Once again welcome back to the Bloggers Book Study. Yesterday Genie Mo covered Chapters 9 & 10 of Getting Things Done by David Allen. Today we will be going over chapter 11. The following 3 chapters is an account of the the authors experience over his years of implementing and the principles we have been learning about.
Chp 11 - The Power of the Collection Habit
-The Personal Benefit
Having too much to do is not the source of the negative feelings we experience. We always have too much to do. Right? Negative feelings come from a different place.
Broken agreements can hurt you, in your personal feelings, and in the trust others put in you.
If your negative feelings come from broken agreements, here's 3 ways you can deal with them and do away with the negative feelings:
- Don't make the agreement: One way to do this is to lower your standards..... but we all know that's just not going to happen. Don't lower your standards but understand what it means to take make an agreement at the level your standards are, and then you'll probably make fewer agreements.
- Complete the agreement: Just finish it and be able to mark it off as done. We all love the feeling of wining. Satisfy it by giving yourself doable tasks you can start and finish easily. BUT remember the catch-22: the better you get, the better you'd better get. That leads us to the third one.
- Renegotiate the agreement: A renegotiated agreement is not a broken one. Write them down on the to-do-list, and prioritize.
Every agreement must be made conscious. Captured, objectified, and reviewed regularly so it can be placed in its right self-management area.
You'll feel better collecting anything that you haven't collected yet.
-When Relationships and Organizations Have the Collection Habit
We have to trust that any request on a v-mail, in an e-mail, a conversation, or written note will get into the other persons system, processed, and organized, fast, and available for their review as an option for action.
Organizations suffer from serious "interruptitis" because they can't trust putting comminications into the system.
We cant legislate personal systems. But you can hold people accountable for outcomes, and for tracking and managing everything that comes their way.
So that wraps up Chp 11. Theirs some very useful life lessons that we can definitely apply in our jobs and homes. Its good to have the "how to" and then the life lessons to look out for all in one book.
Tune in tomorrow over at Miguel's blog for chapter 12
5 comments:
I appreciate that whole concept of the agreements we make, and not lowering our standards, but being really aware of what it will take to keep the agreements we do make.
Thanks for such a great summary!! food for thought today.
Awesome insight. I used to be a HUGE commitment breaker. OMGosh, friends, coworkers, family - none of em could trust my word. God slapped me upside the head and for the last 15 yrs, I've worked hard at turning things around. Going frm Commitment-Breaker to Commitment-Maker. Good word, Yoel
Hmmm ... i know some people who suffer from "interruptitis" at #Flamingo ... haha !!
j/k
good post
-H
"A renegotiated agreement is not a broken one." I appreciate this concept because it accounts for the fact that life throws us curve balls and we have to renogotiate instead of breaking commitments.
great review Yoel. thanks.
"the better u get, the better you'd better get"!?!? man that spoke to me :) thanks for breaking it down for us Torres. You rock on & off stage.
-L
Post a Comment