I sometimes can hardly get my self to look at my n/a lists or do the weekly review. I enjoy and readioy do processing and organizing, defining projects in terms of desired outcomnes, keeping needed information in lists, and updating and purging my filing system. Maybe I hate work! Any suggestions? I am going to try printing them out-maybe having them on a table top will work better than on computer or PDA. Help!
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Hate looking at n/a lists and hate wkly review
- Thread starter Jamie Elis
- Start date
P
pageta
Guest
Either you aren't excited about what you need to do (the outcome) or you haven't made your next actions specific enough. Those would be the two main reasons why people procrastinate.
Maybe you are a perfectionist so you hate doing things because it's too hard to do them perfectly.Jamie Elis said:I sometimes can hardly get my self to look at my n/a lists or do the weekly review. I enjoy and readioy do processing and organizing, defining projects in terms of desired outcomnes, keeping needed information in lists, and updating and purging my filing system. Maybe I hate work! Any suggestions? I am going to try printing them out-maybe having them on a table top will work better than on computer or PDA. Help!
Maybe your lists are full of things you feel you "should" do rather than things you truly want to do.
Maybe your lists are full of things that others want you to do, or that you "want" to do only because they will please or impress others.
Maybe you feel a certain rebellion against the ToDo tasks on your own lists.
Or maybe you need immediate gratification and don't get it from completing your tasks.
I don't know. But I believe that this type of problem requires you to learn more about yourself in order to figure out how to fix it. There are lots of ideas on the procrastination thread from about a month ago.
Also, if you tell us more about your symptoms maybe someone else will have experienced the same things and have some useful advice to offer. Why don't you like to look at your lists? Why don't you like the weekly review? What thoughts do you have when you look at your NA lists? etc.
Learning to love the weekly review
I too used to hate my weekly review. Now I find myself getting up early on Thursday morning (even before my alarm clock rings at 5 am!) totally excited about doing my weekly review. I think this came about through practice. After about 10 consecutive weekly reviews I found myself anticipating my review. And now that I've done 30 consecutive weekly reviews (yeah - I'm totally surprised at that), it's pretty much the highlight of my week, GTD-wise.
About 6 months ago, I created a high-level focus for myself of better mental and physical well-being. A related project was better implementation of GTD, and one of my next actions was a piece of paper in my tickler file on Thursdays tracking how many consecutive weekly reviews I have done. Now when I finish my weekly review, I get to write in the next highest number on that piece of paper. It has really motivated me to keep going with it.
Another thing that helps is that I process my inbox daily, even on weekends. That way I don't have a huge pile of things to process before I can even start my weekly review. Much less daunting.
As I did more consecutive reviews, I realized that I really would look at my someday/maybe list every week. It gave me real freedom to move stuff between active and non-active projects. Sometimes I'll move an important project to S/M when the next week is wall-to-wall meetings. I don't worry about it. I know I'll see it next Thursday, so I can move it out of my universe temporarily and trust that it will show up again soon.
I really do enjoy my weekly review and the feeling of control it gives me. The process gets me really motivated to tackle all those next actions on my lists, too!
I too used to hate my weekly review. Now I find myself getting up early on Thursday morning (even before my alarm clock rings at 5 am!) totally excited about doing my weekly review. I think this came about through practice. After about 10 consecutive weekly reviews I found myself anticipating my review. And now that I've done 30 consecutive weekly reviews (yeah - I'm totally surprised at that), it's pretty much the highlight of my week, GTD-wise.
About 6 months ago, I created a high-level focus for myself of better mental and physical well-being. A related project was better implementation of GTD, and one of my next actions was a piece of paper in my tickler file on Thursdays tracking how many consecutive weekly reviews I have done. Now when I finish my weekly review, I get to write in the next highest number on that piece of paper. It has really motivated me to keep going with it.
Another thing that helps is that I process my inbox daily, even on weekends. That way I don't have a huge pile of things to process before I can even start my weekly review. Much less daunting.
As I did more consecutive reviews, I realized that I really would look at my someday/maybe list every week. It gave me real freedom to move stuff between active and non-active projects. Sometimes I'll move an important project to S/M when the next week is wall-to-wall meetings. I don't worry about it. I know I'll see it next Thursday, so I can move it out of my universe temporarily and trust that it will show up again soon.
