thinkfetti

I like it that I am using David Allen’s system Getting Things Done and also enjoying parts of Lin Yutang’s book The Importance of Living that have particularly to do with “the Noble Art of Leaving Things Undone.”

The numbers are terrifying.

I just finished my first real weekly review of my Getting Things Done setup, which I’m running on OmniOutliner Pro with the kGTD scripts. I’ve been doing GTD since December, but I’ve had a lot of time out of town, so up to this point, I had only done one moderately real weekly review.

The weekly review is, in large part, a survey of what projects I have going, and what things I have listed under “I’d maybe like to get to these someday.”

A project is pretty much anything that will take more than one step to accomplish, and anything I have listed here anywhere is something I couldn’t have taken care of, once and for all, in a couple minutes.

OK, then, the numbers…

• I have 23 next-items that are just single tasks, not part of any larger project.
• I have 27 projects on my someday/maybe list.
• And I have 144 projects going now (!!!), each with a next-action I’ve figured out to be the very next thing I need to do to make progress on the respective project. Remember, none of these next-actions is just a “few minutes” thing.

Geez! And some qualitative observations:

• Almost all of the 144 projects are things I’m doing for my job.
• Many, if not most, of the 27 projects being put off for now, on my someday/maybe list, are much more interesting to me than the lion’s share of the 144 projects on the live list.

Hence the title of this post. This is, however, very useful information for me - it’s quite impressive to be able to see this so blatantly available. Clearly, some changes are in order here!

Socorro, in addition to being the town where I live, is the Spanish word for “help!” as all my friends in other places know by now.

I’m back in Socorro from my holiday travels and preparing for the new semester, which means, among other things, that I’m digging out from the piles of emails and next-actions waiting for me.

I’m feeling pleased with the Getting Things Done system I got going in December - I have it to thank for the fact I’m only feeling that I have many, many things to do, instead of feeling overwhelmed with the many, many things I have to do.

I expect to have a more active posting schedule soon, with news of networks, probability, music history, conducting, and creativity/art/design - well, lots.

David Allen’s book is called Getting Things Done. If you look around the web, you’ll find evidence of GTD’ers, talking and blogging about their experiences with this project-management/organization/de-stressing tool. The blog 43 Folders is named after an example in Allen’s book of a “tickler” file system, a particular way of using a set of file folders as a (nearly) foolproof reminder system.

About two weeks ago, I bought the Getting Things Done book, and about 10 days ago, over the weekend, I invested about 14 hours at my office, getting things set up to use the time-management system.

The first thing I’ll say is that even if I were to give up on the “GTD” method right now, those 14 hours have paid off by providing me with an excellent perspective on where I stand: with respect to work, with respect to my personal goals, and with respect to my previous relationship to the work I felt was hanging over my head.

The second thing I’ll say is that the subtitle of the book (working from memory here), “a guide to stress-free productivity,” is apt. I have been working very, very hard the last 10 days, because I have had to, but I am getting much more done, and done more effectively. I’m exhausted, yes, but I think that without GTD, I would have been nearly as exhausted while feeling more stressed and getting much less done. I am optimistic that in a few weeks’ time, I will be feeling even less burdened.

I’m sure I’ll write more about my experiences later, but for now, I can simply say: if you’re feeling overwhelmed, trying to be productive while holding on to indeterminate lists of everything you “have to do” in your head, you owe it to yourself to read this book.