Behavior

[johnh...@gmail.com]

Things on this board seem quiet... hopefully it means everyone's out
there getting things... well, you know. Since the board's quiet I'll
post this on the off chance that someone else feeling bad for being
unproductive will know they're not alone. There's been some turmoil
at the office recently and since it's been like this I haven't been
very productive. In this particular slump I have been spending a lot
of time cruising for information on gmailing things done, browsing
desktop jpgs on flickr, lifehacking tweaks, etc. It's distracting but
maybe makes me feel a little less guilty than I'd be if I were surfing
news, sports, and IMDB, because I tell myself it has potential to make
me more productive? Likewise the fetishizing of certain pens, office
products, etc., as panaceas when actually the fact is I just need to
sit down and get cracking and any pen or notepad would suffice. For
me this focus on tools is a tempting distraction away from what I
should be focusing on instead which is my behavior... not so much
making lists but more putting my nose to the grindstone (well, maybe a
few lists)!

Actually, it's lovely out so I'll enjoy the weather for now and leave
the grindstone til Monday. Hope you're more focused than I am. Cheers

[Dennis C. During]

Easy to get in a rut. Is there a way to "take the bull by the horns",
either solve the work problems or find/generate an alternative ?

There are some interesting psychological approaches to problematic
situations. If you like to read and are willing to take a run at serious
popular psychology, try "Learned Optimism" by Martin E. P. Seligman,
"Stumbling on Happiness", by Daniel Gilbert, and "Finding Flow" or other
titles by Mikhaly Csikszentmihalyi. For serious self-improvement, try
"Self-Directed Behavior", by Watson and Tharp.

Dennis C. During

"To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law
into contempt." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American women's rights advocate
(1815-1902)
"What is not surrounded by uncertainty cannot be the truth." - Richard P.
Feynman, Nobelist, physicist, raconteur, bongo player, safe-cracker
dcdu...@gmail.com
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SelfExperimenters/

[bignoseduglyguy]

I have found Appreciative Inquiry type reframing exercises to be a good way of 'seeing' alternative ways of solving issues or, at the very least, understanding the issue and possible solutions more clearly.

http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/

bnug

On 6/05/2007, at 12:06 PM, Dennis C. During wrote:

Easy to get in a rut.  Is there a way to "take the bull by the horns",

either solve the work problems or find/generate an alternative ?

-- 

bignoseduglyguy

http://www.bignoseduglyguy.com

http://bigboysbrunch.wordpress.com

http://www.bignoseduglyguy.com/no8wire

[wilsonng89]

Sometimes I feel like my biorhythm is off and I'm just tinkering
around looking at the GTD resource sites, blogs, etc. Then there are
times when I'm in a slump and just can't seem to get anything done.
I'm usually in a slump when I feel like everything is out of control
and I feel helpless to do anything. Then I realize "hey, I can do
something about it after all!"

I get empowerment by doing some serious review at the various
elevations. Trying to find what I think is holding me back or looking
at my irritant/annoyance list that just makes life not pleasurable.

Then I start my next action list to eliminate those annoyances -
bathroom sink is leaking, that file drawer is awfully hard to open/
close, the computer mouse is starting to act funky again, etc. Then I
proceed to destroy all those irritants/annoyances.

I feel much better actively doing something - the task depends on my
interest level, energy level, or time constraints (can be done in an
hour or less).

It's a lot better then curling up in the fetal position and hoping
tomorrow is a better day....

By staying active, I stay alive!

I know the feeling when I lost my favorite pen or notebook.... I had
one of those all-in-one pens that I ordered from Franklin-Covey. It
had black, red, and blue ink as well as a mechanical pencil feature.
I'd search high and low wasting time looking for it when I misplaced
it and worried all the time about lending it to someone to sign some
documents.

Now I just keep a bunch of those rubber grip pens in my desk... If I
loan it out to someone, or I misplaced it somewhere, I don't feel too
bad. I just grab another one from the desk.

I've stopped looking at fancy office toys like cool looking pens or a
new day organizer.

I've gone low tech with the Hipster PDA.... I haven't looked back...

On May 6, 5:37 am, "johnhee...@gmail.com" <johnhee...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Mike De Bruyn]

On 5/7/07, wilsonng89 <wilso...@gmail.com> wrote:

I get empowerment by doing some serious review at the various
elevations. Trying to find what I think is holding me back or looking
at my irritant/annoyance list that just makes life not pleasurable.

Then I start my next action list to eliminate those annoyances -
bathroom sink is leaking, that file drawer is awfully hard to open/
close, the computer mouse is starting to act funky again, etc. Then I
proceed to destroy all those irritants/annoyances.

 

While it CAN turn into a kind of procrastination of its own, there is good reason to tackle annoyances.  Thomas Leonard wrote a book called "The Portable Coach" in which he spent a good deal of time discussing "tolerations".  His point was that "incompletions" drain energy and "completions" restore it.  He gave an exercise to list all the "tolerations" in your life, big or small.  Once armed with that list, he recommend that you begin to knock them off, one at a time.  As you say, the dripping sink is no big deal, but it can drain your energy when you see it every day and feel that things are out of control.  Fixing that drip can give you a real burst of energy that will carry over into other things you want to do.

 

On his website he listed the lists some people sent him when they did the exercise.  The funniest one was: "I will no longer tolerate the rattlesnakes crawling through my living room!"  ROTF ;-)  It just goes to show what some people are willing to tolerate in their lives!  ;-)

 

--
Cheers,
Mike