Getting Things Done. Really.
I’m forgetful. There’s just no denying it. My wife can definitely attest to the fact that if something is not within my immediate area of attention, or is not something in which I am currently interested, I will probably forget it. Unfortunately, it seems that I tend to remember many of the less useful and less important things that I observe day in and day out, like people’s shoes, tidbits of (marginally useful) trivia that I read, etc. I’ve come to accept this about myself, and for the past few years, have tried to find ways to combat it.
Like many people, I’ve read about GTD, read the 43 Folders blog, owned several PDAs, built my own hipster PDA, bought a mini-moleskine and a space pen, tried Ta-da Lists, Backpack, Basecamp, and so on and so on. At different times, each of these has helped me in various ways to varying degrees, but I keep coming to the same conclusions no matter what my current method of organization is.
If whatever I am doing to organize myself isn’t working, I have to change it. This ranges from realizing that my current method of no organization isn’t working and deciding to start doing something, to ditching my PDA in favor of pen and index cards. It also means that I change methods often. I’ve gone from a PDA to Ta-da Lists to VoodooPad to pen and paper in less than one year. All of them have worked for me at one time, but I got frustrated with each at some point and decided to move on to something else. The method matters less than the results!
I have to have a clear understanding of why my tasks are important to me and to the people about whom I care. In my opinion, this is the basis for motivation, especially for those things that I don’t really enjoy, such as cleaning the bathroom. I can write all the lists I want, own the snazziest PDA, setup fancy text message reminders, etc., but if I don’t have a clear understanding of why these things are important to me and to the people about whom I care, things will not get done.
There is no substitute for self-discipline. I could have the best organizational system in the universe, but if I don’t have the discipline to keep writing things down (or entering them digitally) and then to actually do the things on all those lists, things will not get done.
No comments:
Post a Comment