What you are about to read is a mostly lightly edited version of a conversation we recorded to put right here on this very blog. The parts where we talk about my desire to run away with her love interest, the gloriously bekilted Marty Whitmore, were heavily edited.
ND. Okay. Can you please explain in short words exactly what you do?
MEM. What an excellent question! For the purposes of this conversation: I run a positive impact network called Ideaschema. Ideaschema’s job is to provide as much support structure and as many resources as we can to help motivated people grow their ideas. To that end, I do a lot of consulting work, idea catalyst work for special lovely people like yourself — running IttyBiz, in other words — and putting together learning packages to pro-active-ize the mindsets of people with spectacular potential. And very recently, I’m helping people look at normal situations from creative standpoints.
ND. Those were not short words.
MEM. I thought you were kidding.
ND. I thought you knew me better than that. I will translate. You do idea generation, building, and putting projects together, and you either do that by helping people find ways to do their thing, or by actually getting your hands dirty and helping them do it.
Intentional thinking is not commonplace. So many of the people that I talk to recently are just scrambling. Working as fast as they can and being busy all of the time just to keep afloat. We need to work a little smarter everyday, just a little, so that we can get ahead of that overload and start to whittle it down. Then we can really start Thinking and making bigger, and better, improvements that will have successively greater impacts.
I am sure that most of us are familiar with this motivational poster with the cute little kitten:
Or, for the more cynical among us, this little gem:
I tend to find more humor the second image myself, as I am not a cat person. In addition, I find the act of “hanging in there” to be antithetical to progress and growth, if not self-destructive. Tying a knot in the end of your rope and waiting for something to happen (or someone to rescue you) is no way to fulfill your dreams, no way to achieve your destiny. What do you do to avoid becoming a pinata in the great game of life?
Change your perspective.
Stop thinking of your situation as dodging the blows of randomness, or as some kind of rope to be climbed. Make that cord in your hands symbolize something else! Visualize that “rope” as a fuse, and You are the bomb! Everything can change once you make the decision to change your perspective. No longer do you have to think of yourself as the pinata swinging at the end of some rope that is beyond your control, pulled to and fro by competing forces. Instead of a rope you hold in your own hands a fuse that needs to be lit in order to set off an explosion of creativity and motivation. You will become a powerful device for change.
What one thing can you do today, what one thing can you do right now, to light that fuse and make a change? Is there something about your job, your home life, your relationships that needs a burst of energy? Look at your Someday/Maybe list, is there something that you have been putting off for no good reason?
Light that fuse,go and do something with that bomb!
Brett Kelly, the former host of the Cranking Widgets blog lets loose (with both barrels): My Scandelous Confession and A Royal Rant About GTD. Super. Right about the time that I am having an existential crisis about my own GTD practice. The Lovely Bride and I have been on the road for just over two months now, and being 100% mobile has taught me a few things. Like it is much easier to “do” GTD when you have an office. Or a house. Try putting everything that you need into a laptop bag and a couple of file boxes.
Here is what Kelly has to say:
Having been a fairly vocal proponent of GTD for some time, this is one of those things that I’m happy to write after having removed myself from the throngs (and I mean *throngs*) of productivity/GTD bloggers. Ever since I launched The Cranking Widgets Blog, I’ve been singing the praises of this productivity methodology to any j*****s who would listen. Now, after developing a little bit of discontent with the whole thing, I can bring it to you folks without having to fear a decline in readership. Here goes.
First of all (and probably most importantly), I’m starting to feel like GTD is really effing hard. The amount of time and effort it takes to (according to the book) manage a list of tasks, a calendar and some filing shit has become prohibitively long for me. I look at a scrap of paper in my in-basket, and I’m positively put off by the effort it will require to add it to the project list, choose the next action, pull out a blank folder, label it and file it away. Perhaps I’m just being lazy, but that’s the freaking honest truth.
Built-in anxiety is almost a guarantee. Unless you’re a poster child for GTD, you’re going to have shit slip past the defenses of your system. Hell, David Allen himself has confessed to “falling off of the wagon, repeatedly” on several different occasions. And if you’ve become such a loyal adherent, the very act of *not* doing the GTD thing will create stress. This might just be my own dumb brain thinking about this stuff the wrong way, but I’d bet the contents of your wallet that this type of mental spasm is more common than you think.
What say you? Where do you want Productivity in Context to go in 2009? Is Getting Things Done over? How excited are you about the prospect of a new book from David Allen?
What did you think of the first two FAQ posts - and would you like me to work with you on developing this system (for lack of a better word) into something more (and by more I mean less, GTD has too many folders and rules - I have to confess that I only look at my Tickler File once a week nowadays).
Leave a comment, let’s discuss this. In the meantime I am going to be downsizing from 43 folders to 15.(More on this later)
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April 2nd, 2010 by Stephen
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