A Community Contribution from Sarah From
A recent article in the New York Times highlights new research on a fascinating phenomenon: the procrastination of pleasure. Not only do we 
avoid the tasks we dread, we also put off activities we enjoy. Redeeming gift cards, using frequent flier miles, and visiting hometown landmarks all belong to the category of activities we express the desire and intention to do, but chronically put off to another day.
When we put on our GTD glasses we can see one relatively simple approach to this problem: clearly define the very next action. Like all forms of procrastination, pleasure procrastination can result when we are not sure what to do next. Faced with an ill-defined task, we find it easier to ignore the item than to figure out how to do it. It takes shockingly little to derail us into full-on procrastination. [Read more →]
A Community Contribution from Sarah From
My Year in Review, by Sarah From
This time last December, I was working in an office crammed with stuff. Conference programs, old speeches, copies of travel receipts, notebooks brimming with ideas from half a decade ago, and drafts of reports long-ago published were filed and piled around me. I wasn’t a hoarder – I just considered stacking things to be a valid organizing system.
Since I was generally able to find what I needed when I needed it, I didn’t consider myself disorganized. Psychologically, my stacks served as a symbol of the important work that I was doing – work so important that it kept piling up and didn’t wait for me to get around to filing it.
At the same time, I knew my stacks weren’t really doing me any favors. [Read more →]
