Organize IT

On Monday I wrote about the self-help myth of working hard and playing hard, a cute little line that has been propagated by businesses and especially universities around the world to show that – yes – you can have the best of both worlds. You can work your ass off to get a good degree or great pay packet and still find the time to have lots of crazy fun. As the sage Andrew W.K. once said, when it’s time to party we will always party hard.

Working hard and playing hard is a very popular saying nowadays. Actually to many people it’s more than a saying, it’s a way of life. Not too long ago Salford University used it as a basis for one of their adverts. Because we spend so much time working it’s only natural that we should find an equally demanding form of release that we can fit into the little time we have left for ourselves. What better way to play hard than to go out on a weekend, down copious amounts of alcohol, and eventually stagger home at 6AM?  The problem with working hard is it’s a surefire way to burn out and the problem with playing hard is… it’s also a surefire way to burn out. You see the problem?

We all have habits and behaviors that get in the way of being productive. Earlier in the week I wrote about getting back to GTD basics though to achieve that involves facing up to some of the hurdles in your path that caused you to neglect those basics in the first place. On Wednesday I revisited the vertical map. One of the reasons I dropped the ball with it in the past was because I got overly fussy about making sure everything connected up. I sometimes have to overcome the need to over-analyze everything and make it all just right.

At the moment I’m currently focusing on the vertical map (otherwise known as the horizons of focus). Bigger picture thinking is something I’ve neglected for a long time (I discussed why in my previous post) but now I want to get back on track with it. One of the problems I feel there is with the vertical map explanation in GTD is that it is tied to this whole horizons angle (going from the runway to 50,000ft levels, for instance). To me, this gave the impression that the items at one level had to tie neatly into the items on the next level, and so on. If you’ve ever had a dozen or so next actions at the runway level and tried to draw a clear line all the way to your long term goals at the 40,000ft level you’ll know how difficult it can be.

Now that all the new  years festivities are behind us I’ve noticed many people discussing their new years resolutions, updating their to-do lists and generally getting organized for a good 2009. For me, I’ve found it a good opportunity to revisit GTD. Over the last several months, opinion on the classic productivity methodology seems to have turned negative and it’s ironically encouraged me to take another look at it. I’m currently working my way through one of David Allen’s other book, Ready For Anything, and I think it covers many points GTD didn’t discuss so well. As a result certain elements that didn’t really make sense now do and I want to cover them in this post.