Each day I plan to complete three major tasks, three thirty-minute tasks, and a few five- to ten-minute tasks. I can squeeze in some five- to ten-minute tasks in between my major tasks, but now my thirty-minute tasks have piled up because they never make it to the top of my list. What should I do?

Signed,
Unbalanced

Dear Unbalanced,

This is only a problem if the work you decided to do is less important than the work you postponed or neglected. If that’s the case, then we need to discuss how you got sucked into working on less important stuff. But if you did the more important work, then you shouldn’t be too stressed. Even well-balanced productive people have to-dos they are NOT doing at any given moment. The key is to feel good about those to-dos that aren’t getting done.

For example, as I write this article, I estimate I have ninety to one hundred to-dos I am NOT doing. And I feel totally fine, totally present. Why? Because I know exactly what those to-dos are, I have them inventoried, and I’ve deliberately deemed them less important than writing this response to you.

Here are some things you can do to achieve this feeling yourself.

Keep an Inventory

Most people keep an inventory of every commitment they’ve made in their heads. Get ALL of those agreements and to-dos out of your head and onto paper or a device so they’re visible and you can manage them. A thorough inventory improves your ability to judge what’s important and what’s not because you can see how each task relates to your goals and priorities. Remember, you can only feel at peace with what you’re not doing when you have a clear inventory of everything you’re not doing.

Check the Right Stuff First

When you start your day, look at your calendar and task lists before you dive into emails or messages. Don’t get caught in the latest and loudest. Start by getting clear on what’s most important. I’m guessing that most of your thirty-minute tasks are more important than those five-minute tasks.

Shun the Latest and Loudest

Just because something seems urgent, doesn’t mean it should take precedence over your thirty-minute tasks. Learn to turn off your email and shut your door when it’s time to do those longer tasks. Those may seem like menial tips, but the impact can be massive.

Plan for Surprises

Urgent and unexpected requests are inevitable. So why not make time for them? Block a small amount of time every day or every other day for responding to the latest and loudest, and don’t respond outside of that allotted time.

Have a Crucial Conversation

For every task or agreement you’ve committed to, you only have three choices: do it, don’t do it, or renegotiate the commitment. If you are legitimately doing the right stuff at the right times and still aren’t completing tasks on time, then you need to have a renegotiation conversation with those who are counting on you. I love what my mentor David Allen said, “Organizations must create a culture in which it is acceptable that everyone has more to do than he or she can do, and in which it is sage to renegotiate agreements about what everyone is not doing.”

Trust me, there is no one on earth who gets it all done. You need to decide how you want to feel about having more than you realistically can do. Conflicting priorities and finite time are the reality of life. Your ability to be more productive with less stress depends on what you do to manage that reality.

Sincerely,
Justin

The post 5 Tips to Better Balance Your Workload appeared first on Crucial Learning.

My sister is stressed, overwhelmed, at her breaking point, and needs help. She runs two companies, has two small children, and was recently diagnosed with ADHD on top of the thousands of unread email messages in her inbox and hundreds of tasks she has on her to-do list. I’ve taken the Getting Things Done (GTD) course and see plenty of tools that I know could help her reduce stress and take control of her chaotic life. What are some things she can do to get started on her GTD journey, and is there anything I can do to help her?

Signed
GTD Go-Getter

Dear Go-Getter,

It’s great to hear that you have found value in GTD and, like so many GTD practitioners, you want to share what you have found to help others. People who love GTD want to spread the love with everyone they love. Which is great. And also not so great. Sometimes enthusiasm for GTD crosses the line into unwelcome evangelism. So remember that you can share some ideas and you can support your sister in taking some steps, but ultimately you can’t make someone else use GTD (even if you know they should!).

Offer Gently

The first thing to do when offering to help someone is check to see whether they want that help. Be gentle with your sister. Her stress is already off the charts. Giving her one more thing to do, even if that thing is GTD, could feel overwhelming because it’s “just one more thing to do.”

Start by sharing your good intent—you can tell she is stressed and want to help. Then, share a bit of your own experience—you’ve learned something recently about GTD that is helping you. Make it clear that you aren’t criticizing her or any of the choices she has made. You simply have a couple of ideas that you think could help.

If she is interested, great. If not, step back but let her know that if she ever changes her mind, you’d be happy to share. You can offer; you can’t compel, and you should not pressure.

