Welcome back! It's good to see you again. Please note that I am now publishing all new material at my hub site: StephenPSmith.com

(I pray this link-triangle doesn’t tear a hole in the universe.)

I was over at Cranking Widgets Blog this morning, and spotted a reference to a guest-post at LifeDev, and that inspired me to take action!

Here we go:

This post was written by Brett Kelly of Cranking Widgets Blog (feed). Brett is an excellent student of Getting Things Done, and his blog is an excellent read for anyone wanting to improve their organizational skills with our favorite little productivity method: GTD. I�m honored to have Brett share his insights on productivity with LifeDev�s readers.

This is a great article and I encourage you to read it. Here is the part that hit me:

One thing I recall vividly when doing my very first mental sweep after first reading GTD was writing �Learn to speak/read Latin� on an index card and lobbing it gently into my new in-basket. I don�t really know why, but I�ve always wanted to learn to speak a different language, and most of the usual High School fare didn�t hold much fascination for me. I was happy as punch to add it to my project list, decide on a Next Action (in this case, Google for free Latin resources online). But every day or two I�d glance down at my NA lists and see that particular action, sitting quietly undone. I�d never really feel like doing it or I wouldn�t have time - there�d always be a reason to not take that first step. It started to bug me.[…]Aaaargh! Me too! This was Brett’s response:

Then, during the weekly review, I�d be going through my project list and, sure as shootin�, I�d come across �Learn to speak/read Latin�. Without even really thinking about it, I�d get a slight tinge of depression at the knowledge that I�d done nothing to move the project forward. So, after about a month of this, I made an executive decision: I no longer have any immediate plans to learn to speak/read Latin. The project enjoyed a short stay on my Someday/Maybe list before getting it�s walking papers and several swift strikeout lines.

“Is the Project still worthwhile?” is a great editing tool for your Weekly Review and, as Brett mentions, there are times that you must be merciless in your decision-making.

I pulled out my hPDA and took a look, there it was “Learn Latin“. What was I to do? In that split second I too made an executive decision. I posted my comment and then went to the Tickler file!

This was my response:

�Learn Latin� is on my Someday/Maybe also! I have wanted to do this for a long time, and yes, I too felt a twinge last week when I did my monthly review. After reading this post, I have made the decision to add �Learn Latin� to my @1-2 years context. I have Tickled a series of reminders to do the research and budget for the best language tapes and books. In six months I will make the purchase and Get this Thing Done!

It’s interesting where inspiration comes from. I am looking forward to my new project.

Here is a related post at GTD Wannabe.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6p385r. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen