On Productivity and Self-Confidence

May, 2011 with Matt Laughlin

Can you guess which powerful process is referred to in the following quotation?

"A creative, buoyant energy will be unleashed that will better support your focus on new heights, and your confidence will increase to handle what that creativity produces. An immediate sense of freedom, release, and inspiration naturally comes to people who roll up their sleeves and implement this process." - D. Allen.

Does it refer to psychotherapy?

No. The "process" referred to here is in many respects the opposite of psychotherapy.

On the other hand, therapy and life coaching may bring to your awareness the need for the kind of "process" referenced above. In my own case it was the inner recognition of some of my shortcomings that gave rise to the willingness to 'roll up my own sleeves.'

What is the "process"? And why is it so valuable?

I am referring to David Allen's "Getting Things Done (GTD)" work-life management system, a process for managing and organizing your commitments, projects and communications in a powerful, dare I say, even healing way.

From my perspective as a therapist and life coach, and my experience implementing this system in my own life, it seems there are three significant psychological elements intrinsic to David Allen's GTD process and organizational system:

1.) Sometimes creativity and peacefulness may be more accessible by addressing the nitty gritty in life versus starting at the cloudy heights of purpose and vision statements.

Allen actually acknowledges the critical nature of these higher levels yet points out that sometimes a "bottom up" approach may be equally if not more valuable. As he states, "it clears the psychic decks to begin with, allowing your creative attention to focus on the more meaningful and elusive visions that you may need to challenge yourself to identify."

Paradoxically, getting organized enough to be crystal clear about what you are not doing quiets the mind. I notice, for instance, that because I am well aware of what I am not doing as I write this week's article my mind is more quiet than usual. Before implementing the GTD system my mind seemed more prone to low level worry - wondering if this was the best use of my time in a given moment. GTD clears up this vagueness and allows the mind to focus on what you would like it to focus on.

2.) Amy Chua (aka "Tiger Mom"), best selling author of "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" may be on to something...

You may be familiar with the debate Chua's best selling book on parenting has reawakened in the public discourse. One question centers on whether self-confidence comes before action and accomplishment or if action and accomplishment are the source of self-esteem. While both perspectives have value, in today's especially nurturing world of tending to everyone's feelings we may need a little more accomplishment.

Sometimes, mindfully becoming your own therapist may have more to do with taking action than trying to first feel good enough about yourself to act. I can definitely say that my day-to-day mental self-confidence has gone up consequent to improved productivity, efficiency and decisive action thanks, in part, to implementing the GTD system.

3.) Self-trust is critical to feeling well and fulfilling your potential.

David Allen makes a worthy observation: your negative feelings may simply be the result of breaking agreements you've made with yourself, "symptoms of disintegrated self-trust." You promise yourself to do X, you don't fullfill that promise, and you pay the price in diminished self-confidence and guilt.

As a psychotherapist, I couldn't agree more. I wrote earlier on the psychological significance of ignoring an inner calling in life, and how important it is to align your life with your highest ideal. As essential as it is to act on our highest aspirations, how can we realize these aspirations without trusting our capacity to fulfill ordinary, every day commitments we make with ourselves?

With greater devotion to one's higher sense of purpose comes the willingness to address the realities of day-to-day living and productivity. Top down or bottom up - both are essential in the fulfillment of your potential.

If you decide to check out Allens work, here are a few tips I recommend:

Get the basic package which includes Allen's Getting Things Done book, CDs and charts. The added clarification in the CDs is helpful. Check out David Allen's site here. This package comes with temporary, free access to "GTD Connect," a subscription based learning center with a lot of useful free articles and webinars. I recommend you take advantage of the short free window to listen to webinars on aspects of the system that may seem fuzzy to you as you're getting started. This helped me immensely.

Finally, give yourself some time to implement this process. Because of the time involved in "collecting" all that has your attention in life and making sure you've got the right system in place, try to carve out two full days. When Allen is hired by executives, for instance, they'll bring in a dumpster and clear two days in the executive's schedule just to get things up and running. Between my home office and psychotherapy office I filled three large bags of items to trash/shred/recycle.

If you give this approach a go or are already familiar with GTD, I would love to hear about your experience with it! Go ahead and email me or just comment below. Also, where do you stand? Accomplishment breeds self-confidence or self-confidence inspires action?

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