Assuming she is looking for something that can help and wants to start this journey, here are three tips anyone can use to get started with GTD.

Shrink It Down

When facing a big project or list of projects, it is common to feel overwhelmed. The natural reaction is to avoid the project. Ellen Hendriksen, a clinical professor at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, explains how a big project or list of projects triggers our flight-fight-freeze response. “Our bodies react to threat the same way, whether the threat is external, like the proverbial saber-toothed tiger, or the threat is internal. With a big overwhelming task list, that threat could be the threat of failure, or it could be the threat of letting others down. It could be the threat of feeling stupid or incompetent because we don’t know where to start or how to do things.”

The way to get started, then, is to make the project or the to-do list less threatening. In GTD we do that by shrinking the project down to its very next action—the next physical, visible thing you need to do. For me, I like thinking about it this way: how can I make the next action so small that it is almost effortless? If I am dreading writing my next newsletter article, the next action might be “open a word document and name it.” If I am avoiding planning my next team event, the next action might be “email four colleagues and ask them for their favorite team-building activities.” The smaller you can make the next action, the less threatening it becomes and the more likely you are to do it.

Look at Your To-Do List before Email

Most people I know start their day by looking at their email. The moment they do is the moment they let others define their day. When we immediately jump into email, we are scanning and looking at what other people need us to do. This puts us in reactive mode for the rest of the day.

Instead, start the day by looking at your to-do list and your calendar. These two items represent what you had already decided was important to do that day. Review them and ask yourself, “Are these still important for me to do today?” and “What’s the most important thing I need to do today?” When you start the day by defining your priorities for yourself, you now have a rule by which to measure everything else that comes at you. Is this email request from your manager more important than what you had previously decided was your most important priority for the day? If so, shift to that. If not, let your manager know what you are working on today and when you will get back to their email.

Make the Backlog Its Own Project

Busy people can often end up with a huge backlog of unread emails or to-dos that have been lingering on their lists for weeks, months, or even years. It can feel impossible to start being productive today when you have that burdensome backlog.

If you have a backlog that feels overwhelming, the best thing you can do is to make it its own project. Move all those unread, unprocessed emails into a folder, title it “backlog,” and then put “process backlog emails” on your to-do list. Take all those lingering would-, should-, could-do items that have been taking up space on your to-do list and move them to a “someday/maybe” list.

The benefit of clearing those items off your list and out of your inbox is immense! It will free you to get started with what is on front of you right now. You still have the security of knowing all that stuff is still there, waiting for when you have the bandwidth to address it. Surprisingly, many people I work with find that, after a few months, they haven’t returned to their backlog. After a few more months of added perspective, they often decide they don’t need to address that backlog at all.

One Final Note

You shared that your sister has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. People with ADHD have unique challenges with focus and productivity that I am not qualified to address. For a resource specifically on adult ADHD, you might consider Abigail Levrini’s book Succeeding with Adult ADHD, published by the American Psychological Association.

All the best,
Emily

The post Can You Help Someone Overcome Stress? appeared first on Crucial Learning.

I try to make a non-negotiable appointment with myself to do my weekly review, but most weeks I push it off and push it off. I don’t know why I avoid the weekly review so much, or, more importantly, how I can make myself take the time to do it. Any suggestions?

Signed,
Review Neglector

Dear Review Neglector,

Welcome to the club. As powerful and effective as the Weekly Review is for stress-free productivity, most people avoid it. I wish I had the magic pill that would seduce everyone into doing it, but, alas, that’s not available yet.

First, let’s be clear that it may not be necessary to do every week. The purpose of a consistent review is to maintain trust in your “external brain”—that its contents are clear, current, and complete so your mind can let go of remembering and reminding (which it doesn’t do very well). Your mental energy is best utilized when available for creative and constructive thinking about your world, not of your world.

There have been times in my life when I daily needed to do something like a Weekly Review—things were in such rapid flux that I had to quickly and regularly review my lists to keep my head above water. And there have been times when I only needed that kind of reflection and recalibration every two or three weeks.

So, why do so many people resist this process? One reason is that we know it requires us to think and make decisions. This is more difficult than most people realize, and it’s the same reason people procrastinate many activities—they’re not sure how to engage appropriately with them. Thinking is hard work. Ask any writer.

