A
Anonymous
Guest
Hi, all. I'm relatively new to forums and very new to GTD. I've read thru the book twice and read most of the info you've all posted on the forum (thanks. very helpful!). I'm trying to decide whether to jump in now or wait until January, also considering how to approach it. Would appreciate any suggestions based on my situation.
I'm a SAHM with school age kids. Most of my time in the past has been filled with volunteer commitments. I'm coming off of a 3yr fulltime volunteer job that basically sucked the life out of me and placed incredible strains on my family. I'm trying to rebuild my family life and get around to all the stuff that got put off (housecleaning, photo albums, friends, leisure activities, exercise, etc). Also, still maintaining some volunteer commitments.
I'm wondering if I should try to tackle the GTD implementation before Christmas (even typing the C-word causes me anxiety!) or just wait until January. I have tons of loose ends with volunteer commitments and my house. I'm sure my project and next action lists will be overwhelming (although not defining them and keeping them in my head might be even more overwhelming). I frequently just do nothing because I feel overwhelmed with everything I need to do. I'm thinking the Someday/Maybe list is going to be very useful because I tend to generate way more ideas than I can possibly accomplish.
The next question is how to go about it. The book recommends one fell swoop. I could probably free up close to two days to go thru the IN stuff, but I'm wondering if that time is better spent doing tasks I need to get done (Christmas!). Also, I know from reading your comments(!) that during the first months, the system is going to be time-consuming to learn/maintain.
Alternatively, I could just work this in around everything else. I wrote up all the Next Actions I could think of to get this off the ground. I could spend time setting up the Tickler files, processing items as they come in (working on the backlog slowly), recording projects as they occur to me, etc. But that way, I think it will be a long time before I get any benefit because it certainly won't be a system I'll be able to depend on.
Would be interested in how others approached their implementation. Thanks.
(FYI. I will be going mostly low-tech - with a notebook, dividers, etc. probably entering the actual lists in a Lotus SS for easy sorting. Maybe using Word for Project lists. Really don't want to get into learning new computer stuff right now.)
(I have whole 'nother set of questions about how to fit 'homemaking' into this model, but I'll leave that for another day and another thread.)
Thanks for the support!
I'm a SAHM with school age kids. Most of my time in the past has been filled with volunteer commitments. I'm coming off of a 3yr fulltime volunteer job that basically sucked the life out of me and placed incredible strains on my family. I'm trying to rebuild my family life and get around to all the stuff that got put off (housecleaning, photo albums, friends, leisure activities, exercise, etc). Also, still maintaining some volunteer commitments.
I'm wondering if I should try to tackle the GTD implementation before Christmas (even typing the C-word causes me anxiety!) or just wait until January. I have tons of loose ends with volunteer commitments and my house. I'm sure my project and next action lists will be overwhelming (although not defining them and keeping them in my head might be even more overwhelming). I frequently just do nothing because I feel overwhelmed with everything I need to do. I'm thinking the Someday/Maybe list is going to be very useful because I tend to generate way more ideas than I can possibly accomplish.
The next question is how to go about it. The book recommends one fell swoop. I could probably free up close to two days to go thru the IN stuff, but I'm wondering if that time is better spent doing tasks I need to get done (Christmas!). Also, I know from reading your comments(!) that during the first months, the system is going to be time-consuming to learn/maintain.
Alternatively, I could just work this in around everything else. I wrote up all the Next Actions I could think of to get this off the ground. I could spend time setting up the Tickler files, processing items as they come in (working on the backlog slowly), recording projects as they occur to me, etc. But that way, I think it will be a long time before I get any benefit because it certainly won't be a system I'll be able to depend on.
Would be interested in how others approached their implementation. Thanks.
(FYI. I will be going mostly low-tech - with a notebook, dividers, etc. probably entering the actual lists in a Lotus SS for easy sorting. Maybe using Word for Project lists. Really don't want to get into learning new computer stuff right now.)
(I have whole 'nother set of questions about how to fit 'homemaking' into this model, but I'll leave that for another day and another thread.)
Thanks for the support!