A joyful bundle of things gotten done
Monday was my three week anniversary on the Getting Things Done program. I can see the great things that are resulting from my changed behavior. HOWEVER, there are some nasty surprises David Allen doesn't mention in his book:
- GTD can hurt. Last week we started demolishing the basement interior. I've started swimming (after getting my membership to Steiner). R owns a lot of dumbbells that needed to be moved yesterday before I could get the carpet up to take to the dump. They have a nice reminder at Steiner - you can't reach your fitness goals in one day. Nor anything worth doing. But I'm taking a lot of Ibuprofen.
- GTD is going to cost some money. Not for the supplies he recommends, but when you actually start doing the backlog of "stuff". Like the fees for the trip to the dump, the photography gear I need for that next project, the zipper to finish the sweater, the trip to the tailor, the photo album for the vacation photos from 1992. If it were more than I could afford, it would go onto a "waiting" list, but the suction on the Amex card has been shocking.
- GTD is going to push you out of your comfort zone. Taking an idea (or dream) from the pondering phase to actually thought-through-to-a-next-action is dangerous. Thinking about it isn't that daunting, in fact it's kind of fun. But it's going to result in something doable, and then I'm going to have it on a list, and then I'm going to have to do it. Or it will bother me. But I won't want to shift it to the "maybe list" so I'll do it. And then I'll repeat. And the consequences of doing the next right thing over and over could be terribly life-changing. Ain't that the point? And the rub? Change, even desired change, isn't necessarily comfortable.
As for the photo: I have a not-small stash of knitting yarn, more than I can inventory in my mind, but less than some knitters I know. I have some ideas for original designs, and to get started, I need to make some color choices. So a big collect-process-organize effort has been underway in my low-energy time.
It's not that hard to punch a hole in a 3x5 card, write down some details from the label, weigh the remaining quantity of partially used skeins, note what I did with the yarn I used. Then I can shuffle together color combinations at will without going staff diving. It will serve as a record of projects I've completed too.
