Working at home = doing your @Home actions

[Mikheev]

There're a few threads where people say that inspite of priorities issues or longiness of the lists their @Work lists at least beeing done. But their @Home lists are usually stuck. I think I know why it happens.

We usually put different projects on our lists. These projects are assosiated with work. Work - something that one is doing, making, or performing, especially as an occupation or undertaking; a duty or task. On the other hand when we get home we are supposed to have rest. Rest - relaxation from exertion or labour. What happens when we open our action list at home is our brain assumes we continue to work when we supposed to relax. Is there a way out?

A few ways I think could work:

1. Set aside a time for working your @Home action lists (working time);

2. or Set aside time for relaxing when you do not open your @Home action lists.

Any ideas?

 

[bishblaize]

There's some merit in that argument. Work can seem more modular with a definite beginning and end. Its easy to get home and have the feeling of wanting to stop working i.e. stop doing, and hence losing the impetus to do things you previously decided you wanted to do.

Personally if there are tasks at home I really need to do, such as mend something or buy something, I have it as a task. Other than that i dont bother, since I rarely know how im going to feel about something. Instead I have lists of things I enjoy - things to do when its sunny, on a Saturday, books to read, etc. That way I dont lose things I think id like to do, but avoid the problem you mentioned.

 

[SiobhanBR]

Add rest to you @home list

My @home list includes giving myself a manicure, playing with my baby, reading, watching a specific movie, playing a specific video game etc. As with any NA list, if I review my @home list and choose to do something else (like nap!) then I am doing so with the full knowledge of all the other things I have made a deal with myself to do.

 

[Mikheev]

Does the life becomes too boring if all the actions even baby games are added to the lists? Or not?

 

[bishblaize]

Does the life becomes too boring if all the actions even baby games are added to the lists? Or not?

Butting in slightly, apols, but personally I can see the attraction of that point of view. Always doing the things that you find maximally enjoyable, and moving towards your long term goals (via your mid-term goals via your short-term goals) with much more efficiency.

But I know it wouldn't work for me, im too contrary, even with myself.

 

[SiobhanBR]

Not Boring at All

My NA lists are not exhaustive of everything I do. The project and NA lists are a hard copy of the agreements I've made with myself and others. They are a reminder of the things I want to accomplish in life. By seeing - Play with Baby - on the list I remember that sometimes I need to stop working through all of this and just go sit on the floor and make funny faces and that it is part of what I want to do with my life.

The lists do not limit my choices of what to do; they allow me to be as flexible and spontaneous as I want to be because I know that I've got everything captured and won't forget it if I decide to go out and lay in the sunshine for a long afternoon nap.

 

[Roger]

Something I like to think about occasionally with @Home things is: How much am I being paid to do this?

That's just another way of asking: How much would it cost me to pay someone else to do this?

Sometimes it's a good deal; sometimes it's not. But it's nice to know in any case.

Cheers,
Roger

 

[JohnV474]

I wondered that too...

Does the life becomes too boring if all the actions even baby games are added to the lists? Or not?

I wondered that also, before I tried it. After I tried it for a while, I found that life was much more exciting. One reason is that you are reminding yourself more often of what is important to you. Another reason is that you still get to choose what you want to do. You may have lots of projects around the house but decide that you really just want to go to the movies, so you do. If your GTD is implemented, then you can do that without having nagging thoughts in the back of your mind about what else you "should" be doing.

GTD allows for more flexibility, excitement and productivity than any other approach I've seen. I can take a weekend trip with less effort and fewer leaks than someone who has to scramble to be ready... so I take them more often.

JohnV474

 

[Grenouille]

What's got your attention

I work with what has my attention. If I come home and the couch and beer in the fridge has my attention, that is what I do. If the pile of clothes on the floor (that doesn't exist in my house) has my attention, I tend to that and then go to the beer/couch. The pile of clothes would be on my list but the beer/couch is not.

I do however put fun places and activities on my list to 1) remember places I want to go 2) remind me to take time out for fun. I usually plan fun by putting a new action item on my list during my weekly review. What great motivation to do the weekly review!

 

[randystokes]

One of the things that stuck out the most when I first saw David in one of his two-day public seminars (way back in 2002), he stressed the need to create lists with all your next actions, but confessed that many things he did (especially around his house and garden) were things that were never on any list. But DOING the lists gave him the freedom to get off his own back, and freed him to do other things as they popped up.

I don't put stuff on my lists like "watch DVD X" or "read latest issue of "magazine Y" or "read book Z" -- but by keeping my lists current and complete, I know what must be done and when and I'm free to kick back and do those other things without the nagging feeling that there's not something else I SHOULD be doing.

Randy

 

[randystokes]

One of the things that stuck out the most when I first saw David in one of his two-day public seminars (way back in 2002), he stressed the need to create lists with all your next actions, but confessed that many things he did (especially around his house and garden) were things that were never on any list. But DOING the lists gave him the freedom to get off his own back, and freed him to do other things as they popped up.

I don't put stuff on my lists like "watch DVD X" or "read latest issue of "magazine Y" or "read book Z" -- but by keeping my lists current and complete, I know what must be done and when and I'm free to kick back and do those other things without the nagging feeling that there's not something else I SHOULD be doing.

Randy

I mean "without the nagging feeling that there's something else I SHOULD be doing." David's briefcase troll stuck in the "not" -- not me!

 

[TesTeq]

Important!

I don't put stuff on my lists like "watch DVD X" or "read latest issue of "magazine Y" or "read book Z" -- but by keeping my lists current and complete, I know what must be done and when and I'm free to kick back and do those other things without the nagging feeling that there's not something else I SHOULD be doing.

I think it is very important. It is the main idea behind the GTD methodology.