When the System Becomes the Work
When the system you created to manage your workload becomes the work that you do, you have a problem - unless you can seriously monetize it. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the system that now takes a majority of your time to keep going is probably not going to be that valuable to others. I am sitting here at my desk, going through, for the 1,000th time, my task management system.
I have an answer for everything. I have the perfect task management system—unfailable perfection. I am very proud of what I have built. Nothing slips through the cracks, and I only touch incoming items once. David Allen would be proud of my process. I have taken his GTD process to the next level with the latest enhancements in automation, AI, and visualized workflows.
I have a great dashboard view into all the work that I am doing, or need to be doing, or should be doing, or perhaps will eventually be done. If I am going to be honest, that do someday section is growing every day. I will probably close my eyes one day, hit delete on that container, and say goodbye to all my good intentions.
However, I have to be even more honest and admit that my perfect system has to be rebuilt every few days. I fall behind, and things get out of order. My zero-inbox religious creed all too often becomes a sin of omission. My sins stack up and start to increment exponentially, and then I wake up with the resolve to clean my sins and process through everything and rebuild back to perfection.
However, when I take on new work, I get really busy. I have too many phone calls going on, and task management work becomes a low priority. Honestly, working IN the system was not as exciting as working ON the system when I built the holy grail of task management consoles. Kid you not, my tasks management system is an interconnected working of at least 8 tools, utilities, and SAAS applications. This is my getting things done stack and I am awesome at this.
What I should do is quit my day job and start recording videos on how to create the perfect task management system. Then, I could spread my religion to others, who could also fall under the hypnotic spell of doing anything and everything EXCEPT the work that they are actually supposed to be doing. I could get a bunch of people to sign up for my course, pay me a recurring fee, and they could join me in the ultimate diversionary tactic of avoiding work.
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When the system becomes the work, it is time to reevaluate it. So that is what I have done today. I trashed the whole process, and now I have created a new system. I have sticky notes from 3M on my desk. When I am done with the task, I get the rewarding feeling of crumbling one of them up. I am not allowed to start the day with more than 10.
I have only completed one task so far today, at least one more than I did yesterday. Thus, the new "system" is already 100% an improvement on the perfect one.
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