0:11

Welcome. Again, my name is Anna Maria

0:13

Gonzalez I'm joining you from gotta buy a

0:15

knuckle or br. And.

0:17

I my were all his senior

0:20

master trainer at the David Allen

0:22

Company. Which pretty much means that

0:24

I certify master trainer strangers and

0:26

coaches around the world to teach

0:28

the G, T, V and under.

0:31

When my colleague John Forester that

0:33

item of you introduce yourself or

0:35

your should you do about formally.

0:38

I'd. I did, but I'll do it again.

0:40

Okay, Jaune and I might have a few rules.

0:42

Here are actually I have a lot of roles

0:44

of the company. We all were a lot of

0:46

hats these days on but. The. Main

0:48

thing I do that I'd get the most.

0:51

Fun! And enjoyment out of is working

0:53

with the Gtd Connect members on content

0:55

and women are like this so that's

0:57

a lot of fun for me to

0:59

be able to. See. Your name's

1:02

see where you're all joining us from

1:04

and recognize this. Global. Community.

1:07

Same. Here, I didn't want to bore you

1:09

with all the details of roles that I

1:11

play at any given day. At

1:14

my job you're a David On and company.

1:16

But nonetheless, let's get started. I'm very excited

1:18

to see new names. I can say new

1:20

faces because I'm not seeing you, but typically

1:23

we have sort of. The There's a number

1:25

of folks that are always. Part.

1:27

Of the webinars but today I see a lot of

1:29

new name so. Welcome

1:31

again! So let's get started today.

1:33

We're gonna talk about procrastination. And

1:36

it seems to be a popular pop. A

1:39

popular topic Don based on the number of

1:41

attendees. So or Mazer was the time chosen

1:43

A because it's and Semper? who knows. So

1:45

here we go. As. I

1:47

move through this likes. Let's get

1:49

started here. We covered this important

1:51

to understand what we wanted of

1:54

today, right? Three very simple objectives.

1:56

I'll just let you read them

1:58

and I'll pass. The moment. So

2:01

and John said when are we

2:03

have like a floral said structure

2:05

and how this should be otherwise

2:07

he won't be. The importance of

2:09

important here is that we actually

2:11

are able to have group discussion

2:13

and Una and have plenty of

2:16

time. To. Clarify your doubt and

2:18

answer your question. So please. Feel.

2:20

Completely free to ask anything and

2:22

everything and and tag and ask

2:25

us. To repeat or pause because

2:27

this is. A skills lab,

2:29

so it's really intended for you to. Work

2:32

through it and and not just as you

2:34

know, be in a passive role, just listening

2:36

as were pushing information because that's not the

2:39

intention. Sorry.

2:42

We got our first. Question. And you can

2:44

answer in the chat box. Right

2:46

to aid is and sensitive people have

2:48

the cut capability to procrastinate the most.

2:50

Is that a true or false statement?

2:53

There is no. Maybe. As another sister

2:55

said, we would say get a. Quick!

2:59

We have an experienced group here.

3:01

Mostly. I'm seeing. I think I'm

3:04

Oxy all through. Answers. Yeah.

3:06

There are a couple of falls in the

3:08

right, mostly just one false. Okay,

3:11

and. Co. Would like to

3:13

com and what went. Why would you say that

3:15

said Tuesday that. Or. Did you pick

3:18

through just because? Why not Let led

3:20

to. Many options and too

3:22

much information. The opportunities

3:24

are endless. Quickly seeing

3:27

ramifications. Yesterday. The

3:29

nicer think. I

3:31

suppose. Perfect citizen of wrangling. Priorities. Have

3:33

lots of ideas. don't know where to start? Yep.

3:35

Yep. All.

