March 5, 2007 by Kara.

Merlin Mann of 43folders.com in his podcast from January 14, 2007, entitled Kung Fu, Meditation, and Sex talks about how we need to move our productivity system from a point where we spend so much time thinking about the system to actually doing the things held by the system.  Merlin creates an analogy between the coffee cup and the system for maintaining your list.  If you spend all your time thinking about your coffee cup, you spend far too little time drinking your coffee (obviously you can think about the cup while drinking - but hopefully you understand the basic idea).  Being at a point where my lists have fallen apart in my initial implementation of GTD and I’m back to what I feel is square one, I’m devoting a series of posts to my search for productivity nirvana.  While Merlin has a point that we need to stop thinking about the system, searching for the best way to contain the system, and the best tools to use to implement the system, I think we do need to spend that up front time thinking about the system.  As David Allen states in Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” target=”_blank”>Getting Things Done, “Thinking in a concentrated manner to define desired outcomes is something few people feel they have to do” (p. 15).  So while Merlin is right that once we are to the point of trying to utilize the system we need to stop thinking about the system and start doing the work contained in the system, I contend that the system will never work if we don’t spend that necessary time up front thinking about it and working through how it will apply to our lives.

In order to hold myself accountable to the whole process I’d even post what it is I’m thinking about as the outline for this series (The quest for productivity nirvana) and the publishing deadlines (self-imposed) for those.  So, here goes:

1. The quest for productivity nirvana, Post #1 - Series Purpose and Overview; post by March 6, 2007
2. Post #2 - Hard vs. Soft Landscape; post by March 9, 2007
3. Post #3 - Where are the in-baskets?; post by March 12, 2007
4. Post #4 - Where are the out-baskets?; post by March 15, 2007
5. Post #5- When to ask for help; post by March 18, 2007
6. Post #6 - When to say no; post by March 21, 2007
7. Post #7 - What is a project?; post by March 24, 2007
8. Post #8 - What is a task?; post by March 27, 2007
9. Post #9 - Where do I do work?; post by March 30, 2007
10. Post #10 - When and where do I work and think best?; post by April 3, 2007
11. Post #11 - Ways to organize it all - using paper; post by April 5, 2007
12. Post #12 - Ways to organize it all - using technology; post by April 8, 2007
13. Post #13 - Ways to organize it all - hybrid; post by April 11, 2007
14. Post #14 - Happily Cranking Widgets - Keeping it all up to date; post by April 14, 2007
15. Post #15 - Happily Craking Widgets - Have I reached Productivity Nirvana; post by April 17, 2007

Of course, I reserve the right to change the publishing schedule if necessary - but you’ll at least get these posts over the life of the series.  I hope you enjoy and I welcome your comments or thoughts for additional articles.

Posted in productivity nirvana, productivity, 12habits, gtd | Print | 3 Comments »

March 5, 2007 by Kara.

I used to consider myself a good multi-tasker.  Then, several months ago, I started to feel drained - constantly.  I would be pushing things around - doing little bits of three or four projects at a time - without the opportunity to finish one, get that since of accomplishment, and move on to the next.  For a week, I tried to do a good job of only doing one thing at a time - no multi-tasking.  Since I keep a pretty detailed journal of the tasks I complete on a daily basis, I realized I was getting as much done doing one thing at a time as I was trying to work on three or four things at the same time. 

In my opinion, multi-tasking came about when email and our first rounds with internet connection came online.  Early internet connections were slow - hence we would load a web page, wait while it loaded, and then could go back to it once it loaded.  In essence, multi-tasking came about because we needed to fill that time while the page loaded.  (I once had a dial up connection so slow I could make breakfast while the page loaded).  As faster connection speeds has come about our need to fill that void while pages load has ceased, but our urgency to try to do multiple tasks at one time has not.  We still think of ourselves as multi-taskers and so we try diligently to live up to the expectation of doing multiple things at the same time.

In this same vein, the amount of information not only to which we have access in order to make decisions, but also the paths that information can take to get to us have increased tenfold in the last five decades.  Crackberries, IMs, emails, multiple email accounts, RSS feeds, cell phones, voice mail, unified messaging, and much more have forced their way into our personal space and we allow them to constantly draw our attention from what’s important (relationships, personal growth, happiness) to what’s urgent (fires to be put out, projects to be completed).  What if we turned off all those items for a day and focused on the really important stuff? 

I’m interested in the studies that say information overload is actually good for us and that it can allow our brains to make more connections between topics and expand our horizons a bit.  While I certainly don’t disagree with that at all, I also believe that we need points of rest and that those points need to occur more often than what they probably do right now.  I often use an analogy that was included in a humourous Internet post about cats and how they are “distracted by shiny things”.  All the information coming into us in all these formats comes as a myriad of shiny things which draw our attention.  However, if I also learned a lesson from my cat, it’s to take frequent rest breaks (my cat takes full on, sleeping on his head he’s so out of it, naps).  Our bodies and our brains need a chance to digest information, think about it, process it, and then determine what we can do with that information that might change the world.

So, while information overload might be good for us, it’s also important to set limits - delete a few emails that aren’t critical for you to read, without reading them.  Say no to a project or an idea - even if just for now.  Spend time with your family, your coworkers, your staff in a supportive environment - rather than just a run, run, run type of world.  Take time for yourself - doing something you truly enjoy.

Posted in goals, random thoughts, values, gtd, value of work | Print | 3 Comments »