Falling off the GTD wagon

[kelstarrising]

Howdy Members,

In response to our latest email to our members, many of you sent along some fantastic suggestions for webinar topics for 2011. Keep them coming!

A common theme of the suggestions seemed to be around "getting back on the GTD wagon when you've fallen off." We've captured that as a suggestion (maybe even for January?), and, a great video in the meantime is this two-minute one with David:
https://secure.davidco.com/connect/video.php?titleid=4&trackid=189

(Beware: it will suggest a Weekly Review. So if you don't want to be reminded to do a Weekly Review, don't watch this video )

Kelly

 

[Michael Hawkins]

Fallen off the wagon? Ummm, yeah. I'm there.

I think this would make a perfect January topic. Because, hey, I've fallen and can't get up.

 

[Barb]

Product Recommendation

Dear Fellow Connectors,

I AM the Queen of the GTD products! In addition to the "Managing Projects" cd set, may I also recommend the set on the "Weekly Review"? Since we have the free shipping special and our Connect discount, now is the time. The WR doesn't have to be something we dread, hate, hide from, ignore, moan about, and (worst of all) feel guilty over!

I listen and re-listen to these products several times annual. They are all so helpful. And yes..I am a GTD geek.

 

[cmcantwell]

I second Barb's suggestion

Dear Fellow Connectors,

I AM the Queen of the GTD products! In addition to the "Managing Projects" cd set, may I also recommend the set on the "Weekly Review"? Since we have the free shipping special and our Connect discount, now is the time. The WR doesn't have to be something we dread, hate, hide from, ignore, moan about, and (worst of all) feel guilty over!

I listen and re-listen to these products several times annual. They are all so helpful. And yes..I am a GTD geek.

I couldn't agree more about the Weekly Review CD set. I burned it to iTunes and now I can re-listen whenever and wherever I need a boost. I sometimes listen on long trips via plane or car. They really lift you up a level.

 

[Suelin23]

Backlog as a project

Actually I find it really hard to do a weekly review when I've fallen off the wagon, as the first step is to process, so I start processing, get overwhelmed and stop again. Listening to the backlog webinars really helped me get on, the concept of drawing a line in the sand where processing starts and anything prior is backlog which you treat as a project, really helped a lot. It kept the processing to reasonable level and so I could get the workflow going again.

 

[Barb]

More on Backlog

That's good advice on backlog. In fact, I recommended the Managing Workflow seminar to a client of mine They sent 5-6 people at various times. I don't think anyone has taken the time to get started. Why? Because they have huge stacks of paper and "amorphous blobs" of stuff all over their offices (let's leave the homes out of it for now). I don't remember my own situation being that bad, but I'm sure others here can relate.

I think marking everything as backlog might even be the best way to START GTD for some. So if you're new and struggling, you might just want to think about processing new stuff and get to the old stuff later.

 

[sholden]

Actually I find it really hard to do a weekly review when I've fallen off the wagon, as the first step is to process, so I start processing, get overwhelmed and stop again. Listening to the backlog webinars really helped me get on, the concept of drawing a line in the sand where processing starts and anything prior is backlog which you treat as a project, really helped a lot. It kept the processing to reasonable level and so I could get the workflow going again.

I use the backlog a lot also ... great reminder for everyone else.

The last two weekly reviews I did using two of the seminar weekly reviews where they walked through a weekly review as my companion coach during the review. Almost like setting an appointment with someone else to do the weekly review with.

 

[RCL]

What Constitutes "Falling Off the Wagon?"

An interesting question is what constitutes "falling off the wagon?"

A month or so back we hit a crazy busy period at my office where things were wall-to-wall chaos. Everything was an emergency. This went on for about two full weeks. Throughout this period I was almost exclusively tied up with latest & loudest work as it appeared.

While all this was going on, however, I kept a tidy desk by throwing things into my In Box. It sure piled up! Nothing was getting processed, nor was I even doing much emergency scanning. I was working a lot out of my e-mail In Box. I couldn't be entirely sure that everything urgent was covered.

Eventually things calmed down a bit. I put up a sign to discourage interruptions and took practically a whole day to process and empty my paper & e-mail In Boxes. I was a little frustrated and stressed by the frantic atmosphere during all this, but at the same time I still felt peace knowing all the stuff piling up was corralled where I would get to it... sooner, or more likely, later.

This didn't feel like falling off the wagon exactly, though I guess my legs were dangling off the edge. If nothing else, I was at least still consciously collecting. But had this gone on for a month...? I don't know.

 

[Barb]

Definition

I don't look at this as falling off the wagon at ALL! You knew what you had to focus on and you did it and you didn't sit there and process all day while Rome burned around you. AND YOU GOT RIGHT BACK INTO GTD MODE AS SOON AS THE CRISIS WAS OVER--that's why this wasn't falling off the wagon. Great job!

An interesting question is what constitutes "falling off the wagon?"

A month or so back we hit a crazy busy period at my office where things were wall-to-wall chaos. Everything was an emergency. This went on for about two full weeks. Throughout this period I was almost exclusively tied up with latest & loudest work as it appeared.

While all this was going on, however, I kept a tidy desk by throwing things into my In Box. It sure piled up! Nothing was getting processed, nor was I even doing much emergency scanning. I was working a lot out of my e-mail In Box. I couldn't be entirely sure that everything urgent was covered.
Eventually things calmed down a bit. I put up a sign to discourage interruptions and took practically a whole day to process and empty my paper & e-mail In Boxes. I was a little frustrated and stressed by the frantic atmosphere during all this, but at the same time I still felt peace knowing all the stuff piling up was corralled where I would get to it... sooner, or more likely, later.

This didn't feel like falling off the wagon exactly, though I guess my legs were dangling off the edge. If nothing else, I was at least still consciously collecting. But had this gone on for a month...? I don't know.

 

[Oogiem]

Everything was an emergency. This went on for about two full weeks. Throughout this period I was almost exclusively tied up with latest & loudest work as it appeared.

While all this was going on, however, I kept a tidy desk by throwing things into my In Box. It sure piled up! Nothing was getting processed, nor was I even doing much emergency scanning. I was working a lot out of my e-mail In Box.

That's not falling off the wagon, that's dealing with life. It happens to me every lambing season. And it's happening to me right now during our big sheep experiment, this week I have spent almost zero time processing, all my inboxes are overflowing and I have a stack of papers to deal with. My e-mail inbox is over 50 items in it. I'm using forum responses as a way to decompress, it's very hard work both physically and mentally right now. But I have already planned to spend most of Friday afternoon either sleeping (physical catch up ) or processing and Also planning a much longer weekly review this weekend.

I knew that this was going to be a busy time so I planned ahead by really pruning my projects & lists to what I could potentially do this week. I do the same thing during lambing.

GTD provides the framework so I know I haven't totally dropped the ball and a way to get everything more under control when stuff calms down.