This week I put my nose to the grindstone to try to get as much done ahead of time as possible so I could spend my time at BlogWorld in New York City actually being at BlogWorld in New York City. In doing so, I managed to get a lot of posts scheduled for both Lifehack and at this very weblog, prepare 3 podcasts that will go live between now and June 11 and a whole lot more.
But I noticed something while I was doing the big push this week. I noticed that by laying all of my tasks out there for me to deal with in a short time span that I was able to not only get an idea of what to do now – but also what I want to be doing later and what I don’t want to have to do again.
I saw that some desires had become obligations. I saw that some tasks had indeed become projects – bigger than I’d wanted them to be and unwieldy as a result. I saw that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
I saw clearly.
This wasn’t a “brain dump”at all. It was more like a “priority puzzle” in that I dumped out the giant jigsaw puzzle of my current life and decided what pieces needed to be dealt with first. That way I could fit the other pieces in easier later.
I’m not advocating making this a regular habit. But like the Weekly Review (another GTD staple), doing this kind of thing every once in a while might just clear things up for you. I know it did for me and the path is filled with far less debris than it was before. I’m feeling a whole lot better about where I’m at as I leave for BlogWorld. I’m feeling that I’ll be able to be as completely together in New York City as the pieces of my priority puzzle are here.
And that’s a really great feeling to have.
Photo credit: Susy Morris (CC BY-ND 2.0)
