James and Jean talk about the trouble with focusing when work commitments don’t feel relevant or important compared to what’s going on right now in the world. Jean didn’t get her Weekly To-Do done, and explains why. James found himself writing a new song, which we share here and discuss his songwriting process.
Take care, everyone.
If you are not sure to how to help those who are struggling right now, consider making a donation to the Equal Justice Initiative.
This week Jean and James talk about the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. James just finished reading it and describes how the practical steps described in the book dovetail nicely into his mental model of his practice of GTD and building a trusted system. Jean and James discuss a few other habit-related books they have read. James takes a concrete step to putting the ideas in Atomic Habits into action.
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg
The Craving Mind by Judson Brewer
Jean and James revisit the 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking, discussed in Episode 81, and note how our current circumstances have given rise to new or different patterns of distorted thoughts that hamper our productivity.
Disclaimer: as we frequently like to say, we are not gurus. We are not experts on productivity or psychology. We are just two friends talking about what works for us.
15 Styles of Distorted Thinking
PDF: 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking
Fits on one page, can be printed and used with a ticker file or hung up on your refrigerator
PDF: 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking plus 15 Rational Alternatives Offers a strategy for each of the 15 Styles of Distorted Thinking.
After spending a number of weeks at home, Jean and James reflect on how routines have become a bigger part of their lives. Jean describes how weekly routines help keep the days from running completely together. James talks about how he seems to be adding many small routine tasks to his trusted system, many of which take only a minute or two. And James talks about Dexter’s adorable drinking water fountain.
This episode’s “Weekly To-Do” morphed into a full-fledged topic, as Jean recounts how reactivating a simple to-do brought back difficult memories of procrastination and avoidance during especially challenging periods of mental health issues. James reminds her that she is hardly alone in having used these “strategies” when stressed, and it’s counterproductive to beat ourselves up when we’ve missed something, even something important.
This episode explores some ways that even pleasant surprises can upend your plans. James tells the story of how an unexpected package delivery necessitated a quick leveling up of skills. For Jean, the opportunity to be with her family at a safe distance led to a choice between the gathering and ending a personal project early.
James and Jean have their second week of “The Weekly To Do,” a new feature (with a bonus jingle!) where we pick one item from our to-do list and commit to getting it done by the next episode. We are both 2 for 2 on this accountability strategy; Jean’s organized her streaming subscriptions and James’s coffee maker is no longer nagging him to clean it. In the context of real life, which is hard to distinguish from The Onion lately, those are big wins!
Felt App, Hand-Written Cards for the Modern World
Man Not Sure Why He Thought Most Psychologically Taxing Situation of his Life Would Be The Thing to Make Him Productive, from The Onion
Musicland, Bel Air, Maryland
(run by James’s friend Larry Noto)
Quarantine Viewing recommendations:
In this episode, Jean and James dive into the new “Weekly Accountability Task” segment of the podcast, including a catchier name suggested by a listener and the world premier of the segment’s musical intro.
Jean has an update on her planned return to Slovenia while James gives an update on his quest to get a REAL ID driver’s liscense. The conversation turns to a variety of extended deadlines including for filing taxes. James talks about the technique he is using in OmniFocus to keep recurring projects like paying taxes correct for future years while adapting to this year’s new dates.
The new segment name and the new jingle it inspired was suggested by Beck, one of our listeners. Thank you Beck!
On our 100th episode, we announced that we were going to add a weekly check-in on a specific task to provide mutual accountability at the task level, not just at the weekly review level. Apparently, we didn’t add this new feature to our trusted systems, and (no surprise!) we forgot about it until now.
We are still looking for a name for this new segment of the podcast, something catchier than Weekly Accountability Task, but at least we have launched it with both of us committing to a task for next week.
In this episode, Jean and James discuss topics from two articles. One talks about resisting putting pressure on yourself to be hyper-productive, especially in these early days of adjusting to the realities of the coronavirus pandemic. The other talks about how with new and unfamiliar experiences in day to day life can lead to feeling like life is surreal. James unveils a new tag he is using in OmniFocus to put projects and actions on hold because of the shelter in place order in the Bay Area.
Conversation turns towards the notion of not being able to make concrete plans you can look forward to such as travel, but that instead, you can look forward to specific things you will do in the future, even though you cannot plan the details.
Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure
This week Jean talks about how she looks forward to doing her weekly review now, even though a lot of tasks will be deferred or deleted, because it helps to feel a bit more in control. James not only got his weekly review done, he got his email inbox count down to zero. Jean also wonders how to use her 2020 year-at-a-glance calendar which is starting to look pretty empty now, as future events get cancelled.
This episdoe Jean and James talk about how they are adjusting to changes due to COVID-19. The conversation explores the notion of actions having a context—the necessary requirements to get a task accomplished—and how some next actions that may have seen trivial a week ago are now postponed indefinitely. Jean suggests taking the opportunity to review the existing context tags in our trusted systems and James describes how he has had to discontinue the garbage can game he plays with his 92-year old neighbor.
To mark the occasion of the 100th episode, James and Jean talk about our favorite moments and accomplishments, and talk about new ideas for our second hundred episodes.
