Get Everything Done

Don,

No, Jim is doing something very slightly different ... very useful but different. He is supporting his "task" with his "reason" for wanting it done. This linkage provides natural motivation. Covey addresses this in a very clumsy way in his books, Tony Robbins does it better in his OPA system of time management. In Robbins approach he puts his completely defined "outcome" (several sentences of a well-formed outcome or SMART Goal) and also his "purpose", which is the larger world view of which this "outcome" is a part. Then he puts with those the "actions" which have to be done ... and there may be several ... all on the "to do" list. It is a bit of writing and seems as if it would be tedious but having your reason and purpose right in front of you for everything you intend to do really helps with motivation.

So, for example, you can see that the action of "mop the floor" has the outcome of "having a beautifully clean kitchen in which I feel motivated to cook healthy meals" and the purpose of "providing my spouse with tasty and healthful nutrition to keep him/her in the best physical condition because of my abiding love for him/her" ... is a lot more motivating. (Make up your own example to see the effect ... mine seems a bit contrived ;-) But you can see that the idea is to turn some mindless bit if drudge into a means to a big and important goal. In the Robbins approach your To Do list looks like:

1. Action Outcome1 Purpose1
2. Action
3. Action
===========================
4. Action Outcome2 Purpose2
5. Acton
6. etc.

What I was suggesting is much more narrow and goes to addressing just the problem of not being able to make real the outcome of an action. I know it seems a fine point, and it may well be that doing what Jim suggests or using the Robbins OPA method would accomplish the same thing, but maybe there is something useful to be gained by focusing more narrowly on the problem of the "disconnected time sense" that plagues the addictive personality.

I certainly think Jim's approach is a good one.

One thing that I do (from a purely mechanical perspective) is work my goals from a master Mind Map. My bigger goals are toward the center and my smaller ones are the "leaves" on the edges. I have at the very center six "goal areas" or what Covey and Robbins would call "roles" which all of my goals (large and small) and actions support. (Example: Health, Finances, Personal Development, Enjoyment, Relationships, etc.) This gives me an instant visual perception of why I want to do anything that is on my list. The reason I want to take t action to clean out the garage is to have it well organized so that ultimately I will enjoy life more. Certainly enjoying life more is more motivating than sweeping out a dusty garage ;-) I don't usually work directly from that Mind Map, but I do review it continually.

If you decide to utilize the idea of linking actions to goals and purposes be aware of one pitfall. It may seem that writing out longish descriptions of outcomes and purposes is tedious and you can shortcut the process by using some key words. Don't do it. The method gets its power from the feelings of importance these things have to you. If you reduce it to nothing more than a "tag" attached to each action, you'll lose the benefit.

I hope I answered your question in all of that ;-)

Oh, one more thought. Robbins points out that another benefit of doing it his way is that you rethink your actions and often change them as you go through the process. So you might have on your first random list of things to do "Call Joe". When you go through the exercise you realize the reason for calling Joe is to get some information. It might become obvious that calling someone else, or maybe waiting until tomorrow when you'll meet with Joe on some other matter makes more sense. You might also remember some other things you should be doing to support the same outcome that "Call Joe" supports and ought to also be doing. So one item turns into several which get you to the outcome more efficiently and completely,.

Mike, thank you very much for your thoughtful responses.

Much food for thought (and action).

Thanks again

As Mike knows - I've been working my way through Robbin's "Get The Edge". However I have also just completed Time Of Your Life (another Robbin's program) which addresses the OPA/RPM system. I'm on a mission to combine DWM & OPA/RPM. Tony's recycled ideas (from Covey, Rohn, etc) about chuncking/grouping related actions, and then assigning them meaning via Outcomes & Purposes seems to be making a huge difference in how I view my DWM list. I can envision a time where I'll drop the scaffolding of DWM, and spend more time on OPA/RPM. Having a partner in the process would be the missing piece... anyone interested in joining me? A Skype call perhaps?

I'm not doing OPA/RPM or DWM, but I'm with you on chunking tasks and laying out goals. It's what I'm doing with AF4 and I'm content with how it's feeling. I do also get the sense that AF4 is becoming scaffolding, at least as connected to goal-related tasks. Still very useful though.

