{"id":13015,"date":"2015-05-14T11:33:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T18:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?p=13015"},"modified":"2015-05-14T12:54:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T19:54:52","slug":"the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Freedom in Naming your “Stuff”"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"GTD-Times_Deep-Dive-Naming-Stuff\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been reminded over and over again in working with executives over the years why so much of the GTD implementation process is empowering to so many people: when things we have allowed into our inner or outer world are appropriately and accurately identified for what they are and what they mean to us, we feel curiously freed from them. Accurately naming things that are in our world gives us power over them, while leaving them unnamed allows them a certain hold on our minds.<\/p>\n

Various primitive people have beliefs that giving someone your name gives them a certain ability to exert influence over you. Whether that has any truth to it, I\u2019m not sure. But from my own experience, when something that has potential meaning to me is named, it is more known; and when it is known, its potential hold on me is released.<\/p>\n

For instance, if you\u2019d just label all your crap \u201cCrap,\u201d you\u2019d probably feel a lot better. If someone had to call Organization Paramedics for you because you\u2019re so out of control, they could simply bring in a big box labeled \u201cAll the Stuff I Don\u2019t Know What It Is or What to Do with It.\u201d They\u2019d scour your whole environment and throw everything in that box that fits in that category. In an hour you\u2019d be totally organized\u2014if you didn\u2019t know where something was, you\u2019d now know where it was! The best part would be that the totality of the rest of your world would not have any of that \u201cstuff\u201d in it, and a fresh breeze would be blowing through your psyche.<\/p>\n

A good example of this is having a binder on a shelf without a label or title on the spine. Most people are not aware of the slight pressure that unnamed thing maintains on your brain. But if you create a very visible label for it, you\u2019ll notice being more relaxed about it whenever you walk past it. The same is true for storage boxes and file drawers.<\/p>\n

More subtly, do you have any problems that you haven\u2019t identified as projects yet? Got anything you\u2019ve been thinking about that needs clarification, resolution, or looking into, that you don\u2019t have on a Projects list yet, which you can look at regularly to keep actions moving toward? Do you have piles of things around your office or your house that have unidentified agreements sitting within them\u2014read? toss? file? Are there things that you think you need to be moving on but you haven\u2019t defined what \u201cmoving\u201d looks like physically or visibly yet (next action)?<\/p>\n

If you do, then there is good news for you\u2014there is potential energy and freedom embedded there that is available to you…if you name them! If you don\u2019t, well, it\u2019s just the opposite. The problem is that most people have never fully gotten to the place where everything was really categorized appropriately, according to all the different types and amounts of agreements with themselves. You won\u2019t know how much restriction you are actually working under, until you get rid of it, and see how different you feel.<\/p>\n

Naming anything we\u2019re experiencing lessens its grip on us. If I\u2019m feeling negative, when I realize it and call it \u201cnegativity\u201d I instantly have greater freedom of choice about what to do with or about it. When I\u2019m just in it, and haven\u2019t recognized, acknowledged and accepted it for what it is, I am more of its victim than its master.<\/p>\n

A big key is to name things as accurately as possible. If we mislabel, we run the risk of locking ourselves into limitation \u2028and stagnation. To say \u201cI\u2019m a totally disorganized person\u201d is probably not true (you couldn\u2019t get out of bed, if that were true). To say \u201cmy thoughts and paperwork about my finances are disorganized\u201d might be much more accurate and would lend direction and energy toward resolution of the situation.<\/p>\n

Categorizing is to be used for freedom, not constriction. Many people avoid categorizing because they are avoiding making \u2028a decision about something. Should I read this article? File it? Throw it away? Pass it on to someone? But in the short-term freedom of not deciding, they then constrict themselves with the pressure that they ought to be deciding. I use my Tickler file as an elegant tool to deal with this. I\u2019ll often get things in my in-tray that I just don\u2019t know what to do with them yet (especially particularly cool things I might want to buy). I just ask myself \u201cwhen will I be smarter?\u201d and tickle it to show up again then. It\u2019s perfectly fine to decide not to decide. You just need to name those things as such, and park them in a decide-not-to-decide system.<\/p>\n

Disorganization is simply a discrepancy between where something is and what it means to you. The freedom comes from ensuring that everything has its proper ID badge, so it can get in the right line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I have been reminded over and over again in working with executives over the years why so much of the GTD implementation process is empowering to so many people: when things we have allowed into our inner or outer world are appropriately and accurately identified for what they are and what they mean to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Freedom in Naming your “Stuff””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-productivity-tips","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Freedom in Naming your "Stuff" - Getting Things Done\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Freedom in Naming your "Stuff"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  I have been reminded over and over again in working with executives over the years why so much of the GTD implementation process is empowering to so many people: when things we have allowed into our inner or outer world are appropriately and accurately identified for what they are and what they mean to … Continue reading "The Freedom in Naming your “Stuff”"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-14T18:33:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-14T19:54:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/GTD-featured_Deep-Dive.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"285\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@gtdtimes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GTD Times Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\"},\"headline\":\"The Freedom in Naming your “Stuff”\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-14T18:33:03+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-14T19:54:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/\"},\"wordCount\":864,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/GTD-featured_Deep-Dive.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Featured\",\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2015\/05\/the-freedom-in-naming-your-stuff\/\",\"name\":\"The Freedom in Naming your \\\"Stuff\\\" - 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