In the book Getting Things Done the author explains that your brain is basically a really bad reminder system. So if it thinks there’s something you needs to do, it will basically keep reminding you of that thing at all times until you do it. So for each of these things, there’s what the author calls an “open loop”, and the brain keeps telling you about it until the loop is closed.
The way out, the author says, is to have a trusted system for storing information outside your brain. In that trusted system, you can write down what needs to be done for each open loop, and that basically closes the loop for your brain and it will stop reminding you of that thing all the time.
I still haven’t gone fully into doing it but my director at work swore by it, and the few times I tried it it was almost like magic. Even if you just pull out a todo app or notebook and for each of the things currently looping in your head, write down only the next step you need to take regarding that open loop (and maybe what the desired outcome is - I can’t remember if that’s in the book or not). For me the first time I tried it it was magical - it turned out there were only 4 or 5 things total looping on my mind at the time and after doing this exercise my mind was basically blank - the reminder system stopped telling me there was something I needed to do for these loops.
I think for it to be sustainable you probably have to really make sure you follow up on the things you write down so that your brain actually trusts you’ll do the things you wrote down, but at least for me it worked really well as a short term hack on a few occasions. I really need to finish reading the book!
I _had_ a trusted system way back in high school: my daily planbooks. However, when I tried getting back into the habit, I routinely find the problem of brain dumping all the open loops, then setting the book aside and forgetting to look at it for two weeks.
Part of the problem, I believe, is the nature of deadlines I handle as an adult compared to as a student. As a student, the majority of my assignments were due within a week (if not due tomorrow), so it was easy to track that everything was finished. As an adult, everything is either due by EoD (and therefore has no need of being entered in the system) or due six weeks out (I never did develop the work ethic to beat procrastination, even as an A student).
>I routinely find the problem of brain dumping all the open loops
set a time limit, i create cards on a kanban board, write a subject and dump my task list for either a minute or until i notice myself shifting thoughts.
>setting the book aside and forgetting to look at it for two weeks
then you realize, dump a card reminding you to look at it again in less than 2 weeks. keep a metric on how often you look and reward yourself when you improve your metric. the real magic comes when you're sitting around not doing anything and you look at that todo list... and then work on it
I have found your git activity tracker is a good at-a-glance method of determining your procrastination levels
Another part of Getting Things Done is to have a weekly review. Look at all the open projects in your trusted system and make sure you know the next thing you need to do for them. Look at your calendar and figure out what else you need to do. Think through the areas of your life and figure out what projects are in your head but not in your system.
There is a bit more to Getting Things Done than just to do lists.
> I routinely find the problem of brain dumping all the open loops, then setting the book aside and forgetting to look at it for two weeks.
Even as a student I had this problem. My solution was to write on sticky notes and put them on the wall directly next to my desk. I could no longer forget about them, and could easily remove each one as I completed it.
> you can write down what needs to be done for each open loop, and that basically closes the loop for your brain and it will stop reminding you of that thing all the time
This plus just do the thing and it's like a super power. I realized I was letting simple things that take little time roll around in my head all day because of procrastination. So now, if I can do something right then - I do it.
This is part of the system actually - if something takes less than two minutes then just do it. But I think that’s sort of in a separate phase from the initial writing down of something… Like you can write something down briefly when you think of it to put it in your “inbox” but then you have a set time later to process your “inbox” and put everything in the right place, etc. and at that point if something takes less than two minutes then you just do it. Otherwise in contexts like work I think you could easily swamp yourself trying to do quick tasks like responding to messages and take a long time to get to anything important.
That said, I haven’t finished the book and truthfully part of the drawback of it is that it’s a bit of a complex system with a lot of moving parts, which has slowed down my desire to really finish it. But it still seems like if you could get past the parts that seem complicated and make it work for you it’d be great.
The 'pomodoro technique' starts dead simple but builds to quite a complex system. Might be worth a look.
I've used the first dead simple bit myself to get things I don't like doing much done. I've suggested just that first part (four or five bullet points) to older teenager students for exam revision with some success.
I start my work day off with an Eisenhower matrix at the top of a new page in my business diary.
Leave the diary open and present on the desk. Ensure you're crossing out things as you work through them. Review previous days as often as you think is necessary.
Between that and having all my meetings in my osx calendar, I generally don't have open loops.
I've been experimenting with using ChatGPT-4 for this. I tell it to take on a personal assistant persona and it helps me intelligently prioritise & track tasks, plus break them down into smaller steps. You can also have fun with it taking on different styles like your "personal assistant bro" or "Data from Star Trek".
It is pretty helpful, but after a while I've seen problems with it getting lost in the back an forth: it forgets tasks, or forgets that they are done. There are definitely issues with large context spaces. After a certain point, I can repeatedly tell it something is done or to remove an item from the list, and it'll apologise but keep the item as "Todo". This is probably one reason why they haven't released the 32k space yet.
If someone finds the book helpful, it is helpful. No need to call it a meme if it does not cite studies. It is strictly a personal decision to read the book and use the system.
The way out, the author says, is to have a trusted system for storing information outside your brain. In that trusted system, you can write down what needs to be done for each open loop, and that basically closes the loop for your brain and it will stop reminding you of that thing all the time.
I still haven’t gone fully into doing it but my director at work swore by it, and the few times I tried it it was almost like magic. Even if you just pull out a todo app or notebook and for each of the things currently looping in your head, write down only the next step you need to take regarding that open loop (and maybe what the desired outcome is - I can’t remember if that’s in the book or not). For me the first time I tried it it was magical - it turned out there were only 4 or 5 things total looping on my mind at the time and after doing this exercise my mind was basically blank - the reminder system stopped telling me there was something I needed to do for these loops.
I think for it to be sustainable you probably have to really make sure you follow up on the things you write down so that your brain actually trusts you’ll do the things you wrote down, but at least for me it worked really well as a short term hack on a few occasions. I really need to finish reading the book!