Monday morning review: Getting Things Done

Following my recent use of the Getting Things Done (GTD) approach, with the free TiddlyWiki using Simon Baird's makeover, I'm in the middle of a weekly review of my progress. I started, what?, Thursday of last week, but I can tell a difference. This week promises to be exciting, if I can keep it up.

I've not read the book on which this system is based. I'm tempted to try to get by without it. Give me a few weeks and I'll decide on this one.

I'd seen Baird's offering before, and it looked complicated. This time, however, it seemed to call out to me, "Try me, you'll like it, you'll ramp up your efficiency." So far so good.

SOCIAL NETWORK. From Friendica, it's now possible to post to WordPress, Twitter, Facebook (this one not on the installation I use), identi.ca, Tumblr, and, now, Posterous. From Twitter I post automatically to Facebook, so I'm good there. From Posterous, I can post automatically to Blogspot, MyOpera, and others. This is an exciting development.

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. The weekend was a good one. A heavy meeting on Saturday, which went as well as one could expect. Low attendance Sunday morning, 100% Sunday afternoon. Then pizza with friends last night (see pic in previous Friendica post). I got out a bulletin, first time in a while, and a handout for the Sunday morning study.

MORE GTD. One good result of the review: to see where you've been and feel your way forward to the next steps. One blessing of the GTD approach is to get all the details, tasks, and information out of your head and down in an organized form. That clears the mind to focus on the task at hand.

When I'd make notes in my agenda, after a week or so, the information or task would get lost. Not now. Every morning the next activity is there waiting for me, until I do it or delegate it or delete it.

Baird had to rename his adaptation of the GTD system. Lawyers told him he couldn't use the name or abbreviation. Since he built it on top of an application he called monkey something, he changed it to Monkey Getting Stuff Done, I think. mGSD. But as God's people, we're not just getting "things" or "stuff" done. We're doing the will of God.

So how about we rename our use of it. WDGW? Wisely Doing God's Will. Is that too much of a mouthful?

FINALLY. Coming up: Yesterday, Jorge cited Luke 9.62 in his sermon at Taubaté. That triggered a thought, then a five-line poem stanza, and this morning, three more stanzas. I'll send it later this week to the closed Cloudburst Syndicated Poetry list. I think it's one of my best. (But, like sermons, people don't always agree with the poet or preacher's assessment.) If you have any spiritual interest, I guarantee you'll like it. Working title: "My Hand Is on the Plow." If you want to read it, you'll have to — sorry — sign up to the list.
via Friendica

What Decisions Are You Avoiding? by David Allen

If you can't decide about something, it means you lack enough information to feel comfortable making some choice. Therefore, the next-action coaching question would be, "So what action do you need to take to begin to get the information you need to make that decision?" Nine times out of ten, there's a specific action to take, such as "surf web re: xyz" or "e-mail A & B to set meeting to explore options about xyz."

Every once in a while, though, the information you need has to come from inside—i.e. your intuition. You need to sleep on it. But even then, to really clear your head, you need to make the decision about how long you can "just sleep on it" until you feel like you need to actually make the Big Decision. Two weeks? Two months? Four days? Six hours? Whatever that answer is, you simply need to park a trigger in a calendar or tickler file to yank your chain at that point, ensuring that you re-assess the situation in your own timing.

via davidco.com

Sometimes it's not a lack of information, but motivation. And strategies exist for that lack as well. There is hope.