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. [♪ music ♪] 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.
