For this post I suggest listening to this: Music for Airports.
One of the most difficult aspects of the Getting Things Done by David Allen (GTD) approach is not just getting into the habit of reviewing, but deciding from which level to review.
Allen presents six levels from which to review:
- 50, 000+ feet: Life
- 40, 000 feet: Three- to five-year vision
- 30, 000 feet: One- or two-year goals
- 20, 000 feet: Areas of responsibility
- 10, 000 feet: Current projects
- Runway: Current actions
But today, let’s just talk about the top level: life.
Chris Brogan, author of “Trust Agents,” recently posted about the his extreme schedule. He welcomes it at this time of life, and that’s great – I’m happy for his success. But it simply can’t be sustained indefinitely.
No matter how busy your schedule, at some point you’re going to have to ask yourself, Do your goals and values align with your actions? That’s a tough question for most of us. It means we have to not only act in accordance to what we believe and hold important, but we actually need to understand what those goals and values are. It’s easy to simply accept the values handed down to us from our parent or peers, and it’s hard work to poke, prod, and question them so we really understand and own them. What do you want? What matters? What’s important to you?
If your answer to these questions is “I don’t have time to think about that stuff,” then you’re heading for a crises or breakdown, sooner or later.
Since I’ve moved from full time employment to freelance and self-directed work, I’ve discovered I have something that I haven’t had in years, perhaps since I left grad school: time. I have time to tackle long and complex projects. I have time to keep in touch with friends and colleagues. I have time to tackle chores around the house and take care of things for my wife and daughter who have more rigid schedules. I have time to work out. I have time to think.
But I also realized that I’ve always had the time, I was just too exhausted to do much of anything with that time. Ever feel that way? Still don’t have time to think about the big questions?
I recently visited my family physician for a routine checkup and she praised me on my weight loss, lowered blood pressure and heart rate, then backhanded me with what I’m sure she thought was a compliment. “You’re in very good health and should be good for another twenty years.” And after seeing the stunned look on my face, quickly added “or thirty.” I’m not yet fifty years old and can’t quite come around to calling myself “middle aged.” The thought of only twenty years was staggering. For the record, I plan on living at least another fifty.
But one never knows. That’s why thinking beyond the immediate is so important. In the past few years when I felt things were piling up too high for me to manage and I began to feel like I needed to escape, I’d pull out my beat-up paperback copy of The Histories by Herodotus. Bear with me a moment and don’t label me a snob – this book is filled with incredible stories and is fun to dip into and read. And when I pick it up I find more than simple escape. I find perspective. Herodotus was writing in 450 BCE (that’s nearly twenty-five hundred years ago) about events that were ancient to him. If nothing else, read Book VII’s section on the Battle of Termopylae to get the real picture of the events as portrayed in the movie “The 300“.
If we’re lucky, we might have our full one hundred years. And yet the story of humanity is more than ten thousand years, probably much more (my reading tells me it’s closer to a fifty thousand to a quarter million years). It’s occasionally helpful to me to reflect on that long history, or even just the five generations of Murrays that lived in this country as Illinois farmers before I hightailed it for the big city.
But sometimes perspective by itself isn’t enough. When you try for that “50,000 foot” review of all things you have to do, along with all the things you want to do, and you find it impossible to see how you’re going to achieve ANY of these things, it’s time for a new set of goals. Sometimes, as I recently did, you have to force the issue and make big changes. It’s better if you don’t let things build to that point. You’ll be more effective at whatever you do and far more productive if you take a bit of each day to contemplate the things you need and what you want to accomplish. Even if it’s just fifteen minutes to zero out your in-box, review your Next Actions folder, and review your calendar for today (better make that the next week so things don’t sneak up on you), you’ll feel less burdened and more focused. And once a month or so, take some real time to climb at least to 30,000 feet and think about the next twelve months or so.
Then, at least once a year, perhaps when you can get three or four days away from the grind, try for that big perspective, and see where your life fits within the scope of human history. Do your actions align with your goals and values? Are you on the right path? It’s easier to make your course corrections monthly and yearly instead of waiting for that midlife crisis.
For more reading I suggest visiting The Long Now at longnow.org and read The Clock of the Long Now by Stuart Brand. Now THAT’S perspective!
