GTD with ADHD

Loving 750 Words

Lifehacker had a review of an interesting app 750 Words:

 

The concept of 750 Words is simple: every day, you type 750 words—the equivalent of three pages—of stream of conscious, whatever you want, free writing. You earn points and badges for every day you type any number of words. Your entries, which are private by default (despite the somewhat alarming Facebook Connect login), can be exported at any point. Buster's one of the kings of personal data visualization (just look atthe guy's homepage), so it makes sense that when you're done writing, you get all these interesting analytics and charts about your piece, like how long it took you, what words you used the most, and what you talked about. Explore the public stats page to get a taste. Above you can see a screenshot of the data I got after writing my first entry tonight, a literal braindump of the most random thoughts I had about today.

A Genius Idea: Make a Possibilities Calendar

I saw this tip on Lifehacker:

If you've ever been that frustrating situation where you find yourself with some unexpected down time but don't know how to fill it at a moment's notice, lifestyle blog Life Scoop suggests putting together a possibilities calendar.

Blogger Asha Dornfest says she often runs across events or activities she'd like to attend, but aren't necessarily important enough to carve out special time for. She created a "possibilities" calendar in Google Calendar and now, instead of relying on her memory to remind her of an art showing or movie she wants to check out, she simply parks the details on her calendar and pulls it up when she finds herself with some unplanned free time.

Dornfest keeps this special calendar stocked with things like movie and gym class schedules, museum hours of operation, open swim times at the local pool, and so on. Since she uses Google Calendar to organize her life, Dornfest keeps her Possibilities calendar hidden from view until she needs to consult it in order to avoid cluttering up her daily schedule.

This idea is genius. I always find things, like classes at the gym or movie times, that I want to keep track of, but didn't want to put directly on my calendar or in my to-do list because it ends up cluttering my calendar up and makes it harder to track Must-Do's and scheduling meetings becomes near impossible. But, without putting them on a calendar, I never could keep track. This solves the problem! Seriously, it's such a simple idea, yet so genius in execution. 

ProConLists: An Invaluable Tool for Those of Us Who Love Charts and Can't Make a Decision

Lifehacker recently posted about ProConLists. 

Sometimes the best way to make a tough decision is the tried-and-true pros and cons list. Web site ProConLists does the same pro versus con listing, but with item weighting based on rational and emotional considerations.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

Creating a list on this free web-based service is easy, and no registration is required. Open a blank list template and fill in every pro and con you can think of. Then assign a rational and emotional weight to each one, based on how important the pro or con is to your overall decision.

If you opt to register for a free account, you can post your lists for others to view and share opinions. Other users can view your list and vote on whether your pros and cons have merit. For instance, when you're trying to decide whether to buy a particular camera, one of your cons might be a concern about picture quality. Other users can alleviate your fears by disagreeing with your con, letting you know the camera's picture quality is fine.

When you're done making your list, the app generates a report that looks at your decision from three different angles. Emotional results, rational results, and a calculation based on both. User opinion also factors into each perspective, so you're getting a fairly comprehensive look at both sides of your question.

And while you won't want to rely on ProConLists to decide on really important issues based purely on the numbers, it's a fun little app for weighing whether to buy a new iPad or not.

As a lover of charts and someone who has difficulty making decisions this nifty little app is a surefire winner in my book.

Even better: It can easily be used for both important decisions and fun ones. 

Unfinished Projects: An Unexpected Energy Drain

I was reading http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2010/02/finish-the-projects-youve-started-or-call-an-end-to-them.html about unfinished projects.

I realized that a source of clutter in my apartment, and a significant drain on my energy, was the uncomfortable presence of unfinished projects.

This is a classic example of things that sound so simply when you read them, but until you read them you don't really think about it. 

The first time I read Getting Things Done, I had a similar realization. While I understood the concept behind the mind dump, I really didn't think it'd bring about all of the things promised in the book: increased creativity! increased focus!  increased energy! 

So, I did the mind dump and it was true. I DID have increased creativity and focus, but most surprising was I really did have more energy. 

I went a back to my mind dump a few days later and really examined it. At least half of the things on the list we're half done projects in varying states of completion. I love projects. I live for projects. And I looked at that list and did something completely out of character for me-I picked gave myself a set number of projects to allow myself and crossed eliminated any beyond the number and vowed not to take on any unless the project wouldn't put me over that number.

Did it alleviate me of all unfinished projects? Nope. Did it stop me from keeping some projects unfinished? Nope. Did it help me focus and actually complete some projects, especially when I had an idea for a new project that I really, really wanted to start? Absolutely. 

I'm taking it slow, so my project number is most certainly higher than it should be, but it's already significantly helped my productivity and overall energy levels and mental well-being. As I get used to having a set number and accomplish more projects, I'm actually looking forward to dropping the number lower and lower until I get to my Ultimate Goal of only three projects open at once. 

It really is amazing how much the things you don't think you're thinking about actually really do affect you.