I often wonder how much time I waste reading Merlin Mann’s productivity blog, 43 Folders. I love the site, yet a lot of it just isn’t relevant to me at this time, but I read it anyway. It doesn’t feel like wasting time because it’s about being productive.
It’s procrastination disguised as productivity.
Being a Mac user, and with Mac developers writing the most beautiful applications, I’ll frequently download GTD applications, spend two hours configuring them and never manage to integrate them into my digital life.
Seth Mnookin has a similar problem with Google’s tools,
“My campaign to increase productivity had become yet another distraction — and a significant one. Suddenly I needed to time-manage my time management.”
We are creating problems in order to use a certain solution.
Every Christmas, without fail, I get a diary and think to myself “Yes, this year I’m going to be organised”, only to give up by February because I find myself constantly making notes only to never refer to them again.
At the moment my life consists of reading long articles about Microformats, writing code and looking for a new job. Looking for a job is something that could be done a lot better using some sort of application - storing URL’s and contact details, locations, and whether or not you actually want to work for them. I did set up a Backpack account for this but soon realised that I was spending much more time organising the Backpage page than I was actually writing to any firms.
I think it’s time to stop GTD’ing and actually get things done.
