Artificial deadlines are a good idea in theory, although I have a bad habit of vicious cycles.
I was reflecting today that GTD itself seems to take far too long. In particular, my lists are all too long. There are lots of tasks on my @Someday-maybe list that I don't want to see again for at least 3 months. And by reviewing it every week or 2, it covertly becomes a "High Resistance" task, even though I've never committed to doing it and have never put it off.
This is how my vicious cycle work:
a) Habitually aiming too high / taking on too much
b) ==> Habitually missing my targets
c) ==> Losing confidence in my ability to hit targets (==> Losing confidence in my GTD System ==> Potentially losing confidence in general?!)
f) ==> Losing personal energy & drive
g) ==> Getting even less done
h) ==> Beating myself up
i) ==> back to "a)" this time taking on even more in order to catch up
etc etc.
Eventually, I deliberately take on LESS.
This feels good for a while...
...but I'm still in the habit of only completing about half of what is on my plate.
So I now get even less done. Disaster!
Eventually, I start "making public" /sharing with others more of my commitments in order to get people to hold me to account.
The fear of embarrassment drives me forwards.
==> And this time a virtuous cycle can start. :^)
However, if I take on too much publically ==> then public humiliation can cause a really deeper vicious cycle. Very dangerous!!
Yes, I do find having a few major goals helps, particularly if other people know about them. But again it is all too easy to get into the habit of missing them...
And then just when I think I'm totally hopeless at getting anything done at all, for no obvious reason, I suddenly have a really productive day and achieve x2 or x5 what I normally would get through!
* * *
To be completely honest, simply having too much on my lists in general is becoming a real burden. Just reviewing all the Someday-maybes takes too long. Before I can blink I've lost 2 hours of my life and with zero output!
But if I fail to review them, then things pop up having suddenly become really important and potentially also urgent, so I can't completely trust the someday system.
And like I say, having too many Next Actions entered into my system for a major project seem overwhelming to just look at once, let alone to keep looking at.
I think a significant part of the core problem for me is that I am an extremely slow reader so long lists are a disaster.
Apologies I'm now rambling... But if you were a really, really slow reader, what would you do?
Either way, can any of you relate to the above?