{"id":2388,"date":"2009-11-30T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2009-11-30T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2014-02-03T14:28:40","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T22:28:40","slug":"taking-care-of-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2009\/11\/taking-care-of-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking care of family"},"content":{"rendered":"

This community contribution comes from Tara who uses GTD to care for her ill mother.\u00a0 It’s a wonderful story from someone who–already naturally organized and\u00a0\"chart\"<\/a>productive–found ways to improve on her systems to provide the best care she could for her mother.<\/p>\n

Dear David,<\/p>\n

I’m probably in the camp of those who need GTD the least and who benefit from it the most. I’ve always been an “organized” person and have been praised for my ability to get things done and not let things “fall of my plate” or “radar screen” depending on the metaphor you prefer. That said, my life has taken a turn for the more complex and chaotic recently and I’ve found GTD to be the thing that helps me keep it together. A while back, my mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. (For those who don’t know, this is Stage IV cancer where it has spread throughout the body and is incurable. Amazingly, with the treatments available, women are able to sometimes live for years with this diagnosis.) I am my mother’s caregiver, with no other family support. As you may imagine, the complexity of managing all of the\u00a0new doctors\/specialists, medical information and appts (along with my already busy career and life) is incredible. And just to make things fun, I live in one state and my office is in another state, so I’m on the road a lot.<\/p>\n

Here, specifically, are the behaviors that GTD has influenced and I find particularly helpful: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n