Organization
Sometime in the last few weeks the number of to-do lists and notebooks (with notes scribbled in them) and project lists and e-mails, etc. reached a sort of critical mass, that being that there was so many that I could no longer maintain what might be called a "master list" in my head. So I set out to whip things things into shape. It's not that I didn't have an organization system, it's was that that system had lost. In the war between it and chaos, chaos had won (of course chaos does have the 2nd law of thermodynamics on its side, which many people consider an unfair advantage.) So I set out to build a better organization system, I had the tools; I had the technology; I was going to make it better, faster and stronger.
When I set out to revamp my organization system into something better, I invariably succeed, but that's not because the system itself is inherently better, but more because the excitement and energy I experience at the beginning of any new thing is so great that it doesn't really matter what my new system is. However if you're curious I'm using combination of the system described by David Allen in "Getting Things Done" and my own "Habits" system (which I described in an earlier entry (one that was kind of clunky so I'm not going to link to it, but feel free to look it up if you'll die of curiosity otherwise.
The big problem with a new system (particularly one based on GTD) is that you have to gather all your old stuff (that's actually the term Allen uses) and put it into the new system. This results in you spending some of the most productive and energetic time you have on organization rather than doing. Sometimes I feel like this is a necessary compromise and that the increased productivity I experience once all my ducks are in a row will more than make up for the productivity I lost. Other times I think that this whole crisis started because I was falling behind on my projects and by taking a couple of days to whip things into shape I've only made the problem worse. And then of course there's the third voice that tells me I need to assemble all the guns I can lay my hands on and start hitch-hiking to D.C. I guess we'll see which little voice I should have listened to...
Less plotting more working!
When I set out to revamp my organization system into something better, I invariably succeed, but that's not because the system itself is inherently better, but more because the excitement and energy I experience at the beginning of any new thing is so great that it doesn't really matter what my new system is. However if you're curious I'm using combination of the system described by David Allen in "Getting Things Done" and my own "Habits" system (which I described in an earlier entry (one that was kind of clunky so I'm not going to link to it, but feel free to look it up if you'll die of curiosity otherwise.
The big problem with a new system (particularly one based on GTD) is that you have to gather all your old stuff (that's actually the term Allen uses) and put it into the new system. This results in you spending some of the most productive and energetic time you have on organization rather than doing. Sometimes I feel like this is a necessary compromise and that the increased productivity I experience once all my ducks are in a row will more than make up for the productivity I lost. Other times I think that this whole crisis started because I was falling behind on my projects and by taking a couple of days to whip things into shape I've only made the problem worse. And then of course there's the third voice that tells me I need to assemble all the guns I can lay my hands on and start hitch-hiking to D.C. I guess we'll see which little voice I should have listened to...
Less plotting more working!
posted by DireKobold at 1:58 PM
2 Comments:
Too many voices, too many left parenthesis! ^V^
Nothing wrong with taking time out to organize, really. Gives you a better experience when having to fall back and regroup later.
Hope your new system works for you. I've been trying to implement a GTD based system for a while now.
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