What happened to my blogging?
My blogging waned over the year, from my daily posting to at best, once a month, when I had a specific message to send to my students. I would like to recommit myself to blogging. I find it the most rewarding kind of writing and since I write everyday in numerous emails, I write academic articles and notes to students and opinion pieces on news in psychology and psychiatry, I want to (note I say "I want to" not "I will" pick up blogging again. I am not sure what discouraged me. Perhaps it was a problem presented to me by some readers "I tried to write a comment, but failed each time I tried." Rather than going in there, figuring out the problem, and fixing it, I just left it alone. After a while of no responses, even in "private" I lost interest. I have lots of readers on my various listsesrvs, why not write to them, instead of to no one, here. Well one reason is that I can write more personally here. And I can put my commitments in public, something I would not dare to do on my academic listservs.
The anti-medication frenzy needs to be analyzed
I am in a spin about the anti-psychiatry, anti-medication tear the press and even the professionals are on now. In response to one of those articles declaring that medication doesn't work, the British government decided to pour money into training 10,000 new cognitive behavioral psychotherapists. My main collaborator and statistician Jack Berry, upon hearing about this , said in his driest tone "Awfully impulsive, don't you think?" Yes I do think.
So expect an upcoming piece about the state of the medication debate (hysteria would be a more precise way of describing teh current atmosphere.
Bottom line, a new in-box called "bedroom" is screaming out for help
I may think its time to resume blogging because I have a new 'inbox" taking over a bed room. The "inbox" has turned out to be a bottle next in my GTS system. I wrote to David Allen's people to see if they might direct me. I told them to get Allen back out here to San Francisco, I need a booster shot right now. The whole point of mentioning this is I need some kind of accountability, and I am hoping that by writing about this, even if I am downplaying it, may help me deal wiht the situation. So if I do nothing but what I started doing here a year ago, I have to do at least that. Track my progress on GTD and resume getting things done.
Showing posts with label GTD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GTD. Show all posts
Friday, March 7, 2008
Monday, April 9, 2007
GTD Day 44: Getting Things Done and War on Procrastination
GTD Report
I am happy to report that we spent many hours at the Container Store. We are redoing our closet as I've mentioned, and this a very big deal. The 'inbox" from the closet has been covering the living room, dining room, and entrance hall way. One couldn't say we were inefficient in our use of space; having seen it all outside of the closet, we can't understand how we ever managed to get it into the closet. Of course this great traditional use of space meant I could never find anything. One goal here, on top of having a "mind like water" is to be able to locate anything in 1 to 2 minutes, max.
I am only now realizing how much the clutter was effecting me. After the shopping trip, I spent the afternoon reading books about how to give a top notch presentation on PowerPoint, bypassing the old bullets method. I also analyzed data that had just come in, and discovered we have "significant results." I am using a statistical word when I say "significant." To put it simply, it means one wouldn't be likely to find these results in a crap shoot. Ultimately it means the study is publishable and this makes me happy. Its a real drag to spend months working on a study only to have it turn out to have no significant results. I have to say that rarely happens to me, I have a great capacity to know ahead of time what is going to work, and I generally avoid studies that my sixth sense tells me "Don't waste your time." Nevertheless every time a study turns out to have significant results I get excited and almost jump up and down with pleasure.
Loose ends, filing, and the mail
But I have been procrastinating on several big jobs. For example, I need to carry through on all that filing and finish the job by putting the labeled files in file cabinets. I need to deal with the mail. I have yet to do a really thorough review every Sunday, gathering all the "loose ends" of the week. By now the loose ends are a full month of loose ends, all dropped into a growing inbox that is a real inbox, instead of the living room floor. Until I do a thorough review, I don't think I can say I'm doing GTD. Half measures will get me no where. Earlier in the week I re-read Steve Pavlina and Merlin Mann of 43 Folders discussing procrastination, then procrastinated another six days.
Finally last night while lying in bed, working on my upcoming presentation, I decided to follow the 2 minute rule. Out came the Brother's labeler and right there, it must have been 1AM and everyone was fast asleep, I labeled and filed some loose papers. It took five minutes all together. This morning I marched down to my living room, went right to the mail table, grabbed a pile and began sorting and mainly tossing. When I attended the Allen seminar, Allen asked the audience if we had any chronic problems that needed some effort put to them, and I raised my hand and confessed what I do with the mail. Nothing. It can sit there piling up for months, and I don't look at it, I don't see it. I said I seemed to be afraid to open my mail. After this big confession I continued to do absolutely nothing about it, until this morning. I think the fear around the mail is that I will have to make a decision and I don't think I can do it, decide what to keep and what to toss. Its simple and yet I have never done it routinely. I hope I am going to make a real change, implemented for the first time this morning
Backtracking.. four days earlier
I have to give myself credit, cut myself some slack here. This week a dumpster came and was filled up within 24 hours. It will probably take us two more dumpsters before we have any semblance of order in the house. But we are one dumpster closer. Carpets were put in this week, on our stairs and and in one hallway. The closet was built with Elfa materials and some of the chaos that happened when everything came out of the closet has returned to normal as clothes went back into the space designed for them. The carpets on the stairs make me feel like I'm living in a "grown up" house and I don't know how I stood that painted soft wood for all of these years. GTD is creeping up on me and maybe I'll do a real Sunday review this week.
