Reason #2: De-Stress Inebriation

OK, you implemented GTD and emerged from the cut-over. You changed everything and somehow, you are out the other side, now you’ve entered into the GTD honeymoon.

Murder on a honeymoon … happens, surprisingly … often.

In the movies. But, also by brides, and grooms. While you are enjoying your GTD honeymoon, stress relief is fantastic: “Why did I not do this before now?” repeats endlessly.

*News* *Flash*

Honeymoons end, even if you are not murdered. And your GTD honeymoon is going to end this Friday.

Why this Friday? Because this Friday will be the first time you “forget” to do your weekly review.  On Monday you will realize: “Oh, yeah. I needed to do a weekly review last Friday.”

No Weekly Review: What is the big deal?

1. By skipping your weekly review you break the GTD contract with your subconscious.You remember, the GTD “trusted system contract” right?
   1. “I (conscious me) agree write everything down, and take conscious control of reviewing projects and next actions. And,”
   2. “You, my subconscious agree to ‘let go’ of remembering everything, which frees up my (conscious me’s) creative capacity take credit for the subconscious doing breakthrough work.”
2. And, more fundamentally you did not skip the weekly review because you “forgot.” You skipped your weekly review because you listened to a demon.See if you recognize the voice:”You feel so good, why spoil feeling good, with the drudgery of a weekly review.””If you do a weekly review, you know you will find something that will turn in to an emergency. Do you have the energy to deal with an emergency right now? So … don’t weekly review.”

   “You did a such a great job setting up all these projects and next actions, no need to review this week, you still remember everything.”

   Sound familiar?

Reason #2: Why people GTDers Don’t Use Evernote After Installing Evernote

De-stress inebriation. 

You’ve implemented GTD, you’ve got Evernote up and swallowing massive quantities of paper. Stress to remember everything, is gone. Stress to intuitively preempt emergencies is gone. Your subconscious for the first time, is cutting you slack about forgetting.

Your spouse says to you “Why are you so happy?” (as mine did on the first Friday after implementing GTD).

This is telling you that you are inebriated. That is, de-stress inebriation is going to kill your use of Evernote and … GTD.

De-Stress Inebriation:

If, like me, you were under a lot of stress before discovering GTD, the initial “honeymoon high” of de-stress inebriation, can trick you into taking a “vacation” from work in the guise of “being more organized.”

Wait, think!

“I implemented GTD so that I could get more done. But, the first week of GTD while I’m getting organized made me feel so good, I (somehow) decided not to do my weekly review.”

Which, leads, to me doing nothing, while I enjoy being de-stressed.

What am I avoiding?

A weekly review does three things: (1) Gets you clear on what just came in, (2) Gets you current on everything going on, and (3) Gets you creative.

Source: After p. 27 of David Allen “Mastering Workflow”

Why am I avoiding this? Because it is too hard? Was the excuse in the work, or in dread your head?

Consequences:

If you implemented GTD in Evernote, you won’t be able to sit down and do GTD.

There it is, you’ve just stopped using Evernote for the second most common reason. You got drunk on the release of stress from implementing GTD.

bill meade
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