" I can envision a time where I'll drop the scaffolding of DWM"

Well the time came mighty fast. I've dropped all AF/DWM rules & will be investing time on OPA in the AM. I'm feelin' all 2002'ish - the year I discovered Covey & meaning-making productivity systems. The past 5 years have been a struggle with bottom-up systems ie GTD & AF/DWM. Curious how long the honeymoon will last.

Thanks, everyone, for a most interesting thread. Special thanks to Mike for repeating and stressing the idea of finding the TRUE CAUSE before trying all sorts of other "solutions" which actually don't address the underlying / root issue. This was very helpful! In my own case, there are many reasons for my "procrastination" (different ones at different times) but I am coming to realize the one of the primary causes is simply a significant difficulty in transitioning to another task (even if it is something I actually WANT to do, and have no real fear of) ...

Avrum,

OPA sounds similar to my new system DO IT, which focuses on desired outcomes, figuring out what I call the resources gap, or difference between your outcomes and where you are today, determining the reasons for the gaps and then putting in place a plan and feedback loop to close the gap and get where you want to be. I think a change of approach may be good, some people connect more with the goal versus the activities.

I am now offering a 30 day money back guaranty on the ebook for those people who would like to try the program.

Gerry
http://www.simple-time-management.com

Bev,

Have you decided how to approach this problem? Maybe setting up a number of tasks in advance to lower the cost of switching? It will be interesting to see how this works out for you.

Hi Mike ... Thanks for asking, as it helps me become clearer. As to how I have approached this problem ... lots of times in the past I've just used the "brute force" method, or time blocking (even setting a timer for 15 seconds!) or "the potato chip method" or the "coffee shop method" but lately I have been trying a newer (for me) strategy of really focusing on SETTING UP the task well. For example, I wanted to make some pizza dough, which in "clock time" takes only about 10 minutes, but I couldn't seem to make the transition to actually DOING this small task! Anyway, what I did was focused on just setting up the perfect "cockpit" instead... setting out everything I needed to get the job done, as if I were doing it for someone else who was to DO the actual task, and not worrying about WHEN the task would actually be done. (Turns out I ended up doing it right away, but could have been all ready to go for the following day.) So all the flour, yeast, salt, measuring cups, mixing bowl, spoon, etc was gathered together and set out. I don't know if I'm the only person who hasn't figured this out (!) in terms of just working on the right "next step" (familiar to anyone who has done GTD, but that system never worked that well for me.) or slowing things down enough to lessen the overwhelm (?) or just "previewing" the steps of the task more clearly and deliberately .... but so far, this technique has been helping.

Not sure if that is what you meant about "setting up a number of tasks in advance", but I can definitely see setting up various projects so they are in a very "ready to go" state ... I guess kind of like a painter who has someone do all the "prep" work (which takes most of the time?!) while the painting itself is straightforward and can go fairly quickly ?

I'm not really sure if the "difficulty in making transitions" is really the root ROOT problem ... in that it might be more my chronically overwhelmed state and a problem in my overall general mental flexibility, in not knowing how to "switch gears" more easily, as it doesn't come naturally to me ...

Bev,

Thanks for that explanation. Yes, it is what I meant. Sometimes the transition is a problem because we don't know what to do next and in that moment of confusion, we lose momentum. By setting it up in advance, when we "come to it", it is ready to go and we don't have to "think" about anything. That is the part of GiD that was nonsense to me in every case but this one. IMO, taking the thinking out of doing is exactly what I do NOT want to EVER do .... except when it comes to transitional resistance like this.

Also, the psychological mind game of preparing the job site for your assistant is a great plan. It is so much easier to help another with a problem than to work on our own.

I'm keenly aware of the pitfalls of task transition resistance. I have begun to think of the LAST step of task A to be the prep work for task B. It is just a simple shift of mind set. I don't see myself starting the next task until I have completed the previous one and that is not complete until I have set up the start of the next. I know it sounds dumb, but it is remarkably effective in overcoming that resistance. I've not tried it yet myself but I can imagine that if I got into a real problem setting up the first step of task B as the first step of task A. At the moment that kind of thinking makes my brain hurt ;-)

As to the timer, I could not live without one. And yeah, even 30 seconds if the situation calls for it is good.