3:37

Very good answers and I'm just

3:40

gonna say that for purposes of

3:42

of explaining and in helping teach

3:45

this web in r today. There

3:48

is. There's a lot of i'm of truth

3:50

in what you're saying, David Quickly. Seen

3:52

ramifications. Most definitely What happens

3:54

is that the most bright, creative and

3:56

sensitive people they will see be and

3:58

death. very quickly

4:01

and all that that

4:03

may imply and Unfortunately,

4:06

sometimes some of us

4:09

have Somehow

4:11

grown more with

4:14

negative imaging instead

4:16

of positive imaging so

4:19

that often is what stops us or

4:22

paralyzes us or Yeah,

4:26

the nicest of the opportunity of

4:28

moving forward That's why the statement

4:30

of bright creative and sensitive people

4:32

have the capability Capability

4:34

we're not saying they're the one the ones

4:36

that procrastinate the most but have that capability

4:39

just because of how fast they are And

4:41

and what they do with their thinking

4:43

because if you did positive imaging The

4:48

opposite would be true, right you you would

4:50

be probably the most effective efficient The

4:53

second something is given to you you move on and

4:55

to get it done etc etc because of what you're

4:57

doing in your mind Yeah

5:00

Martina Posted a

5:02

very funny comment. Who are these stupid

5:04

uncreative insensitive people who are getting all

5:06

that stuff done? Those

5:09

stupid unsensitive uncreative people I agree,

5:11

but no we hate them

5:15

David Allen when he was doing live seminars

5:18

more often used to have a very funny bit

5:20

where he would talk about the

5:22

example of putting off doing your tax returns

5:25

and He had this way

5:27

of you know, especially At

5:31

some points he would he would talk really

5:33

quickly He would he would rattle off all

5:36

these reasons why he would think of procrastinating

5:39

By someone would think of procrastinating on a

5:41

tax return and go from tax return. Maybe

5:43

I'll do it wrong What if

5:45

they catch me IRS comes to get me and

5:47

then all of a sudden he'd jump to I'm

5:49

in jail And he

5:51

did it in the funniest way I'm

5:53

gonna look around and see if I

5:55

can find a recording of that because it's a

5:58

hoot It is it is It's

6:00

David, it's very talented in that way. And

6:04

if you've read the book, that

6:06

same example, obviously not dramatize the way David

6:08

did it, it's explaining the book. And

6:11

it's exactly to this point, just

6:13

because of what we do in our minds and all these

6:15

ramifications we take, we then end

6:18

up paralyzing ourselves instead of

6:20

being proactive. So we're going to talk today about how

6:23

can we be proactive? How can

6:25

we overcome procrastination if

6:28

so is needed? Because also,

6:30

as David says sometimes, everything

6:32

you're not doing, you're procrastinating on, just by

6:34

default. And procrastination in

6:36

terms of what it means is

6:39

just for later action. That's how

6:41

you break down the word in

6:43

terms of what it's made of,

6:45

right? Procrastination. So it's for later action.

6:47

So there's really no evil on it. It's

6:50

more if

6:52

it's getting on your way, if it's a

6:54

problem, is you're finding yourself then either

6:57

thinking bad about it or guilty for running

6:59

at the last minute. So how can we overcome

7:01

those things? That's sort of one

7:04

of the purposes for today. So now

7:06

let me ask you a question here. What

7:08

is your current experience with procrastination? And you

7:10

can pick any one of these four and

7:12

let us know on the chat box. Again,

7:15

no judgment on this. We're

7:18

here to look and give a practical advice.

7:22

We already know you say you're really

7:24

procrastinating. You're one of those uncreative, unsensitive,

7:26

dumb people. Yeah, it's sort of

7:28

catch-22. If you say you rarely

7:30

procrastinate, you're telling us that you're

7:32

not quite creative, sensitive, imaginative. We've

7:35

got quite a range here.

7:39

Bs, Cs, Ds. I haven't seen

7:41

anybody. Of

7:44

course not. No one's going to admit they're

7:46

not creative, sensitive, and intelligent after what we

7:48

just said, right? Yeah. And

7:50

of course, if you're on this

7:52

webinar, you're probably interested in finding

7:55

some practical ways to reduce your

7:57

procrastination. That's why we

7:59

said no judgment. We're just here to offer

8:02

down-to-earth advice. Okay.

8:05

All right. So this is really more for

8:07

you and to become self-aware. And

8:10

before I continue, please

8:12

know that John and I, everything

8:15

we say here, we say it in

8:17

a fun, light-filled way. I

8:20

realize that perhaps we started a little too much

8:22

on the fun,

8:24

light-filled way. It could be misunderstood. Please

8:27

know it's nothing. It's intended in

8:29

an irrespectful manner. It's all very respectful. We

8:31

love that you're here and we honor and

8:34

so much appreciate your

8:36

membership. But we just like to take things in

8:38

a fun, light-filled way. Yeah.

8:40

People tend to be pretty

8:43

heavy with themselves, self-judgment

8:45

around procrastination anyway. So the last thing

8:47

we need to do is encourage that.

8:49

That's why we'd like to

8:51

keep this lighthearted and practical and not

8:54

do anything to support you in

8:56

being hard on yourself.

8:59

I know. On being hard on yourself. I agree. Yeah.

9:02

Okay. All right. Thanks. So what

9:05

are the most common things you procrastinate on?

9:07

So if you mind just giving us one

9:09

example in the chat box and

9:14

we'll see if there are any themes in here

9:17

that we start to notice. So

9:20

one or two or three examples, that'll be great. Tedious

9:24

tasks. Yep. Yep.

9:28

Life admin stuff. Making

9:31

phone calls. Difficult

9:33

tasks. Yep. You

9:36

are going to hear about that later on.

9:41

One of the themes I'm seeing in between the lines here

9:43

is things that are boring or

9:46

routine. Yeah.

9:48

Things that bear a significantly

9:51

heavy emotional load. Good.

9:55

Getting step one of projects underway.

9:58

Finance tasks that need a lot of attention. of

10:00

attention. Weekly

10:03

review. You're

10:06

not alone in that. Work

10:08

projects where I have to define the outcome.

