{"id":3971,"date":"2015-05-14T15:25:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T14:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/?p=3971"},"modified":"2017-08-24T12:56:39","modified_gmt":"2017-08-24T11:56:39","slug":"want-get-done-get-real-get-unreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/2015\/05\/14\/want-get-done-get-real-get-unreal\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Post: Want to get more done? Get real, and get unreal."},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"blackboard<\/a><\/p>\n

Those of you who have been following my blogs over the last few years may have noticed that from time to time I\u2019ll do a bit of a deep-dive into an area of GTD thinking. This is one of those blogs. For those of you who are new to GTD, I expect this will be valuable food for thought. You experienced GTDers may feel like you\u2019re in familiar territory here, but I expect you\u2019ll find a new take on some core ideas.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a mental productivity exercise for you. Choose something big you need to do.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s personal or professional; anything is good grist for the mill. Maybe it\u2019s a report for the boss, a project you\u2019re planning to kick off in the New Year, a holiday trip next spring, or your Christmas shopping.<\/p>\n

Got something? Now think about it for a minute. Just let whatever random thoughts might occur flow through your brain.<\/p>\n

What thoughts came up for you?<\/p>\n

Quite probably lots of thoughts. If the thing you need to do is a large outcome, then you might think of a sequence of actions you need to take, a bit of a project plan. Some more general thoughts might occur as well. Who could help out on this project? What\u2019s my budget? Do I have all of the information I need? If not, where could I get it?<\/p>\n

You might also have some emotional reaction to the project. If it\u2019s generally a positive thing – your holiday trip next year, say – then you might find that you\u2019re quite happy to think about it. Or, if it\u2019s something less appealing \u2013 have that tough conversation with that person on your team who\u2019s under performing, say \u2013 then the emotions might be dread and a lack of enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

In seminars and coaching, I quite often see that people can talk for a long time about the things they need to do. Lots of ideas flow, but often the thinking is ineffective. Quite a lot of it is really re-thinking, re-processing thoughts they\u2019ve had before. Little of it is decisive and practical.<\/p>\n

Often I find this unfocused thinking can become overwhelming, and hard to draw a line under.\u00a0 When am I done with the thinking? What should the outcome of the thinking be?<\/p>\n

If we believe your thinking time is valuable (and who doesn\u2019t?), then our goal is to make the thinking that you do as effective and efficient as possible.<\/p>\n

So we recommend a couple of questions that are at the core of Getting Things Done.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

The first question we suggest you ask is, “what\u2019s the next action?” That is, what\u2019s the very next visible step that needs to be taken to move this thing forward? Who do you need to call? Who do you need to email? What do you need to talk to the boss about?<\/p>\n

For most people I find next action thinking is very natural. Next actions are concrete. They add to our sense of control. Is my next action, \u201cCall John to discuss the proposal?\u201d I know how to do that.<\/p>\n

Next actions help you to get real.<\/p>\n

The second question to ask is, \u201cwhat\u2019s the intended outcome?\u201d In other words, how will you know when you\u2019ve crossed the finish line? When this thing is done and off of your mind, what will be true? What\u2019s the project to complete?<\/p>\n

My own experience is that this kind of thinking quite often generates a bit more resistance. Identifying an outcome can unleash loads of questions, like \u201cHow the heck am I going to make that happen?\u201d \u201cWhat if I fail?\u201d\u00a0 Outcomes are less predictable than actions. They are things we want, but things that aren\u2019t true (yet).<\/p>\n

Outcomes are unreal.<\/p>\n

Unreal but nevertheless helpful. By identifying an outcome that you\u2019re interested in achieving, you\u2019ve created a gap. There\u2019s a distance between your \u201ccurrent reality\u201d and your \u201cintended reality.\u201d\u00a0 Acknowledging this gap creates stress, which can be uncomfortable. But it\u2019s also useful, because the way we make things happen in the world is by relieving it. We close the gaps between our current reality and our intended ones.<\/p>\n

We human beings are born planners. Give your brain a clear picture of something that it wants but doesn\u2019t yet have, and it will start, very naturally, to fill in the gaps. Imagine being on your holiday next summer. There\u2019s a picture of an intended outcome. Can you now come up with some steps that you\u2019ll need to take to achieve that outcome? I\u2019m guessing this will happen without a lot of effort.<\/p>\n

I find it often takes a bit of courage to commit to outcomes. They\u2019re a spring into the unknown. But by embracing the unreal, you make it more likely that it will happen.<\/p>\n

Want to be more productive? Get real, and get unreal.<\/p>\n

Don’t forget we have the following upcoming public seminar and webinar dates coming up\u00a0next month:<\/strong><\/p>\n

GTDF \u2013 London \u2013 4th<\/sup><\/span> June<\/a><\/p>\n

GTD Guided Set-up Webinar, Outlook \u2013 5th<\/sup><\/span> June<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

GTD Guided Set-up Webinar, Google Tools \u2013 5th<\/sup><\/span> June<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

GTD P&P \u2013 London \u2013 18th<\/sup><\/span> June<\/a><\/p>\n

GTDF \u2013 Dublin \u2013 25th<\/sup><\/span> June<\/a><\/p>\n

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Those of you who have been following my blogs over the last few years may have noticed that from time to time I\u2019ll do a bit of a deep-dive into an area of GTD thinking. This is one of those blogs. For those of you who are new to GTD, I expect this will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_eb_attr":"","gtp_columnspro_styling":"{}","gtp_paragraph_styling":"{}","gtp_heading_styling":"{}","gtp_spacer_styling":"{}","gtp_video_styling":"{}","gtp_group_styling":"{}","gtp_cover_styling":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[309,323,29],"tags":[249,53,70,72,101],"yst_prominent_words":[2082,2071,2079,2076,2073,2069,2080,2072,1156,2077,2074,2078,2083,1518,449,2081,2070,1096,2075,2084],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3971"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.next-action.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}