Do you ever have days when you don’t really accomplish a whole lot? You know what I mean, you’re sitting at your desk and your mind wanders off. You idly check your email and your favorite websites for the tenth time today and you don’t feel like doing anything useful at all. Or you’re driving your car and you worry about all the things you still need to do this week or you analyze what went wrong during the long meeting yesterday at the office. Recognize that?
Whenever this happens to me, I try to put myself in a different mindset with two powerful commands: Now! and Action! They bring me back to the current situation, the current reality, and they remind me to be action-oriented in order to accomplish something… anything! These two simple commands I use on myself actually embody more elaborate feelings and principles of course.
Now!
You have tens and tens of thousands of thoughts every single day. Your mind simply won’t shut up. Chances are many of your thoughts either dwell on the past or dream (or worry) about the future. In many cases this is very useful and necessary of course, but to feel really calm and peaceful you need to focus on the present, the now. Really use your eyes to look at things around you. What color do they have, what texture do they have, what shape do they have? Really use your ears to listen to the sounds around you. Use all of your senses to really feel, enjoy and appreciate the present, your current state of being and your surroundings. Let go of the past, forget about the future, feel that you are alive right now!
I’ve found this deliberate focus on now to be very powerful. Your mind is at ease, and you just are. Of course, being a GTD-er makes this process a little bit easier. Just knowing that all of your open loops have been captured in a trusted system makes it easier to let go of the past and the future and focus on the present.
Action!
Being a GTD-er also means I know exactly what I could and should be doing at any given moment in time. It’s the doing-part that sometimes fails to kick in! Whenever I don’t really feel motivated at all to do something, I force myself to pick any action from my next action list, usually a simple or unimportant one, and just start doing it. Many times this approach gently but surely puts me back in a productive state of mind. First I pick a few minor next actions, finish them successfully and accomplish some part of my many projects at the very least! I feel like I’m doing something. Certainly not the most important thing I should be doing right now, but on some level I’m accomplishing something anyway. Slowly I work my way to more important next actions, the ones that are part of projects I really should be making progress on. This ‘bootstrapping’ principle usually succeeds in making me feel productive again and doing the things I should be doing. Basically, just stacking action upon action, no matter what the action really is, slowly coerces your mind back to a productive state!
What do you tell or command yourself in order to focus on the here and now and to take action?
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Very good points. I agree with both of them. I think it is especially important to have your GTD with you at all times, so you can do the Now and Action part wherever you are . . . especially when idling, as you’ve aptly pointed out.
I found an application that allows me to view my entire GTD at work on my Win machine, at home on my Macs and even on my cell phone. And another app lets me call in tasks to my GTD without any writing or typing, great for those thoughts that hit me while driving. I’ve written about my experiences with GTD in a blog post at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/more-getting-things-done/ John
Great points, I know exactley what type of days you are refering to! I think GTD has reduces the number of such days for me as I always have something to do, however your tips would be very helpful on those odd days:-)
X
You need some willing and self respect to GTD at that moment in a specific way. But we, people often prefer to delay things especially when we have other tenth thought in our mind or if we are just not in the mood. But the advices you gave here are very helpful and I’m sure everyone can put a stop to laziness and commodity and GTD.
It’s human nature to put things off until the last minute.
There was a report done on it (though I don’t remember where it was, somewhere like Harvard) and studies show that humans naturally put things off, it’s in our nature because we always feel like there is either something more important, or we enjoy the excitement of doing something at the last minute.
That’s why I created http://www.ToSimplyDo.com to help me get things done when I need them.
It’s all about focus, and that’s what really inspires people like you and I to get past our natural tendencies and get things done NOW!
I write my to do list on a diary by month and week. No at day level at this point. I am trying to use my iTouch to record all this task, but till now, still feel that writing down work better for me.
I agree with your two points. Another tip I got )from the Get It Done Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Get Things Done) was to sit a pad and pen next to my desk. When I feel distracted to do something, just write down on the pad what I will do – and do it later. I focus on the task at hand until I’m finished. I tried it today, and it works!
I also post daily 2-Minute Tips to be more productive – http://www.visionadvancement.com.au.
Focus and schedule. Even if I’m distracted, if there is something that i must do , i write them on a paper, concentrate and take each one in part and I finish it.
Great advice.
It’s helpful sometimes to just be present, fully aware of this moment, even without action, it can often bring more insight into what you want to do next.
These tips are great. I just started using GTD’s and i really agree that, there are tasks meant to be done at a specific moment. When you manage to organize your life, you have a satisfaction when you see that things are going faster, you stop loosing time, and energy.
do it now is great.
but sometimes when i really don’t feel like dong anything special, i also take it as a sign from life. maybe i shall slow down little bit and find out what’s really going on with me? do i currently living a life i exactly want to live in? nothing is too serious or too urgent. i can always take an idle afternoon to check on my life, add some touches when needed
Focusing on now and the power of action is empowering.
Edward de Bono describes a distinctino between Doers and Describers in his book, Tactics: The Art and Science of Success. For Describers, it’s good enough that they describe in detail … they don’t feel the need to “do.
For “Doers,” their are at their best when they are doing and making things happen.
For me, I value achievement, and I enjoy the process of making things happen.
These are some really great points and this is definitely something that struck a chord over me. The most important thing to do I believe is to create that action list and make sure that its done the night before or right in the morning.
Its also important to chuck the actions list. Ifs its something that is one big project, then break it down into smaller bit sized projects.
Additionally I think its good to put simple things on there, and even some things that make your day more productive but are also fun to do.
Lastly productivity levels seem to always be fluctuating, and its good to access your productivity levels over an entire week and month, rather than scrutinizing it day by day. This gives you the breathing space and the room to accept that your not perfect … all the time =)
Thanks for the article!
I’ve long been a fan of the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. But sometimes I get overwhelmed by what I need to do today and this makes it difficult to rest in and appreciate this moment.
I try to concentrate just on the task that I am doing right now, and let my GTD organize things so that once that task is complete, I move onto the next one without thinking about the other tasks stacked up on my list.
It’s too bad this website isn’t updated anymore. The articles on here on GTD are great.