heroic deed you need to have to change it all.

I though I could cut the Gordian knot. I have tons of Next Actions on my lists. I need to choose one and only one that would be that chaging point (not sure if I should be choosing from Next Actions or Projects though). And make it labours of Hercules for the next day. Should I have time afterwards I can check through my lists to do something.

Will it help me to get out of a busy trap?
 
It sounds like you've discovered that having a lot of meetings, writing a lot of emails, and getting inbox to zero each day is not synonymous with being productive. Being productive means getting things done that you choose to get done, that you WANT to get done. Obviously, we all have stuff we have to do each day, but GTD can be used to minimize the HAVE tos so you can focus on the WANT tos. ;)
 
wow!

sounds like GTD is working great for you... not because you get productive... but because now that you feel you're getting everything you ARE doing under control, you get free space in your mind to gain perspective and think about whether or not you WANT to do those thngs!

Myriam
 
Horizons of Focus

Hi, I experienced the same thing as I started my shift from victim to captain. Lots of busy admin things on a daily basis but my "manager hat" seemed to be accumulating a lot of dust and I didn't seem to be focusing on those more strategic projects I've been wanting to get to.

That's when I discovered the power of working on my Horizons of Focus. Doing this really helped me to gain a full picture perspective of those things on my plate that I could delegate or really didn't need to be doing at all. My first thought was, "I can't delegate or delete any tasks I'm doing. They all need to be done!" When you work your horizons and look at them, you'd be surprised. I was and as a result, I've had more strategic ideas in the last 3 months since implementing GTD than I have in the last 3 years. Powerful stuff.
 
Why are you going to these meetings and receiving these emails? Are you in a position to delegate these tasks to anyone? If its in your job descriptions you might want to change your job. Are the things you want to do career related? Sounds like youll have to move up a level highter in your horizon of focus and figure out some purpose or goal that you really want to conquer.
 
It looks like I found the cure. I start the day with a sales related action. Unless done I don't move to other calls or computer tasks. It gives a feeling of accomplishment and movement to the right direction.
 
Sounds a bit like Eat That Frog, but doing a positive task you want to do but have little time for, rather than just something you procrastinate about.

http://www.eatthatfrogmovie.com/

GTD is great alongside this, because it identifies the frogs :)

Got that link from another GTD thread a while back. I often now block 30-60 minutes out at the beginning of my calendar day, with just the word "FROG" in the appointment.
 
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