1. Physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.
2.
a. A job; employment: looking for work.
b. A trade, profession, or other means of livelihood.
3.
a. Something that one is doing, making, or performing, especially as an occupation or undertaking; a duty or task: begin the day's work.
b. An amount of such activity either done or required: a week's work.
4.
a. The part of a day devoted to an occupation or undertaking: met her after work.
b. One's place of employment: Should I call you at home or at work?
5.
a. Something that has been produced or accomplished through the effort, activity, or agency of a person or thing: This story is the work of an active imagination. Erosion is the work of wind, water, and time.
b. Full action or effect of an agency: The sleeping pills did their work.
c. An act; a deed: "I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:14).
6.
a. An artistic creation, such as a painting, sculpture, or literary or musical composition; a work of art.
b. works The output of a writer, artist, or musician considered or collected as a whole: the works of Shakespeare.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Courage
Nonresistant thought expands the Solar Plexus; resistant thought contracts it. Pleasant thought expands it; unpleasant thought contracts it. Thoughts of courage, power, confidence, and hope all produce a corresponding state, but the one arch enemy of the Solar Plexus which must be absolutely destroyed before there is any possibility of letting any light shine is fear. This enemy must be completely destroyed; he must be eliminated; he must be expelled forever; he is the cloud which hides the sun which causes a perpetual gloom.
It is this personal devil which makes men fear the past, the present, and the future; fear themselves, their friends, and their enemies; fear everything and everybody. When fear is effectually and completely destroyed, your light will shine, the clouds will disperse, and you will have found the source of power, energy, and life.
Charles Haanel (MKS, Chapter 3)
It is this personal devil which makes men fear the past, the present, and the future; fear themselves, their friends, and their enemies; fear everything and everybody. When fear is effectually and completely destroyed, your light will shine, the clouds will disperse, and you will have found the source of power, energy, and life.
Charles Haanel (MKS, Chapter 3)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Sitting in Silence
We set our thoughts into motion by seeking the Silence.
This week in the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars, I spoke a bit about the “Silence,” which Haanel described as the place where we find our true power. This is the place where one can truly set his thoughts into motion because it is here that he develops his goals, creates his vision, forges his plans, and readies his actions.
The Silence is where we partake in that “hardest of work”: Thinking.
As I wrote in The Master Key Workbook:
Thought is the secret to all attainment. This is because when we think, we set into motion the law of vibration, which carries our thoughts so that they can become reality. The law of love, which works through the emotions, gives these thoughts vitality.
Your level of belief will influence how quickly your dreams become reality. Look at it this way: When you believe that something is easily attainable, then you step quickly to attain that desire. On the other hand, when you believe that what you want is “out of your reach” or a “pipe dream,” then you stall and stutter on your way, which either drastically slows your journey or impedes it completely.
We set our thoughts into motion by seeking the Silence. It is in the Silence that we can be still, and when we are still, we can think, and thought is the secret to all attainment.
As we think something more and more and see it clearer and clearer, it finally becomes automatic in our mind. We really know what we think. It moves from being a mere thought to a fact. “We are sure; we know.”
The exercises in The Master Key System teach us how to use the Silence, but we must make the effort to find the Silence first. Those who do not are depriving themselves of the place where they will find and develop their thoughts.
Do your best to enter the Silence at least once per day — either in the morning or at the end of the day.
Without distractions, without clutter, without “noise,” you will discover something perhaps you’ve never experienced: yourself.
Tony Michalski
This week in the Master Key Coaching Teleseminars, I spoke a bit about the “Silence,” which Haanel described as the place where we find our true power. This is the place where one can truly set his thoughts into motion because it is here that he develops his goals, creates his vision, forges his plans, and readies his actions.
The Silence is where we partake in that “hardest of work”: Thinking.
As I wrote in The Master Key Workbook:
Thought is the secret to all attainment. This is because when we think, we set into motion the law of vibration, which carries our thoughts so that they can become reality. The law of love, which works through the emotions, gives these thoughts vitality.
Your level of belief will influence how quickly your dreams become reality. Look at it this way: When you believe that something is easily attainable, then you step quickly to attain that desire. On the other hand, when you believe that what you want is “out of your reach” or a “pipe dream,” then you stall and stutter on your way, which either drastically slows your journey or impedes it completely.
We set our thoughts into motion by seeking the Silence. It is in the Silence that we can be still, and when we are still, we can think, and thought is the secret to all attainment.
As we think something more and more and see it clearer and clearer, it finally becomes automatic in our mind. We really know what we think. It moves from being a mere thought to a fact. “We are sure; we know.”
The exercises in The Master Key System teach us how to use the Silence, but we must make the effort to find the Silence first. Those who do not are depriving themselves of the place where they will find and develop their thoughts.
Do your best to enter the Silence at least once per day — either in the morning or at the end of the day.
Without distractions, without clutter, without “noise,” you will discover something perhaps you’ve never experienced: yourself.
Tony Michalski
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Outcome Visualization
“My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get a new idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination, and make improvements and operate the device in my mind. When I have gone so far as to embody everything in my invention, every possible improvement I can think of, and when I see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form the final product of my brain.”
– Nikola Tesla
Haanel wrote about Tesla in Week Seven of The Master Key System.
