David Allen claims he falls off the wagon all the time. He loses control and goes loopy (maybe) on a regular basis. His co-workers at his company also fall off the wagon and have regular in-house training just to get back on board. Twitter is full of people falling off the wagon. I used to fall off the wagon regularly too. Used to…
On Tuesday, I asked why David Allen considered falling off the wagon to be a normal practise. Surely it’s a flaw, a hole, a big gap in the system? Since then however, I’ve figured that it’s really just a roundabout way of saying it’s fine and good to screw up, lose your focus and break your momentum occasionally. Well, in that case, fair enough. Right?
Also on Tuesday, I used the analogy of a car being driven flat out until you run out of fuel, as a way of describing GTD. That’s certainly what it felt like when I was really into it. I’d start the month off brilliantly, flying through my lists and doing regular reviews. But by the end of the month I was spluttering and coughing and finally came to a stop in the middle of nowhere (metaphorically speaking of course). I’d then scrap my system, design something different, have a mind sweep and start all over again from the top.
Then I read The Four Hour Work Week and one line stood out for me, “What you do is infinitely more important than how you do it. Efficiency is still important, but it is useless unless applied to the right things.” With that I went from basically doing as much as I could for as long as I could, till I fell off the wagon, to taking a more steady pace. I’d do more if I was energized and focused, but still at the very least be able to do the handful of important goals I’d identified if I was wobbling.
My point is that there are measures you can take to limit and even avoid the circumstances where you fall off the wagon. Why then, is it accepted and even embraced as part of GTD?
April 16, 2009 at 07:27PM
I think it’s acceptable and even embraced because no one is perfect, and David Allen knows that. It isn’t enough to simply say, “Do it this way and you won’t fall off the wagon” because, inevitably, that would lead to people beating themselves up if and when it happened anyway (no matter what, people fluctuate in their habits and patterns). It’s much healthier and more productive to embrace it, acknowledge it, and learn from it.
Every time you fall off the wagon, something new is learned. You analyze what went wrong, when and why. You learn how to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, and, more importantly, you learn how to get back ON the wagon.
That’s just my two cents – and I’m a person who continuously falls off the wagon. I consider it a part of life. Sometimes GTD is exactly what I need and sometimes it just hinders me. I allow myself to fall off and jump back on over and over, without feeling bad or trying to adapt my process to avoid it. I see what you’re suggesting here but I’m afraid that there are few things any of us can do consistently without occasionally falling off.
April 16, 2009 at 07:55PM
I would say that it is a necessary evil. Part of what makes GTD so easy to use, and yet so easy to stop using, is the built in flexibility. When you have a system that has guidelines but not written-in-stone rules (you must use paper or a particular program, etc.) you make is infinitely more usable and accessible to people. By the same token however, you make it much easier for people just to stop using the system. A catch-22 for sure.
April 16, 2009 at 09:19PM
Doing things that matter is infinitely more important than trying to set up a process that makes doing those things more efficiently. While doing things that matter you can critique and review the process so the next time you do it, you can do it more efficiently. Efficiency comes with time.
April 17, 2009 at 04:33AM
Because falling off the wagon, even when you’re black belt, means you’re out of your comfort zone and learning something. It’s easy to stay on the wagon if you stay in the same groove day after day, but then you’re not growing.
It’s easy to be enlightened and at peace with the world while sitting cross-legged on a mountain top, but much more of a challenge to remain so dodging the traffic in London.
April 17, 2009 at 08:02AM
Great comments as ever. I would stress that though I haven’t fallen off the wagon in a long while, I’ve had plenty of slips and stumbles along the way, it’s just not been that big drop.
I spent several months trying to figure out how to stop falling off the wagon (because it wasn’t just my productivity that slumped, it was my general wellbeing as well) and realized that, like a battery, the best way wasn’t to crank widgets till I went flat, but to pace myself better.
April 19, 2009 at 07:17AM
You have to fall off the wagon from time to time, in order to humble yourself, and to improve yourself. It only makes you stronger in the end.