Node Glue

I’ve noted before that sometimes I feel like the Collection part of the GTD system merely accumulates evidence to condemn me–evidence that I’m not doing all I should.

Yesterday, a new metaphor came to me. Sometimes, GTD pours hot tar all over the path I’m trying to walk (i.e. life). So that walking that path becomes slower, dirtier, more painful. I never feel like I can get my shoes clean. And the fumes are toxic.

It’s because of the details. I collect details. I just collect–in general. I’ve become pretty good at identifying and externalizing the open loops. But then I’m staring at a huge pile of loops and I have to deal with them–item by item. What started as an idea, a mental spark, has become a detail, an open loop, by virtue of the externalization process.

Sounds tragic, doesn’t it? The death of an idea…perhaps there’s a book title there.

How to Kill an Idea–Make it A Detail

I realize that sounds cynical. A life coach would probably perfer to say, “How to Make an Idea a Reality: Turn it Into an Action.” Or something like that. And I get that. But some days, it’s just semantics.

In Myers-Briggs theory, there’s a concept of a “hidden personality”, which according to authors such as Naomi Quenk in her book, “Was that Really Me?“, is an expression of the Inferior Function.

So for me, an INTJ, I most prefer Introverted Intuition–where I think most of my ideas come from. And what kills me is the Extraverted Sensing–where I think the details are handled.

A comment my instructor made during my MBTI qualification (which he cited from someone else) is that the Dominant and Inferior functions (Introverted Intuition and Extraverted Sensing, for me) work together to support the psyche like the spine supports the body. Not sure exactly what that means, except that, ideally, there’s supposed to be a harmony between them. Quenk’s book elaborates on how stress often comes out in distorted forms of the Inferior–what it might look like when there isn’t harmony.
So that’s the theory. In personal experience, it’s true that I’m get stressed somewhere along the way, and become obsessed with details. If I were, say, an ESTP, I might be more graceful with those details. But in my case, I’m more obsessive. It doesn’t look natural. My eye is twitching.

My wife tells me that when I’ve spent a day meeting with people and doing generally non-detail oriented work, I’m more relaxed and energized. More like “myself.”

OK, now back to the world of GTD and the details it forces me to accumulate. The question is: does GTD force me to be more detail oriented than is healthy for me? I asked in a recent post if I wouldn’t be better off just to ignore the swirling of the alphabet soup in my brain (see the related article by Nick Duffill of Gyronix). Still chewing on that one…

I remember when I discovered GTD, both my wife and I agreed that it changed my life. Why? Primarily because of the principle of capturing open loops, externalizing them, and feeling relaxed that things are written down and not bouncing around inside my head. Ironically, this is the same principle I’m now complaining is enslaving me to details.

Nick Duffill from Gyronix made a comment recently that stuck in my mind. To put it in my own words, probably the hot tar all over the road isn’t GTD Tar. It’s Me Tar. It’s the stuff of my own brain–simply externalized–poured out. At least now I can see it so I can make more conscious choices about it. But I’m hear to testify that it isn’t as easy as just working the system. I’m convinced that there are deeper issues. Deeper motives. Deeper drives. Wrong ones. Right ones. And everything in between.

So at the end of all this, I realize that my GTD woes are one more way that God tries to shake me to get my attention that there are deeper problems to be addressed. The onion has deeper layers–deeper than GTD–deeper than a theoretical hidden personality.

When the people in Shinar built the Tower of Babel, God frustrated their efforts.
When Balaam insisted upon responding to Balak’s invitation to come and curse Israel, God used Balaam’s donkey to show that the ass was the smarter of the two.

When the Rich Young Man came to Jesus claiming to be perfect, Jesus pushed back, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
God, save me. Amen.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 8:28 am and is filed under personality, GTD, Heart of Productivity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.