I do Get Things Done, I Just Don't Feel Like I Got Enough Done Today.

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HappyDude

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I started this other thread less than a week ago: http://www.davidco.com/forum/showth...ng-(Kinda)-Not-Getting-Started-Til-Late-Night

See, in this previous thread I wrote about not getting things done at all during the day and thing scurrying to get it done at night. Which is kinda true; mainly in regards to my most important projects...

However, am realizing that yes, I do get things done during the day...numerous things in fact. It's just that to a certain extent a the end of the day I always feel like I could've gotten more done and in the nighttime attempt to get a lot more done and usually burn out, to only wake up to regret.

Recently I've been telling myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and when tackling these numerous projects during the day, I've realized numerous of these projects take more time than my subconscious originally thought. Which is okay cause they're moving forward.
 
Not only the important things take time

hi Happydude,

maybe one of the things you are discovering now is just how much time some of the things that we think are "simple", are in fact taking.

Let me give you an example. This morning, I was working hard on finishing a news letter. I worked really hard, put on a timer, etc... and I managed to finish the work in about 1 hour, where I estimated in advance it would take me about 1.5 hours. So there I was, all happy, because I "finished". Now all I had to do was "just" make a pdf and send the news letter in. Turns out it took me about 15 minutes (working on a remote server, connection went down, making pdf, sending the mail, ...). So now I actually really "finished" it in around the 1.5 hours I estimated.

What I mean is that often the "little" things (I'll "just" mail/classify/print/check... this) do take a lot of time.

GTD has helped me to realise how many of those "just"-things I get done, even on a day where I have the feeling I did nothing.

Myriam
 
i dont know if you're into running, but I am.

Sometimes when you go running, it goes smooth, you feel great, you get the whole endorphin rush thing and when you reach the end you feel like you could do the whole thing again.

Other times its a complete slog - from minute one until the end every step has to be forced, every hill is a mountain, and you just feel like giving up from the moment you start.

Sometimes every run for a few weeks can be like this.

But when you look back over a period of time, you realise your fitness depended just as much on those difficult heavy going runs as the easy-peasy ones. You still ran the same distance, and while it may have taken a little longer, it still all adds up.

So if you had a day or a week, or even a year, when you felt less productive than another, relax, it happens.
 
bishblaize;82602 said:
i dont know if you're into running, but I am.

Sometimes when you go running, it goes smooth, you feel great, you get the whole endorphin rush thing and when you reach the end you feel like you could do the whole thing again.

Other times its a complete slog - from minute one until the end every step has to be forced, every hill is a mountain, and you just feel like giving up from the moment you start.
Click to expand...

I like this... I recognize this :roll:

And also: when I finish some of those smooth runs, and I look at the statistics, I didn't run that fast or that long... but sometimes when I look at them after one of the second type you describe, I discover that after all I got a pretty high speed or distance... so it just felt difficult because I was actually growing and doing more than before...

Myriam
 
I get the impression that either you might not be at peace with your own limitations and/or you're regretting the choices that you make regarding where you spend your time.

There's always more work to do than you can do in a day, a week, or even a lifetime. Your lists will never be empty. It's difficult to internalize this concept; I was an imperfect perfectionist for quite a few years and much of the time felt like I got enough done in a day. Once I accepted my limits I was able to make my peace with them and focus on making good choices; that's really what GTD enables me to do.

However, my system can't make the choices for me. If I don't make the right choices, then I end my day with some form of regret. It's easy to get stuck in that pattern, too.

At the end of the day, how good do you feel about the choices you made about where you've been spending your time and energy? If you are regretting your choices, is that really the appropriate emotion to feel? Only you can answer that and either change your perception (my brain needs a rest; I'm going to watch a movie now and that's okay; I should not and will not beat myself up for it) or your procedure (I'm using TV to distract me from work that I feel too uncertain to handle; I'm retreating and I must change my behavior).

I hope some of this helps you; writing it helped me to figure out some things for myself, too.
 
HappyDude;82600 said:
However, am realizing that yes, I do get things done during the day...numerous things in fact. It's just that to a certain extent a the end of the day I always feel like I could've gotten more done and in the nighttime attempt to get a lot more done and usually burn out, to only wake up to regret.
Click to expand...

