Oops, I have an Empty Brain
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Who remembers that classic Gary Larson comic from 1960
Well, I can happily say that today my brain is empty… and I’m absolutely rapt that it is!
One of the mantras of GTD from David Allen is to be able to end up with an empty brain. It sounds strange I know, but in reality it makes perfect sense. The point is that if your brain is having to continually work at trying to keep track of everything you’ve got to do, you’ll never be able to give your full attention to any one thing.
My work week runs from Tuesday to Sunday with Monday off. So yesterday (Tuesday my time) was the first day of the second week of my implementation of eProductivity from Eric Mack. And Tuesday is the day I’ve decided as most suitable for my [cue the trumpet fanfare]…
Weekly Review
I opened up the brilliant “Weekly Review Coach” that is part of eProductivity for Lotus Notes and simply followed the prompts.
Over the weekend, I end up with notes in various notebooks, loose bits of paper, a few other capture tools content and often thoughts in my head from conversations with many people and this prompted me to get it all properly recorded and processed. (Though this highlights a question – What’s the best tool to carry around to capture conversations and thoughts etc as I go?)
What’s the best tool to carry around to capture conversations and thoughts etc as I go?
I have to tell you that its one thing to follow a list when doing something like this, but being able to have the list integrated – that is, you can do the actions from within the list itself – is magnificent.
So now my brain is empty, (actually is was quite early on yesterday), and I’m able to fully concentrate on the most important thing for me to do now, being the thing that will best move us towards our ultimate goal (yes, my “Horizons of Focus” are integrated with mail – Thanks Eric Mack for the tip about the eProductivity Reference Database).
Now what was that again, I forget… Oh that’s right I don’t need to remember – its right here on my next action list!
March 18th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Paul,
My best tools for me to capture anything that I want to capture and do carry around are a combination of two: one being my Nokia E71 phone that syncs to eProductivity and shows the newly entered items in the “uncategorized” category, like I described in this blog post: http://www.simoons.com/blog/2009/03/not-forget-eproductivity/
The second tool which a great capture tool is David Allen’s Notetaker wallet. It is a small notepad in a format that is easy to carry around and includes a pen. It is small enough to keep it in your pocket, yet large enough to capture the basics of everything you want to capture. I have it always in my pocket so am never shy of a capturing tool.
Peter
Peter Simoonss last blog post..Easy to remember things with eProductivity
March 18th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Thanks for that Peter. My cellphone also seems to be able to manage some syncing (through Lotus Traveler) and I’ve found that I too can add uncategorised actions – Yeah!
As for the notebook I suspect that posting it to New Zealand may reduce its cost effectiveness
Oh well, I’ll just look for something similar.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
My capture tools are an Inka Pen with note taking paper and Evernote on Windows Mobile.
As I posted in Dutch: http://www.eenmanierom.nl/overal-aantekeningen-te-maken-met-de-inka-pen (same principles as Peter)
http://www.eenmanierom.nl/overal-aantekeningen-vast-te-leggen-en-terug-te-vinden-met-evernote
Patrick Mackaaijs last blog post..De kracht van mensen te benutten
March 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
@Patrick
Thanks for the feedback Patrick – Very much appreciated
March 20th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
[...] necessarily mean more (though I can see how that will happen too), but it does mean that with your brain empty, (see my previous post), when I sit down and rest, I’m not continually worrying about stuff. A great blessing. [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
RT Salvation Army pastor/exec in #NZ, as right-on as it gets about end-user experience of #eProductivity & #GTD http://bit.ly/JOg4 @gtdguy
April 26th, 2009 at 3:47 am
[...] One of my most viewed posts recently has been “Oops, I have an Empty Brain.” [...]
May 14th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Cool post: Oops, I have an empty brain http://bit.ly/13uISN #gtd
May 17th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Too much on ur mind? I have an empty brain – shud u2? Repost: http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd #eProductivity
May 17th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
RT: Do u wake up at nites worrying? I have an empty brain – shud u2? Repost: http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd #eProductivity >>Love it
May 17th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
RT: @shredderguy: RT: Do u wake up at nites worrying? I have an empty brain – shud u2? Repost: http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd #eProductivity
June 9th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
For those who think a full brain is good check out why I like an empty one Re Post: http://bit.ly/FgJst
June 9th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
For those who think a full brain is good check out why I like an empty one Re Post: http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd #eproductivity
June 10th, 2009 at 10:26 am
RT: @shroedernz: For those who think a full brain is gd check out why I like an empty one Re Post: http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd #eproductivity
June 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
RT: @cuckoo101:For those who think a full brain is gd check out why I like an empty one Re Post: http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd #eproductivity
July 27th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
@crossydj actually there is a reason for that! You need to b able to empty ur head. see http://bit.ly/FgJst #gtd