I’m about to state the obvious.

We’re all human.

Ergo, we make mistakes. Like creating words like “ergo.”

Beyond “The Royal We,” we’re individuals. I’m sure you didn’t create the word “ergo” but I am pretty certain you’ve made other mistakes. I know I’ve made my share. For example, starting off this article as I have. That’d be one.

Another I make is getting off track rather than Getting Things Done. Hey, it happens to the best of us, right?

A prolonged stay in the “trackless void” is what some would refer to as a rut. I’ve been there. The place is as ugly-sounding as the word itself. Sure, it’s not as bad as cesspool, but it’s close…especially if you’re stuck in one.

I manage to get out of ruts now as quickly as I’ve fallen into them, thanks in large part to the Horizons of Focus. Sure, The GTD Weekly Review is a good place to start to escape one, but I find if you look as far as you can see the rut gets smaller and smaller. Soon, it’s just a pothole, then it’s just a bump in the road. By looking down the line to what I’m ultimately going for, I can dust myself off and start heading there once more.

Another benefit is that by using the Horizons of Focus as a roadmap to get you out of any ruts that you may fall into is that you get really good at memorizing them.

Trust me on that one.

As the first quarter of 2010 passes us by, I’m going to ask it: How many of you have stuck to your “resolutions” that you made at the start of 2010?

I’m betting that some of you – perhaps most of you – have faltered on them in some form or another.  It’s to be expected.  In fact, it can be preferred.

I’ve heard David Allen say you need to make a bunch of resolutions – essentially goals – and the real challenge is making some of them stick.  When I first heard this, I couldn’t believe it.  I mean – c’mon – surely we should have some focus on what we want to get out of ourselves and the year ahead.  Why not hone in on a few resolutions from the onset?

Then I realized that extreme focus on a few items might just lead to failure – and a more recognizable or definitive failure to boot.  When you only pick one or two things to work on (or give up) you’re only giving yourself one or two chances to succeed.  However, when you give yourself a large number of goals to strive for, you’re providing yourself with more opportunities for success.  We all know that one success generally makes up for several failures – so why not gear yourself up for potential successes rather than set yourself up for failures that stand out?

We go into a new year with more disillusionment than resolve in most cases because we’re trying to do too much in a short period of time.  Sure, you think it’s going to be a year-long journey, but in the grand scheme of things one year is a short period of time when you’re talking about goals and habits.  If you did a retrospective at the end of last year, you’re already ahead of the game.  Just keep focused on the end result – and there’s a lot of aspects of your life that you’ll want to alter to hit that mark.  So go for the changes you know you’ll need to make to do just that.  There’s a good chance you’ll miss more than you’ll hit, but those who are the best at what they do have found success despite failing time and time again.

Swing for the fences; you’ll hit at least one home run if you give yourself enough chances at the plate.*

*I had written five other sports metaphors before getting it right with this one.  I rest my case.

Mike Vardy is an accomplished, self-professed productivity and procrastination expert, as well as regular contributor to GTD Times. With his humor and wisdom, we hope you enjoy his perspective on doing things…eventually. Read more from Mike.

Like most of you, I have a lot going on.  Between my writing and the regular day job (the one that I enjoy a ton and it pays regularly), I’d taken on a couple of speaking engagements and started work on a book.  Apparently, I also have a wife and daughter.  I found I wasn’t doing my Weekly Review because my weeks seemed to blend into each other.    Then when I did sit down to do it, I’d felt shameful because I had made limited progress in several areas, but hadn’t finished anything to completion.  That’s when I realized I had fallen into the dangerous realm of “professional crastination” – or procrastination for short.

Procrastination isn’t all bad…but it’s definitely not all good, either.  It can be a bit akin to quicksand if you’re not clear in mind because the more you struggle with it, the deeper you sink into it.  I’m sure everyone has noticed when you are in the state of “mind like water” it’s easier to make headway, but not so much when it’s anything thicker!  So I did the smart thing.  I stood still.  I did nothing but take time for myself, which I really wasn’t doing – and hadn’t been for some time (probably about knee-deep in quicksand terms).  As I did this, I was able to sort out all the stuff that didn’t matter and get to the heart of what did.  Then I started moving.

Soon enough, I was out the quicksand and back on solid ground.  It’s far easier to take stock when you’re on steady footing than when you’re in uncertain territory.  I was back on track and flow had resumed.  The very next thing I did was to sit down and write this piece.

We all need certainty and uncertainty in our lives; they are two of our fundamental needs as human beings.  Our productivity and – ultimately- our progress are affected by how we manage those times where either of these needs present themselves.  GTD can be a valuable tool in that struggle.

Of this I am certain.

Mike Vardy is an accomplished, self-professed productivity and procrastination expert, as well as regular contributor to GTD Times. With his humor and wisdom, we hope you enjoy his perspective on doing things…eventually. Read more from Mike.

