Ed Lamont

At some point in nearly every seminar, someone will say some version of the following: ‘Okay, this all makes sense. I can see that GTD is the way that I should be working, but I’ll need a lot of discipline to keep it up’. Implicit in this message is that they have some prior experience (from dieting to exercise to learning a new language) that has them thinking that they don’t have that discipline, and so – no matter how much sense the GTD methodology makes to them – they probably won’t succeed in using it. I think that the key to their success – or not – lies in the way that they are thinking about the challenge of implementing a new behaviour. Over the years I’ve noticed that when people talk about ‘discipline’ what they generally mean is that they’ll struggle to get themselves to do something that they really don’t want to do. If that is the case, then I’m pretty sure they are right, they won’t manage to do that thing. I know from my own experience that once I tell myself that I need discipline to do something I’ve basically set myself up in opposition to myself. That is to say that there is a part of me that is saying ‘yes, you should do this, it will be good for you’, and there is another saying ‘yes, and broccoli is good for you too, but ice cream is waaaaaaaay more fun’. In my experience, over time, the second voice always wins. I can manage to get myself to do something that requires ‘discipline’ for a day, a week, sometimes even a month, but eventually, I’ll be found with my feet sticking out the top of a tub of Haagen Daz. Every time.

After 7 years of working with the methodology, that thought is what has driven every single enhancement to how I work. From the first hesitant – and somewhat backwards – implementation of the book, through my first, second and third seminars and on to getting coached and learning to teach the methodology everything has been about getting more of the relaxed productivity that is offered. I’ll still be more likely found consorting with a tub of Haagen Daz than a salad on any given day, but – in that domain – there is still more to learn.