10:12

Yep. Planning

10:14

my day, sometimes the weekly review, things that

10:16

are not clear to me. Yep, we are

10:18

going to address that too. I often

10:22

procrastinate by exploring otherwise useful, necessary things,

10:24

but that are not directly, not at

10:26

all related to what I need to

10:28

do right now professionally. Yeah,

10:31

yeah. That's, you'll find

10:33

me on YouTube looking at all kinds

10:35

of things that are fascinating to me,

10:37

but don't really

10:39

relate to anything on my list

10:41

other than productive relaxation. Oh, that's

10:45

an elegant way of calling it

10:47

productive relaxation. Yeah, I stole that

10:49

from David Al. Okay,

10:54

well, as I heard John read through

10:56

your comments, and again,

10:59

as I continue to go through the slideshow, one of

11:02

the things that I think you

11:04

will notice is that for

11:07

tedious tasks, sometimes what we

11:09

identify as boring or

11:12

admin tasks, sometimes it

11:14

could well be because we've forgotten

11:16

or we don't know or

11:19

we have lost track of

11:21

the purpose of the why. For things

11:24

that, you know, are

11:26

of a high emotional load or something like

11:29

that, I think someone said or making phone

11:31

calls, you'll see

11:33

also that often that it's

11:36

the result of what we're doing internally, of

11:38

what we're doing in our imagination, that

11:41

then paralyzes us or freezes us or

11:43

stops us, right? For

11:45

some others like projects and

11:47

work to begin or a big complex

11:49

task or more words or less words.

11:52

Again, it's

11:56

probably not taking the time to

11:58

go more granular. And instead of

12:01

looking at that very end, difficult, challenging,

12:03

or complex result, we haven't really taken

12:05

the time to apply the fundamental thought

12:07

process in coming up with the very

12:09

next action. So

12:11

I think there's a handful of

12:14

reasons why, or what we

12:16

call causes for

12:19

procrastination, or why we procrastinate. We're also

12:21

going to talk about the remedies, or

12:23

how can we overcome or solve that.

12:26

But it's pretty much in line to

12:28

what you were all answering or describing.

12:32

OK, so I

12:34

want you to pick a few items in

12:37

your life to work with

12:39

that you know you've been procrastinating about

12:41

for a while, because you're going to

12:43

work on this in the webinar. These

12:46

can be items that are things that

12:48

are still in your mind. These

12:50

could be items that are on one of your lists,

12:53

that you're aware you've

12:56

been procrastinating on. This

12:59

could just be the result of whatever you're

13:01

sitting, and just looking out and

13:03

going, oh, there's that thing. So

13:06

anything, anything will do. But just don't pick

13:08

one. We would love for you to pick

13:10

two or three. So just take a

13:12

moment to do that and make a note somewhere so

13:15

that you can have it handy, because we're going to use it. It

13:20

would be something that you wake up and think about it at

13:22

3 in the morning and tell

13:25

yourself, oh, I should have been working on that

13:27

already. Anything like that could

13:30

be something that's on your projects list already,

13:34

or your next action that

13:36

you're putting off. So either

13:39

scan mentally or do a quick scan of

13:41

those lists. And

13:49

you can give us some

13:52

stuff if you know how

13:54

to do that. Or you can just go type

13:56

ready, or just the letter R, Whatever

13:59

to let us know. We. Can we can move on?

14:01

On a maria. It just occurred to me that. The

14:04

Slide A couple slides you go

14:06

where it says to procrastinate rarely

14:08

regularly, somewhere in between. Out

14:11

with this slide. We're assuming they got

14:13

something to work with. A. Totally

14:15

because no one said. There

14:19

was no one that says i never procrastinate

14:21

So yeah, Okay, So you see

14:23

you haven't thought of our our Pocket book

14:25

a great yeah I got some readies year

14:27

so all right. So moving on here. So

14:30

let's look at the common reasons for procrastinator

14:32

at least the. The. One would send

14:34

it to talk about today. I don't want to

14:36

get into the you know that this is the

14:39

absolute as fair argument. What about one or this

14:41

one? These are the ones that are the common.

14:43

Of the title says. Reasons or procrastinating.

14:47

It's either apathy or anxiety. Those.

14:50

Are the to a do people were to? I'm.

14:54

You. Know, get to the bottom line or

14:56

or basically some. There was some it up.

14:59

Into. Two categories it will fall

15:01

into either or. And

15:04

I'll explain a moment after see a in

15:06

more detail and anxiety at the end of

15:08

the day. It's really coming from the fear

15:10

of being out of control. Either.

15:12

Being out of control the situation either. Being

15:14

out of control how we feel

15:17

either. Being out

15:19

of control a. Relationship to relationships

15:21

with other people would be

15:23

think of ourselves or or

15:25

or don't think so. That's.

15:27

Kind of the. Underlying current, that

15:30

fear of being out of control.

15:33

Well. As we move here. Apathy.

15:37

A person can come from the having

15:39

made too many commitments. And.

15:41

At some point you just don't care

15:44

anymore. It's

15:46

having bad very extreme sense of

15:48

overwhelmed. I. Don't know if you've

15:50

ever been there, have ever experienced that rates one of

15:52

those that it's like you know what? I just don't care.

