Getting the Most Important Things Done

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, has a blog.

He linked to a great article by Paul Grahahm on procrastination that talks about the difference between good and bad procrastination. Some things need to be put off, but others can’t afford to be. Just because you get all the items on your to-do list crossed off doesn’t mean that you didn’t procrastinate. It’s possible to use a to-do to list put off working on the thing we most need to be working on.

Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning. People who fail to write novels don’t do it by sitting in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. They do it by feeding the cat, going out to buy something they need for their apartment, meeting a friend for coffee, checking email. “I don’t have time to work,” they say. And they don’t; they’ve made sure of that.

Graham’s advice is put off the little stuff–that’s good procrastination–and start working on the big stuff. He quotes Richard Hamming:

What’s the best thing you could be working on, and why aren’t you?

Here’s another quote from Allen’s blog:

The enemy often tries to make us attempt and start many projects so that we will be overwhelmed with too many tasks, and therefore achieve nothing and leave everything unfinished. Sometimes he even suggests the wish to undertake some excellent work that he foresees we will never accomplish. This is to distract us from the prosecution of some less excellent work that we would have easily completed. He does not care how many plans and beginnings we make, provided nothing is finished. – St. Francis de Sales

GTD, procrastination, David Allen