{"id":5863,"date":"2012-03-22T08:22:54","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T16:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/2012\/03\/22\/"},"modified":"2014-07-12T18:52:25","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T01:52:25","slug":"your-brain-on-gtd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gettingthingsdone.com\/2012\/03\/your-brain-on-gtd\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Brain on GTD"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you define the successful outcome of a goal or project clearly, your brain starts finding ways to achieve that outcome. Or, as David Allen crisply phrases it in chapter 13 of <em>Getting Things Done<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Make it up.<\/li>\n<li>Make it happen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A recent article entitled <a title=\"Your Brain on Fiction\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/18\/opinion\/sunday\/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?_r=4&amp;pagewanted=all\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Your Brain   on Fiction<\/em><\/a> summarizes new research to support this idea. \u201cThe brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.\u201d Reading fiction is like having your brain run a computer simulation program.<\/p>\n<p>You might have heard David say in his seminars that the human nervous system doesn\u2019t distinguish between a well-imagined thought and reality. Once you have identified an outcome, your brain\u2019s <a title=\"Reticular formation of the brain\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Reticular_formation\" target=\"_blank\">reticular activating system<\/a> will start organizing incoming information in ways that help you get the outcome you\u2019ve defined. So go ahead and let your imagination savor the experience while you read your lists of successful outcomes\u2014your projects and goals\u2014as your brain helps you convert what you read into your reality.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5866\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5866\" style=\"width: 424px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2012\/03\/reticular4.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5866\" title=\"reticular4\" src=\"http:\/\/www.gtdtimes.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2012\/03\/reticular4.png\" alt=\"Reticular formation of the brain, from Gray's Anatomy\" width=\"424\" height=\"341\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5866\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reticular formation of the brain, from Gray&#39;s Anatomy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Clearly defining your successful outcome helps your brain start finding ways to achieve that outcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"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":[27,32],"tags":[22,745,29,69,46,94,739,742,122],"class_list":["post-5863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-allen","category-productivity-tips","tag-getting-things-done","tag-david-allen","tag-gtd","tag-implementing-gtd","tag-implementation","tag-project-planning","tag-inspiration","tag-organization","tag-productivity","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.8 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Your Brain on GTD<\/title>\n<meta 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