I heard an interesting quote/tagline today from David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, in an interview about his Roadmap seminar.  “The Game of Work and the Business of Life”.  It’s an interesting concept because the more you manage your life like business, the more it becomes your own life.  When your life is out of control, life becomes more like work where you’re constantly catching up with all the errands, bills, chores, etc.  It’s only when these things are all managed that your ‘business of life’ becomes a pleasure.

The Game of Work confused me a bit, though.  I guess the same concept applies, the better you manage work, the more satisfying and game like it becomes.  But while that is true, I think the actual work you do plays a significant role and it’s not as simple as that.  If your job consists of boring repetitive tasks, it will remain like that however well you manage your workflow.  However, indirectly, that better management could be what you need to move to a more satisfying position.

All in all, this tagline is a great ideal to work towards.  I truly believe those who master this combination are most likely to find happiness.

During the last few months starting over New Years I’ve been on a wild productivity kick unlike anything anyone has seen in the world of Michael Marotta. This has been made possible by David Allen’s Getting Things Done book, which I’ll talk about later.

But today I was just thinking about this urgency I’ve had to get stuff done. I keep thinking that one of these days, I will be ‘DONE’. The point of GTD (Getting Things Done) is to clear your mind of the tasks that weight down your mind, but there’s still always that looming sense of some tasks that have been on your to do lists for way too long and you start to feel guilty.

So what the heck is this magical day I’m working towards? Well, my goal in this dash of productivity is to clear off the items that have been looming over me since I graduated last May. Since my working life started at a crazy internet startup, I’ve put aside almost all my side activities (ie had no life). The problem is that these looming tasks always make me feel like any time spent just for myself is procrastination and could be used productively. GTD is finally helping me to burn through these old tasks. My hope is that I get to a point where I cross off those last few looming things and I sit there and think, “Hmm, I can’t think of anything to do, I’m going to go do something completely fun and unproductive.”