I really do enjoy my weekly review and the feeling of control it gives me. The process gets me really motivated to tackle all those next actions on my lists, too!
D
DaveBartell
Guest
Brent said:Okay. What, specifically, do you feel when you look at your NA list? What do you feel when going through a weekly review? What goes through your head?
That goes right to the 30,000 foot (Goals/Objectives) and 20,000 (Areas of Focus) and how the may/may not be aligned with your 50,000 foot (Principles) and 40,000 foot (Vision).
My energy is self generated when I really care about the outcome produced by my NAs. (Did you ever have a hard time getting stuff done to go on vacation?) My worst procrastination comes from having to do stuff to accomplish goals that I hate, have no passion, think are stupid, or .
Visit your 40/50K foot horizons and see if there is a mismatch to your 30K/20K foot horizons. Another possibility is you are so distracted by urgent (and maybe unimportant) Runway stuff that you are making no progress against your job requirements. That is disaster waiting to happen. What has your attention?
Dave
Also, a personal experience: It's taking me awhile to get used to the idea of working exclusively at a "runway" level for prolonged periods. I'm so used to pulling back for a longer view that I'm still uncomfortable with just plowing forward on Next Actions. It feels wrong, like I'll be missing something if I don't "pull up" to a 20,000-foot view.
So, some of it is simply practice and comfort with the system.
So, some of it is simply practice and comfort with the system.
thank you
I appreciate all the responses. I think all the points are well taken. As a start, I am going to carefully tune into my thoughts and feelings as I review and tidying up two context lists each day. I intend to wrtie them down. I am going to cut down the weekly review to just a review of my calendar and my projects list for the month of September. I think my hatred of the weekly review is that I have never gotten through it, I always have more paper bits to process and I end up in a muddle because I have multiple brain storms, so I make SDMB even longer and wear mysef out and also feel bad about my lack of progress. I never get to the zero-base. I also I usually try to do the weekly review after I input dates into my family and personal calendars for the week (also a task I feel annoyed by). I am going to try to keep up with inputting dates and synchronizing on an as they come to me basis (daily or several times daily). And, I do intend to review the higher altitude stuff but not for awhile-I need to focus on the day-to-day application.
I appreciate all the responses. I think all the points are well taken. As a start, I am going to carefully tune into my thoughts and feelings as I review and tidying up two context lists each day. I intend to wrtie them down. I am going to cut down the weekly review to just a review of my calendar and my projects list for the month of September. I think my hatred of the weekly review is that I have never gotten through it, I always have more paper bits to process and I end up in a muddle because I have multiple brain storms, so I make SDMB even longer and wear mysef out and also feel bad about my lack of progress. I never get to the zero-base. I also I usually try to do the weekly review after I input dates into my family and personal calendars for the week (also a task I feel annoyed by). I am going to try to keep up with inputting dates and synchronizing on an as they come to me basis (daily or several times daily). And, I do intend to review the higher altitude stuff but not for awhile-I need to focus on the day-to-day application.
If you are going to do a weekly review, make it be something that helps you feel better about your life, not bad because of lack of progress.Jamie Elis said:I am going to cut down the weekly review to just a review of my calendar and my projects list for the month of September. I think my hatred of the weekly review is that I have never gotten through it, I always have more paper bits to process and I end up in a muddle because I have multiple brain storms, so I make SDMB even longer and wear mysef out and also feel bad about my lack of progress.
It sounds like reining in those Someday/Maybes will be a big help to you. If brainstorming about things you could do makes you feel bad about not doing more, then why do it? I went through all my projects and actions one time asking the question "Would it really make a difference if I did this?" and just deleted all the ones where the answer was No. Sometimes it can be even more satisfying to purge than to capture an idea.
S
Starfish
Guest
Jamie Elis said:I am going to try printing them out-maybe having them on a table top will work better than on computer or PDA. Help!
The others have given you good advice, and I'd like to add this based on your last statement - you may just need to find the most comfortable and/or exciting interface for you to perform the weekly review. David mentions this several times in the book - if you don't enjoy using a particular tool to perform an action, you'll see the results you're seeing now.
Good luck - I'm just getting started on this myself!
Take care,
Matthew