When I first read “Getting Things Done” by David Allen in 2001, I was instantly intrigued by the concept of the mind like water. What if instead of feeling pummeled by the world coming at me, I could glide … flow. Aaaahhhh.
Quite simply, visualize how water reacts.
It’s fluid
It absorbs whatever comes its way, and then reforms, effortlessly, instantaneously
It flows … around rocks (and challenges), into small crevices (and opportunities)
It slowly wears down the giant boulders and creates its space
It reflects, and yet, can also be transparent.
The world doesn’t stop throwing things at us. In fact, in the information age, it often feels like we’re playing several dodgeball games simultaneously. Not to mention the dodge balls we throw up ourselves. It’s foolhardy to think we can control it all. We can’t. Instead, perhaps, we can manage ourselves better. We can be more like water.
Implementing productivity techniques and skills as described by aGTD, The Energy Project, The Power of Habits, The Pomodoro Technique, and others, has certainly made a difference for me. They helped me visualize a mind-like water day.
I have found that being able to regularly remind myself about the habits or techniques that could pull me back into that state, especially on the busiest of days when the world seems only too happy to bombard me, has been really helpful.
- Plan the day in blocks, and leave open blocks for urgent stuff
- Work in sprints, try to take a break every 90-120 minutes and have inboxes (physical and electronic) where incoming stuff can be parked
- Have a capture tool hand let go of distractions and go back to what you were doing again, ….and again, ……and again
- Park one task, especially if there is an urgent interruption, before starting another
- When on a task, turn off all other distractions you feel the urge to switch, stop yourself, breathe deeply, and re-focus Process inboxes at regular, pre-determined intervals. You should consider doing this right after a sprint break.
- Prioritize new inputs by referring to your calendar and lists using Pomodoro’s to manage tasks.
Focus timetable mentioned earlier that being able to visualize a mind-like water day has been a helpful technique for me. What I would recommend, is creating a small checklist with your favorite ‘mind-like-water’ image as the background, and your favorite tips/reminders as the checklist.
Question
What have you found are the most helpful reminders to achieving a mind-like-water state?
