Serious problems with GTD system: trust issues, takes so much time...

[Tatti]

I became interested in GTD in 2012 and I started to implement it habit by habit in last summer (2014) using the Power of Habit methods. I haven't had the successes with it that I was hoping for. In fact I feel that I don't get that much benefits in contrast to only having a calendar and a head as my system. I do not really have that much energy to look at my next action lists or to do any meaningful work apart from my daily/weekly processing/reviewing times. My averages in university have dropped a whole point, I don't spend that much time in my hobbies and with my girlfriend that I would like etc.

My problem is that my daily/weekly processing takes so much time from my other work (daily processing and review: ca. 3 hours; weekly review: ca. 5-6 hours). Especially the weekly review takes so long that when I get to review my someday/maybe lists I don't have the energy needed to look at those lists. I have watched models of others daily/weekly review lists and my lists don't differ that much from those

I think that the main reasons for my problems is that I tend to spend more time with thinking about the things that don't matter to me that much. I try to capture every long lasting thought and a little thing that needs/probably needs to get and I use my time in the evening to process those thoughts. I have noticed that I use more of my mental energies to things that don't matter that much to me and vice versa. Earlier I tended to remember all the important work that I needed to get done and the little things I forgot and that usually didn't affect my life at all or very little. Maybe I should get more selective of the things that I collect... In addition, I tend to capture a very long list of ideas or next actions associated with some project only to reshape those ideas fairly often or not to use them at all. Earlier those ideas occupied my mind for sure probably a little more but I didn't waste time redefining those ideas because at the end of the day when I engaged in that activity, I pretty much remember or knew the most important ideas or next actions to implement/do.

Also a problem could be that I don't use the trash can option that well. For every little thing I seem to think: "Hey! Why not someday?". I don't have the heart to delete that action/project and I fear that I forget It, even if it doesn't mind.

One problem could also be, that I don't trust that the nature itself reminds of the little things I need to get done. For example taking out trash or something like that. I have actually reminders every couple of days to check if the trashes need to get taken out instead grabbing the bag next to the door and the next time I leave the house, I can take the garbage.

I don't know if I answered to my questions already but I wonder if people have any ideas for my problems and how to solve them? My motivation for the system management is running out especially due to those long review times...

 

[Gardener]

3 hours for daily processing and review is a very, very long time. I would see that as a pretty long time even for a weekly review, which means that 5-6 hours is a very long time for a weekly review. Can you offer any more detail for what you're doing in all those hours?

When I go through my Someday/Maybe lists, that process is mostly, "Am I likely to take action on any of these items next week?"

If I know I don't have time to do any sewing, say, next week, or any cooking beyond just keeping myself fed, or gardening beyond just keeping the garden from falling apart, then I won't even look at the Sewing Ideas or Cooking Ideas or Gardening Ideas Someday/Maybe lists. Not so much as a glance. Those are ideas for what I can do when I have the time and resources to expand my commitments, so if I don't have the time, I ignore them.

Other lists, say "Misc ideas" get scanned, with my brain saying, "Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope," at a rate of probably three "nopes" per second. A few things may get moved from Someday/Maybe to current, and a few things may get moved from current or the Inbox to Someday/Maybe.

Something moving from current or Inbox to Someday/Maybe generally doesn't get any attention beyond that move, and possibly a quick rephrasing if I'm afraid I might forget what I meant. But by "quick" I mean that the item might get a minute of my time.

Now, if I will have a big pocket of free time, next week or soon, I may do a more extensive review of Someday/Maybe, to choose what I might want to do during that time. But not every week.

That's Someday/Maybe. It's harder for me to opinionate about daily review and the rest of the weekly review, because I don't know what you're doing. But I would say that daily processing for me takes between five and thirty minutes.

Some thoughts:

- Do you have a lot of things in your active lists that you're really not likely to do this week? This month? This year? Is your lack of trust in your system causing you to have everything in front of you, and is that making your system so cumbersome taht you can't use it, thus producing that lack of trust in your system?

If so, then I'd suggest being VERY RUTHLESS about what is allowed to be in your current lists. Move a bunch of things to someday/maybe.

- Are your tasks perhaps over-structured? Is there an opportunity to move things into checklists and thus drastically cut down on the number of projects and actions? For example, if you want to read twenty books, that could be twenty projects. Or it could be a "to read" list, with ONE project ("Keep up with reading") and a small number of actions ("prioritize reading list" alternating with "spend two hours reading from the reading list.")

- Are you using software? Paper? Are the tools takikng up time? Is there perhaps perfectionism going on--for example, if you're using paper are you rewriting action lists every single day rather than scratching out and amending?

- I recommend against having a long list of actions for a project, in your main lists. If you find making those lists to be a useful thought exercise, go ahead and write them, but treat them as project support material--or just treat them a a thought exercise and actually throw them away. I realize that some people make a long sequence of actions and that works for them, but you say that yours change, so you are not one of those people, IMO. I'm not either.

- The fact that you recorded a thought doesn't mean that you have to process it in any detail, and it especially doesn't mean that you have to process it that very evening. One thought could be to have a "thoughts capture" list and an "immediate issue" list. I'd bet that most of your thoughts will go into "thoughts capture" and I'd bet that that could wait, for processing, for your weekly review, or even a monthly review.

- What happens when you proces a thought? An example of mine: Recently I ate two nasturtium blosssoms at a restaurant and realized that, hey! They have completely different flavor! Lots of people eat nasturtiums, but is anyone breeding them for flavor?