For me that happens at least 4 times a year. At the change of seasons I look at the past season and realize that probably at least 100 or more projects didn't get done that season. OTOH What I have started to do is I now have a document that I update each month with what projects *did* get done. My scrapbooks help too. When the entire summer is spent slogging along making what appears like no progress at all on huge major projects that can take a decade or more to finish it's helpful to pull out last years or 2 years ago scrapbook, look at the pictures and see that yes, in fact a lot *did* get done just the progress was slow.

I also am terrible at estimating how long something will take me to do. I have started to keep track of how long things really take and that has helped as I add durations to some of my Omnifocus tasks. That is still a work in progress but does seem to be at least helping me understand why I feel like nothing got done yet I was busy all day.

Case in point, I had some sheep paperwork to do for the Association. I estimated I'd take about 3 hours to finish. Well so far I've been working on it for 6 hours and I figure I'm about 1/2 done. No wonder I feel I can't get things done when I underestimate the time it takes by so much!

One big help is to be sure that the projects I am doing and the things I am working on are aligned with my purpose and where I want to be. Just eliminating those projects that are not that way helped me feel a lot better about the ones that remain.

Could part of the malaise you feel be because you are not doing what you want to do or what is important to you?
 
finishing, rather than moving forward

When I have been very busy and yet I feel I didn't accomplish a lot, it's usually because I did not finish things. Looking back, I usually find that I drafted a report, reviewed it and *just* need put it in pdf and send out. So still something lingering in my lists for this project.
And I got all the information I need for that slide for the management meeting. I *just* need to key these 5 numbers in that slide and send it through. So still something lingering in my lists for this project.
...
Taking some time to get those last bits done, gives a very big sense of accomplishment and relief.

It is easier to move 10 things forward rather than finishing 3 for me. So I deliberately focus once or twice a week on what I need to fnish off this week.

It works for me (some weeks better than other)
T
 
Go up to the horizons of focus - are your current projects aligning with your hearts purpose and desires? What type of projects would make you feel satisfied at the end of the day? Are you busy on the right things?

What turns our life from good to great is from changing our focus from the good things to do to the best things for us to do. There are so many things to do, that can be done by so many people, we'll only feel happy when we are in sync with our soul's purpose in life.
 
Often, when I'm feeling like I wasn't productive, it's when I'm focusing on the things that I've yet to do, rather than the things that I've done.

Shifting my focus to what I've actually accomplished on a given day can be very helpful.
 
administrative meetings... with yourself.

I can relate to your situation far better than I like to admit, if you know what I mean.

Many of these issues can be addressed by making sure your inventory is current, complete, etc.

If you were to take a leisurely Weekly Review and reflect on how you spend your time, you might find that you want to spend it differently in the morning so that you don't feel like the day is wasted at night.

There are many people who have similar behavior patterns to these. I propose that it is not quite "stress-free productivity", as David Allen describes, as the "second wind" that occurs past 10 p.m. or so is often driven by anxiety about the earlier part of the day.

To get more done, you have to do less. This is a mantra worth remembering. To get more done, you have to do less... so long as they are less of the things that are not leading you in the direction you want to go. Many of us want to sail to Europe but are too busy shopping for luggage online or repacking our existing luggage more efficiently... when we can't even afford to go yet.

Many of us would do better to have a list of Next Actions (To Do's) as well as a list of NOT To-Do's.

A legitimate Weekly Review will weaken the force of habit and help re-align with overall goals, vision, etc.

In my own case, I had to set a recurring alarm for every 15 minutes, all the waking day. At the 15 minute mark, I had to write down what I was doing. Very often, I was multi-tasking or off-track from the actions that would have been more productive. I was doing a lot of things, but not the right things.
 
David Seah's Emergent Task Planner

One of the tools that I get a HUGE amount from is David Seah's ETP, which is broken into 15 minute increments. It helps me both plan what I want to do with my day, and track what I ACTUALLY do with my day. Then I have a matrix I've put together to track how long specific subprojects/NAs take, because I've found that I have been terrible about estimating how long things take -- and as a previous poster mentioned, so frequently it's the little stuff that doesn't seem like it should take that long, but does! I've now got several manuscripts' worth of timing data -- that'll help me with future project planning!
 
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