So how do you get yourself to do something that seems daunting? The same way you get yourself to clean the bathroom, take out the garbage, walk the dog in the rain, or exercise. These may not be fun to do, but they are must-dos because of standards you hold. I do a Weekly Review because, if I don’t, I experience a creeping ambient anxiety about my commitments, and I can’t tolerate that.

Because most people are willing to live with that subtle but very real stress that results from trying to track commitments in the mind, they don’t do what it takes to eliminate it. What’s the cure? Learn to love a “mind like water.” Then you’ll notice when you’ve lost that presence of mind, and you’ll do what you need to do to get back to it.

How long will it take to change your standard so that it becomes a habit? I don’t know for sure, though I bet the skills taught in The Power of Habit can help. Here are some tips:

Establish a regular time and place. For some that might be at the local coffeeshop with a good internet connection and a morning brew. For others it could be an uninterrupted hour in their home office.

Give yourself a reward for doing it—a piece of chocolate, a glass of wine, time with your favorite Netflix series. Whatever floats your boat.

Arrange your environment. Make it conducive to doing the review. One way I do this is with sound. Maybe you choose noise-canceling headphones because you find music or outer sounds distracting. Or you might put on your favorite background tunes—heavy metal or quiet classical. I have a playlist called “Work Classical” with lots of Vivaldi and Bach.

Take it easy. Don’t make it a big deal. Get started, and then come back to some sort of review when you can. Simply reviewing the next three weeks on your calendar might get you into your groove.

At least you know what the game is. Just stick with it, and before you know it, you won’t need to “make yourself” do anything—it will come naturally. Like taking out the trash or walking the dog in the rain.

Good luck,
David

The post Tips for Holding a GTD® Weekly Review appeared first on Crucial Learning.

In a world full of distractions, how do you focus on the ‘right’ things?

Signed,
Distracted

Dear Distracted,

This is such a pervasive problem that we did a study on this recently. We surveyed 1,600 people about their ability—or rather inability—to focus. Here’s what we learned:

• Two of three respondents said they struggle to be fully focused on a single task or person.
• Sixty percent said the longest they can focus on a task without getting distracted is about 20 minutes.
• A third of respondents said they can only focus on a task for ten minutes before getting distracted. Ten MINUTES!
• Of the respondents who said they struggle to focus, 73% said they feel overwhelmed and drained and 72% said they feel stressed and work slowly.
• Half of them also said that at the end of a busy day they feel unfilled, like they’ve let themselves and others down.

You can read the full study here. We also created this free miniseries to help you improve focus.

When people think of distractions, they typically think of phone notifications, email notifications, and people walking into their office. But I have learned from working with people in all walks of life that the most detrimental distractions are self-inflicted. Yes, it can be helpful to minimize those external dings, but I’ve watched people get distracted while trying to work in silence in their office.

Sound familiar?

Here are few tips that should help.

Clear Your Mind

If you don’t clear your mind, you won’t feel focused no matter how quiet your surroundings. You’ll feel distracted, confused, compelled to multitask—all because of the conflict in your mind. The mind easily releases completed tasks, freeing it to generate ideas and focus on present stimuli, but it cannot let go of unfinished tasks. We are literally wired to get things done, and we can’t rest easy until we do.

The best way to clear your mind is with a “mind sweep.” Grab a paper and a pen and set a timer for five minutes. During that five minutes, write down everything that’s pulling at your attention, any would- or should-do items. These might be errands you need to run, calls you need to make, emails you’ve been meaning to send, projects you want to start or finish.

Don’t worry about quality, go for quantity; write down as many items as you can. Most people scratch down a list of 20-30 items, but this really only touches the surface. There is so much more we hold in our heads. Then, review what you’ve written down. How do you feel about those ought-tos and to-dos now that they’re on paper? You probably feel a little better. You may have a sense of greater control or feel a little less stressed. Why? Did anything about those items change? Did you complete the tasks? No. You merely moved them from inside your mind (sitting as amorphous weight) to in front of your eyes (definable tasks).

Prime Your Eyes

Focus begins when you first wake up. Most of us get sucked into email or some form of media first thing in the morning. Don’t make this mistake. Take two to three minutes each morning to review your calendar and to-do lists before diving into email or work. When we begin the day by looking at email, we put a lens of “latest and loudest” over our eyes. This is a major contributor to those “busy but unproductive” days. Begin your day by quickly reviewing what you want to get done and you’ll find yourself working on your more important projects and tasks more often.