15:54

I. Don't care anymore. I don't care

15:57

if I have one thousand emails or five thousand emails I

15:59

just don't cure as. See,

16:01

and what happens is that we start to

16:03

go numb, not just to that source of

16:07

apathy or where things have gotten out

16:09

of control. We

16:11

start going

16:14

to everything in general,

16:16

right? It's like you no longer see

16:18

a lot of things in

16:23

your life, either around you or inside

16:25

of you that could even be sources

16:27

of creativity and inspiration because

16:30

you've just gotten to that point that you're

16:32

just so fed up that you've gone numb

16:34

to it. That's what apathy in

16:36

an extreme way would look like. I

16:39

think of this one as sort of a circuit breaker.

16:43

Before you get to apathy, you probably go

16:45

through a lot of stress and feeling

16:49

not good about things and then the

16:51

apathy is something like I

16:54

can't handle even feeling bad about all this

16:56

stuff that much, so I'm just going to

16:59

go apathetic to it. Totally.

17:04

And often, as

17:07

you remember when you started it on

17:09

this journey of GCD or

17:11

if you're just beginning, you

17:14

know that our working hypothesis is if it's

17:16

in your mind, it's in the wrong place

17:19

or your mind is for having ideas, not holding

17:21

them. So if

17:23

these too many commitments were already

17:26

thought through, in

17:29

other words clarified and organized into

17:31

your external mind, they were already

17:33

part of your GCD system, you're

17:36

probably not relating to what we're saying.

17:39

It's typically when all what these commitments are

17:41

still kept in our mind because

17:44

at just some point it's like you blow the fuse. So

17:46

just keep that in mind. And even

17:49

as we have been on this path

17:52

or this journey of GCD mastery and we're

17:54

doing really good, there may still be some

17:56

stuff still needing to get out of your

17:58

mind. that

18:00

could be contributing to apathy. The

18:03

next way to explain

18:06

apathy and this, it's when

18:08

something has turned, has become

18:10

not a priority on your list. But

18:12

you haven't taken it away from out of your

18:15

list. You haven't deleted it. You haven't moved it

18:17

to something maybe. You're still, it's still sitting there.

18:20

And there are many reasons why something could have

18:22

turned. There

18:24

are many reasons why something could,

18:27

will not be a priority anymore. And we'll

18:29

talk about that in a moment. So it's

18:31

either too many commitments or not a priority.

18:33

Usually what falls under apathy. Now

18:37

what falls under

18:39

anxiety are tasks or

18:42

items, as many of you

18:44

described a moment ago, that are too big

18:46

or complex. Or, you

18:48

know, maybe it's a brand new

18:51

project. You've never, ever done it before.

18:53

It's like, you know, you kind of are

18:56

passed by it. You're, you're, you're haunted. You're scared by

18:58

it, right? So it could be because it's too big

19:00

or complex or too new. You've never seen it, et

19:03

cetera. Another one that

19:05

falls under anxiety is when

19:07

a task involves physical and

19:09

or emotional discomfort. So

19:13

making phone calls could well

19:16

be stemming from, you know, that fear

19:18

of, of how are they going to react? Where

19:20

are they going to say, how am I going

19:22

to feel after having a phone call? I don't

19:24

know what to say, et cetera.

19:27

Right? So then we put it off, we put it off. We

19:29

don't make the phone call. Um,

19:31

physical discomfort, it's very simple

19:34

example that I think many of us relate

19:36

to is exercising. I mean,

19:38

we don't think of it in that way, but often

19:40

we, we procrastinate

19:43

on exercising, even though we know it's good for

19:45

our health and blah, blah, blah, and or

19:47

everything that, that, that we know about,

19:50

because there's a part of us that, um, it's

19:53

going to experience physical discomfort.

19:56

Maybe we run out of breath. Uh,

19:58

you know, we get muffs. Also, eggs

20:00

the next day, it's just

20:03

uncomfortable, etc. And then, because

20:05

we're so, remember, bright, creative, sensitive people tend

20:07

to procrastinate the most. So we

20:09

very quickly on our minds go there and instead

20:12

of exercise, you know, we,

20:15

I don't know, watch TV or whatever we're

20:17

doing. So

20:21

I think you get the idea. All of this at

20:23

the end of the day is that fear of being out of control. We

20:26

a lot of it, the product of our imagining,

20:28

I should say, I'm sorry, it's our

20:31

minds who make,

20:34

it's our minds that make that

20:36

trip into the future in a negative

20:38

way that's going to cause us to

20:40

procrastinate. Are there any comments or anything,

20:42

John? No comments

20:44

except for me. Another

20:48

recollection I have is something that David

20:50

used to say about that

20:52

our ability to imagine things and

20:55

talk to ourselves in a negative way. He

20:57

had, I don't know how he came up with

20:59

this number, maybe you did it on him or

21:01

Maria. He said some study

21:04

had found that we have more

21:06

than 50,000 thoughts a day. And

21:09

many of them are negative self

21:11

talk about some outcome in the

21:13

future. So we're

21:16

doing a lot to feed that part

21:18

of ourselves. Well,

21:20

yeah, no, it was a

21:23

study done in some psychology

21:25

school where apparently some

21:27

students counted how many thoughts people have on any

21:29

given day, however they counted that, who knows how

21:31

they did, but that's what they came up with.

