{"id":206,"date":"2005-10-29T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2005-10-29T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=206"},"modified":"2005-10-29T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2005-10-29T16:51:00","slug":"gtd-when-you-are-stuck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=206","title":{"rendered":"GTD: When You Are Stuck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(from <a href=\"http:\/\/IdeaMatt.Blogspot.com\">IdeaMatt.Blogspot.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3 class=\"post-title\">Some David Allen &quot;twos&quot; &#8211; two reasons we procrastinate, and two kinds of problems <\/h3>\n<p>                           Here is a pair of related thoughts that I picked up from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidco.com\/index.php\">David Allen<\/a>&#8216;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0142000280\/104-8657897-1159931?v=glance&amp;n=283155&amp;n=507846&amp;s=books&amp;v=glance\"> Getting Things Done<\/a>. Paraphrasing him: <\/p>\n<ul>  <\/p>\n<li>There are only two reasons for procrastination: The task is either a) overwhelming (too big), or b) not motivating (unpleasant).\n<\/li>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<li>There are only two problems in life: a) You know what your want, and you don&#8217;t know how to get it, and\/or b) you don&#8217;t know what you want.<\/li>\n<p> <\/ul>\n<p> As you might have guessed, Allen&#8217;s solution (typically clear and powerful) is to apply his two big focusing questions, respectively: <\/p>\n<ol>  <\/p>\n<li><em>What&#8217;s the next action?<\/em><\/li>\n<p>  <\/p>\n<li><em>What&#8217;s the desired outcome?<\/em><\/li>\n<p> <\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ideamatt.blogspot.com\/2005\/10\/some-david-allen-twos-two-reasons-we.html\">http:\/\/ideamatt.blogspot.com\/2005\/10\/some-david-allen-twos-two-reasons-we.html<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>(I&#8217;ve been reading IdeaMatt all morning&#8230; great site)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(from IdeaMatt.Blogspot.com) Some David Allen &quot;twos&quot; &#8211; two reasons we procrastinate, and two kinds of problems Here is a pair of related thoughts that I picked up from David Allen&#8216;s Getting Things Done. Paraphrasing him: There are only two reasons for procrastination: The task is either a) overwhelming (too big), or b) not motivating (unpleasant). &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=206\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;GTD: When You Are Stuck&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgY3e-3k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=801","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":0},"title":"Center-left","author":"Jorah","date":"November 25, 2015","format":"aside","excerpt":"Possible essay topic I'm mulling over. I'm not gradually moving left on the American political spectrum because I have some love for governmental intervention (rather the opposite, I suspect). No, I'm moving left because most of the kindest people I know seem to be on that end of the spectrum.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philosophizing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philosophizing","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=59"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":895,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=895","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":1},"title":"Unaccountable","author":"Jorah","date":"February 9, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Any group of people with power or authority, who are not held accountable in some way, will end up doing bad things. \u00a0 If you see any group; cops, politicians, priests, judges, jailers, professors, doctors, dentists, business\u00a0tycoons, psychologists, faith healers, karate instructors, whatever... anyone with\u00a0authority over others... who is trying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philosophizing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philosophizing","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=59"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1710,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1710","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":2},"title":"Creativity vs Competence","author":"Jorah","date":"March 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Something crystalized for me this morning, and I don\u2019t know yet how I feel about it, nor where it might take me. Those are good things. The catalyst was reading vrk\u2019s \u2018How to draw a cover: An essay against AI art,\u2019 and then reading her profile. Oversharing time. Close this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gear-I-drew.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gear-I-drew.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gear-I-drew.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gear-I-drew.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madstone.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gear-I-drew.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=367","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":3},"title":"Day 26\/70 Mostly Rest","author":"Jorah","date":"December 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Jorah\u00a0earned 198 points for: Plank: 163 sec\u00a0(+57 pts) 68 sec\u00a0(+23 pts) 61 sec\u00a0(+21 pts) Scheduling problems (early event at work, visiting mom at hospital after work) means this is an unplanned rest day. But I'll be dogged if I skip my plank-a-day. Side Plank: 45 sec\u00a0(+31 pts) 40 sec\u00a0(+28 pts)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Post&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Post","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=30"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1062,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1062","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":4},"title":"Civics&#8230; without the simpering patriotism","author":"Jorah","date":"November 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After the resistance is, eventually, successful*, Americans of good will have to be ready to work hard \u2014 probably for many years \u2014 to rebuild our civic structures. I\u2019m trying to imagine what a strong civic life would be like, stripped of the old adoring nationalism & of many of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Social commentary&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Social commentary","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=46"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1386,"url":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?p=1386","url_meta":{"origin":206,"position":5},"title":"Risk Transference","author":"Jorah","date":"May 31, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I read an interesting article on risk this morning. \"When Safety Proves Dangerous.\" It mentions one idea (risk transference) that feels to me as if it might be related to problems we're seeing in policing in America. I believe that rich (and frequently white) people have used the police to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Philosophizing&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Philosophizing","link":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/?cat=59"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madstone.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}