Plan Time for Work

You need to set aside time each day for doing work, determining what work you’ll need to do later, and handling work you didn’t plan for (all separately). And don’t say that you don’t have the time; you’re already working in these modes, but you’re likely doing so all at once, which is incredibly inefficient. For example, instead of grazing on emails all day, spend 45 minutes once a day processing your email inbox to determine what work you need to do as a result of those emails. Then populate your calendar and to-do lists and focus on doing that work in the coming days.

Say No

It’s hard to focus when you’re drowning in opportunities of what you could do. Get in the habit of saying no to things that are not aligned with your long-term goals. The best way to say no is to share your good intent and explain why. Try this: “My goal is to be a solid contributor and help the team where I can, but I also don’t want to overcommit myself. If I agree to your request, I’ll be at a high risk of not meeting my other responsibilities and deadlines, which wouldn’t be fair to you, me, or the team. I think it’s best for me to not commit to this right now.” In the end, you can spend your time on anything, but you can’t spend your time on everything.

And last but not least…

Minimize External Distractions

When it’s time to do meaningful work, close your email and other communication apps. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you’ll be able to ignore those dings and notifications—your brain is conditioned to respond to them in search of dopamine hits. And ditch your smartphone when possible. I know that might sound scary. But what’s worse—going without your smartphone for an hour here and there, or failing to achieve your goals because you can’t focus? If you don’t need your phone for the activity you are doing or the conversation you are having, put it elsewhere. (Check out this article we published recently that outlines several tips for managing use of your smartphone.)

When it comes to distractions, you are in charge. Don’t blame everyone else (“My boss keeps…”) or everything else (“My notifications keep…”). Take ownership of your focus. We have worked with some of the busiest people on earth who focus on what’s most important to them even though they have numerous opportunities for excuses to get distracted. I share that to say that true focus is within your grasp. It’s less about what’s happening around you and so much more about how you engage with what’s happening around you.

Justin

The post 5 Tips to Improve Focus appeared first on Crucial Learning.

It seems to me that focus and productivity are different concepts that often get conflated. When people think of productivity, they seem to think of doing more, faster. When people think of focus, they seem to think of doing less, more deliberately. Doing more faster, in my view, simply means being more efficiently frenzied, and it appears a lot of people are chasing this ideal. Doing less with focus, however, seems to be truly valuable. It appears GTD as a theory and practice favors increased productivity—efficient frenzy. How do you see it? Where does focus fit in the GTD equation, and can GTD help with doing less, not more?

Signed,
Getting Philosophical

Dear Getting Philosophical,

I understand your question and the potential discrepancy between focus and productivity. In fact, they are not opposites but rather two sides of the same coin. If you observe someone that is highly productive, about anything, you’ll see that they’re highly focused on what they’re doing. The problem you mention arises from the unfortunate legacy of “productivity.”

It’s natural for people to think of that as busyness. In truth, being productive simply means achieving some desired result—an output or an experience. If you go to a party to have fun and you don’t have fun, that’s an unproductive experience. You might turn it into something productive if you decide you won’t go to that kind of party anymore.

GTD is not about being busy—it’s about being appropriately engaged with whatever you’re doing, in life or work. That may look busy, because at times being actively involved in something is the thing you tell yourself you should be doing. If you encounter someone who has really incorporated the GTD principles and practices, however, you will probably notice that they’re more relaxed, they enjoy more quality reflective time, and, when they do engage with whatever they choose, it’s with undistracted focus. They’re more likely to experience “flow,” whether they’re meditating, cooking, or working on a tough business issue.

In a way, if you’re conscious (and maybe even when you’re not) you can’t not be busy. I’m busy when I take a nap, walk the dog, or craft this response to your question. The challenge is to ensure that you are busy about the right thing, at the right time. That’s GTD.

Sincerely,
David

Want to learn more? Enroll in the free GTD Miniseries: From Frenzied to Focused. And see what’s new in the updated GTD course.

The post Can GTD® Help You Focus? appeared first on Crucial Learning.

Since I started working from home, I can’t seem to separate work and home life. I have a home office and I do my best to stay off my computer after hours, and yet my nine-to-five now feels like it’s 24-7. I used to leave work at work. But now that my job is at my house, it never seems to go away. Any tips on how I might better separate the two?