21:35

50,000 thoughts or however many, applause

21:37

or minus. And the

21:41

highest percentage of that is negative

21:43

self talk. So we're

21:45

doing this to ourselves all the time. We

21:48

were going to get better. All right. So

21:50

let's move on here. And

21:53

let's start with apathy. Again,

21:56

too many commitments. So I'll

21:58

let you take a moment. to

22:00

read this. So basically

22:03

it's a sum up of what

22:05

I was saying before, probably said

22:07

better, but that's pretty

22:09

much what ends up happening. This is

22:11

what can potentially lead to procrastination. Take

22:14

a moment to read this. Before I have you answer

22:16

that question based on what you picked, as

22:20

you can see here, keeping

22:23

things on your mind will definitely

22:27

get on your way of your

22:29

ability to objectify your commitment and

22:31

responsibility. Because remember you can

22:33

only consciously hold, I think, three

22:36

to four thoughts. Everything else

22:38

goes into your unconscious. So

22:40

that immediately diminishes

22:43

your ability. There's another word I'm looking in English

22:46

that I can think of. Impede.

22:50

Impede? Impede

22:54

is your ability to objectify.

22:56

How can you objectify if you have 5,000

22:59

commitments and you're going to remember four, you're

23:01

already not being able to objectify on the

23:03

other 4,995. So that's one thing. Having made

23:06

clear decisions about

23:09

which stocks you're going to complete also comes from

23:11

keeping things on your mind. Because

23:13

it's only when you get things off

23:16

your mind that you are able to

23:18

clarify which equals

23:21

making clear decisions, which is step

23:23

two of mastering workflow. Or

23:26

having made clear decisions about which stocks

23:28

you're not going to complete. How

23:30

are you going to do that if they're all in your

23:32

mind? Or if there are a number of them somewhere sitting

23:34

on your unconscious that you forgot about. You

23:36

can only do that if they've

23:38

been already externalized. And often this

23:40

is the result of your weekly

23:42

review where you go, well, I'm not going to do

23:44

this now. Or I'm going to move it to someday maybe. But

23:46

it has to be out of your mind. So

23:49

given the items you consider to work on, do

23:52

you have any one of

23:54

these that fall into this category of, well,

23:57

yeah, it's because I either have an objectify or I

23:59

have a clarify or or having decided not to complete

24:01

it. You can write something in the

24:03

chat like, yes, I found something. No, I didn't

24:05

find something where this fits. If you want to,

24:08

and this is mostly just for you to look

24:10

and kind of compare, check the

24:13

items you picked, compare them

24:15

against these bullet points, and see if

24:17

somehow they fit. Ah, I

24:20

think for me, it is all three.

24:22

That's very possible. Not

24:26

for the same item, for different

24:28

items. Not

24:30

for the same item. Yeah, I'm assuming. Right.

24:33

For different items, of course, yes. That

24:35

would be confirming. I know, Ridwan,

24:37

I was just clarifying because you never know. And

24:40

the other one says three for

24:42

me as well. Someone

24:45

else says for me, it's mostly the

24:47

decision. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

24:51

All right. So then I'm going to move on. Okay.

24:55

Under apathy, we also had, it's not a priority, if

24:57

you remember, right? So we can take a moment to

24:59

read through this. So

25:02

again, there could be things sitting in

25:04

there on your list. They're

25:06

just not a priority. Seriously.

25:10

Because you haven't really taken the time to

25:15

keep up with your

25:17

list, i.e. the weekly review. So

25:20

things could have expired, or

25:22

you could have lost interest on them. There

25:24

are many reasons why, right? Because that's one

25:26

of the biggest values for

25:29

me personally when I do my weekly review,

25:31

that it gives me that opportunity to bring

25:33

my list up to date, to bring my

25:35

list to current, given what's true

25:38

for me now. Because

25:40

whoever that person was, the roaded, I'm not saying

25:42

I'm a different person because I'm still the same

25:44

person. But I could have

25:46

changed my commitment, I could have changed my

25:48

decisions, my mind, etc. So I need

25:50

to keep the system up to date always. Or

25:53

as you're testing it, you're unclear about what

25:55

your work really is. That's also the result

25:57

of probably not keeping up with

25:59

the... a monthly or quarterly review related

26:01

to your areas of focus and accountability. Like

26:04

what are my roles? What's my job? What

26:06

am I accountable for? And then keeping that

26:08

up to date and in sync with the

26:10

rest of your system. Right.

