GTD in chunks, and working from your lists.

I was doing a long overdue weekly review today, and a thought struck me about the whole process. It is really like going to the gym. When you do it regularly, you feel on top of the world. When you go back to it after a while, the first time feels great!

This weekly review was a "return to GTD" review. Lots of old stale stuff on the lists. Lots of amorphous stuff in @Action and @Waiting For email folders. In short, lots of crap to wade through. I didn't even touch my paper inbox, but once the review was complete, I worked dilligently prioritizing and making phone calls and getting my e-box to empty. Yay me. But it feels good, like returning to the gym after a hiatus does. You feel pumped. You feel like a produtivity stud.

Tomorrow, I'm probably going to have the same feeling. Less of a weekly review, more of a collection session, when I get all the paper stuff together and catalogued on my lists. Once all that is back up to date, I can start thinking clearly about what is a project, what isn't, and what really belongs on the Someday / Maybe list rather than on the @Action list.

It also got me to thinking about where I had lost the discipline. I had lost the whole part where you work from your lists, as if it had been optional to do that. I put a whole bunch of things on the list today. I hammered away and got many of them off, but no where near caught up. But I feel like I know where I'm going and that is a big part of the battle.

It leads me to think that returning to GTD is almost best done in stages. Your framework is there but it takes a huge review to bring it up to date. So, if it takes a huge review... Why not break it up? I did the electronic world today. Tomorrow - paper, which won't get stalled now because at least a portion of my decks are clear.