Hi everyone, Robert Peake here from Next Action Associates and I just want to
talk to you about what I've seen as one of from the biggest traps that people
new to GTD often fall into when they're trying to implement, particularly they're
trying to implement on on their own without the guidance of a coach.
Hopefully th is can help you avoid that trap.
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So one of the very first things that I see with people new to GTD wanting to implement this methodology
they get a hold of the idea of getting things out of their head of
externalizing of capturing everything that's on their mind and they can get
into a kind of perfectionism but in the wrong way. By that I mean that if you're
used to creating to-do lists and you're used to creating these kind of crude
placeholders for stuff you need to think about later--you notice most people who
only write down a handful right at a time here's the the top five things I
should be focused on. When you come to GTD and we say let's get it all out of
your head, if you're doing that in the same way that you've been doing to do
this pretty rapidly that you're gonna compile a huge long list of stuff that
you know you should be thinking about but every time you look at it it just
completely overwhelms you. I think the first thing is: don't panic
right? but know that probably the single
biggest trap that people fall into in GTD is squishiness. It's having squishy
lists, it's transferring that whole to do mindset into what is now 50, 60, 70...
so-called "projects" that are really again just crude placeholders for stuff you
know you oughta be thinking more about. That's stressful. That's overwhelming.
And what happens from here is that now you don't want to look at that list--
that's the guilt closet, that's the place where you shoved a bunch of stuff
that you know you should be thinking about later, where you've said things
like "mum" and "reorg" and "trousers" to yourself and and those are just again
reminders that you really should be doing something about that rather than
really clear actions and projects. I've been doing GTD for almost 20 years now
I've never had fewer than probably 70 projects at a time
it's just constant, it's just there-- but it doesn't stress me out
at all. New ones come in ones get marked it's done and this is my radar screen
for how I live my life there's a big big difference between my project list and
most people's to-do lists and most beginning GTD-ers to do this as well:
mine look like finish lines-- one after another, and as a result of those looking
like really clear outcomes, I know what done looks like and the next actions
associated with those looking like really clear next steps. I relate to this
as a kind of state of play system rather than an "I ought to..." "I should be..."
"well really need to think about these kind of things..." list. So, that's the
difference between a squishy list and a GTD list and most people who think
they're doing GTD are really just creating larger and larger squishy lists
which is going to stress them out more and more then--guess what?--you don't
want to look at those lists. If you're not looking at your next action lists daily
that's the second level of a trap right that's the floor you fall down into as
phase two of this conundrum and the third and the worst part of this is
that then you also are not going to want to be doing weekly reviews, and as
soon as that kicks in you're really you're really kind of off off the wagon
right you're not you're not really doing GTD anymore. You're compiling guilt in a
system that was once working for you a little bit because at least it gave you
the relief of getting it out of your head -- but now it's a morass, it's just a
squishy mess of stuff that you don't quite feel right about anymore. So if any
of that sounds familiar, if any of that rings true, you're not
alone. A lot of people, particularly people that start out you know with with
the book and with good intentions you know, get a ton of stuff out of their
head -- but they're not really clarifying the actions and the projects and the
ways that we proscribe, so you know if you the way to know whether or not this
is happening to you is to just take any item on your project list and then look
at it or any item on your action list and look at it and say, "Is there anything
do I need to rethink anything or is this absolutely self-evident what this is?"
this is absolutely self-evident now the answer is "no" that's one little
item that as those items accumulate that are no longer self-evident it's going to
start causing you to no longer want to look at your lists, no longer
want to do your daily review, no longer want to do your weekly review, no longer
do GTD really. So the key with this is to know that any kind of rethinking is is
sinking you know rethinking is is the the big problem with to-do list with all
the you know systems with pre GTD that you already tried basically right so
it's not "mum" on a list it's you know "great birthday party for mum" project,
next action "call sister; it's not re-org it's you know "proposal for
reorganisation submitted to the executive committee", next action "talk to
Bill about outsourcing IT"; it's not "trousers" it's an item on your errand
list that says "take trousers to the dry cleaner
next time you're near the station" those kind of things, those ways of talking to
your future self make all the difference and whether or not you're going to want
to engage with this stuff or whether, because it's squishy, you're gonna want
to start to fall away from it. So I would say rather than just riding the
enthusiasm of trying to get everything out of your head and just building these
lists as quickly as you can you step back and really take a look at have I
clarified this so much and so well that someone else could almost do this
stuff for me with with almost no prior knowledge. If that's not the case you're not
really capturing the results of your thinking the first time, you're leaving a
little bit for later and those little bits accumulate and might become this I
almost see it like this kind of squishy slime your system gets clogged up with
residual bits of thinking that needs to happen, residual bits of guilt that you
didn't think about this stuff already and that's what causes people more than
anything to fall away from GTD to say "well it didn't it didn't quite work for
me"-- the reality is you were
bringing old habits into a new approach rather than really really going for the
heart of GTD which is about clarifying your thinking
the first time and they're storing it in such a way that you don't have to
rethink it. I hope that's helpful I hope that inspires you to go and have a look
at some of your lists and really be honest with yourself about where you've
been squishy where you've been not quite clarifying it to the level
that it's absolutely self-evident later you'll know - because when you go to
look at those lists and some of those items you're scanning down and they "ugh"
-- those are the items you probably haven't clarified to the degree you need
to. So if you feel yourself starting to get into this trap, if you feel yourself
starting to fall away from using your lists regularly, if you are in danger of
not doing your weekly reviews anymore it's it's time to get real about what
those lists look like they really next action in the project lists or they kind
of squishy to-do lists and placeholders of what you think you ought to be
thinking about later. If you're deferring that thinking until later
you're just storing up trouble for that future self and part of you knows it
part of you's not going to want to go down that road later on. Now is
the time to do it now is the time to get it clear. Do that over time, build up
those kind of lists that are clear you're in really good territory. So,
wishing you productivity and success and hoping you can get off on the right foot
with GTD and just go from there, look forward to your thoughts, see you next time.