I think its important for each of us to recognize that we each work in different ways. For example, I know some successful people who don't have anything more than a little datebook, and they get basically everything done early. I also know other people who literally cannot "remember" to turn on their answering machines 50% of the time. There really is an amazing variance in human behavior in this regard.
Some people also have a lot more baseline anxiety than other people, and this can complicate matters. For instance, some people have very intense avoidance of even picking up the phone, or going to a meeting an speaking up. To some people that doesn't make any "sense" that they should be like this, but it is very real phenomenon.
It doesn't matter how carefully a person formulates their outcomes or actions, they are not going to "feel like" picking up that phone, or speaking up at a meeting, or 1000 other possible things along those lines. For example, if a person has anything close to a phobia, the evidence shows that cognitive intervention alone does NOT help by itself. It doesn't work. What does seem to work is to modify the behavior in a specific way, along with modifying the cognitive aspect (like GTD), but even this does not work for many people.
GTD is not a psychological system.
But the point I am making from experience is that there are huge numbers of people who have "irrational" blocks in their behavior, and to be honest, basically no amount of cognitive work alone (formulating the outcome, etc) is going to fix it.
In certain cases it will work. But in many other cases it simple will not work.
What I am saying is that for folks who are having these types of "blocks" that can be quite serious, that the way to go about defeating them is to do a type of behavioral exposure, which has been shown since the earliest behaviorists like John B. Watson, to actually work very well. That is really the treatment of choice these days, as the cognitive work occurs synchronously with the behavioral exposure.
So if a person does not have any "serious" procrastination problems, then good for them! They are the exception.
And obviously each person will ultimately have to figure out what works for them. Maybe Wiccan Chants work great for some people.
All I am saying, is if a person is having some serious problems in certain areas, and certain areas (context, Roles) are not working or moving forward, then the cognitive-behavioral modification can really work.
A good example is exercising.
Some people enjoy it, and do it daily. Some hate it, and cannot do it for more than 2 days. Some hate it, but still do it. Some don't really care for it, but still get it done. Perhaps David Allen's idea of putting your exercising gear on works for some people, but for many it will not work. There can be much more to it than that for certain people, whereas some other people have no trouble at all.
I have had challenges in this area, and have tried everything I could get my hands on. I was fortunate enough to do some training with some extremely smart and competent people, and through this process was able to see that most so-called procrastination methods actually don't seem to work at all. What does produce real changes, is by going right at the Behavior, and the controlled "pushing" of the behavior is literally the only way to go in many cases. People can spend years, or their lives, locked into certain things, when they could push through it quite quickly if things are done correctly.
Does this mean it works for everyone at all times? No, not at all.
So I am just putting the idea out there that a type of carefully controlled Behavioral Pushing can really W-O-R-K.
There is an enormous amount of scientific evidence backing up those methods, in dealing with phobias, panic, anxiety, depression, compulsions, and many other areas, which are much more difficult to deal with than simple procrastination. The same methods applied to everyday concerns, can work extremely well.
After working very hard at this for a long time, and doing a ton of research, I have found out that "pushing" the target behavior can truly get amazing results. Some people who have been stuck for years, can blow it out in a few weeks, or much less sometimes, with no hocus pocus.
Does this mean this is an answer for everyone? Not at all. As well, its very hard to explain some of these concepts, as they really have to be experienced.
So really what I am doing is putting some ideas out there, and working them through my own mind.
The basic idea is that if the behavior is "stuck" then a strong "push" done in the right way can literally change something that has been stuck for many years.
And for those who are always moving forward in their career, and taking risks, and doing new and crazy things, sometimes you need to give yourself a push to overcome the fear.
And for some folks who have any type of Anxiety Disorder, or Depression, and things along those lines, (and there are millions of people like that), the simple fact is that the cognitive method (like GTD) done all by itself is most likely not going to work. I think its important for people to know that, so they don't beat themselves up, for not getting certain things done.
I think if David Allen collaborated on a book with a top cognitive-behavioral psychologist, he could put out a fantastic resource to fine-tune the GTD process.
If anything, doing GTD, you come face to face with your own fallibility as a human, as the GTD system is so comprehensive.
So for those who are having serious challenges with GTD, maybe working more carefully at GTD is going to help, but maybe not.
I can't see how GTD by itself would be able to overcome anything approaching a phobic, or even somewhat anxious or depressive response.
All GTD will do, is make you more AWARE of what the problem is.
Its a complex area, and those are some of my views at this time.
Maybe one day I will condense and write David Allen about this, that is, if I 'feel like it', and ever remember or get around to it.
;-)
Gameboy70 said:
Being too lazy to push myself to do anything, the only practical definition of Next Action for me is: the very next physical action that you're able and willing to take to achieve a successful outcome. I realized early on that if I put something on my action list that I wasn't willing to do, I was conning myself. Ignore this honest self-assessment, and you'll keep staring at the same next actions week after week. If I come up with a next action that's psychologically onerous or evokes a twinge of hesitancy, that's a signal that there's more thinking to do in determining the real next action, regardless of what "the" (some) psychological literature states. In my experience, procrastination results from unclear purpose, unclear outcomes (vision), or unclear actions.
