GTD for Emotions - Imploding the Universe - The Diigo Meta page

• 20 Sep 06
  

  Powmow

  emotions gtd happiness productivity

  • My proposed steps for the Emotional Getting Things Done system:
    
    1. When you begin the system for the first time, write down every
    emotion that still plagues you from your past (e.g. the death of a
    loved one), problems that are on your mind about current events or
    events in the very near future (e.g. worrying about failing that test
    this week), and problems in the forseeable future (e.g. dilemmas over
    how to spend your life). The examples that I listed are all bad
    feelings, but the same should go for happy ones: you are included in a
    promising opportunity, you just lost 30 lbs, etc.
    
    

    
    

    2. During your day, whenever a meaningful emotion hits you, right it
    down immediately! "Gee, I sure am pissed that my best friend Billy
    would say something about <insert person>. I'm going to write
    down my anger so as to not let it fester and ruin my
    happiness/productivity." The Hipster PDA would be perfect for this.
    
    

    
    

    3. Process: Look through all of your emotions and decide which are
    good and which are bad. The good emotions need no next step - throw
    them away or file them (haha, yeah right). The bad ones need one more
    step:
    
    

    
    

    4. Resolution or next action: Write down how these emotions could be
    resolved. For example, if I were processing "I'm incredibly pissed at
    myself for failing that test," I'd write down, "It's ok. It's only one
    test. I'll just study harder next time, and I'll be on top of the world
    again."
    
    

    
    

    5. If a bad emotion takes physical tasks to resolve, then add those
    steps to your GTD inbox and process them as a normal task. For example,
    maybe a feeling of guilt could be resolved by calling someone and
    apologizing - or just talking to a person about your problem in
    general. Or, maybe you're feeling lonely; schedule some time to spend
    time with friends!
    
    

    
    

    I have no idea if this will work, but it seems very logical to me.
    The same idea applied to GTD also applies to this: get things out of
    your head. Productivity and happiness? That's something I'd love to maintain on a regular basis. It's the GTD equivalent of a journal.

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