The Stewardship of GTD
I have continued working with the Getting Things Done system of David Allen. I was able to finish the second reading of the book (first reading was a few months ago) and I am glad I did. A couple weeks ago (I know I said it then) I again went through and collected and processed a bunch of my stuff that had been accumulating. It did help and I got a lot of things done (and threw a lot of things away). Yet, it didn’t stick for very long. I was back against the piles of things not being done and the procrastination that is interwoven with my depression was as present as the desert of the disease.
One thing I keep learning about facing depression is that I cannot attack it headon, I have to work at reducing the power of some of the peripheral pieces of it to shift the whole system back toward health and balance. So last week, I decided that I had had enough with my dis-orientation and my dis-integration and my dis-ease with the way I handle my life. So I made the choice to make the re-integration of my life’s tasks and roles as my top priority for a few days. I also faced a couple weeks where I had a lot of deadlines and I wasn’t sure I was going to make any of them.
So, the GTD book was opened up again and a new and deeper reading was begun with an eye to really figure out how I can make this work given the way I am wired. I also had in mind the things that did work before and the things that didn’t work. Fortunately, I found some other people who had used a little PDA program I liked to implement the GTD system successfully (Bonsai by Natara software)
One of the things I have come to see through my counseling and spiritual direction is that I have many things that I accept as real good ideas, but I hadn’t chosen to make them happen. This was a big attempt to make one of those real good ideas happen. Well, I’m still tweaking things, but so far I am giving it a good go.
An interesting insight came tonight while I did my evening labyrinth walk. In considering the purpose for why I have devoted so much energy and time to this lately instead of other things. If I was thinking of things from the perspective of a manager (which is a viewpoint I used to have about being a pastor, but no longer) then I would talk about the larger view of productivity and the long-range benefits in future efficiency. But, I am not a manager. I have no product to produce, I have no employees to supervise (not counting the church secretary and custodians), I only have a message and a hope to bring to people who choose to participate in the life of the church. So efficiency and a management view of things doesn’t fit at all. The insight from my labyrinth walk was that the purpose of learning to focus my energies and to always be looking for the next action step is a question of faithful stewardship and a making of space for God’s Holy Spirit to creatively work in, around, and through me.
I realize now that poor stewardship has so bound us that there is no space in our minds, hearts, schedules and useless todo lists for God to come in and do wondrous and glorious things.
Time to make space and see what the Spirit of God can do with it.
