{"id":16122,"date":"2017-07-14T16:17:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T23:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?p=16122"},"modified":"2017-07-14T16:18:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T23:18:59","slug":"outsmarting-your-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Outsmarting Your Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I have the feeling and the hope every now and again that in 25 years what GTD teaches will be such a \u201cgiven\u201d that we may wonder what it was like to walk around with such pressure and stress from our suboptimal thinking habits.<\/p>\n

The advent of the \u201cknowledge worker\u201d society has given so many of us projects and things to do that are not nearly as clear-cut as work used to be. (Can you ever create a perfect workshop, or write a perfect article for the newsletter?) It has created a world in which we\u2019ve given our minds tremendous work to do. But we\u2019ve also grown up trusting that our minds could (and should) handle it all from beginning to end (because, aren\u2019t they smart!?).<\/p>\n

The problem is, much of the pressure I witness going on for people is their mind trying to do things that it doesn\u2019t do very well. Most people are thinking about how they should be thinking about what they should be thinking about. And then trying not to think about that! They\u2019re not finishing the exercise of the thought process required for completing what it should be thinking about, nor ensuring that they have good trustworthy action-level systems in place to manage the task of reminding themselves about the results of what they\u2019ve come up with in that clarifying process.<\/p>\n

Our minds seduce us regularly. When you\u2019re thinking of something, some part of you is convinced that because it\u2019s so evident at that moment, it will never forget it, and will supply that information or perspective or thought at the appropriate time and place. If that were really true, that would be great. It\u2019s not. Otherwise you would never even need an external calendar\u2014your head would know exactly where you needed to be when (as well as having a consistently correct view of everything coming toward you in your future!).<\/p>\n

When you make agreements with yourself about something (\u201cI would, could, should, might, ought to, etc.\u201d) your mind, dutiful servant that it is, will be glued to that task until it is given further instructions. With no sense of past and future in its short-term memory bank, however, it creates instant and unresolvable conflict if it has more than one thing to do. Learning how to manage this is as straightforward as learning how to scramble eggs. You just have to act from the place that is smarter than your mind.<\/p>\n

\u2013David Allen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?<\/em>\u2014Duc de la Rochefoucauld<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

This essay appeared in David Allen\u2019s Productive Living Newsletter.\u00a0Subscribe for free here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have the feeling and the hope every now and again that in 25 years what GTD teaches will be such a \u201cgiven\u201d that we may wonder what it was like to walk around with such pressure and stress from our suboptimal thinking habits. The advent of the \u201cknowledge worker\u201d society has given so many … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Outsmarting Your Mind”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[27,1,716,32],"tags":[22,42,91],"class_list":["post-16122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-david-allen","category-featured","category-free-resources","category-productivity-tips","tag-getting-things-done","tag-mind-like-water","tag-david-allen-company","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOutsmarting Your Mind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Allen shares GTD tips for outsmarting your mind.\" \/>\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\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Outsmarting Your Mind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Allen shares GTD tips for outsmarting your mind.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\" \/>\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=\"2017-07-14T23:17:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-14T23:18:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"297\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"197\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\"},\"headline\":\"Outsmarting Your Mind\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-14T23:17:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-14T23:18:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Getting Things Done\",\"Mind Like Water\",\"David Allen Company\"],\"articleSection\":[\"David Allen\",\"Featured\",\"Free Resources\",\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\",\"name\":\"Outsmarting Your Mind\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-14T23:17:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-14T23:18:59+00:00\",\"description\":\"David Allen shares GTD tips for outsmarting your mind.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg\",\"width\":297,\"height\":197},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Outsmarting Your Mind\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\u00ae\",\"description\":\"David Allen's GTD\u00ae Methodology\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Getting Things Done\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png\",\"width\":370,\"height\":338,\"caption\":\"Getting Things Done\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/gtdtimes\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\",\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4df22f74cebc078fff6e9f4d8e6e74a980295dec0849d6ab2d6b303ee0c92030?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4df22f74cebc078fff6e9f4d8e6e74a980295dec0849d6ab2d6b303ee0c92030?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GTD Times Staff\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Outsmarting Your Mind","description":"David Allen shares GTD tips for outsmarting your mind.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Outsmarting Your Mind","og_description":"David Allen shares GTD tips for outsmarting your mind.","og_url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/","og_site_name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","article_published_time":"2017-07-14T23:17:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-07-14T23:18:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":297,"height":197,"url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"GTD Times Staff","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@gtdtimes","twitter_site":"@gtdtimes","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"GTD Times Staff","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/"},"author":{"name":"GTD Times Staff","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4"},"headline":"Outsmarting Your Mind","datePublished":"2017-07-14T23:17:40+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-14T23:18:59+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/"},"wordCount":477,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg","keywords":["Getting Things Done","Mind Like Water","David Allen Company"],"articleSection":["David Allen","Featured","Free Resources","Productivity Tips"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/","name":"Outsmarting Your Mind","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg","datePublished":"2017-07-14T23:17:40+00:00","dateModified":"2017-07-14T23:18:59+00:00","description":"David Allen shares GTD tips for outsmarting your mind.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/da-small.jpg","width":297,"height":197},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2017\/07\/outsmarting-your-mind\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Outsmarting Your Mind"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","name":"Getting Things Done\u00ae","description":"David Allen's GTD\u00ae Methodology","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization","name":"Getting Things Done","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/gtd-logo.png","width":370,"height":338,"caption":"Getting Things Done"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gettingthingsdone\/","https:\/\/x.com\/gtdtimes","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gtdtimes\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/groups\/2328651\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4","name":"GTD Times Staff","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4df22f74cebc078fff6e9f4d8e6e74a980295dec0849d6ab2d6b303ee0c92030?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4df22f74cebc078fff6e9f4d8e6e74a980295dec0849d6ab2d6b303ee0c92030?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"GTD Times Staff"},"url":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/author\/webadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}