taxgeek said:
Hi Moises. You said: "I love working from zero base. It's a great feeling to "do it when it shows up, not when it blows up." A log worked perfectly for me to develop this new habit."
What type of log are you speaking of? I REALLY need to get to that place - my inbox (email and voicemail combined) is totally out of control.
Thanks!
Taxgeek
Hi Taxgeek,
Each of us needs different methods for motivation. In the case of working from zero base, a log worked for me. If I were at a different stage in my GTD development I might have had to try other motivational methods to find the one that worked. Other methods might include, giving myself rewards and punishments, or making a commitment to another person.
My log consists of an Excel spreadsheet. Cell A1 has the column header "Date". Going down that column there are a year's worth of dates: July 1, July 2, July 3, . . . Cell B1 has the column header "Zero". Days that I get to zero I write "1", days that I don't I write "0". (The 1 means "yes" and the 0 means "no". The 1 means I got to zero and the 0 means I did not get to zero.)
I set myself this zero-base goal because this was one of my GTD sticking points from the beginning. From the first day I started implementing GTD I recognized its power. NA's organized by contexts was incredible. The idea of a complete trusted system was awesome.
But . . . for about two years I neglected the processing rules. I would not process my inbox from top to bottom. I would pick and choose and let some stuff lie there for long periods of time. I was not naive. I knew that what I was doing was contrary to DA's recommendations and, almost certainly, contrary to my self-interest. And yet I continued to be lackadaisical about this.
So I made getting to zero base a goal in my annual plan for this year. I use the book
My Best Year Yet, which I learned about on this board, as a template for my annual planning process. I recognized that not getting to zero base was a significant roadblock in my personal growth.
For me, making this one change has had extraordinarily beneficial consequences. What's measured gets done. I am keeping score each week so I make a lot of effort to get to zero. I've been doing this for six weeks and now it is an ingrained habit.
The beneficial consequences range far beyond having an empty inbox. My tendency towards procrastination has been greatly decreased. I have become much more aggressive about getting things done (no capital letters). In the past, I would put off processing items that required tough decisions. But now I know that if I avoid processing the item I will not get to zero and I will not be able to write a "1" in my log. At the end of the week I will have failed to satisfy one of the major goals that I established in my annual plan.
So I grit my teeth, bite the bullet, and [insert your favorite metaphor here]. I process the damned item by putting a NA into my trusted system. Wheww! It was hard. It never gets easy. But like any habit, eventually you get used to it.
The book
My Best Year Yet suggests setting guidelines for oneself each year. Basically these are affirmations. I look at these during my Weekly Review. My guidelines for this year are:
I do the tough stuff first.
I tolerate high levels of frustration and disapproval.
I give my son time and attention.
The zero-base goal coordinates wonderfully with the first two guidelines. I still have a strong tendency to find easy things to do so as to avoid the tough stuff. Getting my inbox to empty is a great aid in developing the habit of doing the tough stuff first.
In order to do the tough stuff first, one needs to experience frustration and disapproval. Doing tough stuff is often frustrating. It's frustrating to deal with some new, unfamiliar, ill-defined, complex problem.. Personal growth involves tolerating high levels of frustration. I had a tendency to avoid frustration. Obviously this made me much less effective. Now I push myself a little harder. When things are tough they are frustrating. I push myself to do the tough stuff, which means tolerating the frustration.
Often the tough stuff involves doing something that might very well piss someone off. Call the customer whose order we messed up. Call the vendor who sent me a defective product. Give someone a smaller raise than they wanted. Give someone a poor performance review.
This is the kind of stuff I would love to procrastinate on. It's almost always unpleasant and difficult. But I am finding that as I develop the zero-base habit I am more able to plod through whatever it is I need to do. As I have solidified my zero-base habit I have strengthened my tolerance of frustration and disapproval.
I will conclude with a panegyric to David Allen. The GTD book, and the GTD Fast audio tracks, remain, after two years, as fresh and as worthy of close study as ever. Viva David Allen! Viva GTD! Viva Zero Base!