Lately my problem is estimating the size of tasks. I thought it was an issue of time estimation but now I'm seeing that it has a lot more to do with evaluating my energy. I've been getting closer to evaluating the size of the task (number of minutes) but it the middle of things I've been running out of gas. I've been pushing too hard, I guess and just die in the midst of things. Not good.

I already know that the biggest drain on my energy come at decision time so I try to avoid those times as much as possible be knowing what I'll be doing in advance. But that does not fix the whole problem. I'm thinking that what I might have to do is mix up the types of tasks so that I spread my energy around more evenly.

Anyway, that is what I'm thinking about right now ... better use of timers and some kind of intelligent load leveling.

HI Mike,

thanks .. very much appreciate your thoughts! I think the "energy" issue is part of the fundamental "root cause" for my own "procrastination". Currently, I've been using "Sid Savara's Simple System" ... especially the (flow chart) part, "Tired? Take a Break." :o) Means I am not very productive at all some days, but I am trying to prioritize my personal balance, (one of my life goals at the moment), so the essential trade-off is that I get to feel more balanced, but at the cost of my productivity. Hard for me to find any "happy medium" yet. (I am trying to increase my energy over the medium / longer term, but that's a whole other topic!)

The "preparing the job site" strategy comes with its own challenges too at times! Like, sometimes I find it difficult to transition into preparing the job site! I find I am needing to really slow the process down (so that I don't get overwhelmed during the first milliseconds and end up surfing the internet instead so I don't have to deal with whatever I am trying to work on!)

I like your idea of having the last step of Task A, setting up Task B, but not sure I have it in me! I do try to use the "momentum" of whatever I have done on Task A, try to carry me over until the next time block for Task A ... in other words, to mentally prepare myself for the next steps of Task A before I leave it ...

I keep trying to chip away at this problem using various strategies ... I still try to use some ideas from Neil Fiore and have experimented a little, recently, with his "Unschedule" (planning and scheduling "rewards"/breaks" and limiting project work to just 30 minutes... has maybe been marginally helpful so far...)

Bev,

Thanks for responding. We seem to have similarities in how we fizzle out ;-) I'm also now focusing on energy more. I am trying a three pronged approach to see what comes of it:

- Low carb diet ... I tend to go into a coma after not really a lot of carbs

- Exercise ... I tend to think I'm getting more done if I don't devote time to exercise

- Breaks and timed sessions .... I use this successfully when I'm in a major crunch but don't use it much in my normal work. I've also been trying to become more sensitive about when my brain starts to go fuzzy so I can get a 90 minute nap to clear thing up a bit.

Good luck with your tweaking ;-)

Energy: My self-observation has demonstrated:
1) Sleeping more helps
2) Caffiene helps for a few hours but makes the following 24 hours worse. It's better to wean off the stuff.
3) Exercise helps, when I have energy. Caffiene helps get that energy to exercise. I fear this is a hamster wheel thing. Working hard, but not much progress :-)
4) Low-carb diet: This either points to diabetes, or else food alergies. I discovered last year I had a wheat sensitivity. Eating a bun makes me too groggy to think. I cut out the wheat and the problem vanished.
5) Not-stopping really drains energy. If I'm thinking all evening I-should-get-some-work-done-but-I'm-too-tired-so-I-don't, that thought pattern drains my energy for that day and the next. I must give myself permission to stop and be happy about it so my mind can relax.

Bev: Don't forget that you can't follow "Tired? Take a break" until after you start something :-) Of course you don't have to work on it long to be started :-)

Hi Alan,

>>> Energy: My self-observation has demonstrated:
1) Sleeping more helps <<<

Yes. My problem is that I don't sleep long stretches. I'm at my best when I get 8+ hours but I seldom sleep more than 3 hours at a time. So naps are a must for me.

>>> 2) Caffiene helps for a few hours but makes the following 24 hours worse. It's better to wean off the stuff. <<<

Yeah, some of this stuff is very personal. I drink a lot of coffee and the caffeine does not affect me much at all. Maybe I'm now desensitized to it after so many years ;-)

>>> 3) Exercise helps, when I have energy. Caffiene helps get that energy to exercise. I fear this is a hamster wheel thing. Working hard, but not much progress :-) <<<

Personally I find that I don't need energy to exercise. It feels as if I do but just getting out and moving overcomes that feeling and I'm good to go.

