GTD isn't the only thing involved
andersons said:
I see on this thread that there are a lot of believers in breaking down very small NAs. But if this works so well, then why do so many people who advocate the tiny NAs also admit that they still procrastinate and surf the web instead of doing those predefined discrete NAs? Why? Does this strategy really work? Or do we just believe that it should always work?
Different people procrastinate for different reasons. For me,
The Now Habit really helped shed light on why I procrastinate, and it has helped me to see ways to get through my procrastination. Writing small NAs may help someone, and it may not. In my case, it has helped, and so I offer it as a suggestion to people having similar-sounding problems.
Writing small NAs is only part of my attempted solution, though -- we also have to go back to how we define our "successful outcomes." If our outcomes don't motivate us -- if they aren't actually
desired -- they aren't going to help us get things done.
We're all human, and while we find things that work for us, we don't always do them every time we should. (I intend to spend more time defining the right outcomes on projects during my weekly review today, for example.)
Adopting GTD is a process, not an event, and we all face setbacks.
andersons said:
My view of whether a system works is the bottom line: Are you getting done what you want to get done? Are you satisfied with your productivity? Are you happy with your life? If you say, No, I surf the web too much, I really should get more done -- then that is not success, no matter how small the NAs on your lists may be.
You're right, and that's why we keep trying. David Allen put it simply in a magazine interview: "Productivity is about completion." I was dissatisfied with the amount of things I was getting finished, so I started looking for something to help me get more things done. I found GTD, and I've been working on it for about 10 months now.
Once I got GTD more or less worked out, I discovered other things -- I might have a nice neat list of NAs, for example, but those NAs weren't getting done. As it turns out, my original problem (not getting enough things finished) had more than one part.
GTD has helped me keep better track of my obligations, and now my biggest issue is procrastination -- I know what I should be doing, because it's all there in my system, but is it getting done? If not, why not? GTD is not a motivational system -- when you get to the "Do" step, the system doesn't
give you the urge to do things. That has to come from within, and we all have our own sets of reasons why we may not do things.
GTD has helped me face my procrastination by clarifying what I'm not doing. Now that those things are clear, I can look at them and try to figure out why I'm not doing them. Unlearning procrastination is one of my higher-level objectives right now, and I wouldn't be as clear about the problem if not for GTD.