Getting things done

[da]

I knocked 11 things off my to-do list today. Tracks tells me I did 25 in the last 24 hours.

Now I have *only one* that's overdue by more than a week, and it was due back in July.

All of these due-dates are self-imposed. Still, the two stalest items were a huge relief to finally do. (One was start a google group to restart a conversation about FGC and Queer Quakers, which I had promised to do in July; this is a huge relief to get underway again. The other was to remind a local service agency I have a pile of computer equipment I'd like to donate.)

In the last 24 hours I added something like 40 new items, though 1/3 of these were music I want to buy, reminders of things I'm waiting on, and a few "someday" items. And some aren't actionable yet, but I still wanted to note them.

This afternoon I went back through my last four months of daily journal, and turned as many of those into action-items as felt necessary. Before today, I hadn't twigged to the fact that I really should be going through that every week or so, according to the GTD model. And yes, it was freeing, to get them into one master-list.

I think there might be (at least) two kinds of successfully organized people: one sort who is reassured to have everything in their brain, and wouldn't want to trust any sort of external system; and the other who in the end is reassured to have it all down in front of them.

The second variety is the kind I am, and it's one reason why GTD clicks with me.

This feels fairly over-sharing, which is why I'm not actually talking more about what's on the lists (though I'm probably happy to share if you have questions).

I seem to have 23 LJ posts in the queue. I wonder how many of them will ever finish baking.

Comments

Our brains are polar opposites

[metalana.livejournal.com]

>I think there might be (at least) two kinds of successfully organized people: one sort who is reassured to have everything in their brain, and wouldn't want to trust any sort of external system; and the other who in the end is reassured to have it all down in front of them.

Ahh, maybe this, or some similar theory, is why I rebel against any to-do list containing more than two days' work. I've looked at GTD, and it assumes that you want to be self-disciplined (that's not me).

I tend to prioritize in my brain more than in writing; this usually achieves the urgent things, but the long-term-important things never get done.

Do you know of any software that helps with the above? (hah hah hah)

Peripherally, I seem to be well outside the realm of "easy-to-install" open-source software. This Tracks thing required manually configuring files without word-wrap, and then it expected me to guess where Ruby is installed on my machine (it isn't.) Say what you will about Windows, it has realistic expectations about people's time and knowledge.

Re: Our brains are polar opposites

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Our brains are polar opposites

Ha, wow that's a neat observation. I'm curious about this...

I hear ya about really preferring to not have more than two days' work in your to-do. Do you notice that a longer list becomes overwhelming and anxiety-producing (so you have a need to get started doing before you get to the end of writing it down)?

And/or the process of writing it down is boring/repetitive/feels unnecessary? Or is it a different kind of rebellion? (I do have a bit of experience with mental rebellion, heh).

There's an "organic-ness" to keeping it all in the brain and letting the most crucial things percolate out.

I grok the idea of needing the tasks to come from intuition rather than (well, what's the opposite of intuitive; I guess Myers-Briggs would say "Sensitive").

GTD does have an aspect of self-discipline; changing one's behaviour to do a daily sweep through the to-do lists and done lists, seeing what percolates out of the brain for what else should be done next that hasn't been written down yet.

It's starting to feel like a conversation with myself, I think. At core, I guess there's a bit of narcissism with my task lists; I like reviewing what I did already, and I like the feeling of "I could do *282* things right now if I wanted to."

...I think the most related mental rebellion in my experience is the tasks I know are necessary but I just won't start them. Often involving reaching out to ask someone for something. Or boring lengthly tasks I know will take a long time.

On the boring, lengthly tasks, it seems very helpful to me to break them into the smallest "next action" possible. I'm still trying to figure out how to tweak some of these so they feel like fun, rather than a necessary chore.

Re: Our brains are polar opposites

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

On the software: yes there's a bit of a Unix/Linux tilt to Tracks; which is probably why I went for it. Another of my priorities was self-hosting rather than trusting some web 2.0 service out there. I know other folks really like "Remember The Milk" or "Todoist" (among other hosted options).

If you're still interested, there is a free Tracks host; https://tracks.tra.in/ . I'd offer you an account on my tracks machine, but it's behind a work firewall :/

Falling off the tracks...

Software to help with not writing to-do lists... hm, how about a chat-client and a buddy asking you "OK, what are you working on next?" :)

I was interested to learn that the GTD guy does a lot of his brainstorming in Mind Maps, because they feel about as right-brained and creative as I want to get when I'm focusing on writing something out. For that, my software tends to be a bic pen and a large sheet of paper. :)

[peaceofpie.livejournal.com]

I managed to miss whatever happened with the thing with the Quakers in my not having a computer time. What happened? Did I miss something that I need in on?

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Not to worry, you haven't missed anything that won't be filled in when we get the email list together.

I will email the invite to you now; I'm so glad you mentioned it because I only sent it to the people who were officially named on the committee. (Apologies for that!)