>>> 4) Low-carb diet: This either points to diabetes, or else food alergies. I discovered last year I had a wheat sensitivity. Eating a bun makes me too groggy to think. I cut out the wheat and the problem vanished. <<<

I know that some people have specific food allergies but that is not the case with me ... nor is diabetes. I simply don't do well with carbs. When I cut back to nearly zero my energy goes way up.

>>> 5) Not-stopping really drains energy. If I'm thinking all evening I-should-get-some-work-done-but-I'm-too-tired-so-I-don't, that thought pattern drains my energy for that day and the next. I must give myself permission to stop and be happy about it so my mind can relax. <<<

Exactly so. And realize that you are, in essence, hypnotizing yourself to BE tired if you keep repeating something like that over and over. I'd recommend that when you hear that mantra starting in your head you counter it with the opposite.

>>> Bev: Don't forget that you can't follow "Tired? Take a break" until after you start something :-) Of course you don't have to work on it long to be started :-) <<<

I kind of like the advice to keep making a start and the finishing will take care of itself.

1. Find what you must do. 2. Start doing it.

>DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR OVERCOMING SERIOUS PROCRASTINATION?

You have 2 things to do religiously every instant you live from now

1- Absolutely stop thinking
2- DO!

It works for me, and would work for everybody who does it as it is written. All the time you would spend to find another method would be lost since any method would look like what is written above when you take out the useless stuff.

It doesn't matter from where you start, it just matters than you start, absolutely.

What an amazing thread I stumbled on!!

My mother used to say, "don't be like me, don't procrastinate, it's awful!" I put a lot of added stress and guilt on myself from this. Yes, I procrastinated in college, and later in grad school. But, as long as there was a deadline, things got done well, perhaps with more typos than necessary, but certainly well enough.

But the guilt and stress of procrastinating-is-bad was always there, although I was otherwise happy and successful.

That guilt vanished when I took the Myers-Briggs personality preference profile in grad school, and learned about myself and how I process information. On one of the measures I score very highly (I'm an ENFP -- Perceiver is the P for you MBTI fans out there). One trait of perceiving is "I work when I want to work, I play when I want to play." Yup, that's me! But there was more. I don't want to make a commitment to sit down and write that paper until the last moment, because what if new information comes in? What if I have a deeper realization, or a new understanding of the topic? Now someone on the other end of the spectrum is more concerned about following the timeline to do the research, write an outline, do a draft, do the final paper. But us Ps have a radically different way of processing information.

What looks like procrastination is actually highly sophisticated cognitive processes that produce a different kind of result than those achieved by people who are much more structured in their use of time and information. And I was certainly relieved to hear that there's been research done, and there's no difference in quality between the work produced by Ps and Js.

Now, fifteen years later, I've dived back into the issue of time as part of my work in how humans learn most naturally and effectively. And it turns out there's a strong neurological and cognitive argument to be made for allowing yourself permission to procrastinate. Our rational mind (the prefrontal cortex) is good for some things, but our deeper minds are dramatically more powerful. I often find myself procrastinating about writing a blog post or a chapter of a book (and feel guilty about it), but when I notice the energy going into the guilt, I stop, get curious about what my mind and body want to do, and do that. (It's almost always dealing with food, water, rest or movement). I've gone on long walks and in a flash of insight and ten minutes with a notepad, written what I had scheduled three hours to do.

Sorry for going on so long -- I surprised myself (and think that I just wrote my next blog post without thinking to!). You folks really got my mind going, so thank you. I'm glad that I found this website!

Thanks for sharing Barak. BTW everyone, click on his name, and go to his site. It really is a fascinating series of stories about living life deliberately. Barak's rethink of the whole issue of "time management" (self-management, really, but Barak goes deeper) inspires me.

Let me explain further what I mean by the stop thinking and do method. Doing is in fact the begining of thought. So if you don't start whatever you could think couldn't be of any use practically. All inventors or creators did great things by trial and error, in which thought is part of the process but not before doing anything. Procrastinating is just thinking before doing, what could be called 'anti-concrete thinking', or 'producing useless thinking'. You procrastinate when you think you have to find reference documents before writing you report, whereas you have to start you report before, at least the outline to know what document you really need. Whoever is procrastinating is just killing time and doesn't make anything better. Procrastination is not necessary at all, people may use procrastination as a way to incubate ideas but you had better doing something different, for example sports, instead of procrastinating on your report. The incubation effect will be the same while you accomplish something. So if you can't do now, there is no need to think more than what you can write on your notebook for later reference.