I am not happy with my lecture
I am trying out a new way to develop a lecture for my large class that begins next Thursday. I'm using a book "Beyond Bullet Points" written by Atkinson, on the recommendation of Matt Cornell in his blog some time recently. Its an interesting experiment, but still feels very awkward to me. The idea is to imitate the way Hollywood writers construct a screen play or TV show script. I'm going to be lecturing on something I've lectured on many times in the past, so trying this method might be foolish, but I love experiments. So far I don't like what I've written; it seems jumbled and instead of achieving greater clarity, I feel I'm heading into the opposite, confusion. Today I have a few more appointments, and then I am focusing on this project intensely. If I don't have something more coherent to show by Sunday, I'm going back to my old method.
Moving into transition
A few more weeks and I think I will cross over the line to real GTD heaven, and a mind like water will replace a mind like mud.I think I am approaching the period of serious transition, as I feel more confident that I am not forgetting important things and that I have a good chunk of my life moving in the right direction. I am beginning to plan, a serious weakness in the past. What I don't get done in a day moves onto the list for the next day. My lists are fairly up to date, despite having to move to another system for the umpteenth time --but more about that later. I am optimistic about the growing sense of order at home and in my home office. Making the decision to throw everything out was long overdue; that moment of decisiveness marked the move to a real transition in my life. Its the oddest thing but I feel like I am taking over my own life, and I can't figure out why it took me so long to do this. I ask myself "Does implementing GTD have this effect on everyone?"
I am happy to report that we spent many hours at the Container Store. We are redoing our closet as I've mentioned, and this a very big deal. The 'inbox" from the closet has been covering the living room, dining room, and entrance hall way. One couldn't say we were inefficient in our use of space; having seen it all outside of the closet, we can't understand how we ever managed to get it into the closet. Of course this great traditional use of space meant I could never find anything. One goal here, on top of having a "mind like water" is to be able to locate anything in 1 to 2 minutes, max.
I am only now realizing how much the clutter was effecting me. After the shopping trip, I spent the afternoon reading books about how to give a top notch presentation on PowerPoint, bypassing the old bullets method. I also analyzed data that had just come in, and discovered we have "significant results." I am using a statistical word when I say "significant." To put it simply, it means one wouldn't be likely to find these results in a crap shoot. Ultimately it means the study is publishable and this makes me happy. Its a real drag to spend months working on a study only to have it turn out to have no significant results. I have to say that rarely happens to me, I have a great capacity to know ahead of time what is going to work, and I generally avoid studies that my sixth sense tells me "Don't waste your time." Nevertheless every time a study turns out to have significant results I get excited and almost jump up and down with pleasure.
Loose ends, filing, and the mail
But I have been procrastinating on several big jobs. For example, I need to carry through on all that filing and finish the job by putting the labeled files in file cabinets. I need to deal with the mail. I have yet to do a really thorough review every Sunday, gathering all the "loose ends" of the week. By now the loose ends are a full month of loose ends, all dropped into a growing inbox that is a real inbox, instead of the living room floor. Until I do a thorough review, I don't think I can say I'm doing GTD. Half measures will get me no where. Earlier in the week I re-read Steve Pavlina and Merlin Mann of 43 Folders discussing procrastination, then procrastinated another six days.
Finally last night while lying in bed, working on my upcoming presentation, I decided to follow the 2 minute rule. Out came the Brother's labeler and right there, it must have been 1AM and everyone was fast asleep, I labeled and filed some loose papers. It took five minutes all together. This morning I marched down to my living room, went right to the mail table, grabbed a pile and began sorting and mainly tossing. When I attended the Allen seminar, Allen asked the audience if we had any chronic problems that needed some effort put to them, and I raised my hand and confessed what I do with the mail. Nothing. It can sit there piling up for months, and I don't look at it, I don't see it. I said I seemed to be afraid to open my mail. After this big confession I continued to do absolutely nothing about it, until this morning. I think the fear around the mail is that I will have to make a decision and I don't think I can do it, decide what to keep and what to toss. Its simple and yet I have never done it routinely. I hope I am going to make a real change, implemented for the first time this morning
Backtracking.. four days earlier
I have to give myself credit, cut myself some slack here. This week a dumpster came and was filled up within 24 hours. It will probably take us two more dumpsters before we have any semblance of order in the house. But we are one dumpster closer. Carpets were put in this week, on our stairs and and in one hallway. The closet was built with Elfa materials and some of the chaos that happened when everything came out of the closet has returned to normal as clothes went back into the space designed for them. The carpets on the stairs make me feel like I'm living in a "grown up" house and I don't know how I stood that painted soft wood for all of these years. GTD is creeping up on me and maybe I'll do a real Sunday review this week.
