I think the most important habit I learned was to be willing to change habits my work habits with care and caution, and not to try to change too many at once.

When I returned to sobriety in this regard, I think that the habit of emptying my capture points more frequently has made a big difference recently, especially when it comes to my email inbox.

The Zero inbox the the result of many habits working together well, and as soon as I stop doing any one, email starts to pile up!

After you make a plan, choose a first action from the list, no matter how small, and act immediatelly. If you don’t act, you’ll never move forward with your project. If you act, your brain will pick that as a first commitment/investment, and will motivate you to continue with the next tasks.

For implementing GTD you can try my application: http://www.gtdagenda.com

Probably the biggest difference for me happened when I started considering my energy level and motivation as resources equal to things like “near a phone”. (Which our host on this site gets into a bit in his recent talk).

I adjusted my contexts to include “easy” and “needs concentration”, for example. When I’m having trouble getting getting started, I’ve got a few things in “easy” I can start with to get me moving and into a productive state of mind. Being able to pull things that require a lot of attention when I have time and energy makes the quality of my work on those better.

And when I do a weekly review, looking at the balance between easy, difficult, quick, or time-consuming tasks and my calendar helps me get a realistic sense of what I can accomplish for the week. And those details also help me evaluate my priorities - if I realize there’s a difficult, time-consuming set of tasks coming up, I know that’s a list that needs to have a really good reason to be in my workflow, otherwise it’s time to scrap it or find someone else to do it.

Probably the most life-changing thing I’ve done is to get rid of roles, responsibilities, and activities that aren’t absolutely important, or that add enjoyment and pleasure at the most core level.

A lot of this started happening when I stumbled into an unexpected blessing of starting a guitar lesson website that really took off. This caused me to re-evaluate everything else I was doing. I realized that all the “stuff” I had been filing my life with was now a distraction from something that was both truly enjoyable and very profitable, a rare combination.

What has allowed me, and what will continue to allow me to focus my extra energy on things I really love is a newfound appreciation for minimalism, both in lifestyle and possessions. Some people might think that a trip to the dump with a truckful of junk doesn’t have much to do with running a website, but I see the two of them as intimately related.

Hope some of this translates, best wishes :)

And seeing as you are a man involved in Church as I am myself, another thing that has been instrumental in changing my life is the realization that (at least here in the States), a lot of Churches survive on the backs of those who are willing to carry the load of 10 people. Aside from burning out the people who think they can do it all, it also prevents others from learning to develop their own gifts and talents because there’s often no perceived room for them to lead anything. Realizing that I need to get out of the way and allow someone to carry part of the load has been a true blessing.

Find a million reasons to DO THE ACTION, instead of the one not to. We all need to kick ourselves in the rear once in awhile. Good luck with school!

Matthew Fauris

I feel one of the best things anyone can do for themselves is have a regular review schedule (at least once a week or more).

I might need someone to help cite, but I thought I had read somewhere that the review is the one piece that people have trouble with. Although the rest of “system” is important (especially the “do” part), it is my opinion that if you really want to commit to GTD methodology and (more importantly) you life goals. You have to review where you are and where you are headed.

Breakdown: Collection: What good is collecting if you don’t look at it after you’ve collected it? Process: Are you sure this the right thing to do with this stuff? Organize: Did you place that tasks or reference in the best place? Is it time that you did something about that one project you’ve put off? Do: What are you doing? Is it really what you want to do?

I understand that you can get stuck reviewing things forever and that the end result of all of our actions should be to actually do something, but (to say my point again) reviewing is one of the most important things to change my life.

Besides setting up and committing to my GTD system, the biggest life change for me was accepting that I am never going to do or be just One Thing, and joyfully welcoming into my life all of the possibilities I was suppressing. Barbara Sher's book Refuse to Choose helped me with this (she has been instrumental in several other life changes over the years). Amazingly, letting myself 1) be excited about everything I want, and 2) dive into doing many new projects has led to more accomplishments and energy, not less. Yay!

Do Mi