Put your weight into it

[ArcCaster]

I am augmenting my list of unprioritized next actions with sized-up tasks for the day.

Unprioritized actions are still grouped by context.

Prioritized actions, along with my estimate of the required effort to complete them, are what I want to get done TODAY. When I finish these, it is nice to have a list of valuable next actions to choose from.

It reminds me of hitting a baseball. If you do not anticipate the pitch, it is on you before you know it, you swing weakly with your arms, and your results are weak. If you ANTICIPATE the pitch, you can get your whole weight and the strength of your legs, torso, and everything else behind your efforts, and the results (and the feeling) can be dramatic.

Anticipating how I will spend my hours allows me to gather my resources together, and I can really 'lean into' my next actions.

So, the key here is anticipation. Perhaps there are other ways I can anticipate?

 

[kewms]

It reminds me of hitting a baseball. If you do not anticipate the pitch, it is on you before you know it, you swing weakly with your arms, and your results are weak. If you ANTICIPATE the pitch, you can get your whole weight and the strength of your legs, torso, and everything else behind your efforts, and the results (and the feeling) can be dramatic.

If you anticipate incorrectly, the results can be dramatic, too, but not in a good way.

Anticipation is most effective in fast ball counts and other situations where you have a high degree of certainty about what the next pitch will be.

Katherine

 

[ArcCaster]

Nice

As long as you are extending the analogy -- many of the most powerful hitters are 'guess hitters' -- they look at the situation and the pitcher, and make an educated 'guess'. Sometimes they are fooled, and look silly. But when a smart hitter guesses right, they get results that are a lot more dramatic than the slap hitter who just reacts, is never fooled, but never puts everything into the swing, either.

I think our situation is less dramatic. If we guess wrong, we don't look awful -- we just have to adjust.

And, of course, the key here is to learn to adjust quickly. I am working at that, but, as you may guess, since I find momentum something that works in my favor a lot, I struggle a bit reversing momentum and taking a different tack.

Some people would equate 'momentum' and 'commitment'. If you 'commit' to a certain course of action, you get stronger results than if you don't -- but, once committed, it is harder to change course than if you had never committed at all.

 

[sdhill]

To anticipate or not?

Just read about a contrary view:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/pr...-may-sometimes-be-the-best-action-of-all.html

I don't think I agree with this approach. Sometimes I think we need to make a decision and just go with it. At times it will be wrong but I can live comfortably with the fact that I had a go. The procrastination genie is always lurking at my door and the lure of maybe getting more hits or goals saved is not enough for me to justify delayed action.

Simon

 

[kewms]

As with so much else, "it depends."

Sometimes you want a power hitter, sometimes you want the guy who can reliably put the ball in play.

Sometimes it's good to let a situation evolve before you commit to a course of action, sometimes analysis paralysis leads to missed opportunities.

Katherine

 

[ArcCaster]

As with so much else, "it depends."

Maybe you have hit the nail on the head.

I write, and I teach.

Teaching is easy -- I present, I interact, I react. Easy and a joy. No anticipation needed.

Writing is very different -- for me, it requires research and thought, trying to abstract context and a flow and a story from disparate chunks of 'stuff', going down dead-ends and following paths through rabbit warrens. It requires 'priming the pump' to get into flow.

Maybe I don't need help with next actions -- maybe I need help with writing

I've been writing forever, and my customers like the end result -- but it sounds like my approach may be lacking. That is, energy and spontaneity in teaching come from interacting with others -- for me, writing lacks that interactivity and, in its absence, I resort to visualization and advance planning and mind maps as ways to let my thoughts interact with themselves -- but it isn't as effortless as person-to-person interaction.

Any thoughts or advice? Is that just the nature of writing, or are there better approaches?

Thanks,
Arc

 

[kewms]

For me, at least, too much anticipation makes writing more difficult. A certain amount of planning is needed, especially for large projects, but good writing also involves a fair amount of serendipity. Some of that can be consciously cultivated, but not all. For me, the most important lesson has been recognizing that it's okay to have false starts, okay to need a second draft, okay to get it wrong the first time.

For me, writing *is* teaching. Much of the interaction is with my mental image of a hypothetical reader. If I'm stuck, though, it can be very helpful to bounce ideas off a friend or colleague.

Katherine

 

[Barb]

Book recommendation

Have you read "The War of Art"? It's a great book on the discipline of the creative process. Has helped me with this issue a lot.

 

[ArcCaster]

Thanks Barb,

I read it and forgot it. I just dug it out; found a dozen dog ears and a bookmark at Resistance and Love. Time for a re-read

(I think there is another moral here -- I found it in a pile of other books recommended by this forum that I bought and consumed in one mad read: The Power of Full Engagement, The Creative Habit, One Small Step Can Change Your Life, and Becoming a Manager -- I think I overconsumed and got indigestion -- does David cover the subject of how do you digest, integrate, and apply great gobs of good stuff?)

 

[ArcCaster]

Some dog-ears in the War of Art:

A quote of Goethe: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now."

And one from the author: "The Knights of the Round Table ... dueled dragons. We're facing dragons too. Fire-breathing griffins of the soul, whom we must outfight and outwit to reach the treasure of our self-in-potential and to release the maiden who is God's plan and destiny for ourselves and the answer to why we were put on this planet."

And my question -- can this apply to ordinary everyday grind-it-out work? Or is Pressfield just talking about 'the artist'?

 

[Brent]

does David cover the subject of how do you digest, integrate, and apply great gobs of good stuff?)

I don't think David has, but I remember an interview with Neil Fiore in which he was asked how he deals with lots of input. He said that he doesn't worry so much about how much input he gets, as long as he sets aside enough time to process it all. From a GTD perspective, I assume this would mean taking notes that you then drop into an inbox. The inbox is later processed and you figure out what to do with those notes ("Is there some action out of this?").

And one from the author: "The Knights of the Round Table ... dueled dragons. We're facing dragons too. Fire-breathing griffins of the soul, whom we must outfight and outwit to reach the treasure of our self-in-potential and to release the maiden who is God's plan and destiny for ourselves and the answer to why we were put on this planet."

And my question -- can this apply to ordinary everyday grind-it-out work? Or is Pressfield just talking about 'the artist'?

Absolutely. After all, writing consists of a lot of ordinary everyday grind-it-out work. Diane in HR has her own dragons to deal with, as does a programmer or tech support. They all face internal struggles and angst and frustration. They get angry over little things that shouldn't anger them, which should prompt some soul-seeking.

Getting back to the topic; I agree that there's a balance between planning and going with the flow. You can plan too much, and you can plan too little. The river can flow too swiftly and destroy, or not at all and stagnate. Avoid extremes.

 

[sdann]

Some dog-ears in the War of Art:

A quote of Goethe: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now."

And one from the author: "The Knights of the Round Table ... dueled dragons. We're facing dragons too. Fire-breathing griffins of the soul, whom we must outfight and outwit to reach the treasure of our self-in-potential and to release the maiden who is God's plan and destiny for ourselves and the answer to why we were put on this planet."

And my question -- can this apply to ordinary everyday grind-it-out work? Or is Pressfield just talking about 'the artist'?

Even the knight has to sharpen his swords. In order to pursue goals, no matter how grandiose, there are many everyday grind-it-out work that needs to be performed.