26:13

And we've got a comment here I want to address,

26:16

which is, um, these all

26:18

fit really well. The thing is it

26:20

happens despite trying my best to do the

26:22

GTT process, but finding that the amount of

26:25

time required to process all this stuff is

26:27

greater than the available time. So first

26:29

thing I want to mention here is

26:31

this is not for lack of trying

26:33

your best. Absolutely not.

26:36

You are all very hard workers. You are, you're

26:39

smart. You're dedicated. There's nobody lazy out

26:41

there except David Allen says he's lazy.

26:44

None of you are lazy. This is not

26:46

about lack of trying your best. Joseph,

26:49

we can get into this a little more

26:51

later, but I think what Ana Maria just

26:53

said about having it, reviewing your

26:55

areas of focus might

26:58

help you with that a bit. If

27:00

you, if you find that you are having

27:02

inputs coming in, which take a lot of

27:05

time to process, one thing to

27:07

do is check with yourself. Are

27:09

all these inputs really related to an area

27:12

of focus that I currently have? You

27:14

may find that you need to say no

27:17

to some of those inputs, um, just, just

27:19

because they're not part of your areas of

27:21

focus any longer. And I think

27:23

there's a question here when, when to move

27:25

something to Sunday, maybe versus leave it on

27:27

projects. Right. I

27:30

think it's relative David. Um, if you

27:32

know that this is something that doesn't

27:35

need to be part, here's my criteria.

27:38

It doesn't need to be part of my current

27:41

active inventory that

27:43

I, um, let's say committed

27:46

to reviewing weekly with

27:49

the intention of completing that

27:52

then involves having a next action

27:54

identified. If it doesn't

27:56

meet that criteria, move it to your

27:58

something, maybe. Why are you going

28:00

to bother yourself, your eyes, your psyche, your

28:03

energy, your time, looking

28:05

at something or looking at an item or

28:07

a reminder on your project list that

28:10

you're either not committed or don't have

28:12

the intention of moving

28:14

forward with the next action identified

28:16

on your system, ready

28:21

and available for

28:24

you to grab or

28:26

take action on, on any given opportunity

28:29

throughout your day. And perhaps these are

28:31

too many words, but I hope you're

28:33

seeing the relationship. Next

28:35

actions on my list are

28:37

there so that whenever I get an opportunity

28:39

on any given day, I can take them

28:42

off. It goes a little

28:44

bit beyond of whether I want to or not. It's

28:47

more like, am

28:50

I in the right place with the right amount

28:52

of time, with the right amount of energy to

28:54

take this off, yes or no.

28:56

Of course, keeping everything else in mind

28:58

in terms of all these ones of a

29:01

higher priority versus the other understood,

29:04

but that comes as the very last

29:06

criteria. So if a

29:08

project is what makes you decide when

29:10

to move it is, do I want

29:13

to, do I need one or have

29:15

to be looking at next action option

29:17

each and every time I happen to be in that place

29:20

with time and energy? And if the answer is no, then

29:22

move it to your something maybe. And if you change your

29:24

mind, move it back to your projects list. Yeah,

29:28

the veil between Sunday

29:30

maybe list and your project,

29:33

active projects list should be

29:35

very thin. Feel free to move

29:37

things back and forth often, especially

29:40

if you're at all feeling

29:43

over busy, overwhelmed, anything like that,

29:46

start shifting things over to Sunday

29:48

maybe or you can, some people

29:50

also use a projects on hold

29:52

list to triage projects that they

29:54

would like to get finished by

29:56

the end of, I say 12 months from now. But

30:00

they're pretty sure they're not going to put a lot

30:02

of energy into them in the next three months or

30:04

so. See,

30:07

guys, remember, your project list is

30:09

the driver of your weekly review,

30:12

which then means what

30:14

are the multi-step outcomes that I

30:16

need to be reviewing on

30:18

a weekly basis? And be honest with

30:20

yourself. There's no right or wrong answer in terms

30:22

of, are they 20? Are they 100? Are

30:25

they 500? Are they 10? It's

30:27

based on what you've committed yourself to,

30:29

given what's your job and given many

30:31

other higher horizons. So if

30:34

you need

30:36

to see this on a weekly basis, it better

30:39

be on your project list. And

30:41

the result of that is that it's going to

30:44

populate your next actions list. So it falls even at

30:46

a more granular level. So it's not so much

30:48

a question, is it a project or something? Maybe. If

30:51

it's a project, then think for yourself. The next

30:53

action, is it one of the

30:56

options I want to be looking at

30:59

to take off on any given moment of my

31:01

day when I'm in the right place with the

31:03

right amount of time and the right amount of

31:05

energy? And if the answer is

31:07

no, then it's put under something maybe or something

31:09

in between. I don't know, projects I don't want

31:12

to look at for now, whatever title you

31:14

want to give it. Yep. David,

31:17

again, your Sunday maybe won't become a

31:19

bottomless test because you're going to review

31:21

it as often as you

31:23

feel you need to. And

31:27

if you want to at some point, you could just look

31:29

at that and go, now

31:31

I've got a thousand things on my Sunday maybe list. And

31:34

I'm just going to hit select all

31:36

delete and restart my Sunday maybe list.

