I don't want to do anything at all. Possibly ever again. Even Twittering feels like too much effort, and that's only 140 characters at a time. I blame
Getting Things Done. As advised in the book of the website of the seminar of the philosophy of the SADIST, I made a long To Do list of every single thing that I could think of that I needed or wanted to do in my life, categorised it all, fed it into
OmniFocus, bought in-trays, bought filing cabinets - I think you know about the
filing cabinets - and all of the rest of it. And now, instead of - as I was promised - having my mind freed up for the important business of actually doing some writing, or whatever it is that I do here all day (hey: what is that, exactly?), all I am is overwhelmed by how much stuff I have to do, when before, when it was safely in my head instead of written down where I can actually see it, I could ignore it completely. Now I can't because I have admitted it to myself. What was wrong with denial anyway? It served me well all these years. Now I have to cope with knowing that, day and night, somewhere not too far from me is a list on which the word
ironing is written, quite close to
buy outdoor bin lid and
sort through electronic stuff in drawer and really not that far from
learn Portuguese. All things I have managed to get away with not doing for years, with few ill effects, aside from rumpled clothes and an inability to talk to Portuguese people. Bloody hell, David Allen: you never warned me that in order to Get things Done, I was going to have to Do Stuff. What kind of a system is that?
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6 comments:
ha haaaaa. I KNEW this book sounded like Bad News.
Learn Greek. It's more fun and won't mess your head up if you've already learnt some Spanish or Italian.
Ah, Portuguese. Now I've been trying unsuccessfully to learn this using a variety of quick learn methods on CD. However failed mainly due to a lack of time (I have a "proper" job!), but also because people in the Algarve laugh when I try! However, have been recommended “Colloquial Portuguese” published by Routledge – there is a book and a CD. Which apparently is more like "proper" learning. I'm going to give it two hours a day when I'm laid up in a few weeks recovering from a hip replacement! You can give it a go with me (virtually) if you like.
I bought the Getting Things Done book a few years ago. The only thing I have taken from it that I have remotely kept to or found useful was the daigram flow-chart of 'stuff'. More specifically I live by the "is it actionable? - will it take less than 2 minutes? - do it" routine. It keeps things from staying on my desk too long in most instances.
Otherwise, its nasty feeling that all that 'To Do' list has to actually get done... my sympathies.
Do you think I can learn Portuguese in less than two minutes? Would be v cool.
As I am pastmaster at Not Getting Things Done. (viz, am sitting here when the house needs to be returned to some semblance of normality from postholiday chaos), this sounds like a book I should never ever buy, otherwise I will have to stick my head in a box for the rest of my life...
Peteraj, I used to work at Routledge many eons ago, and those Colloquial series are pretty good, so maybe you'll be fluent by the end of the month. Though clearly learning to speak Portugese in two minutes is a much better option...
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