How do people do it? I can’t seem to keep my mind on things long enough to to actually do too much action on them. As a fan of “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” and the 3 bzillion blogs based on applying GTD to daily life, and one of the first steps is getting all of those lists out of one’s head and onto paper. From there you can organize and actually figure out the next actionable step in taking care of all the unfinished business. I think I need to just try and focus, just even for few minutes at a time, to get all of this that’s on my mind off of my mind.
I’m finding that there is so much to think about that I can’t really think as I start heading off on tangents or getting overwhelmed by all the little things to keep track of. It might just be that I’m overwhelmed with all of the information being thrown at me at my new job that has my brain flipping out.
Another of my favorite books is “Sink Reflections” which also has a companion website. One of the many concepts I’ve adopted from the author is that a person can do just about anything for 15 minutes and that just spending small amounts of time moving a project along still moves the project along. I think I was so tied to completing a project or doing it perfectly that I became paralyzed and didn’t do anything.
Maybe it’s time to dust off the old timer again. Maybe if I just spend 10 minutes writing down all the urgent stuff that I’ve been thinking about doing, I’ll be able to focus on what I need to take care of some of it. Maybe if I start working on my ongoing giant projects (like getting prints of digital photos ordered, entering receipts into MS Money, etc.) just 15 minutes each every day, I’ll at least know they’re progressing instead of looming over me. Maybe I better start right now.
Ah, so you are a flybaby too
Yes, I am! Flylady.net is a great site with great ideas.