Signed,
24/7

Dear 24/7,

Don’t feel like the lone stranger—this is now a familiar situation for many people. Though you may not need to go to the office, the structures and boundaries it provides are familiar and comfortable. This is also true of your home. You have ways of acting in each context—whether around the office coffee machine, at your office desk, or at home with the kids and the dog and dinner. But because your context has changed, your behavior has been affected.

Long before Covid, digital nomads and those accustomed to working from home (like me) created grooves and styles for navigating a work-from-home context. Here are some suggestions based on Getting Things Done® skills to help you do the same. They may not all be preferable or possible, but I hope you find something useful.

Have your own workspace. Don’t share it with anyone else. It doesn’t have to be big—just unique to you, so that when you enter that space you automatically step into “work mode.” When you leave it, you exit “work mode.” Even if you live alone, this can make a big difference. And even if you have a small living space, keep a desk and supplies where you work.

Make your workspace inviting. I have a comfortable desk and chair, my favorite artwork on the wall, a candle and incense (I know, I’m a ‘60s kind of guy), and I turn on music that I enjoy working to (I have a playlist called “Work Classical” with lots of Vivaldi and Bach). I keep my tools at hand so I can just sit down and hit the road running, enjoyably, like I’m doing now in writing this response to you.

Don’t hold yourself hostage to your workspace. Don’t hold others hostage to it either. If you find yourself wanting to work on your laptop in the living room in an easy chair, as I do sometimes, fine. But know that the environment will affect you. My small dog loves to get on my lap when I’m on my iPad in my easy chair, so I let her. I can also see into the kitchen from my chair, and if my wife happens to be doing stuff there, I’m available to interact with her. Some work, though not all, is conducive to this kind of environment. Roll with it.

Let others know when you’re in work mode. This is easier to do when you have your own space, which, by the way, is how let yourself know you’re in work mode.

Don’t make too many rules for what to do and when—unless you really like to live by rules (and some folks do). Having the freedom to do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing it is terrific. If self-imposed rules aren’t your thing, work on establishing the appropriate contexts, as I’ve described above.

Manage your meetings. Before you accept an invite, make sure you need to be or want to be in that meeting. Give yourself permission to turn off your camera if you need to do something while you listen. And if you share your calendar with a group, block out time for whatever else (even relaxing and reflecting) so people schedule around you.

Rest and recuperate daily. You need regular rest to function optimally. For example, research has shown that checking email an hour before bedtime hinders sleep rejuvenation. So use your discretionary time to take afternoon naps when you can. Leave your designated workspace and go somewhere else. Leave behind or shut down any devices that might tempt you into work. You might designate a space to recuperate. Perhaps another room, a patio, a nearby park, even a comfortable couch or chair next to a window. Better than coffee.

Finally, what’s wrong with 24/7? You might consider this a radical suggestion, but if you’re enjoying your work, why stop? I’ve met people who are so totally engaged in what they’re doing that there’s no reason for them to stop, other than to rest and recuperate appropriately. “Work/life balance” is something of a misnomer. It’s all work. It’s all life. How much of it you do, and when, is up to you.

Good luck,
David

The post Balancing Work and Life at Home appeared first on Crucial Learning.

How do I make the transition from working in my business to working on my business?

Signed,
Taking Care of Business

Dear Taking Care,

What’s interesting about your question is that you could swap the word business for marriage, career, life or just about anything else and the dilemma wouldn’t change. I say this to point out that you don’t face a business challenge per se, but a focus challenge. At least that’s what I’m going to assume since you’re writing us and not Shark Tank.

You sound busy, and perhaps you’re currently experiencing anxiety, stress, and frustration. But in the long term you risk building a business—and perhaps a life—that doesn’t align with your values and goals. This is the greater concern in my view.

A little more than a decade ago I found my own life dreadfully misaligned. I was in my thirties and working an unfulfilling job as a telemarketer for a fly-by-night operation. I was also in debt up to my earlobes, overweight, and addicted to a host of unhealthy behaviors. This was not what I had wanted. Somehow, unintentionally, I had veered way off course.

I realized I had to focus on my life if I wanted to improve it. Here are some steps I took to do that. I hope they help you focus on your business.

First, listen.