31:41

There's no commitment to a Sunday maybe

31:43

list. Right. So there's

31:45

no guilt really, kind of associated

31:47

with it. And

31:50

Sunday maybe it's a list

31:52

that I think it's step 10 in

31:54

your weekly review checklist perhaps or 9. I can't

31:57

remember exactly which one it is right now. I

31:59

think it's 10. But

32:01

there are layers of Sunday maybe that we're not

32:03

going to get into in this webinar. I mean,

32:05

we'll teach a Sunday maybe lists

32:07

webinar. Because you can have Sunday

32:09

maybe for my weekly reviews, Sunday maybe for

32:12

my monthly reviews, Sunday maybe for my work

32:14

quarterly reviews, Sunday maybe bucket list review. So

32:16

the- Go ahead. What's

32:21

easy to understand is they don't

32:24

generate any guilt because there's no

32:26

commitment regarding any of those

32:29

within any timeframe. Right.

32:31

Right. And let's

32:34

see, can you expand a bit on

32:37

the possibility of projects on Holdlist? How

32:40

could that look? I

32:44

am currently using a projects on

32:46

Holdlist. It's called projects on Hold.

32:49

And it contains projects that I

32:51

know I'm committed to finishing within

32:54

12 months from now. But given

32:57

the state of how

32:59

my calendar looks this week and

33:02

for the next month, I

33:04

know I'm not going to give priority to working

33:06

on those projects. So I just put them on

33:08

Hold. The difference for me is that they're

33:11

not Sunday maybes because I

33:13

still am committed to finishing them

33:16

within 12 months. But

33:18

I'm not going to be working on them in

33:20

the next, say, one to three months. Hope

33:23

that was helpful there. That

33:26

was clear. It's an in-between device. It's

33:28

an in-between project and something maybe for those

33:30

people that need it. I don't need it.

33:33

I don't have any problem drawing the

33:35

line between projects and Sunday maybe. But

33:38

some minds do based

33:40

on how they process information. It's very,

33:43

very handy in that way. So

33:45

let's take a look here under standard priority

33:47

to see which one fits, you

33:49

know, the examples that you're working with. Your

33:52

priorities have shifted, but your system hasn't cut up.

33:56

You haven't renegotiated something that's no longer

33:58

a priority. Again,

34:00

the result of the weekly review. You're

34:03

not sure if it's your job or not,

34:05

but you probably need to update your

34:08

areas of focus and accountability or horizon two.

34:11

So do any of this, do

34:13

any of the items that you worked on, do

34:15

any of these three fit? Take

34:18

a moment to think about that. All right. So

34:20

as we move on here. Job

34:23

or not is some

34:26

of, if you're, if you're finding that some

34:28

of your items fit into that, you're

34:30

not sure if it's your job or not. It may

34:32

be time to have a conversation with your boss,

34:35

your whoever you

34:37

report to and have a

34:39

really honest conversation about I've got stuff

34:42

on my list here, but it's not really part of

34:44

my job. And we come to an

34:46

agreement about what is and isn't part

34:48

of my job. Yes. And I

34:50

think I'm going to highlight the

34:52

obvious that tends to be a conversation on

34:54

what's on your project list. You're probably not

34:57

going to address probably a phone call on

34:59

your call list. So that's too granular to

35:01

have a conversation with whoever you report

35:03

to. That's why the project list, again,

35:06

it's like the gem

35:08

of GTD in terms of how important

35:11

it is and how useful it is

35:13

and why you need to keep it

35:15

current and complete. Because this

35:18

is the one list that bridges between the higher

35:20

horizons and the ground level. And you need to

35:22

have those conversations that are going to be in

35:24

relationship to your project. Right.

35:26

Here's one more comment. At

35:29

least one of mine is it's

35:31

a shared responsibility and the next

35:33

action isn't clear. Well,

35:38

parents have shared responsibility. They

35:40

do parenting, right? But

35:43

probably each one, mom or

35:46

dad, has to be defined and

35:48

be clear on who's the owner

35:50

of the project that comes from

35:52

parenting, enrolling, you

35:55

know, kids in school or taking

35:58

them to the doctors or. or

36:00

whatever it is that it's a project on

36:02

your list as a result of parenting, which

36:04

is a shared responsibility that you need to

36:06

be very clear on who owns it. It

36:09

cannot be co owned once

36:12

it's co owned. It's not owned. Cause

36:16

David used to say when two or more, um, you

36:20

know, have responsibility over something,

36:22

no one does cause it's

36:24

very easy to point fingers at.

36:26

Well, I thought you were doing, or I thought you were

36:28

doing it. So the share responsibility

36:30

makes sense, makes sense that the share project,

36:33

even though your head may make, may make

36:35

sense at the end of the day, one

36:37

is the owner of that desired final outcome.

