Aug07
28
Accountability Blogging - GTD
So perhaps you’ve heard of fat blogging, a meme started by Jason Calcanis of Sequoia Capital. I first stumbled across the term on Joe Jaffe’s site. Basically, as I understand it, the idea is to declare your overweight-ness to you reading audience, with the intention of losing weight and having them (and other) fat bloggers hold you accountable to the weight loss process.
It’s a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous, but online and for fat people. I think. My interest in the process is the emphasis on authenticity and accountability.
I am lucky - I don’t have a problem with my weight. But I do have a problem, and you only need to work with me for a short while (as the team at Cerebra has quickly discovered) to see the negative impact it has on my work and life in general. You see, I don’t plan very well. I don’t manage time very well. I am forgetful and I don’t utilise productivity tools at my disposal to the degree I should. I get by on luck and an ability to work very well under pressure.
In the past this was ok, I could get by and scrape through, but with my current workload the stress generated as a result of the growing piles of unfinished ’stuff’ that occupies the RAM of my brain is getting the better of me.
So I need your help. I’m going to be GTD blogging. GTD blogging? Well, Getting Things Done (GTD for short) is a helpful, efficient philosophy aimed at teaching stress-free productivity. I got the book recently (although the theory is not knew to me) and am already starting to see the benefits of employing the strategies in my work and personal life.
I’m going to post about the stuff I learn, how I’m implementing it and how it’s making a difference. I hope you will hold me accountable to the process!
Ahhh… I know the feeling!
And I have the book, which I read about two years ago, got excited by it, thought he was SO smart - and then promptly forgot about it!
I’ve heard that people actually re-read the book two or three times, and then the effects can really be seen. After all, he does make a lot of sense.
BTW, he has quite a cool and useful web presence too, to help you on you way.
Good luck (to you and me) and thanks for reminding me that I already have the handbook on how to simplify life
Some random GTD paraphernalia:
http://www.didigetthingsdone.com/
http://www.gtdinbox.com/blog/
It’s an interesting thought. My only question would be - how exactly do you hold someone accountable via a blog? It would be interesting to see whether doing so actually works or whether people lie about progress or just ignore the people holding them accountable. Have the fat blogs worked?
Mike - check out http://bargiel.home.pl/iGTD/
… touted as the best Mac GTD app to date.
For more on how to use it, 43folders has a review:
http://www.43folders.com/2007/06/19/buffington-igtd-01/
@Douglas: I guess it’s less about making one accountable and rather making one’s intention public, and in doing so creates more personal energy in achieving the goal set.
To Simon: Perhaps - I’m just not so sure that that necessarily works.
1 month checkup time - how’s it going? I’ve gone through the book and the tasks once before and it was great, but I let things slip…now going through it the 2nd time I see why that’s recommended.
Thanks for the links, Simon - hugely helpful