I was surfing the web and discovered that not only had someone written a similar play, they had named it almost exactly the same and it was a smash hit!  Talk about a body blow.  I’d spent the last few years working on it sporadically, and now it was never going to see the light of day.  Even if it was determined that my creation was better – that wouldn’t matter.  The early bird got the worm.

Once I found out about this work, I went through a range of emotions….

Disbelief: What were the odds of someone having almost exactly the same idea as mine, and executing it in similar fashion?  As a musical, no less!

Anger: How dare they!  (And then the rest of the language used was somewhat coarse.  Somewhat.)

But the one I ended up with at the end of it all: regret.

I knew I could have had the piece done years ago had I focused on it a bit more.  I knew it was my own fault for being complacent.  The only professional aspect of how I handled this project was in the form of “professional crastination.”  Clichéd as it sounds; I needed a drink.

Wallowing in regret is not a good thing.  But what you should do when you begin to feel regret is a tried and true method of emptying your head.  Write it down.  Capture the wave of emotion as it flows through you.  Make a list of pros and cons.  Do whatever you have to do to get the feeling out of your mind (because it will linger if you don’t) and resolve how to avoid it in the future.  While you can’t escape regret entirely, you can certainly learn from it.

What did I learn?  Well, I learned that I still have a lot to learn about keeping GTD in practice. But I also learned that I desperately want to be a writer – a creative artist.  I’ve turned my feeling of regret into a motivator.  I don’t want to be upstaged or upset by my own inaction again.  Put off and delay and prepare to pay.

That’s why I wrote this article the same day I made the aforementioned discovery.  I’m a quick study.

Mike Vardy is a regular (eventually) contributor to GTD Times. We hope you enjoy his posts as much as we do!

In the context of the episode the goal was for Sports Night (the fictional show) to move up in the ratings, something they’d strived to do since their first day on the air.  In our own lives we should be doing the same, elevating our game as often as we can – every day. While we don’t have the Nielsen people to please and network executives to answer to (okay, some of you may have…and good luck with that), we do have agreements we have made with ourselves to be as productive and proficient as we can be.

We can move forward every day.  We can read a book – fiction or non – and that will move us forward in knowledge and literary awareness.  We can spend time with our family, which will nurture our relationships with them, moving them forward.  We can eliminate a bad habit – or move towards eliminating it – which will give us the opportunity to move forward with the habits that serve us well.  We can review our accomplishments and our setbacks – which will move us forward in that we remain on top of them and learn from them.  (I think there’s something called “The Weekly Review” that might just work here.)

The bottom line is – in order to be truly productive, you have to move. If you don’t move, you’re standing still…and that’s when life can pass you by.

I guess that means no marathon of The West Wing in one sitting for me.  Too many seasons.

Mike Vardy is a regular contributor to GTD Times. With his great sense of humor and self-professed productivity expert credentials, we hope you enjoy his perspectives on GTD!

We’ve all heard the benefits of taking naps or practicing meditation during your workday can result in one being more productive. We’ve also heard how these things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive – sometimes (often by accident) they go hand in hand. However, depending on your work environment these suggestions may not be applicable…or even possible.

I’m certain that many employers wouldn’t take it too kindly  if you were seen napping – break or otherwise – on site. That may not be fair, but welcome to life.  I also know that achieving a meditative state can be difficult, unless you work in a church, monastery or perhaps a library. What I would suggest to replace napping and/or meditation is that you look back to your youth, back when you were in grade school. Remember what it was like to have recess.

I had two short recesses and one long recess each day, the latter being sandwiched between the two (amongst classes, of course). The shorter ones were fifteen minutes long and they allowed for quick escapes into the outdoors and away from the rigors of schoolwork. We played foot hockey (only needing a tennis ball and a “borrowed” piece of chalk from the classroom to mark the goal posts at either end of the blacktop), role played our favorite television shows of the era (ours was V, and I generally played as Ham Tyler – Michael Ironside is the Canadian Clint Eastwood) or simply read a Choose Your Own Adventure book. No matter what we did, recess gave us a chance to recharge – and often that is the best way to get refocused.

Fast forward to today. We’re given (or giving ourselves) very little time to take breaks and recharge. Many of us eat lunch at our desks while working, while some don’t rest at all. The old saying “no rest for the wicked” may apply here, but I think it applies to the habit as opposed to the individual. In grade school we used to get a long recess that would accommodate both our lunch break and “mind break.” If you calculate the combined forces of both the short recesses and the long one, that’s an hour of recharging right there. Some of us barely get thirty minutes to eat in our daily routine. It’s amazing how our past recess has become today’s “regress.”

It even started as we moved along the educational chain.