36:39

You may own aspects

36:41

or components to get it to that

36:44

final outcome, but only one owns the

36:46

final outcome. All right. So now

36:48

we're going to look at anxiety, um,

36:51

and what typically generates anxiety. And I think

36:53

these are, to me, anxiety, it's

36:55

a much more straightforward one to explain

36:57

and identify than apathy. Um,

37:00

cause apathy can be a little more subtle and invisible

37:02

in that way, but anxiety

37:04

comes from either something being too big

37:06

or complex. So just take

37:08

a moment to read through this description. So

37:11

it's not that the answer will

37:13

be, well, take on smaller, less complex

37:15

tasks. Life

37:18

is going to

37:20

bring to us whatever life brings to

37:22

us. Right. And, and, and

37:26

our mental gymnastics, our mental training

37:28

in applying the fundamental thought process

37:31

of what the desire outcome and

37:33

what's the next actions really was

37:35

going to very much help us

37:37

overcome or will no

37:40

longer be the cause for procrastinating.

37:42

Because once you've brought

37:44

it down to that very next action level,

37:46

it's no longer, it's no longer, you know,

37:48

too big or complex. Or once, um, you've

37:50

defined the desire outcome and you know what

37:52

the, what is, uh, what

37:54

done means, then it's no longer

37:56

an unknown or something that, you

37:58

know, undefined in that way

38:01

in your mind. So let's

38:03

look at what

38:05

usually happens with something that is too big or

38:07

complex. You don't know how

38:09

or what to do. You haven't clarified

38:11

the very next action. The next

38:14

action doesn't match how you work. You

38:16

haven't clarified the project and what done looks like.

38:20

I want to take a chance that's not very

38:22

much of a chance and guess that everyone listening

38:24

to this has things

38:26

like this because you're a

38:28

knowledge worker, because of the

38:30

very nature of the work you're doing. You're

38:33

taking something that comes to you and

38:35

hasn't been defined with an outcome or

38:37

a specific next action, and

38:40

it's your job to decide what the

38:42

outcome and the action are. That's knowledge

38:44

work and that's the work you all

38:46

do. So it would

38:48

be surprising if you didn't have things that fit

38:50

in these four

38:52

categories. So

38:55

again, the question is, do any of this fit?

38:58

And I think John was already telling you the answer, which

39:01

is yes. You could surprise me

39:03

and somebody said, no, none of those fit. I'm

39:05

a knowledge worker and I always know

39:07

what to do. Projects

39:12

don't, I don't, this

39:14

is a risky statement. They

39:17

don't ever come defined or I should

39:19

say, typically don't come defined, that's your

39:21

job. You get

39:24

an email where 35 other

39:26

people have been copied, it's three pages

39:28

long and somewhere in there, you

39:31

end up defining a project to add to your

39:33

list. But it didn't come with a project title

39:35

to begin with. So yeah, it's

39:38

your job. Your job is to define your job.

39:41

That's one of your jobs in the three full

39:43

nature of work, defining your work. Yep,

39:45

and back to what I said about, it's not

39:47

about whether you're trying hard enough. It's

39:50

that's just the nature of knowledge work.

39:52

And there's no lack on your part

39:55

here. This is just the nature of

39:57

knowledge work that you have to in

39:59

a way. create something

40:01

out of what's apparently nothing or find

40:04

what the kernel is in the middle of

40:06

that long email that 35 other people were

40:08

copied on or maybe they weren't even copied

40:11

maybe it's even worse they were all in

40:13

the two field and the question didn't

40:15

even make it clear who

40:18

is expected to take action or

40:20

reply. So welcome to the

40:22

nature of knowledge work. And a

40:24

simple trick as you know that we teach is just

40:26

think about when am I done? When

40:29

do I get to take this thing off

40:31

my list? If this was no longer something

40:33

for me to do complete or finish what

40:35

would be true? I mean because you may

40:37

not relate or it may not be as

40:39

easy to just think of oh well what's

40:41

the desired outcome? You may

40:43

just need to go to that more

40:46

visceral level and say when do I

40:48

get to be done with this thing? When I don't

40:51

want to see it anymore in my weekly review what would that

40:53

be? What needs to be true?

40:56

Oh and then you

40:58

complete the statement always with a verb

41:00

that clearly defines that end result. And

41:03

here's a comment about that

41:05

anxiety comes from knowing you'll

41:08

need to ask someone for help and

41:10

show some vulnerability about I

41:13

don't know how to do this. Yeah

41:15

that's true. Yeah.

41:18

If you were all I don't

41:21

know working as a fry cook in a fast

41:24

food restaurant you would know how to do your

41:26

work. You might have to learn a little first

41:28

day but everything is the same from the next

41:30

day on and next day on. You won't ever

41:32

have to be vulnerable and ask someone how to

41:34

do it unless they come in

41:37

and put a new french fry making fryer in

41:39

there and you have to figure out how the

41:41

controls on that one work. But knowledge

41:43

work isn't like that. You're probably daily going

41:46

to have to go to somebody else and

41:48

be vulnerable and say This

41:51

thing showed up I'm not sure how to do it.