Menu of the Day, Revisited

After reading Get Things Done this weekend, I'm very stoked to start systemizing my activities. It's interesting to compare my old habits to the new, GTD-related ones.

For example, today I woke up and immediately started mentally reviewing the things I wanted to get done in general. These are:

• Breathe life into stalled external projects
• Finish up some current projects for a deadline by the end-of-the-week
• Start GTD
• Get the house ready for Dad's impending visit
• Do some what is my niche of one clarification
• Update the website with one of those new-fangled "bottom information pane" things, to consolidate some of the sidelink areas into more browsable form
• Plan a networking / how to find new business campaign
• Get some of the upcoming PCEO forms into "initial release" shape...there's two on the drawing board that have been sitting for a couple weeks.
• Write a book outline for some kind of PCEO-related ebook
• Get the podcasting software installed, rope Brad into helping
• Financial Housekeeping and systemization
• Converting ad-hoc household chores into collectable color card format, a modern form of me
• Get back on that [Spaceship Drawing][spaceship] thread, and develop more story pieces
• Keep up with Barcamp Manchester, currently being organized by Ian Muir
• Catch up with everyone. Everyone!
• Exercise and lose 20 pounds, in case I do end up going to my 20ish-something High School Reunion.

That's not a bad start for my list. The first thing I thought of today was that I wanted to make one of my Menu of the Day forms to clarify my thinking, but I immediately saw that this was a reaction to one of the general premises of GTD...anxiety caused by lack of knowing where things are. Menu of the Day is a focusing trick that works in the absense of having the big picture in an accessible, trusted format, which is what having a functioning GTD system place would take care of. Fascinating.

Since I'm not following GTD yet, I am putting "Do Collection Phase" on my Menu of the Day to bootstrap my way into it. Competing for attention is the paying client work, and a scheduled haircut in Danvers, which is about an hour each way by car.

Another interesting sensation is knowing that implementing GTD will resolve a LOT of the lingering system issues I've been having, at least at the higher levels. I won't know what specifically needs to be developed until I try it, but it's cool knowing that there are thousands of people who've already done this, and will have posted their solutions. Should be a lot of fun!

Comments

I’ve got to read this book. I’ve been trying to systemize things in my life and get organized but it just isn’t working. Maybe a litte advice/inspiration is what I need. I guess I’ve also got to accept that with a 10 month old, there’s a limit to how systematic things can get.

I’m really stoked that you’re going to be doing more with the spaceship/story pieces. I’ve been trying to get motivated to make this game I’ve had swirling around in my brain and everytime you publish more spaceship stuff it gets me re-energized a bit. I’ll have to post some EVE screenshots for you.

Also, I know how hard it is to lose weight. I’ve lost about 40lbs over the past year and it’s been a lot of hardwork. In fact, I think I might have to write a blog post about it. It might help you and others out by sharing what’s been successful for me.

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Yo Dave,
Check me off your ‘Catch up with everyone’ bullet.  I’ve been a bit unproductive myself recently. Putting off what can easily be done quickly. In those situations, I say “It took me 3 weeks and 5 minutes to do it!” Three weeks procrastination, 5 minutes production.

Barry