Organize IT

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Christmas is meant to be fun, enjoyable and even meaningful, but people seem to be increasingly becoming jaded by it. Whether it be the hassle and expense of buying everyone presents and cards, the stresses of arranging and preparing all the food and decorations or the yearly disappointment of the TV schedule, Christmas has lost some of it’s sparkle, don’t you think?

Cranking widgets:

• To stimulate, activate, or produce.
• Something considered typical or representative.

One of the big things that David Allen covered in GTD was the distinction between simple, mindless tasks that required little thought or focus, and those complicated projects where copious amounts of planning and thought are required, and which can send you into a spiral of stress and confusion. Allen described the former as widget cranking – the equivalent of going to work in a factory and doing whatever simple task was required of you as items came down the conveyor belt.

I don’t really like priorities. I think prioritizing causes more trouble than it’s worth. It’s one more layer of complexity between you and simply doing it. Don’t get me wrong, prioritizing does have its uses and we all (need to) do it on a very basic level every day. The customer that comes through the door has to take priority over the paperwork you’re filling in. But when it comes to the whole prioritizing tips and tricks that self-help and business books go on about (even I came up with my own), all it’s doing is covering up the fundamental problems – you’ve got too much to do and/or you’ve not got enough time to do it all.

A book written by a developmental molecular biologist that offers several principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school? In Brain Rules, John Medina, brings together the volumes of research on how the brain works and uses it as a basis for presenting twelves principles on how to make the most of your grey matter. Sounds like an odd but intriguing mix right? I’ve wanted to read Brain Rules for a long while and after being repeatedly disappointed by the inability of UK bookstores to stock it, I finally bought it online. But was it worth it?

Last week I wrote about the ‘Someday’ disease. It’s the syndrome that runs rampant in modern society. Millions of people put off their lives, goals and dreams all the time, saying they will do it someday. But when exactly? When conditions are perfect? When you  have enough experience and knowledge? In that previous post I discussed how those beliefs are little more than excuses. Conditions are never perfect so why not start now and correct course as you go along?