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Getting off the ground - feeling panicked/worried

Hi all.

I've read through most of Getting Things Done about twice now, thought about implementing it quite a bit, and even posted here once or twice. I've bought a filing cabinet (something I swore I'd never do), a stack of folders and adhesive labels, and a bunch of index cards. I've decided to give it a go, since I'm in my last year at uni, working part-time, and usually have a few personal/freelance projects on the go at any one time as well as a social life to keep a grip on, so there's a lot of stuff to manage there.

And now I'm processing my inbox for the first time, and my list of projects is starting to make me feel quite nervous and even panicky, and I'm not even halfway there yet. It contains everything from "Fix couch in loungeroom" to "Organise time with girlfriend" and "Update portfolio".

Although I had small moments of feeling good about the process (such as when I wrote out "Fix wind-up watch" as a project, something I've been meaning to do for over a year), looking at all this stuff in one spot just makes me nervous, not in control of all the stuff in my life.

My project list is over 50, and I still have a stack of projects/ideas to get through, fearing I'll have this monster list at the end of it all and no idea where to start. Am I doing it wrong?

dhartzell's picture

It doesn’t sound like

It doesn't sound like you're doing it wrong. To me it sounds like you're new enough to this style of work you don't trust the system you've set up yet, and that just takes some time.

There are a few things I think help you get through that: - Time with the system to be able to trust it

  • Getting comfortable with the idea that all of us have more ideas about what we should do then we could ever accomplish.

  • Getting comfortable with a weekly review as a chance to both examine what you want out of life and cherry pick your list of things you could do for the ones that are actually necessary and/or get you towards your bigger goals.

  • Gaining a little perspective on your project lists. Having spent many (too many) years being driven by my inbox, it took a while to shake off the feeling that anything at all I was looking at must be dealt with promptly because it was there in front of me. Stepping back and evaluating how important it is without presuming it needs to be done now/at all takes some getting used to.

There's a bit of mental readjustment involved, I think, and that can just take a while. And I've seen people handle it in different ways - including a coworker who creates a "Not to do" project.

 
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