How to stay on the wagon?

[jenkins]

My initial goal is to master the capture, clarify and organise skills. However, I keep 'falling off the wagon' when it comes to capturing. I'll start by capturing everything then, as time goes by, I capture less and less until one day when I'll realise I'm not capturing anymore. It seems the old habits just don't want to go away. Of course after a month when I suddenly realise I'm not capturing I'll sit down and empty my head again.

I wonder if this is actually symptomatic of a problem downstream? You will subconsciously resist the capture habit if you have not yet experienced the satisfaction of "stuff" successfully traveling throughout the many roads of the GTD workflow. Everything is connected. Capture, Clarify, Organize, Review, Engage, none works without the others. For example, if you capture, and maybe you even clarify, but you don't organize that thing in a place where you can engage with it appropriately, that can erode your capture habit (until you're back in emergency mode, of course).

There may in fact be no "problem" with your workflow except for lack of experience. What I mean is, maybe you're doing everything correctly, but you'll fall off the wagon many times simply because you are teaching your brain a new way of handling information that it is not used to. It's going to default to the old way until it has "enough" experience, which builds trust, in the new system. "Enough" is going to be different for everyone, but it involves a number of successful workflow routines. Regardless, please do audit your system downstream from capture, because if something is creating friction, it's going to limit those experiences.

 

[gchirinos]

Like with any other habit, I believe discipline is not as important as motivation. What is your incentive to do this?

If you keep your incentive top of mind, and it is as important as it should be, you will eventually form the habit of capturing using your process.

As an IT person myself, we tend to over complicate things a little. I recommend simplicity as much as possible. Capturing thoughts of data should be quick an easy and classification should be one click away.

Remember this is not about the tools, but about the process and consistency and ultimately to have a " place" you trust where you "know". everything is captured.

The incentives for me are higher productivity, better, clearer focus, full attention to the task at hand and less stress caused by the lack of clarity and trying to keep everything in your brain.

Hope that helps.

 

[kelstarrising]

If you've never seen this, here's a great video with David on what to do if you fall off the wagon with GTD:

[video]https://youtu.be/app3D1fXtVk[/video]

 

[bcmyers2112]

AdrianHolmes, FWIW it looks like you're on the right track based on your most recent posts. But a couple of things about this thread caught my eye and prompted me to share a couple of thoughts.

Like jenkins, I get the impression you've been focused on capture in particular. If so, jenkins is right on the money: if you're not processing, organizing, reviewing and ultimately doing things on your lists (or getting rid of them if you decide they're no longer of interest) you won't be motivated to capture because you won't experience a payoff.

Also, make sure you're making capture as easy as possible. I didn't get really good at capture until I learned to keep a pocket pad and pen with me at all times. I use the David Allen Co. GTD Notetaker wallet, and it's helped because I don't go anywhere without my wallet. You certainly don't have to use that particular product, but you do need something that a) you'll remember to always have with you and b) is easy enough to use that you'll really use it.

acc.mcpherson: Regarding meditation, there are those in this forum who recommend interrupting just about any activity in order to capture a thought but in my experience it isn't necessary to take it to this extreme for a good GTD practice. As DA himself says in the book capturing everything is an ideal standard to strive for, but realistically there will be times when you can't capture something and that's OK.

I don't know what form of meditation you practice but with some forms (like ones I've tried) the only way to derive full benefit is to meditate for an uninterrupted period of time. Stopping and starting again won't work. There are other activities like this. For example, I do interval training a few times a week and keeping my heart rate up for an uninterrupted period of time is an important part of the exercise program. If I stop to write a note, I'll lose benefit from the exercise.

Nevertheless, you can still derive great benefit from GTD even if you have the occasional odd thought you can't capture. That's where doing at least a weekly mindsweep using a trigger list like the one provided in the book comes in handy. If the thought is important enough, at some point it'll come back again, probably at a time when you can capture it.

If making capture an absolute (or nearly absolute) works for someone, more power to them; but for me trying to make any aspect of GTD (or for that matter, anything I do in life) an absolute has always set me up for failure. If you are like me in that respect, take heart. You can be successful in your GTD practice without being perfect in all respects with it.

 

[jenkins]

bcmyers2112 - You make a great point about capturing. I tend to forget about the mindsweep as part of the weekly review. I still feel a little bit of stress when I have a thought and don't capture it immediately. It's nowhere near as bad as when I started practicing GTD, but it's still there. So thank you for reminding me that mindsweep is an important part of the weekly review.