Also if your project list is long, do a someday/maybe list. Mine is just like project list. A list of what done looks like items. They are either more than one year out or just dreams. During my weekly review I check this list to see if anything excites me to move to project list.Okay, thanks for clarifying! And just so you know, I never thought you were implying GTD causes "mind like mush" or anything negative about the system itself. Any perceived criticism in my previous posts was entirely self-directed as I figure out my own process.
Experiencing Friction with GTD After One Month – Seeking Workflow Optimization Advice
- Thread starter achieve
- Start date
Reflecting on cfoley & dtj & &Tom_Hagen & fooddude's advice, I've realized that if I find something I can do, know how to do it, and it promises a fun or somewhat valuable outcome, I tend to do it regardless of my fatigue. However, I usually don't assess whether its value aligns with my core values (I actually value my health greatly) or consider other more important tasks I should be doing. This often leads me to push through these initially appealing but ultimately lower-value things, which ironically makes it harder to tackle complex, important tasks, leading to distraction.
The key, as you suggested, is to postpone those low-value materials, move them to a "someday/maybe" list—and prioritize rest. Even a 15-minute nap can make a huge difference in regaining focus for challenging work.
For instance, I woke up at 4 AM today excited to research an AI model setup, something low-priority for my main goals. Instead of just doing it despite being tired, I put it on my "someday/maybe" list and went back to sleep. It felt great to protect my rest, and I'm really thankful for your advices.
Last edited:
FocusGuy
Registered
The someday may be list is for me one of the most powerfull tool of GTD. At the beginning my way was to make long list and then sort. Then I decided to split this list in some core list like ideas and so on. I realised later I had to many items (including my others GTD list) now I make a serious sort on what I keep or not according to my Horizons. This was made my GTD system efficient and fast.
dtj
Registered
It's truly amazing how easy it is for even the smartest and most intentional person, to totally whiff it on considering the opportunity cost for a task or situation. In the heat of battle, you're so focused, eyes forward, on the task to consider either should you be doing it, or what better use could be made of your resources. I was musing over the consideration as to whether this problem is an evolutionary adaptation that allowed humans to move up the ranks. If homo sapiens were more inclined to shirk their current task to chase the bright and shiny, we may have died out long ago.
I don’t “prioritize” anything I just do the next actions in contexts. For example, if I’m at my computer I can do all my @computer actions. They are all from different projects. But I’m glad the someday/maybe list worked. It takes it off your mind until you are really ready to act on it.
I get it, and that's perfectly aligned with David Allen's philosophy of context-based next actions rather than traditional prioritizing.
I was just trying to say that in my specific example, I ended up "prioritizing" rest more, haha.
You’re implicitly assuming that the population is approximately uniform and different from, say, other mammals. It’s likely a distribution, shaped by nature and nurture, with different traits favored in different situations. The gene pool is both deep and big, and is shaped in ways difficult to foresee.
dtj
Registered
Not assuming that at all. Distinctly different phenotype can adopt similar “software”, adopting to radically different “hardware” and sometimes resolve at similar adaptations. Example cat have the “predator lock” (can’t recall what its called), whereas chickens, likely other birds, have something similar, but having significantly less “hardware” to work with. And that focus and adaptation would likely make them early adopters of GTD, if but for opposable thumbs, and writing, and paper making skills.
Sorry,, I may not have been clear. I meant variation within the human race.Not assuming that at all. Distinctly different phenotype can adopt similar “software”, adopting to radically different “hardware” and sometimes resolve at similar adaptations. Example cat have the “predator lock” (can’t recall what its called), whereas chickens, likely other birds, have something similar, but having significantly less “hardware” to work with. And that focus and adaptation would likely make them early adopters of GTD, if but for opposable thumbs, and writing, and paper making skills.
schmeggahead
Registered
A fascinating read on this topic:
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes by Adam Rutherford. (read by the Author on Audible)
Clayton.