New Yorker Fiction Podcast* Purpose of GTD* Lavender Pot*

Headliner Dark Violet Picotee Petunias and Lobularia Lavendear STREAM 

New Yorker Fiction Podcast

Link to podcast site.  Here's my own spreadsheet of all of them that I'm building with the help of ChatGPT.  Here are ten that I could use for class:

The Purpose of GTD*

I've been spending time and effort on building a GTD system, complete with 10x10 projects imbedded, and daily habit building/tracking embedded this summer.  I thought it would be worth a couple minutes to create a rationale.  First of all, I am a perpetual starter of things (projects, tasks) and have a hard time keeping on to completion.  So, I want to have a system that will help me set, define, and work towards defined ends.  I want to be a finisher of things.  I am also someone who tends to think about and plan things for longer than it takes just to get started with projects.  So, I want a system to LIMIT my range of options about things to work on until I finish them.  

More to the point: I want a system that provides me -- right now -- an indicator of what I should begin working on.  One of my strengths is that I'm able to get to work and work pretty hard.  I need a system that will tell me, like a benevolent and wise supervisor or boss: this is what you should be doing now, now work hard for the next 25 minutes and get it done.  

In some ways, a good corrective to my tendencies would be to have a SINGLE project that I'm working on and work until I finish it.  However, because of my inherent tendencies, ADHDness, I need to do things in gulps.  My current system steals from the Pomodoro technique in thinking about a 25-minute chunk of time as a single unit.  

Here are some time management/ project management things that make sense to me (and, I think, are part of my system): Pomodoro technique (for 25-minute chunks), GTD (especially for the purpose of knowing what to do now and not storing stuff in your head -- using inbox to get to clarity, but also the idea of horizons of focus and 'responsibilities' and bundling tasks; related: I don't bundle "things to do at the computer, but rather, like the next item in this list, bundle focused work, like house maintenance/chore, garden/landscaping, office/finances), (system where you think of yourself as different PEOPLE throughout the day: world's greatest parent, chef, entrepreneur, athlete, etc. to focus on the immediate goals ahead of you... to clear your mind), timeblocking (to pre-plan the areas that I should be working on at specific times and to move from "list-based" to a "calendar-based" (though also recognizing that lists are important in the mind-clearing idea).  One time-blocker I recently read about (a doctor who set a goal to run a marathon per day on 7 continets?) has the next 14 days totally time-blocked.  I have daily time allocated for slightly-deeper dives of areas that need repeated attention - cleaning, bill paying, "vacation planning," financial planning, gmail taming.

How do I know if I'm "GTD'd"?  What would make me feel totally in control of my upcoming day?

1. I have the faith in the system - I'll write stuff down, it'll get in the system and I'll deal with it in time
2. I have faith that I have pre-blocked out enough time each week on my calendar to get the normal, expected things done.
3. I have lists of next steps for EACH of these normal things - home/maintenance, office/finances, etc.
4. I schedule important other regular things: exercise, reading
5. Then, after the regular, normal time blocks are in place, I can start "spending" or "planning for" the other chunks of time to make progress on important projects.
6. I know the current 10-projects that I'm working on; I have a list of next steps for each one. Each one has 10-steps.  
7. I have (within a week) completed my weekend review which looks ahead at my calendar, at my DRL Yearly, and project lists to update #3 and #6.

Lavender Pot*

Took this picture at a local office building -- actually an office building that houses my endodontist where I got a root canal during COVID, so a place that I have very positive associations of the relief of pain!  The double (or triple) grouping of lavender is striking.  When I walked by a few days later it was looking pretty tired, but on this day, it took me by surprise.  The common name for Lobularium is Sweet Alyssum.