Whether you call it the Muse, God, intuition, or unconscious reasoning, everybody has an inner voice. The trick is to listen.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter,” said Martin Luther King Jr. We often reference this quote with regard to dialogue and social change, but it pertains just as well to those inner bouts with our better selves: “I don’t have time.” “That will never work.” “People will think I’m a fool.” “It’ll be too hard.” “I’ll get to it later.” How often do we silence our own ideas that matter?

I urge you to pay close attention to those ideas that have potential to change or shape your business. Sometimes these will occur as surges of inspiration, but far more often they will occur as quiet and subtle inclinations. They will be important but not urgent, nothing will require you to act on them, and they can easily be dismissed. Which is why you need to take the next step.

Change things up.

Since you’re a business owner I’ll assume you already use calendars, email, and other tools for capturing and conveying ideas, to-dos, and more. And yet it sounds like your deeper priorities are getting backburnered.

Shortly after I began rebuilding my life, I started carrying a pocket notebook and pencil to record ideas, reflections, lists and so on. I found that notes in a smartphone or laptop got lost in the din of distraction. At first I carried the notebook in my back pocket, but it would sometimes slip out so I started wearing shirts with front pockets. I ultimately changed my wardrobe. Today I never wear a shirt that doesn’t have a front pocket, and I always have my notebook and pen. And because this little booklet hangs over my heart it’s hard to ignore. It’s where I spend a few minutes when I open my eyes in the morning, before I close them at night, and moments in between.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to dress like I do. But you should assess your means of capturing ideas. If you aren’t noting your ideas and revisiting them regularly—at least weekly—your tools aren’t working. Try others. Get rid of distractors. Rearrange your office, apps, or wardrobe if necessary. In the words of David Allen, “Function often follows form. Give yourself a context for capturing thoughts, and thoughts will occur that you don’t yet know you have.”

Say yes.

You must act on new ideas—at least some of them—if you’re to change course or get different results.

When I began listening years ago, I had the idea to go to college and study philosophy. I also thought I would become a writer. For a middle-aged dropout with a young family to support, these ideas seemed harebrained. Indeed, many told me they were. I acted anyway, first by noting the ideas, then by reflecting on them, then by moving forward.

When you review and reflect on your ideas, you will receive more ideas. The wheels begin to turn. These tertiary ideas are your next actions. Say yes to these. Schedule them, prioritize them, tackle them first thing in the morning. For me, “get a philosophy degree” turned into “register as a student” and “apply for a grant.” “Become a writer” turned into “set up a blog and publish a post.”

When you say yes to your ideas, you affirm the values from which they stem, and it’s in acting that you can truly confirm whether your ideas have merit.

Say no.

To say yes to your values and goals, to new ideas and new possibilities, you’ll have to say no to other expectations and requests, even other values. Which means saying no to people you care about. This can be hard to do, and I’m afraid there’s no way around it. And though I’ve listed this tip last, perhaps it’s where you’ll start.

How? One trick is to remind yourself that every no is a yes. No to that meeting can mean yes to talking with that new vendor or reading that business strategy book. This has also been described as JOMO—the joy of missing out. Instead of operating from FOMO—fear of missing out—embrace the joy of turning down that opportunity or request and preserving your time and attention for greater priorities.

You can also practice through visualization. Imagine what your life or business will look like if you say no to those activities you question, or yes to those that inspire you. Playing things out in your head can prepare you to act accordingly.

Our own Justin Hale has shared several tips for renegotiating commitments or declining requests in a way that preserves relationships and forward momentum.

Years ago I said no to a range of people and activities. Did doing so disrupt things? Yes. Were some people confused or upset, even angry at first? Yes. Did my material and financial circumstances temporarily change? Yes. And today virtually every aspect of my life is better.

What I’ve outlined here is essentially a twofold strategy: (1) get clear on what you want to do or what you believe you ought to do, and (2) manage your day-to-day so you can do more of those things.

But this is not an exact science, and outcomes will not be immediate. We don’t always know what we want in life, and, even when we do, moving forward can feel like driving blindfolded. Sometimes you will have good reasons to act, other times you must leap with faith. Sometimes we can predict results, but mostly we give it our best and hope for the best. Outcomes aren’t in our power; effort and attention are.

Did I write the next great philosophical novel or literary profile? Nope. But I’m still giving my best.

I hope these thoughts help you give yours.

Ryan

The post Some Field Notes on Working (and Living) Purposefully appeared first on Crucial Learning.

