My perception is that your mind has been operating in distraction mode for so long that you need to retrain it to operate with focus and clarity. It’s going to take a great deal of forceful conscious effort at first. If you’re already in an overwhelmed state your subconscious will be tempted to give up and go back to busy trap because it’s familiar and comfortable yet far from optimal. Additionally, your mind is not going to trust your GTD system right away even if it is “perfect” by all standards. The system has to prove itself to your subconcious that it can do a better job of managing your commitments. That process took six weeks for me. For the system to prove its worth, you must work the system diligently.
Tags: GTDAdvice
My perception is that your mind has been operating in distraction mode for so long that you need to retrain it to operate with focus and clarity. It’s going to take a great deal of forceful conscious effort at first. If you’re already in an overwhelmed state your subconscious will be tempted to give up and go back to busy trap because it’s familiar and comfortable yet far from optimal. Additionally, your mind is not going to trust your GTD system right away even if it is “perfect” by all standards. The system has to prove itself to your subconcious that it can do a better job of managing your commitments. That process took six weeks for me. For the system to prove its worth, you must work the system diligently
To illustrate, the wires of a piano that’s been out-of-tune for a long time will try to revert back to their previous pattern after they have been adjusted. They have to be readjusted daily for a while, then every other day, then twice a week, then once a week, (you get the idea) until they have accepted the new pattern. Once the new pattern is established periodic maintenance is needed to keep them there, but that periodic maintenance is much easier than the initial effort required to retrain the wires. You’ve got to do the same thing with your brain. I can’t tell you how you should go about doing that, but I do have a few suggestions.
Collect everything both inside outside of your head. Have a capture tool available at all times and a voice recorder that you can activate without looking at it in your car. Once you start rolling with the GTD habits baked-on, caked-on stuff in your mind that you had no idea was there is going to break loose and flow into your conscious where you can and must capture it. It will happen in the most inconvenient places so you must be ready with a tool at all times. Corral all of it into your inboxes.
Eliminate distraction - especially during processing and weekly reviews. Processing your inboxes and doing your weekly reviews requires focus and elimination of outside distractions. Those times must be sacred to you. When you’re not processing, don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Turn off chimes that alert you to incoming e-mail. Don’t permit yourself to check your social media every 5 minutes. Unsubscribe from RSS feeds and newsletters that aren’t really benefiting your life. Be more selective about what you let into your life.
Don’t rush the processing and organizing decisions and NEVER file any of them in your head. Your action lists must be complete and current with real outcomes and actions, not stuff. You mentioned that your concious says “I already know how to do this…I don’t need to track it.” But your subconcious will nag you and bug you that you should be working on that thing that you already know how to do every single second until you externalize it or finish it. Your conscious will not know where the source of stress is coming from, either.
Tags: GTDAdvice
I often write each action on a single sheet of paper, and I often have a few
piles of those. At one point, to get more control, I decided I would start by
just quickly counting the number of items in the pile, then working on a
long-term project for a while, then later doing the things. This gave me a
feeling of control: while counting them, I could get a sense of how urgent
they were. Counting only takes about a minute, so if there is something
urgent I can usually set it aside to do after I finish counting. I usually like
the two-minute rule but don’t usually apply it while counting (or maybe it
becomes a 15-second rule or something).
While processing, start by setting a goal of processing a small number
of items. Suppose you usually get distracted after processing about 5
items. Then you might set a goal of 3 items at first – something probably
achievable. Before you start, choose a reward you will get when you finish
the 3 items. I find that for this sort of thing, the reward has to be something
that can be done fast: otherwise the reward becomes another chore I don’t
have time for! A reward can be something like physically patting yourself
on the shoulder; standing up, smiling and putting your arms in the air;
turning around 3 times; playing with a yo-yo for half a minute; eating
one potato chip; looking out a window with a nice view and taking a couple
of deep breaths, etc. It almost doesn’t matter what the reward is, because
the real reward is the way you think while you’re getting the reward:
feeling proud of yourself for accomplishing something. And then of course
you probably immediately set yourself a goal of processing another
3 items, with another reward (the same reward again or a different one).
After a few days (or one or two weekly reviews) you might start increasing
the goal to 4 items instead of 3, etc., as you gradually learn to focus
for longer, always setting a realistically achievable goal and realising
that your ability to focus may go up and down for many reasons.
While processing, allow yourself to set aside a few items to do as soon
as the processing is finished. So at first, when you set a goal to process
say 3 items, if you feel a strong urge to do one of them immediately, you
can tell yourself “I will do it as soon as I finish processing the 3 items.”
Write a note in the middle of a big sheet of paper to do the thing, put it
very visibly on your desk, finish processing the 3 items, reward yourself,
then do the thing you had the urge to do. (Do it even if you
no longer have the urge! You promised yourself!) Because you’re only processing
a small number of items, you don’t have to wait very long to do it.
As you gradually learn to focus longer on processing, you will probably learn to
wait longer; but not too long, because you have to be able to trust
that you will actually do the thing.
While processing, you can put up something to remind yourself that
you’re processing, such as clearing your desk and putting a notebook
that you use for processing in the middle of it, or putting a sign
saying “processing” somewhere very visible, or even several
signs, etc. You can send yourself an email with subject
line “Processing” so if you check your email you’ll see it. That way if you
get distracted it may help you get back to the processing.
You can improve your concentration with exercise. You can do the
processing in a standing position, or while pacing back and forth,
or do some exercise just before starting, or take breaks to exercise
every few minutes. You can do the processing at a time of day
when you have lots of energy, or split it up to do a few minutes
at a time on different days.