As we moved from grade school into high school, short recesses became abandoned for a simple long lunch hour. This is when skipping class became a popular hobby for most students, myself included. Intense study began to replace interaction between studying. No more foot hockey (unless you happened to go to a school where they had a varsity team – highly unlikely), no more role playing (unless you were in the Dramatic Arts or spending time in the school psychologist’s office) and the only choosing you did during breaks was what you were going to major in.
Then came college or university. This is when the places you went to learn were described as “institutions.” Some made it through, some dropped out and some are still there – or go back because there’s always more to learn. There’s nothing wrong with learning and challenging yourself to be the best you can be. But even the best need breaks to reflect, recharge and refocus. Even Michael Jordan got a break between quarters (and a larger one between halves).

You see, recess equals progress.

We need to take breaks, and we need to take them often. I can’t say how many or how long you may need to take, but you need to take them. I don’t think anyone could – or should – try to absorb something that is vital in a short amount of time. David Allen has suggested that even if you “get” GTD after reading the book, you should read it again. And again. And again some more.

So I’ll leave you with the following “choices.” Now that you’ve absorbed the idea of reintroducing recess into your life, do you:

a) Increase the amount of work you do to offset the recesses you’re now going to take? If so, go to #1.

b) Dismiss this article as mere fantasy and continue on as usual? If so, go to #2.

c) Start your first recess right away? If so, go to #3.

Your adventure has been chosen…

1) You find it impossible to balance more stuff and your co-workers find you weeks later buried amongst papers in your inbox.

2) I’m surprised you took the time to read this. Think about that.

3) You bring the tennis ball; I’ve still got the chalk.

We’ve all heard the infamous quote from Benjamin Franklin. He’s one of history’s most revered individuals.  We’ve even found a way to make his stance on his “13 Virtues” into a means of feeling a sense of accomplishment in our daily lives. He was smart, articulate and an innovator.

But I’m sorry, Ben. Your quote no longer applies.

Now, I’m not saying that aspects of it don’t apply – there is a certain basic need to ensure time is not wasted or it will cost money. There’s no argument there. The truth is that time that isn’t well spent can also cost you money – sometimes even more so – because there’s going to be something lacking.

Focus.

Without focus, thoughts and ideas are scattered. Actions remain incomplete. Projects wither and die. I’ve had it happen to me on several occasions in the past; I’ve had so much on the go and no sense on where I’m going that I end up either lost or nowhere at all. And that’s nowhere to be.

I’ve also heard arguments that the only way one can achieve focus is to avoid multitasking. This is a bit of a fallacy. The truth is, you need to be able to show that you can handle many tasks – and yet can focus on one task at a time. This allows you to remain both viable and reliable, which are two very valuable qualities to have in your arsenal.

The only way anyone can achieve this on a consistent basis is by putting a system in place that allows both to occur. GTD does this admirably well, provided that you “get clear” when adopting it. Taking the right amount of time – focused time – to fully and properly put the system in place will get you on the road to being more productive.

If nothing else from this sinks in (which means you REALLY need to focus), remember the following quote, courtesy of yours truly:

“With consistent focus, you can start bringing in consistent “benjamins.”

Now I’ve got your attention…

Mike Vardy is a regular contributor to GTD Times. With his great sense of humor and self-professed productivity expert credentials, we hope you enjoy his perspectives on GTD!

That’s the biggest hurdle of all.

The more options you have to entertain, the more options you feel that you have to entertain. This is counter-intuitive to what GTD and productivity is all about. While you can spend countless hours reading, researching, adopting and implementing – you are only more educated on different means of getting things done. And that’s all you’ve gotten done. Way to go!

David Allen’s system is tried, tested and true. Many follow it. Others find it too complex; too overwhelming to adopt in one fell swoop (which you really have to do to fully benefit from the system) so they either don’t do it right or let it slide unintentionally. There are other, more “zen-like” approaches to productivity, which get the job done in a different way. You can use software, a Moleskine, the back of a napkin or a Hipster PDA. You can write with any number of instruments, from bullet pens to clutches to nothing at all. You can use multiple things if you want. But, remember, sometimes you don’t want what you need – and vice versa.

(If the rest of that paragraph didn’t confuse you, I bet the last line just sailed by. And it probably made sense.)

The first hurdle is one of the biggest; the size of the rest are often determined by the hurdles around them. To get past this first hurdle, however, you need to get past the multitude of options and go with the one thing that you know best.

You.

Know your habits. Know your strengths. Know your weaknesses. The more you know how you’ll handle working towards a more productive lifestyle, the easier the hurdle will become.  Keep in mind, adopting a more productive lifestyle will definitely lead you down “the road less traveled.” Making the right choice on what system is the best for you will make the trip a hell of a lot easier.

Welcome Mike Vardy as our newest contributor to GTD Times. With his great sense of humor and self-professed productivity expert credentials, we hope you enjoy his perspectives on GTD!