That went into my Inbox as "breeding nasturtiums for flavor?" Then it went straight from my Inbox to the Gardening Thought Someday/Maybe list, without any elaboration or changes. I didn't research nasturtium genetics, I didn't look for a bunch of possible nasturtium varieties, I didn't look up nasturtium recipes, I didn't figure out where in the garden I would do this breeding work. I just entered that one line, and moved that one line to Someday/Maybe. So that thought took up perhaps thirty seconds of my time. Any other work will wait for the day that I decide to convert that thought into a project.

Are you doing a great deal more with each of your thoughts?

- Then there's the issue of trusting your own judgement and trusting that mistakes won't kill you. I might start wondering, waht if I realize next June that I could have started breeding nasturtiums, but it's too late to get the seeds? Should I make a trigger? Should I make a list of possible breeding projects? Should I...

This is where I have to trust my judgement: My judgement is that I am highly unlikely to do any major breeding work next year, and that if that changes, my brain knows when seeds are usually purchased. And where I trust that mistakes won't kill me: If I don't remember and I do feel regret next June, I will survive that regret.

Error will happen. Accept.

- For those, "Hey! Why not someday?" things, perhaps you need an extra low priority of Someday/Maybe, for thoughts that you may never, ever get to, and that you don't review, but you want to hang on to in case you win the lottery and become a person of leisure. Again this requires trust in your judgement, in the moment, that it's OK to put that thought in that bucket, and trust in your judgement that you don't have to review that bucket.

- For things like the "take out the trash" reminder--what are the consequences if you don't take it out? Are they bearable? Has failure to take it out been a problem? I believe that GTD accepts the concept of a habit, something that you don't have to remind yourself of because you're just going to do it. So if the trash hasn't been a problem, but twice recently you've forgotten to mow the lawn until you had to hire someone to come over with a weedwhacker, then don't bother with a trash reminder, and do set up some sort of lawn-mowing reminder.

 

[Folke]

I agree with Gardener.

Further, I think it is important to learn to gauge what level of detail you personally need for different kinds of things, and I believe the required level of detail is determined by a number of factors:

• how scared you are of the prospect of forgetting to actually do this action (or project or goal). In other words, the consequences of not doing.
• how scared you are of the prospect of forgetting to reserve mental room (or time or resources) for this project before accepting to take on further commitments? (For example, even if you are burning for a project and would never forget to actually work on it and have all the details like a crystal clear painting in your head, you might still forget to consider the remaining effort if somebody suddenly asks you to consider taking on another project. So it can be good to at least have one line for it somewhere if you need to reserve "room" for it.
• how familiar you are with the "terrain"; do you just need a note that says "dinner" or do you need a complete recipe?

I have tasks of very, very different "magnitude" and degree of detail on my lists. Things that I am unfamiliar or uncomfortable with or afraid of doing wrong I tend to break down in more detail to avoid lapses and mistakes. And vice versa; I often have fairly big "projects" documented only as a little casual note if I am very familiar and confident about playing it by ear. If that big "one-line project" has one little thing that I am afraid I might forget for too long I do not hesitate to write just that little thing down. This makes my lists very "uneven" and personal. Theoretically I could have a single line saying "build nuclear bomb" and then another line for "buy pencil for the nuclear project" if that is the only thing that worries me about the whole nuclear project. It is highly personal. It would never make sense to anybody else. But it does make sense to me. It helps me remember what I need to remember doing, and need to remember reserving "room" for. Everything else is omitted in order not to clutter my view.

Many things I do not write down at all, because the consequences of not doing them do not scare me - I will probably notice and auto-correct somehow, sooner or later. Reading novels, watching movies, eating meals, brushing teeth, taking showers, talking to people etc etc are all examples of stuff I generally do not bother to write down, but I will make an exception if for some reason a particular meal will be particularly important to cook/eat or a particular person will be particularly important or interesting to talk to.

As for Someday/Maybe I keep lots of stuff there, and just as Gardener also suggested I keep a category of "Low Someday" that I only look at - routinely and completely - a couple of times a year. But I may consult this section in between now and them if I am looking for ideas about something.

 

[TesTeq]

I think that the main reasons for my problems is that I tend to spend more time with thinking about the things that don't matter to me that much. I try to capture every long lasting thought and a little thing that needs/probably needs to get and I use my time in the evening to process those thoughts.

Try minimalism. Read some Leo Babauta's stuff about it.

If you capture more than you can eat in your whole life you don't own the things you've captured - they own you. They force you to take care of them, to review them, to think about them.

"Throw away before organizing" says Marie Kondo in "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing". This mantra applies to your life too.

 

[bcmyers2112]

Tatti, if your GTD practice is negatively affecting your grades and personal life maybe you should go back to what you were doing before. If you are for whatever reason still committed to GTD though, I've had the same struggles as you. I mostly agree with what's been said but would add a couple of things.

Lately when assessing what does or doesn't belong in my lists, I've begun following a suggestion I've read from GTD Coach Kelly Forrister: I ask myself, "What's the payoff if I do this? What's the risk if I don't?" If neither answer is compelling enough, then for me that item is a Someday/Maybe or it's just trash. It's OK to have a thought, write it down and decide it's not worth pursuing now -- or sometimes ever.

Second, it sounds like you are overplanning projects. Many projects can be handled by simply writing down an outcome and one next action. Many others require no more than "back of the envelope" planning -- a few scribbled notes or something. Reserve the heavy project planning only for those outcomes that really require it.

As for things like taking out the trash, if you're having trouble remembering it try something simple like a post-it note on the door or an occasional alarm on your smartphone if you have one. Or just let it be. Unless you're having some terrible trouble with smelly trash piling up and attracting bugs and vermin, you probably don't need to worry about it.