Stress-free productivity does exist

In GTD, most of your projects (by definition, any outcome that needs more than one action step) will be a sequence of actions to be performed one after the other to achieve the end result. In such projects, FacileThings shows you only the very first next action of each project in the Next Actions list. And when you complete it, the following action shows up automatically. So straightforward.

The referee gives a penalty kick in a soccer match. The ball will take a split second to reach the goal from the moment of the striker’s kick, so the goalie cannot wait to see the ball’s trajectory to decide to which side he should jump. The decision should be taken beforehand. The odd thing is that the goalkeeper will decide, in most cases, to jump to the right side or to the left side, when the optimal strategy according to statistics is the third option: standing in the middle. Why won’t he stand still? Just because doing nothing is always somewhat embarrassing, even if it is the right thing to do.

The other day I met a friend for coffee. When we finished our coffees, we decided to go for a walk and continue the conversation for a little longer. Bad idea. The sun was blazing hot; the temperature 30ºC. I said goodbye and went home to continue the work I had planned to do that evening. Impossible. It took less than five minutes to realize that the increasingly intense headache caused by the sunstroke would not allow me to concentrate on what I had to do for a good while.

One of the most common mistakes when implementing GTD, not only at the beginning but also after having practiced the method for a long time, is the tendency to mix the stages of collecting and processing (or capturing and clarifying, as David Allen call them in his recent review and update of the GTD book.)

It’s the middle of the day, you’re tired and don’t think clearly anymore, you want to go home but still have 3 hours left of work before you can go. You have this nagging thought in your head: How can you get motivated and be more productive all day long, so you don’t hit these darn speed bumps that pop up all over the place like little targets on a video game?