I bought the Getting Things Done…FAST CDs last year and really enjoyed them. I’ve listened to them a few times, but it has probably been about six months since the last time I listened to them. I think it’s a great thing to do every 3 to 6 months anyway just to pick up on things I might have missed previously. I spend an hour and a half commuting behind the wheel each day and I quite often use this time to listen to self improvement audio books. (If you are unfamiliar with the Getting Things Done…FAST CDs, they are essentially the audio portion of a live Getting Things Done seminar presented by David Allen himself.)

In recent weeks, my life has become incredibly busy. I thought this might be a good time to listen to the Getting Things Done…FAST CDs again. So far my GTD system is holding strong, but I think that when the system is under stress is a good time to evaluate it and do some minor tweaking where necessary. (Note that this is not a time for a major overhaul!)

As I listened to the CDs yesterday morning I thought about what a great time we had last year in the Ready4Anything Yahoo! Group discussing David’s book Ready for Anything. We discussed one chapter each week. I lead most of the discussion last year and I grew a lot in my implementation of the Getting Things Done methodologies through that discussion. This year, I am leading weekly discussion on some of David’s newsletters that wasn’t included in Ready for Anything. We’re continuing to discuss Ready for Anything too, but I’m not leading that discussion.

While thinking about the Ready4Anything Yahoo! Group it occurred to me that it might be beneficial if I went through the GTD…Fast CDs slowly, one track each day, and blogged my comments about whatever thought was expressed that struck the loudest chord with me. I can use the Voice Memo program on my Palm to record my thoughts, so I just have to type them into my blog at home. I’m hoping this won’t take a lot of time from everything else I have going on. In the evenings I usually catch up on news and several discussion groups. Lately I’ve been losing interest in most of them, however, so I figure that I can drop out of most of the discussion groups altogether for a while and use that time to catch up the blog if needed.

There are 8 CDs with a total of 86 tracks on the GTD…FAST CDs. This could be a 3 or 4 month project! Hopefully I won’t lose interest in it. I do welcome comments, and encouragement, from my readers. Anyway, enough of an introduction to the project, let’s get on with the show!
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I wasn’t expecting to get much out of the introduction, and indeed I didn’t the first time I listened to it. I listened to it again, however, and picked up on this statement made by the person introducing the CDs:

“Procrastination solutions won’t help you if your purpose and vision aren’t clear.”

Wow! That makes so much sense. I read The Now Habit by Neil Fiore last year and enjoyed the book immensely. In fact, I need to do a more thorough, thoughtful reading of it as well. Last week I had identified 3 particular areas in my life that had gotten out of control so I spent some time thinking about how I could bring them back into control. I developed a nice little thinking exercise which helped me develop discipline in those areas immediately. After hearing the statement above, I realized that what that process did was bring clear purpose and vision to a ‘project’ of changing those behaviors.

I posted my technique to the Ready4Anything Yahoo! Group earlier this week. Below is an edited version of that original post. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.
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Just as David said in chapter 51 of Ready for Anything, ” It takes much more effort to begin to move than to change direction.” I recently realized that I had developed some negative habits in my life in the past three months that I really needed to do something about. In particular, those bad habits were:

• Resetting, or snoozing, my alarm in the mornings instead of getting out of bed and being productive.
• Not eating my low-carb diet as strictly as I need to so I can keep losing weight.
• Not being productive at night after work.

I realized that I really needed to spend some time thinking about these destructive behaviors so I could figure out how to overcome them. I came up with several questions while I was laying in bed one morning. I noted all of this in my Palm as I
brainstormed.

First I decided that I really needed a good description of the destructive behavior or habit. I also remembered reading that we only have two motivating factors in our lives–pleasure and avoidance of pain; we do everything because of one of these two
motivators. Then I decided that I ought to figure out what the opposite behavior would be and what kind of pleasure or pain avoidance it would bring. Finally, it was time to envision wild success and develop a next action. Here are the steps in a simple outline:

• Describe the pattern.
• What pleasure do I get?
• What pain do I avoid?
• What would the opposite behavior be?
• What pleasure would I get by practicing this opposite behavior?
• What pain would I avoid by practicing this opposite behavior?
• Envision Wild Success.

After thinking about all this, you may come up with a next action for your lists, or this may just be a “kick in the butt” to get you moving on a next action you already had. If it doesn’t get you moving immediately, I would suggest that you regularly read what you’ve written, and update is as necessary. I think that is should help many people with these kind of problems.

I’m probably getting a little too personal here, but to help you better understand my little system, here is how I handled one of my destructive behaviors:

• Destructive Behavior: Resetting my alarm in the mornings.
  • Description of the pattern. I usually set my alarm for 5:00am or 5:30am. When it goes off I will snooze it for 15 or 30 minutes continually sometimes even until 6:00am, 6:30am, or 6:45am. This leaves me little time to do what I absolutely must do and no time to do the things I really need to do or want to do.
    • What pleasures do I get?
      • At night setting my alarm for an early time: I enjoy the thought that I will rise early and be maximaly productive the next morning without being rushed.
      • Snoozing the alarm in the morning: The feeling of being in control. I made the decision to lie there longer. Making the noise stop.
      • Laying in bed: Rest. Numb. Sedative.
      • Not having enough time: Adrenaline rush from working under pressure.
    • What pains do I avoid?
    • At night setting my alarm for an early time: Guilt from not allowing enough productive time for the next morning.
    • Snoozing the alarm in the morning: Hearing the alarm.
    • Laying in bed: Working.
    • Not having enough time: Having to think about what I’m doing.
  • What would the opposite behaviors be? I set my alarm for 5:00 or 5:30 AM. I turn off the alarm off instead of hitting snooze. I get out of bed instead of continuing to lay in bed.
    • What pleasures will I get by practicing this opposite behavior?
      • Setting my alarm for 5:00 or 5:30 AM: A sense of peace in knowing that I will honor the commitment that I’m making before I even go to bed.
      • Turning off alarm instead of hitting snooze: A sense of accomplishment and pride in the fact I really am in control.
      • Getting out of bed instead of laying in bed: I get to work relaxed instead of rushed.I will accomplish more between my weekly reviews.
    • What pains will I avoid by practicing this opposite behavior?
      • Setting my alarm for 5:00 or 5:30 AM:Thoughts of possibly being rushed or not accomplishing what I need to accomplish the next moring.
      • Turning off alarm instead of hitting snooze: An unrestful last half-hour to hour-and-a-half of sleep.
      • Getting out of bed instead of laying in bed: Stress from not having enough time to get done what I need to get done. Getting to work late because I had too much that I had to do before work.
  • Envision wild success. I set the alarm on my Palm for 5:00am just before going to sleep. My Palm alarms at 5:00am. I turn it off, not just snooze it. I journal the previous day in Documents to Go on my Palm before I ever get out of bed. I also read this morning’s devotion from One Year Bible of Devotions for Men in Daily Reader on my Palm. I shower and get dressed for work. I complete next actions in my home office for nearly two hours until it’s time to leave for my full-time job.

Ever since I wrote this, nearly a week ago, I’ve managed to get up early and be maximally productive for two hours every morning. I believe the trend will continue. If I see myself slipping back into the old habit, I should be able to just read this again and re-evaluate it for a kick in the pants to get me going.