Whoever suggested pomodoro technique with break times spent fantasizing about the benefits of getting the work done, and/or the pain of not getting done, thank you! It's working very well for me today.

+AJPM+

Alan,

<<Whoever suggested pomodoro technique with break times spent fantasizing about the benefits of getting the work done, and/or the pain of not getting done, thank you! It's working very well for me today. >>

Can you please elaborate on this?

I'm sure I read it here someplace. Basically spend ten minutes thinking about your goal and why it's a worthy goal, how achieving it will feel good, not doing it will feel bad, reasons you can succeed, whatever motivates you, but not planning work or setting up work to work.
Well actually I did think a little about how I would get started.

Now I'm motivated and I work well for 25 minutes. Then I stop for a few minutes and repeat the above. Also mix in relaxation and distraction. Then get back to work for another 25.

Found it: Jim's essay on page 1 of this thread is my source for this approach.

One resource I've found extremely helpful (as a Thinker) is the work of Timothy Pychyl, a research professor who specializes in procrastination. He's a blogger for Psychology Today, and has many resources (including his podcast) collected at http://procrastination.ca

He just finished his latest book, The Procrastinator's Digest. You can get it as an e-book for $3 and finish it in a couple of hours (while you're procrastinating). Chapter 4 is spot on for you, Simon: "Why you won't feel like it tomorrow." It tells the story of a Polish butcher who offered his customers: "Today you pay and tomorrow you get it for free." But of course it's always today and tomorrow never comes.

I'd recommend the book to anyone interested in procrastination and techniques for dealing with it -- based on real world research.

More info: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/201007/the-procrastinators-digest-my-new-book-is-now-available

Alan,

I just saw your kind words, and apologize for not having thanked you for them earlier. I hope you see this, and will look for an opportunity to thank you on another post.

Have a great day everyone!

Barak

Since this thread resurfaced, I'll give you the best advice I gave myself about serious procrastination: Officially Procrastinate!

For me the “just one thing” method works. Think of the one thing you would love to get done and that is often causing underlying stress and put it as the one thing to get done that day. Has been amazing for me as simple and usually what I’m not putting off I’ll do after the just one thing thing easily anyway!!! And even if only that one thing is done I’ll feel so good I’ve got through the just one thing job is all good!! No system required except for getting that one thing done!!

That's a great article, Mark. I've been thinking about this in terms of "flow." I am very familiar with what Mark is referring to in his article above, that after a time, I start getting this oppressive feeling that I"ve got too much to do. That's usually when I start hunting for a new system. Mark's advice in his article, if I have understood it correctly, is to hunt down the Black Clouds that hang over our heads creating resistance and turn them into the current initiative. The result is what Mark referred to as "time freedom." A great place to be!

Here's the exciting thing for me. When I tried the "resistance Zero" method, I arrived at that same place of "time freedom" very quickly. Yet the method was the opposite. Instead of hunting for black clouds, I was doing low-resistance tasks. The black cloud tasks were still there, but with low resistance, they were no longer black clouds. Why was this? I think both methods improve flow. This happens to me: My work gradually gets built into a knot, and I have no idea where to start untangling it (i.e. which task to do). Both resistance zero and Black Cloud Hunt (sounds like kung-fu forms) loosen the knot. I believe the energy that keeps the knot tight is resistance; loosening the knot disperses that energy, allowing more space (i.e. time) and increasing the "flow" of my work. That's actually why I moved back to AF1. I think it's still the best method for loosening that knot. I think all of Mark's methods succeed in one way or another because they loosen the knot and increase flow. Does that make any sense?

@ Mark Forster

Our friend ChatGPT (we hope it's friendly) made a worthy effort there. But I was thinking as I read it that it lacked the usual Mark Forster flair - probably owing to the lingering effects of seasonal indulgence. It was a relief to read your final sentence.

Chris

? https://www.thetoolsbook.com/blog/avoiding-pain-you-need-the-reversal-of-desire-tool