2/7 Setting the goals

Setting 7 goals and the essence of GTD

These coming blogs are aimed at people with passion for what ever they do. If you keep you job to pay for your hobbies, search and replace the word “work” with “hobby”. These blogs are applicable to the part of your life where you are passionate and want perfection. In my opinion, every time you tell yourself “I did my best”, your are trying to find an excuse for why things didn’t go the way you wanted. Either it is perfect or it is not. If you fail, well do it again, do it better!

So, Getting More Done or GMD, is all about finding techniques for perfection in what ever you do. GTD is just the beginning! The goal for improving and getting more effective evolved to the list of goals below. GTD is the first step!

Here are the goals I set up for myself and you will read in the coming blogs how I try to reach these goals and why I fail sometimes.

The list of goals:

1. Be organized 90% of the time at work and 70% of the time at home. There should be more flexibility and chaos at home than at work. Don’t set 100%, you will become a stale boring person!
2. Be creative and provide creative thoughts and solutions at least once in every meeting.
3. Take responsibility for things in your domain of work and home. If you start sentences as “Unbelievable how the management can be so blind/ignorant …etc.” then you are not taking responsibility.
4. Be resourceful, once you know what you want you can always find a way to getting it done.
5. Be great at the things you set your mind to do. Not good, not better, BE GREAT!
6. Challenge yourself in improving and creating things no one has thought of before.
7. Keep up the tempo and flow in your achievements. Keep all the above goals up and don’t slip. At least not for a long period of time.

Goal 1 is done with GTD. If you haven’t read the book yet, do it. Don’t wait, don’t create a bookmark. Just go to the Amazon http://amzn.to/e1yxtg web store and buy it. The cheapest and fastest is to get the kindle version and download the kindle application for your computer. Given that you don’t have the actual kindle/iPad etc.

The most important value of GTD is that you will “be There”. Jim Elliot said “Wherever you are – be all there”. This is the essence of GTD, in my opinion anyway.

Let me give an example.

When you get home, you will take couple of work-thoughts with you. These thoughts will fade away during the evening and re-surface when you go to bed or when you wake up in the morning. There is always a ramp up/down time to switch context. If you are dedicated to the GTD techniques and philosophy, you will be more present. Meaning, when you leave work, there is no ramp-down. you switch context the minute you set the key in the door. You have to have a physical act combined with the mental exercise of shutting off work and starting up the home-status.

This mental control will make you more effective. When in a meeting, you are concentrated on one subject. The rest of the thoughts are resting in your “trusted storage”. When you are home, your work-life will be put on hold in a trusted way. You don’t have to remind your self to do anything. You will not forget anything, because everything is stored in a trusted manor.

There will be more about this state of mind. This is one of the pre-requisits for taking the other steps.