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Getting off the ground - feeling panicked/worried
Pat Armstrong | Apr 26 2008
Hi all. I've read through most of Getting Things Done about twice now, thought about implementing it quite a bit, and even posted here once or twice. I've bought a filing cabinet (something I swore I'd never do), a stack of folders and adhesive labels, and a bunch of index cards. I've decided to give it a go, since I'm in my last year at uni, working part-time, and usually have a few personal/freelance projects on the go at any one time as well as a social life to keep a grip on, so there's a lot of stuff to manage there. And now I'm processing my inbox for the first time, and my list of projects is starting to make me feel quite nervous and even panicky, and I'm not even halfway there yet. It contains everything from "Fix couch in loungeroom" to "Organise time with girlfriend" and "Update portfolio". Although I had small moments of feeling good about the process (such as when I wrote out "Fix wind-up watch" as a project, something I've been meaning to do for over a year), looking at all this stuff in one spot just makes me nervous, not in control of all the stuff in my life. My project list is over 50, and I still have a stack of projects/ideas to get through, fearing I'll have this monster list at the end of it all and no idea where to start. Am I doing it wrong? 5 Comments
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 You’re right: I’ve neverSubmitted by poisontofu on April 27, 2008 - 3:59pm.
You're right: I've never had an 'inbox' before, and have usually been pretty bad at keeping my files / paperwork in order. Coming from a design background, I'm familiar with working on "Projects" but have never applied that to anything outside of design briefs at work and uni. I do need to become comfortable with my system as well, I think -- working at uni, home, and work on different and often overlapping projects, I think I'm going to need something portable. I'm trying out TaskPaper because I like it's simplicity, coupled with a hPDA which currently contains my @calls and @errands contexts (since my main other ones, @home @computer @work @uni mean I have access to a computer with an internet connection) with a few spare cards for capturing things to process when I'm out and about. I'll see how I'm going after a week or so. It does feel good to cross things off a list after I've done them, though :) » POSTED IN:
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