Re: Someday Overload
My craft project list has over 100 items on it, most representing unfinished quilts. I have a separate set of lists for these projects though I keep them together with my general lists. I divide the next actions according to stages of completion. It was a tremendous relief to do this because now it's all explicit. I haven't started a new project in weeks, and I don't want to. Several projects have been moved along. However the nature of these projects is that completion is very slow, so I am frustrated. An entire afternoon of work might only result in one action step completed and no project finished. However my approach has been to try to get used to this feeling of slowness so that the frustration will diminish. I also try to focus on progress, and I have definitely made progress even though it didn't result in completion. In the first few weeks of implementing the system for my hobbies, I completed a few projects that were easy or already near completion, but at the same time I found a few more projects that had escaped my initial sweep. So the total number has not changed substantially. At least now I can put half-finished things away rather than leave them out to remind me to work on them. But I digress.
Regarding someday/maybe, the point of these is that they may never get done. I want to learn to speak or improve my speaking of seven languages. Will I ever? Probably not. But on the list they go. At the very least, the idea is down on paper and not in my head where it would nag me now and then. It doesn't bother me to look at these ideas weekly. I want to go to three different countries, so those ideas are on the someday/maybe list. A trip to Italy, for example, may be two years down the road. But it is a possibility so it goes on the list. There are a couple of interesting museum trips on the list. These will expire if I don't do them, or I may move them to the project list. Those have to be reviewed weekly if I don't want to miss something.
I have 90 projects at home, 50 someday/maybe ideas, 110 craft projects, and 200 bugs to fix at work (though many are to be fixed someday/maybe). In addition I have about 40 recurring housekeeping tasks that I manage in a tickler file.
I just started doing this in April, so I have a huge backlog of things that weren't getting done. On the other hand, many things are finished, I just have to remind myself of them. The deck is fixed. The house will be painted in spring (the contract is signed). I will pick up the new glasses next week. The boss thanked me for answering his e-mail right away. Too bad this behavior is unusual where I work!
David Allen uses a martial arts analogy. I am lucky to have once practiced a martial art, which taught me patience like nothing else I ever did. For a year and a half, I was terrible. I have no idea why I kept dragging myself to those classes three times a week (perhaps it was because my future husband was teaching the class). I actually really disliked it. Then something changed and I was able to kick things really hard and fast. It's not something that happened overnight, and neither is this. One has to practice. In fact if the system were easy to pick up it may be just as easy to let it go. Something hard that you work on for a long time will become more ingrained, at least that has been my experience.
Cris
That was after several years spinning the yarn for it. And I haven't finished the real top level project, it's cloth for a piece of clothing but I haven't managed to get the courage to cut my fabric yet. Maybe in another year or 2 after I've admired the yardage long enough. :-D