Impementing GTD at home vs. work

[duck0421]

First off, I just want to say that GTD has changed my life at work. I really don't know what I would do without it and I think I would burst into tears if I ever saw David Allen, this program has had such a positive impact. I could go on forever gushing about GTD but will get to the point:

My GTD system at work is excellent, and because of it, there I am very organized, productive and reliable. Unfortunately, I have not been able to implement the same system at home. Successfully implementing GTD at home has been my goal for over a year and I have absolutely failed. I use OneNote at work and have hooked it up to my home computer through Dropbox, but when I am home I forget to look at it. I have tried over and over again to get myself to use a tickler file at home but again, always forget by the time I get home. I've even tried putting reminders in places around the apartment where I think I'll see them telling me to check my tickler file or my lists and I don't even notice them when I get home. It is SO frustrating. I guess I am tired and braindead when I get home but there MUST be some way I can make myself do things. I just can't seem to figure out how to make myself form habits at home.

Has anyone else had this problem, or any suggestions as to what I can do to implement GTD at home, despite the fact that I am tired and out of it? I figure there must be some key thing I am missing. I just want to get my home/personal life together like it is now at work - its like I'm a completely different person depending on which building I'm in.

Also, just a note - I don't have a smart phone so phone reminders don't work for me. Plus, since it is my personal cell phone and not my work phone, it spends half of its time lost anyway (one of the many reasons I want to get more organized at home!).

Any help is appreciated, thank you so much!

 

[Flyer]

Work vs home

Hi duck0421,

I´m struggling with some similar things and have thought a lot about how David says that the biggest barrier to getting GTD going is addiction to stress, the willingness to tolerate things as they are. So I keep asking myself why I want things to change at home.

Also, I set up a "journal" on checking my lists to get into the habit of looking at and working on my home lists. The "journal" was just an excel sheet that had 31 days on it and I would tick a box: did I look at my lists, yes or no? And another question: did I do a weekly review this week, yes or no? And I try to build a habit by answering these questions minimum 28 days in a row to create a habit. If I miss one day, I start counting again. No, haven´t gotten there yet, but doing better.

I try to keep doing weekly reviews of my home system, even if it seems that nothing has gotten done or moved forward. Still, it´s good to be reminded about the open loops at least once a week and it´s a time when I again have to question why things don´t move forward, am I trying to "force" myself to do things I don´t really want to do? Or should I just move many things to someday / maybe, if I´m not doing them, I might as well feel good about not doing them. The only way I´ll ever do a WR is to listen to the guided weekly review webinar on Connect, it gets me started and keeps me focused.

Also, it was a big help to get a cool tool. For me it was switching my home lists to Toodledo, but as always with GTD, it´s not the tool that matters, it´s how you engage with it.

Next time you feel frustrated about something not getting done at home, just ask yourself if you are willing to tolerate that in the future, when you aren´t, you will find the motivation and remember the lists and tickler even without reminders.