I recently went through the GTD® course and have started doing a weekly review. I learned in training that when I do a weekly review I should (1) Get Clear, (2) Get Current, and (3) Get Creative. Do you have any tips on this last point? I want to think about my to-do list more creatively, but not sure how to do so. Thanks.

Signed,
Craving Creativity

Dear Craving Creativity,

In my experience of doing weekly reviews for thirty-five years, the “Get Creative” piece seems to happen spontaneously as I’m cleaning up and getting current. Invariably, reviewing the things on my calendar will trigger a new thought or idea, some notion of what I should do or want to do. Checking off items on my action and project lists also frees up some space to think more clearly about what’s going on in my world. And the process of identifying new tasks and commitments that have emerged in recent days, and then clarifying those into next actions, is in itself quite a creative experience.

“Get Creative” can probably be interpreted as plain old good thinking and decision-making. And that good old thinking is going to happen in spite of yourself if you’re thoroughly reviewing and reflecting on the operational aspects of your life. To get yourself and your system current is to utilize your intelligence and intuition, quite creatively.

That said, your weekly review can also be a ripe opportunity to go into new and different spaces. Practically speaking, reflecting on your Someday/Maybe list can be a good start. Are you ready to activate any of those ideas? Have you really captured all your “somedays” on that list? Just making that list current and complete can be extremely fun and creative. In the last few weeks I have purged a number of things on my Someday/Maybe list. I also revisited an idea that’s been on the list for years—“take a balloon ride”—and made it an active project. My wife and a good friend and I are now going to float over the hills of Chianti in Italy soon!

But you don’t need to wait for your weekly review to catalyze your creative processes. Writing, drawing, dancing, thanking people you love and respect, shopping for yourself and others, cooking—my, my, the list is endless. So, make a list of possible creative things to do and add it to your weekly review. If you reflect on it with sincerity, and make it a point to capture and do a few things you normally wouldn’t—wow, how much more creative could you be?

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I’m impressed by people who let things roll off their shoulders. I can’t seem to let things go, sometimes to the point of losing sleep, getting distracted from my other tasks—the list goes on. I often get like this when someone is upset and they’re coming down on me, usually external customers. How can I make sure these types of interactions don’t ruin my day or week?

Signed,
It’s Bringing Me Down

Dear It’s Bringing Me Down,

I empathize, truly. When even one aspect of our life is uncomfortable or apparently out of control, it can discolor everything. I’ve experienced this more times than I can remember.

Here’s my tireless litany to myself (and anyone else who cares to listen): there are no problems, only projects. In other words (and this is the hard news), we only worry about things we wish were different but that we aren’t actively engaged in changing. We don’t complain about gravity, for example, even though it might contribute to a lot of challenges.

This is not to pretend that things are always easy or comfortable. It means that when we worry or complain, it’s because there’s a bell ringing (something bothering us) to which we haven’t yet responded. The world itself is fine—it’s not overwhelmed or stressed—just look out your window. The issue is how we are engaged with our world. That is the essence of GTD®.

For example, if something is bugging me and I want it to stop bugging me, I have to figure out why it bothers me, what I might be able to do about it, and then engage with my commitment to its resolution. If I learn there’s nothing I can do about it, I must accept it as part of the landscape in which I operate. That’s strategic thinking. In short, if there is something I can do to clarify, resolve, or eliminate the tension I feel, what’s my next action? That’s what I need to determine and then do.

Responding in this way may not create the world you want, but it will help alleviate the feelings you talk about.

One perhaps silly but sure way to reduce your stress is to lower your standards. So what if X or Y or Z happens, or doesn’t? Life’s like that; and I’ll survive. Your acquaintances who “let things roll off their shoulders” may be in that camp.

But since you’re probably not going to lower your standards, the best relief (at least symptomatically) will come from reviewing and reflecting on all your commitments and values, and the challenges you face. You need to look at your situation from a larger and higher perspective. And you’re not going to do that in your head. As you may have heard me say, your mind is a lousy office.

Reflect on these questions, and write your answers somewhere: Why are you on the planet? What’s your purpose? What really matters to you, in terms of your values? What’s your vision of a successful future? What must you do to realize that vision? What do you need to maintain? What projects do you need to define and complete? What are your next actions?

When I reflect on these questions myself, it helps me accept the things other people do that I don’t like. It’s easier for me to empathize, realizing everyone is trying to do their best with what they know and where they are. I’ve realized that about myself.

