Here is a portrait of a dad with two kids (7 and 11) living Zone by Zone and practicing GTD (a.k.a. Me)
(You can click on the picture to enlarge it)
One of the key question in GTD is "What should I do right now?" The answer to this is largely constrained by your context, energy level, sense of priority and motivation. In an effort to incrementally improve I took a step back and looked at my day Zone by Zone. My goals were simple:
- Identify my major zones
- Identify the GTD actions I could reasonably do within a zone.
This activity is helping me bring additional focus and attention to each Zone and the opportunities within. It also helped me understand why some Zones are very challenging. The major reason is that I have so-o-o-o-o-o many options that I can select. In three of my Zones I have 13 different options!
I also use this as an "excuse buster." There is really no reason why I cannot get to certain things like really look at my @Computer list and work off it. It is simply a habit to develop further.
I enjoy looking at the way others view GTD. I hope this adds to the discussion.
Best regards!
4 comments:
Some additional notes based on a question I received...
Thanks for the note. Here are some additional notes.
(1) The right hand column is built based on the concept that I have some major Zones in my day. These are unique and distinct patterns that show up over and over again. (e.g. breakfast with the kids, driving to work, work, etc.).
Activity: If you were to plot out your daily patterns what would they look like?
(2) Each of these Zones have their own unique set of opportunities and constraints. The diagram helps me discover them. For example, I've "re-purposed" my commute to work as a "learning zone" (I did not make this obvious on my diagram). I use it to listen to Connect Podcasts, books on tape, etc. I also found that I get a lot of ideas in this space. I record my thoughts while I am in the car and process them when I get to work.
Another example, when I workout I have some rest time between sets. I make sure I have paper with me so I can capture time. I have found this to be a very creative zone as well.
(3) But what really drove me to create this diagram for myself was the need to explicitly rule in and rule out things that I can do by Zone. Also, for those zones where I have many choices I need to continue to figure out better routines to keep me on the track to "mind like water" with GTD.
Example, when I sit down at work I am in multiple contexts all at once:
- @Call
- @Computer
- @Office
- @Anywhere
- Agendas
I can also...
- Do work as it shows up (email, IM's, people stopping by, my imagination)... this is a habit I need to monitor. It can quickly flip from productive to unproductive.
- Do defined work. This is my area where I need to improve.
- Define my work.
I guess, to your point, I've got a lot of thought behind this diagram that I have not articulated. Hopefully, the additional comments shed a little more light.
My overall objective here is to discover ways to plug in small routines into each Zone to keep me productive and creative (and push out old habits and routines). It also turns my day into a game. As I depart my car and walk into work I think to myself, "What kind of challenges are lurking behind that door? How will I choose to respond?"
Thanks again for your comment.
I really like this basic idea of Zones as a sort of 'super-context'. Will be stealing it.
I do have some specific questions about your example diagram, though (which did help clarify things immensely.)
* Your @Anywhere context seems... a bit misleadingly-named, at best. It's almost never doable!
* @Comp-W doesn't have any zones at all, which I think is perhaps a data-entry error. Still, it makes for a nice sanity check -- if you have something that needs to be done in a context you're never in, it's never going to get done.
* I don't think I understand the "Waiting For..." column. To the extent that one actually does Waiting, it can kinda be done anywhere. So I think I just don't grasp what you mean.
* I don't think I believe that you can do work as it shows up, but not predefined work, as in your Drive Home.
* I thought I understood Calendar, but some of the details are confusing me now, so maybe you could clarify that a bit too.
Thanks again for this post and the blog in general.
Excellent post!!
Hello all,
Thank you for your feedback on the post. I am glad the concept of breaking your day in to zones resonates with you.
The picture really is a map of the options that I have by zone (yes, the @Comp-W with zero dots is a mistake). I also blended some "intention" into the map as well. There are some zones where I could do stuff but ideally I do not want to do certain things so I can make room for other things. A good example is doing @Comp-W stuff at home. Do I need to do this at times? Absolutely. Is it my desired state? Absolutely not. I want to master my productivity during work so I can work on the other domains of my life while I am not at work.
This is all work in progress. I enjoy your feedback and thoughts.
Jon G. I got your message, too. Let's wrap this into our next discussion. I hope the baby is doing well!
Keep rockin' your zones!
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