"babauta'in' it" this weekend

rough werk week last week sent me to leo babauta's excellent zenhabits blog for answers, and from there back to getting things done given extraordinary demands without giving up.

so i've decided to spend a major part of my weekend getting back into gtd and thought i'd share a little of it here.

i spent saturday reading david allen's original again.  hadn't read it through in probably 3 years. i was again inspired by the front end chapters that sum up nicely the demands of today's knowledge worker, and this time was really struck by this beautiful chunk in the middle about the natural planning method which i have no memory of appreciating the first time i read the book.  it sounds like a child-rearing/birth control method, but it really resonated with me (particularly given the werk week that precipitated this).  ((i'm even going to develop some natural planning exercises for my creative thinking class in the fall; see mr c's edublog.))

i began my first, physical sweep of the apt this AM, corralling my "stuff," (george carlin's view notwithstanding) and essentially putting everything that was not where it should be in a single place where i can then sit to process it.  this is step one.

after about an hour, the piles that have covered my dining room table since xmas are now collected into boxes for processing, a big step ahead and critical, but kinda' fun for the obsessive among us.

above shows a series of piles comprising my current "apparel inbox" –a mix of laundry (some clean, some not).  i had all sorts of clothes etc lying around the apartment –dishtowels used for tug-of-war with the dog, ball caps, winter gloves, clean, folded shirts, unclean, wrinkled shirts, items placed out of matilda's reach, a ruined socks pile, bedding awaiting laundering, jackets off of hangers, shoes, shoes, shoes, and lots more; you get the idea.  (note to art fans - framed murakami at the pompidou center poster in the bg)

this is my home office desk, its surface actually cleared of much of its former debris.  still, you see a post-it note from 2008, and behind the desk where i normally sit, piles of wires, brimming cardboard boxes, and a ladder waiting for me to change the battery on my ever-chirping smoke detector. (2nd note to art fans - 2 more murakamis in the bg)

below, an example of the potential of the place when clean and organized, courtesy of elyse, which was evident from the moment i moved in, and which it once attained for a brief time.  the boxes on the right though, were NEVER unpacked during my 2 year stint here. what must be in them that's so (un)important?  (3rd note to art fans - buff monsters framed in the bg plus a frank miller dame)

and lastly, where i currently sit writing this now, a small island of order, sunlight, and flowers in a chaotic life and living place.

i show all of this in hopes that i can later post pics of the changed, and upkept, not unkempt, environment. i'm not catholic any longer (if i ever truly was), but i had just enough of it in my youth to still be motivated by a series of vague guilts throughout my life. i'm hopeful this public shaming will help keep me in line until gtd habits become ingrained and the rewards of "effortless productivity and peace of mind" becomes the norm.

so the physical sweep's at a stopping point.  now for the mental sweep...

~benc