This response to your question is probably more daunting than you had hoped, and for that I apologize. If I had a simpler remedy, I would gladly give it. I don’t. Welcome to this classroom called life.

All the best,
David

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This year I started out motivated, with goals for health, productivity, and things I want to learn at work and personally. However, our company is undergoing ANOTHER reorganization. Some people were let go and other jobs are being moved overseas. I’m a people manager with teams in three countries. I wear many hats and am constantly behind on email and projects. I work long hours and am overwhelmed and exhausted. Leaders are now setting 2021 goals and objectives, stressing “work-life balance,” and I’m not the only one feeling frustrated and angry because it feels like lip service. My sleep is suffering and my exercise plans are down the toilet. It feels like a downward spiral. What can I do?

Signed,
Spiraling Downward

Dear Spiraling Downward,

You are asking the right question: “What can I do?” Last year was tough for so many people, and this year is unfolding similarly. There are so many things you can’t do—end the pandemic, change the rate of globalization, ease the financial pressures on your organization, and so on. But there are things you can do to take control of your experience, get out of the downward spiral, and start moving in a new direction. Here are three ideas to help you make that happen.

Remove the small rocks. Think about your ability to handle stress as a kind of bucket. We each have a different size of bucket, a different capacity to handle and manage stress. Both big things and small things, from a pandemic, a death in our family, unemployment, or chronic illness to a messy house, an unexpected veterinarian expense, a colleague missing deadlines, or a sudden disruption to the toilet paper supply chain. We do okay until the moment our bucket overflows. At that point, we become overwhelmed and shut down. “It is all just too much to handle! Nothing can make this better! It will never end!”

When we hit shutdown mode and start frantically searching for a way out, our tendency is to focus on the “big rocks.” How can I remove those huge stressors and find relief? The problem is you usually can’t remove the big stressors; they are often fixed. You frequently can remove the small rocks, but we also often discount those. The world is falling down around me and having a clean house isn’t going to make a difference, right?

The key to getting out of shutdown mode is not to remove all stress, it is to get your stress level below the top of your bucket. And yes, removing a big stressor might do that. But so would removing a few small stressors. So, start by looking at those small rocks. What can you do about those? Can you step back from a community volunteer assignment for a few months? Can you tell your extended family you need to skip a couple of family dinners? Can you hire someone to clean your house or order from a meal delivery service for a month?

People routinely underestimate the contribution of small stressors to their overall level of stress and thus discount the impact that removing the small stressors can have. You don’t have to fix everything to feel better about everything, you just have to move a few small rocks.

Ask, “What should I do right now to move toward what I really want?” Once you have created some temporary breathing space by removing the small stressors, you can evaluate your situation. What is it you really want? For you? For your family? For your career? In our Getting Things Done® course, we call this identifying the very next action.

Most of the time we come up with plans that are so far removed from where we are that they seem impossible. After all, everything is horrible and out of alignment right now. That’s okay. The question is not “What would it take to achieve all my hopes and dreams?” The question is “What can I do right now to move toward what I really want?” All you need to do is identify the first concrete step and make a plan to take that step. When you are at the bottom of the spiral, don’t try to take five steps. Take one. Then congratulate yourself, notice how good it feels, and decide what your next step is.

Renegotiate. Change can be a significant source of feeling overwhelmed. We make commitments, our situation or reality changes, and then we feel compelled to keep our original commitments. Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of making and keeping commitments. And I think a commitment made under one set of circumstances can be reconsidered under a different set of circumstances. So, take a good hard look at your commitments and then identify the ones you need to renegotiate. Do this at home and at work.

For renegotiation conversations at work, lay out the facts and then involve leaders in collaborative prioritization. For example, you might start a conversation by saying, “Six months ago, you asked me to take on this project. I agreed. Now, because of the changes in our organizational structure, you have asked me to take on these three responsibilities. I see the need for this and I want to succeed with these new responsibilities. In order to do so, I’d like to re-evaluate my previous commitments together and see what makes sense.”

I hope you are noticing that none of these three suggestions is magical. None will pull you out of the downward spiral overnight. It took more than a day for you to get where you are, and it will take more than a day (or a single conversation) to get to a different place. But by focusing on what you can do, you can start to move forward.

Good luck!
Emily

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