I am not happy with my lecture
I am trying out a new way to develop a lecture for my large class that begins next Thursday. I'm using a book "Beyond Bullet Points" written by Atkinson, on the recommendation of Matt Cornell in his blog some time recently. Its an interesting experiment, but still feels very awkward to me. The idea is to imitate the way Hollywood writers construct a screen play or TV show script. I'm going to be lecturing on something I've lectured on many times in the past, so trying this method might be foolish, but I love experiments. So far I don't like what I've written; it seems jumbled and instead of achieving greater clarity, I feel I'm heading into the opposite, confusion. Today I have a few more appointments, and then I am focusing on this project intensely. If I don't have something more coherent to show by Sunday, I'm going back to my old method.
Moving into transition
A few more weeks and I think I will cross over the line to real GTD heaven, and a mind like water will replace a mind like mud.I think I am approaching the period of serious transition, as I feel more confident that I am not forgetting important things and that I have a good chunk of my life moving in the right direction. I am beginning to plan, a serious weakness in the past. What I don't get done in a day moves onto the list for the next day. My lists are fairly up to date, despite having to move to another system for the umpteenth time --but more about that later. I am optimistic about the growing sense of order at home and in my home office. Making the decision to throw everything out was long overdue; that moment of decisiveness marked the move to a real transition in my life. Its the oddest thing but I feel like I am taking over my own life, and I can't figure out why it took me so long to do this. I ask myself "Does implementing GTD have this effect on everyone?"
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Some Notes on Writing
Responding to a lament about writing on a GTD Listserv:
On a GTD listserv, someone was speaking to the trouble they were having in getting themselves to write, and there was some commentary about why it was so hard to write. I have another experience, and posted it there, then realized, hey I can post it on my own blog!! So here's my personal story about writing.
I'm a writer and I write every day or almost every day for the last --almost 40 years. I am also a psychologist and professor, so I do other things as well, but writing is probably my first love in terms of something that puts me in a "flow" state. Analyzing data from my research also leads me to a flow state, but not with the same ease and fluidity. I don't write fiction, I write research reports, articles, personal and political commentary, reviews, notes to students, notes to colleagues, case studies, just about anything I can think about. In fact, anything I think about at all, I think about in writing. I have an @writing category in contexts, and I also schedule in 7 to 10 or 11 AM as prime time writing time. That doesn't mean I always use it for writing, I may be needing to deal with emails that came in, possibly having to do with my research, or teaching, or this or that. So I have to skip writing that morning. Sometimes when I'm into my sleeping in in the morning and staying up late at night, I write in the evening as a way to come down from the day. Writing puts me in a flow, maybe an alpha state, so I hate not writing.
How it Started
I don't know how it got to be this way but I think it started with daily reports to a very close friend and mentor. I was trying to write my way out of some mess I had gotten myself in, a really terrible relationship. Everytime I thought I was going to call some guy who I knew I should stay away from, instead of making the phone call, I went to the typewriter (in those days I didn't have a computer) and said whatever was happening, and it worked, I didn't make the phone call. I always say I wrote my way out of trouble and that is not an exaggeration. As time went on I expanded, but I always need to have an immediate "audience" or what I call a "reader" or "readers." I still do, the reader changes, the circumstance varies throughout the day, but the writing is steady and the source of enormous pleasure. I think it really does put me in a meditative state, my blood pressure goes down, heart rate goes down, and it just works that way. I recommend to anyone who feels stuck about writing that they have at least one reader. If I'm sending something out for publication in a journal I edit and re-edit at least five or even seven or eight times, and it always improves. Towards the end I edit every single line outloud, and play with the sentences.
Always writing in the back of my mind..
Someone who I was talking to once about writing, on hearing how I could sit down and write ten pages and not know where the time went, said "you must be writing nonconsciously all the time, for it to just come out like that, as if it were already written." I started paying attention to the underground thinking we all do, and sure enough, I found myself working on sentences while day dreaming and doing who knows what other things. So that is how that happens, and he was right, I had something already written under the surface before I sat down and started writing. My best advice is to write every day, write endless emails or letters to a friend or two who is willing to be a reader. Write about your daily life, the mundane, the things that give you trouble and the things that are easy. It becomes a habit and something you can't do without. I say sometimes that I think with my fingers, and this is how it feels to me. If I am having trouble explaining something to someone, I know that if I sit down at the keyboard it will be easy. I tend to be too wordy (witness this post) but I don't let that stop me. I long ago discovered that if I was having trouble getting something down, I just had to think to myself "who is looking over my shoulder?" and figure out who was I worrying about, who might disapprove of me. Having located the problem, I could make sure that the person was not able to look over my shoulder, and on I could go free from criticism. I would love to be able to write fiction, but so far that has alluded me. Maybe in the future I'll figure that one out.
