Thing is, my friends without kids tell me they don't necessarily feel like they are being productive either. I've made peace with the fact that this isn't a normal time -- there is a lot of stress and worry for everyone -- and just getting our work done, taking care of our son, and keeping everything ticking along without any major meltdowns is actually being productive. I've also lowered my standards -- on everything.
There are projects and things I would ideally like to do - especially with all this time in the house - but most of them are just going into the bucket of: to do when I have child care again. Case closed.
However, I thought this might be a good time to finally post my thoughts on the classic David Allen trademarked methodology: Getting Things Done. I resisted reading this book for so long - it just seemed so complicated and systematic - which I guess is what an organizational system should be! It helped me finally read it when he released a new version of the classic text last year, and I had listened to some interviews with him around that time.
I've been test driving the methodology for the past six months and I have to say that even though there are times where I find myself drifting away from it, abandoning the discipline it creates, I always come back. Particularly right now, when I need to get things done, and have so little time.
If you have ever considered giving it a try, here are the reasons why I think it works:
It focuses on decision making. We are constantly bombarded with demands coming into our lives through various "inboxes". Emails, texts, phone calls, to-do items from meetings, ideas you come up with, assignments given to you, and even sometimes physical mail. One of the main tenets of Allen's system is that it forces you to make decisions about all these inputs. What is it that you actually want or need to do? You practice making decisions, over and over again. My Dad likes to remind me that one of the things that gets harder as you get older is making decisions. So I figure if I practice this more often I might not lose the skill quite as easily.
The system is tailored to you and is fully adaptable to how you live and work. There is no one app or computer program, there is no special journal you are advised to use. You have to figure out the best way for you to use this process. This means, however, that it is not a quick fix. But I am always, always skeptical of quick fixes. In fact, Allen suggests that it takes two years to get the full benefits of GTD. I like being given two years to get used to something.
It gets rid of what Allen calls the "open loop" - that nagging feeling that you just have so much to do you don't even know where to begin. Instead of just a random to-do list, GTD helps you put everything you need to do in the right place so that nothing falls through the cracks. Allen explains that all the things that one person has to do are "open loops", meaning that your brain keeps trying to deal with these things until you have correctly classified them somewhere. And it's true - once you put something you need to do into the system, even if it's on a "someday/maybe" list where, let's face it, it might never get done, you can let go of it.
GTD allows for the unpredictability of life. It's a very nimble system which makes you able to drop whatever you are doing if something really urgent comes up, but allows you to be able to find your way back. So many time management systems or lists are just too rigid -- such as trying to block out time on your calendar or making a "today" to-do list. How annoying is it to plan to do something at a particular time or day and to see it just not get done?
Next-action steps helps combat procrastination. Everyone says having kids helps eliminate procrastination and that may be true to some extent, because you realize that kid-free concentration time is precious. But I'm pretty sure this wears off eventually as (pre-pandemic) I had already figured out ways to claw back a bit more time and the procrastination was creeping back in. But because "next-action steps" as Allen defines them, are very clear cut, it's a lot easier to avoid procrastination as doing things takes much less thought and energy (you've already done the decision-making, as per above, you see).
There's no way I can explain his methodology in one blog post -- besides, there are so many other zealots out there that do this -- but I just wanted to give readers a window into why I think it's something worth checking out if they're interested. It is still early days for me of experimenting with it, but I do feel like Allen's system addresses all the problems I had encountered with all my attempts to organize myself prior. I honestly wish I had read it years ago. And when life goes back to being a little bit more normal (someday!), I am hoping it may actually help me get those draft books finished!
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
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