Fabulous post, one of the true ‘best of’ 43F. Ever.

I think that what a lot of us get caught up in is the ‘completion’ of some commitment. Recall that GTD forces us to think about the ‘next action’. Sometimes, what ‘Priority!!’ really means that ‘there are one or two very important next actions here’ and that the other bits and pieces that comprise this task can wait until I’ve dealt with some other tasks that bring me some satisfaction. Usually, when faced with an ‘URGENT PRIORITY’ task, I think ‘what next action can I take to lessen the urgency/priority here?’ (i.e. respond to that email, make that call, etc).

Don’t forget that when dealing with people, they are also juggling a never-ending stream of shifting priorities. Negotiate. You are not Superman (although you would have us believe otherwise) and have a finite capacity for ‘getting stuff done’ in each 24 hour day.