What does responsibility mean to you?
November 20th, 2011 GTD Times Team - Staff ContributorsCategories | David Allen | Getting Things Done | Inspiration
What does responsibility mean to you, in the work you do?
David Allen’s response:
“If you say someone is responsible, that usually means that if he makes an agreement, he keeps it, or re-negotiates it, and doesn’t let it fall through the cracks. A lot of GTD is about that — keeping agreements and not losing stuff. If I’m going to be responsible, I’m going to hold myself accountable. But I think a subtler and more interesting spin is to break the word down into two parts, “response” and “able,” meaning one’s ability to respond.”
You can hold yourself accountable, and you can be held accountable by others. Usually, the latter is more powerful. It’s easier to lie to yourself than it is to not fall through on a commitment made to other people.
Regards,
Matt
http://www.FluentBrain.com
In the area of self-management I see responsibilities as commitments I freely take for myself as a way to orient actions and projects so that I can move forward, AT MY OWN PACE, towards my goals. I make a conscious effort to avoid holding myself accountable for them. I noticed that if I feel I am accountable and then need to make changes I sometimes get a little stressed about it or experience a subtle, disturbing sense of guilt.
Unless the responsibilities comes with some kind of legal or moral obbligations (and I put those in a different list!), I treat them as simple triggers for action. My first rule it to be good to myself. I want to harness my mind in order to be served, not persecuted.