It’s not literally nothing, but I’d say they often do some “infinite task”—a thing that can expand to take all available time, and can be used to avoid anything else. Modern example is web browsing, but classic example could be e.g. house cleaning. Avoiding is the critical component of procrastination, but it can be masked by wasting all the time and then saying “no, I don’t avoid it, I just don’t have enough time, because I have so much work”. Sometimes the waste of time is obvious, such as with web browsing, but sometimes one can do many relatively useful things just to avoid one unplesant task.
GTD is good to fix bugs like: “you did a decision, then you forgot it, then you had to decide again, so you wasted twice as much time” or “you went to place X to do task A, then you returned home, and only then you remembered that you also have to do task B at the same place, so you had to travel twice”. It supposes one is already efficient, but wants do be twice as efficient. So one creates lists of “all tasks that need to be done at place X”, lists of already made decisions, etc.
GTD is bad to fix bugs like: “you had enough time to do A, but instead you spent all the time on Reddit”. One can write a list of projects and tasks… and spend all the time on Reddit anyway.
I suppose the problem is that the software does not definitely tell me which option is better, and so I don’t commit to any option.
Yeah, that’s another thing GTD does not do (not 100% sure about it, but this is what I remember). It supposes that you choose a doable amount of work, and do it all. The only difference is that by being twice as efficient, the amount of doable work increases.
Planning is a different thing than doing; and it shouldn’t be done at the same time. -- When planning, we focus on how useful things are. When doing, we are inevitably influenced by how easy things are. When we mix planning and working, there is high risk of rationalizing the easier task as more useful, just because we prefer to do something easy.
For me planning is easiest when the work is in the far mode; for example on evening, or when I am walking outside.
EDIT: Actually, GTD makes an important distinction between projects (you started doing), future projects (you didn’t start yet, but you will start soon) and maybe projects (you probably will not do it), and it prioritizes the projects that already started. Which makes sense, because by decision to start a project, you expressed that the project has a high priority, so you should respect it (unless you change your mind dramatically).
It’s not literally nothing, but I’d say they often do some “infinite task”—a thing that can expand to take all available time, and can be used to avoid anything else. Modern example is web browsing, but classic example could be e.g. house cleaning. Avoiding is the critical component of procrastination, but it can be masked by wasting all the time and then saying “no, I don’t avoid it, I just don’t have enough time, because I have so much work”. Sometimes the waste of time is obvious, such as with web browsing, but sometimes one can do many relatively useful things just to avoid one unplesant task.
GTD is good to fix bugs like: “you did a decision, then you forgot it, then you had to decide again, so you wasted twice as much time” or “you went to place X to do task A, then you returned home, and only then you remembered that you also have to do task B at the same place, so you had to travel twice”. It supposes one is already efficient, but wants do be twice as efficient. So one creates lists of “all tasks that need to be done at place X”, lists of already made decisions, etc.
GTD is bad to fix bugs like: “you had enough time to do A, but instead you spent all the time on Reddit”. One can write a list of projects and tasks… and spend all the time on Reddit anyway.
Yeah, that’s another thing GTD does not do (not 100% sure about it, but this is what I remember). It supposes that you choose a doable amount of work, and do it all. The only difference is that by being twice as efficient, the amount of doable work increases.
Planning is a different thing than doing; and it shouldn’t be done at the same time. -- When planning, we focus on how useful things are. When doing, we are inevitably influenced by how easy things are. When we mix planning and working, there is high risk of rationalizing the easier task as more useful, just because we prefer to do something easy.
For me planning is easiest when the work is in the far mode; for example on evening, or when I am walking outside.
EDIT: Actually, GTD makes an important distinction between projects (you started doing), future projects (you didn’t start yet, but you will start soon) and maybe projects (you probably will not do it), and it prioritizes the projects that already started. Which makes sense, because by decision to start a project, you expressed that the project has a high priority, so you should respect it (unless you change your mind dramatically).