{"id":16790,"date":"2018-05-10T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/?p=16790"},"modified":"2018-05-10T08:35:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T15:35:05","slug":"what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What Gets in the Way of Being Productive?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A typical question I get is, \u201cWhat\u2019s the one thing that we do that gets in the way of us being productive?\u201d It\u2019s not one thing, but five, all wrapped together: People keep stuff in their head. They don\u2019t decide what they need to do about stuff they know they need to do something about. They don\u2019t organize action reminders and support materials in functional categories. They don\u2019t maintain and review a complete and objective inventory of their commitments. Then they waste energy and burn out, allowing their busy-ness to be driven by what\u2019s latest and loudest, hoping it\u2019s the right thing to do but never feeling the relief that it is.<\/p>\n

I merely just bottom-lined the worst practices for the five steps of managing workflow\u2014capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. None of these is the ONE problem. Obviously most people keep stuff in their head, which short-circuits the process to begin with. But lots of people write lots of things down\u2014they just don\u2019t decide the next actions on them, which keeps the lists operationally dysfunctional. But even if they think about the actions required, they don\u2019t organize the reminder somewhere that they\u2019ll see when they are in the context to do the action. And even if they did that in a burst of productivity inspiration, most let their systems quickly become out of date and inconsistent. And without the care and feeding and constant utilization of their objective executive thinking tools, that function slips back into psychic RAM. Life and work become reactive responses instead of clearly directed action choices.<\/p>\n

So, what do we need to do instead?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a combined set of the five best-practice behaviors. Get everything out of your head. Make decisions about actions required on stuff when it shows up, not when it blows up. Organize reminders of your projects and the next actions on them in appropriate categories. Keep your system current, complete, and reviewed sufficiently to trust your intuitive choices about what you\u2019re doing and what you\u2019re not doing at any point in time.<\/p>\n

I suppose I could have gotten it even simpler: \u201cFocus on positive outcomes and continually take the next action of the most important thing.\u201d But who doesn\u2019t know that? Consistent implementation of that principle, totally integrated with every aspect of our life, is the big challenge. And that\u2019s easier than you\u2019re afraid it is, but not as easy as it sounds.<\/p>\n

\u2013David Allen<\/p>\n

This essay appeared in David Allen\u2019s Productive Living Newsletter.\u00a0Subscribe for free here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A typical question I get is, \u201cWhat\u2019s the one thing that we do that gets in the way of us being productive?\u201d It\u2019s not one thing, but five, all wrapped together: People keep stuff in their head. They don\u2019t decide what they need to do about stuff they know they need to do something about. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What Gets in the Way of Being Productive?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13984,"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":[27,736,1,716,32],"tags":[745,69,46,91,28,22],"class_list":["post-16790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-david-allen","category-educational-tools","category-featured","category-free-resources","category-productivity-tips","tag-david-allen","tag-implementing-gtd","tag-implementation","tag-david-allen-company","tag-getting-started","tag-getting-things-done","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Gets in the Way of Being Productive? - Getting Things Done\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many people, looking for the shortcut to implementing GTD, ask me to tell them the ONE thing that gets in the way of being productive.\" \/>\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\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Gets in the Way of Being Productive?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many people, looking for the shortcut to implementing GTD, ask me to tell them the ONE thing that gets in the way of being productive.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/\" \/>\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=\"2018-05-10T15:00:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-10T15:35:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/DA-47_PLN_295x3659.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"261\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"365\" \/>\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\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"GTD Times Staff\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#\/schema\/person\/52d8dfa5db8d4e8792586794625c12a4\"},\"headline\":\"What Gets in the Way of Being Productive?\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-10T15:00:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-10T15:35:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":444,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/DA-47_PLN_295x3659.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"David Allen\",\"Implementing GTD\",\"Implementation\",\"David Allen Company\",\"Getting Started\",\"Getting Things Done\"],\"articleSection\":[\"David Allen\",\"Educational Tools\",\"Featured\",\"Free Resources\",\"Productivity Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2018\/05\/what-gets-in-the-way-of-being-productive-2\/\",\"name\":\"What Gets in the Way of Being Productive? 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