Write Daily and Make it Real
Write daily, have a reader, make it real --about your real life-- make time for it and avoid feeling self-indulgant (this is easy to say and hard to do), and just write your heart out, it gets so easy you can't do without it. I guess its like runners feel about running, or basket ball players feel about playing, or violinists feel about the their playing music... its got its own reward that is intrinsic, needs no other success to keep me going. Eventually if you become a really active writer there are many ways you can use it in career ambitions, depending on your field and interests. But even without extrinsic rewards, it remains a source of pleasure and perhaps a way to put a foot print somewhere and feel like one is contributing to life on our planet.
On a GTD listserv, someone was speaking to the trouble they were having in getting themselves to write, and there was some commentary about why it was so hard to write. I have another experience, and posted it there, then realized, hey I can post it on my own blog!! So here's my personal story about writing.
I'm a writer and I write every day or almost every day for the last --almost 40 years. I am also a psychologist and professor, so I do other things as well, but writing is probably my first love in terms of something that puts me in a "flow" state. Analyzing data from my research also leads me to a flow state, but not with the same ease and fluidity. I don't write fiction, I write research reports, articles, personal and political commentary, reviews, notes to students, notes to colleagues, case studies, just about anything I can think about. In fact, anything I think about at all, I think about in writing. I have an @writing category in contexts, and I also schedule in 7 to 10 or 11 AM as prime time writing time. That doesn't mean I always use it for writing, I may be needing to deal with emails that came in, possibly having to do with my research, or teaching, or this or that. So I have to skip writing that morning. Sometimes when I'm into my sleeping in in the morning and staying up late at night, I write in the evening as a way to come down from the day. Writing puts me in a flow, maybe an alpha state, so I hate not writing.
How it Started
I don't know how it got to be this way but I think it started with daily reports to a very close friend and mentor. I was trying to write my way out of some mess I had gotten myself in, a really terrible relationship. Everytime I thought I was going to call some guy who I knew I should stay away from, instead of making the phone call, I went to the typewriter (in those days I didn't have a computer) and said whatever was happening, and it worked, I didn't make the phone call. I always say I wrote my way out of trouble and that is not an exaggeration. As time went on I expanded, but I always need to have an immediate "audience" or what I call a "reader" or "readers." I still do, the reader changes, the circumstance varies throughout the day, but the writing is steady and the source of enormous pleasure. I think it really does put me in a meditative state, my blood pressure goes down, heart rate goes down, and it just works that way. I recommend to anyone who feels stuck about writing that they have at least one reader. If I'm sending something out for publication in a journal I edit and re-edit at least five or even seven or eight times, and it always improves. Towards the end I edit every single line outloud, and play with the sentences.
Always writing in the back of my mind..
Someone who I was talking to once about writing, on hearing how I could sit down and write ten pages and not know where the time went, said "you must be writing nonconsciously all the time, for it to just come out like that, as if it were already written." I started paying attention to the underground thinking we all do, and sure enough, I found myself working on sentences while day dreaming and doing who knows what other things. So that is how that happens, and he was right, I had something already written under the surface before I sat down and started writing. My best advice is to write every day, write endless emails or letters to a friend or two who is willing to be a reader. Write about your daily life, the mundane, the things that give you trouble and the things that are easy. It becomes a habit and something you can't do without. I say sometimes that I think with my fingers, and this is how it feels to me. If I am having trouble explaining something to someone, I know that if I sit down at the keyboard it will be easy. I tend to be too wordy (witness this post) but I don't let that stop me. I long ago discovered that if I was having trouble getting something down, I just had to think to myself "who is looking over my shoulder?" and figure out who was I worrying about, who might disapprove of me. Having located the problem, I could make sure that the person was not able to look over my shoulder, and on I could go free from criticism. I would love to be able to write fiction, but so far that has alluded me. Maybe in the future I'll figure that one out.
Write Daily and Make it Real
Write daily, have a reader, make it real --about your real life-- make time for it and avoid feeling self-indulgant (this is easy to say and hard to do), and just write your heart out, it gets so easy you can't do without it. I guess its like runners feel about running, or basket ball players feel about playing, or violinists feel about the their playing music... its got its own reward that is intrinsic, needs no other success to keep me going. Eventually if you become a really active writer there are many ways you can use it in career ambitions, depending on your field and interests. But even without extrinsic rewards, it remains a source of pleasure and perhaps a way to put a foot print somewhere and feel like one is contributing to life on our planet.
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