u/TheoCaro

Howdy folks,

I have had an idea for awhile that I've been calling "the 2 second rule."

The two minute rule is part of the clarify step. It says that if a next action would take less than two minutes, you should just do it instead of recording it on a next action list. The rationale for this is to avoid spending the extra energy/time/attention it would cost to put on a next action list. If we extend that same logic to the capture step, we get an analogous principle. If it takes less time to do something than it would to capture it, you should just do it.

If there's a random piece of trash on the floor, you can just pick it up, you don't need to capture "piece of trash in the kitchen" before doing anything. That said "two seconds" is being a bit cheeky.

Anyways, this is kind of a silly post and is maybe just underlining my autism, but I find myself thinking about this somewhat often.

Cheers!

Hello everyone,

The weekly review is the "critical success factor" to GTD. Incorporating it into your life is a really important part of reaching the intended state of relaxed control. So how have you tried to incorporate it into your life? What are your habits around it and what reminders do you have? Is it scheduled for a particular time or day? Include anything else you want about how you fit into your life.

Thanks!

I am making this post to talk about an idea that took me quite awhile to internalize. Step 5: Engage offers several models to frame your thinking around doing your work. There is the three-fold model of work, the Horizons of Focus model, and the four-fold model of choosing your work. I won't go through each of those, but at the end of the analysis the choice of what to work on comes down to your best intuitive judgment.

Mind like water only happens when you trust your system. But your can't trust your system if you don't trust your own judgment.

David has talked about mindfulness as an alternative to GTD. But I think it actually compliments it. Mindfulness is observing your own thoughts with calm compassion instead of judgment. The part of you (if you have one) that doesn't trust your own ability to choose what to do is just a part of you. It doesn't represent your full mind and the wisdom it has. Through mindfulness you can access your complete intelligence and access your better judgment.

So. . . yeah. Trusting yourself is a prerequisite for trusting your system.

I'm a law student. As a law student, I need to write papers/briefs/etc. For really big and more open ended projects, I found it really hard to clarify a next action for them. I end just writing down "work on the draft" or something like that. Figuring what I need to do is part of the creative process of going through cases and picking out helpful or not-so-helpful language, and then trying to put that together into a coherent argument. I guess I'm wondering how these sorts of projects fit into my GTD practice.

Should I just block of several hours of time to just get in there and get messy? For anyone that has work that is similar to this, how does it fit into your GTD practice?