Some stats so far:
Total minutes: 2517
Total hours: 42
Average length: 25.5 minutes
Number of special guests: 4 (+ 1 🐱)
Holidays invented: 2
Episodes recorded outdoors: 1
Podcasting conferences attended: 1
Episodes mentioned:
16: The Unbearable Lightness of OmniFocus Bankruptcy
33: On The Hunt For The Perfect To-Do List App, with Special Guest Aleen Simms
35: James Is My Trusted System
39: A Very Long Story, with Special Guest Rosemary Orchard
41: Productivity + Fun = PodCon 2 in Seattle
42: Life, The Universe, and What’s In Our Junk Drawers
47: The Time Sensitive Micro Project
52: Emailiversary
54: A Very Tasty Pepper, with Special Guest Ish ShaBazz
69: The Odyssey of the Ford Taurus
87: Reviewing Our 2020 Calendar Strategies, with Special Guest David Sparks
92: Cat Bombed, with Special Guest Dexter
94: The Clean Slate
In this episode the topics range from the practical to the fanciful. James and Jean revisit the notion of a clean slate. James has begun thinking about his weekly review as a way to start with a clean slate which has been helpful motivation in the past few weeks. In more fanciful matters, Jean and James talk about desired superpowers and James contends that a common inspirational phrase is a load of hooey. Finally, the winner of the “When will James Do His Next Weekly Review?” contest is announced!
James announces that he has completed a weekly review after a spell of not doing one (while being otherwise productive). We talk about how it feels to get that done, why it took this long, and what lessons we can learn about getting back on track. We also discuss about how tags and flags can be a help or a distraction in tackling our tasks in OmniFocus.
This episode Jean talks about progress on her proposal to add a guinea pig emoji, including the emoji proposal process and some details from the reasearch Jean has done so far. Using this particular project as an example, Jean and James talk about how their trusted system might help them to get things done, but doesn’t necessarly help you get things done early or ahead of a deadline.
Thanks to an email from a listener, Jean did a weekly review this week on the theory that it’s better to do a shoddy one than not to do one at all. James is still getting things done, but a full weekly review is still on his list. (Which means the contest to guess which week James does a review is still on. Details below.)
Send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm with the subject “Weekly Review Week Guess” and pick the Sunday of the week that you think James will actually complete a full weekly review. The correct guess will score something fun from the many cool pop culture tchotchkes at his house.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+ and more. With the proliferation of streaming services, home entertainment has become more complex. In this episode Jean and James talk about their streaming subscriptions including strategies to keep from breaking the entertainment budget. Also, Jean moves to the next iCloud storage tier and James wonders if he should dump Hulu and watch Picard instead.
App for tracking subscriptions:
Bobby
Inspired by an article by J.D. Roth of Get Rich Slowly, Jean and James talk about the appealing concept of starting with a clean slate. The conversation covers a range of variations on the clean slate theme—from hotel rooms that contain only what you’ve brought on a trip, to declaring OmniFocus bankruptcy and starting again, to the thought that a weekly review is a way of getting to a clean slate state, without starting from scratch every time. Plus, a movie pitch and a sure-fire idea for an app.
The clean slate by J.D. Roth at getrichslowly.org
This week, we ask the question: how exactly did our parents manage their tasks? Both James and Jean have parents who held jobs, raised children, got advanced degrees, and successfully retired without the benefit of OmniFocus or GTD. We reminisce about what organizational strategies we remember from our childhoods, how our parents’ examples influenced us, and how life was simpler back then.
In this episode Jean and James set out to talk about including follow-up tasks in projects to make sure loose ends are tied up. But James‘ friend Dexter the cat has other plans and becomes an unexpected special guest. James coaxes him to share some of his feline organizational tips while other topics range from some OmniFocus wishlist items to unexpected trips.
Our contest is still on:
Send us an email at sayhello@theweeklyreview.fm with the subject “Weekly Review Week Guess” and pick the Sunday of the week that you think James will actually complete a full weekly review. The correct guess will score something fun from the many cool pop culture tchotchkes at his house.
We start off this year answering a listener question about when and why to use Due versus Omnifocus for reminders. James confesses he still hasn’t done his weekly review and talks about why he is okay with that, while Jean flies under the radar and doesn’t even mention her weekly review (which she hasn’t done either). We wrap up with some travel hacking tips and then James surprises us all by offering prizes for guessing which week he will do that weekly review.
It’s the beginning of a brand new year and in this episode Jean and James take a look back at 2019 with some resolutions and accomplishments and look forward to getting things done in 2020. Topics include getting away from or sticking with social media platforms and getting a new health care plan.
The holiday season can be a time to gather together with those we care about. It can also be a season of not only giving, but receiving. In this episode, Jean and James talk about receiving gifts that can become projects in and of themselves. Topics include everything from clothing in the wrong size, to making a cash gift more personally meaningful, to thoughts on how to handle a gift from someone you care about that leaves you scratching your head with what to do with it.
The holiday season is in full swing. Did you forget to get yourself a gift? Here’s a suggestion.
As we prepare to enter these too busy times, don’t forget to give yourself the gift of spending some time doing absolutely nothing this season.
Patrick Rhone, Rhoneisms, December 1, 2019
The Case For Doing Nothing, Olga Mecking, New York Times, April 29, 2019