10. The inventor visualizes his idea in exactly the same manner. For instance, Nikola Tesla, he with the giant intellect, one of the greatest inventors of all ages, the man who has brought forth the most amazing realities, always visualizes his inventions before attempting to work them out. He does not rush to embody them in form and then spend his time in correcting defects. Having first built up the idea in his imagination, he holds it there as a mental picture, to be reconstructed and improved by his thought. “In this way,” he writes in the Electrical Experimenter, “I am enabled to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching any- thing. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible im- provement I can think of, and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete the prod- uct of my brain. Invariably my devise works as I conceived it should; in twenty years there has not been a single exception.”
How is this mental accuracy — this mental clarity — obtained?
Haanel wrote,
13. Clearness and accuracy are obtained only by repeatedly having the image in mind. Each repeated action renders the image more clear and accurate than the preceding, and in proportion to the clearness and accuracy of the image will the outward manifestation be. You must build it firmly and securely in your mental world—the world within—before it can take form in the world without, and you can build nothing of value even in the mental world unless you have the proper material. When you have the material you can build anything you wish, but make sure of your material. You cannot make broadcloth from shoddy.
– Nikola Tesla
Haanel wrote about Tesla in Week Seven of The Master Key System.
10. The inventor visualizes his idea in exactly the same manner. For instance, Nikola Tesla, he with the giant intellect, one of the greatest inventors of all ages, the man who has brought forth the most amazing realities, always visualizes his inventions before attempting to work them out. He does not rush to embody them in form and then spend his time in correcting defects. Having first built up the idea in his imagination, he holds it there as a mental picture, to be reconstructed and improved by his thought. “In this way,” he writes in the Electrical Experimenter, “I am enabled to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching any- thing. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible im- provement I can think of, and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete the prod- uct of my brain. Invariably my devise works as I conceived it should; in twenty years there has not been a single exception.”
How is this mental accuracy — this mental clarity — obtained?
Haanel wrote,
13. Clearness and accuracy are obtained only by repeatedly having the image in mind. Each repeated action renders the image more clear and accurate than the preceding, and in proportion to the clearness and accuracy of the image will the outward manifestation be. You must build it firmly and securely in your mental world—the world within—before it can take form in the world without, and you can build nothing of value even in the mental world unless you have the proper material. When you have the material you can build anything you wish, but make sure of your material. You cannot make broadcloth from shoddy.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
GTD - Let the lists fall where they may
Probably the most universal how-to question for GTD neophytes is this: How do I keep track of all the things that you're recommending I keep out of my head? What's the best tool? The answer is pretty simple: however you most effectively can create and review lists.
You will need a good filing system, an inbox and a ubiquitous capture tool, a box for stuff to read, and maybe a tickler file; but for the most part, all you need are lists. But you'll need several. And they need to be complete. And you'll need a place to keep them.
For many newbies, the multiple lists they may see in any of our systems can overwhelm them at first glance. The various classifications we recommend as best practices present a significant increase in complexity over what most pre-GTDers are working with: a calendar and some amorphous kind of "to-do" list, at best. Their responses to our typical sets of lists (calls, office, errands, agendas for boss, agenda for staff meeting, projects, someday maybes, etc.) are "That's so much work to set up and maintain!" and/or "That's so confusing!"
The cause of their push-back is twofold. First, few people on the planet, prior to GTD, have had any commitment at all to capturing and objectifying everything they're committed to. So, indeed, if all you wanted to keep track of is what they are currently keeping track of (outside their heads), you probably wouldn't need more than the one to-do list they have. And secondly, because of the incredible amount of input, distraction, rapid change, and consequent over-commitment gnawing at everyone's gut, there is a huge desire for simplification to relieve the pressure. People often come to GTD for that relief and are negatively surprised to see what looks to them like additional work and complication. "My goodness—look at all those lists!"
As someone gets just a little further into the game, however, and is willing to try out some version of our recommended set of lists, they begin to experience the clarity and focus that's been unavailable using his/her previous system. Here's why:
There's an interesting phenomenon which was explained to me once as a key cybernetic principle: in order to create simplicity amidst complexity, your system must be equally complex. The corollary to that would be that if you're trying to manage something very complex with too simple a system, it will over-complexify it! And that's just what I've seen over these many years as a coach and educator. People's lives are way more sophisticated, intricate, and multifaceted than the systems they are using to manage them. A calendar and to-do list pale as puny weapons against that kind of universe. In some ways their incompleteness and insufficiency just make the situation worse.
On the other hand, the system (and lists therein) can't get too complicated. For many who step into GTD and taste the transformative power of its BFO's (Blinding Flashes of the Obvious), they swing on the pendulum too far in the other direction. They over-classify. This seems particularly to afflict the technophiles, who often try to create too many lists with too many subsets and connectors and relationships. They find themselves getting hung up with only a partial implementation of the method and rationalizing that they found a way that "works better for them." Though that in itself, if true, would actually still be GTD (as GTD is an approach, not really a system), the reality is, from our experience in working with many of these folks after the fact, they just get themselves detoured because of the burden of their complexities.
GTD requires some important thinking on the front end (meaning, outcome and action determinations especially). But if you have to think too much before you can put something on a list ("will this task require a '3' or '6' level of energy on a scale of 10 to accomplish it?") you're likely to run into quicksand in trying to work it. Your system has to be easy enough (and complete enough) that you will be motivated to work it even when you have the flu. The system is only as good as what you're willing to maintain when you don't feel like it. It's fine to let your "inner geek" create a system for yourself on a rainy Saturday, but it had better be tested and continue to work amidst the firehose-gushing realities of Monday mid-mornings as well.
So there's a sensitive center point to find and maintain in terms of how to keep track of your multiple commitments and information—not too simple, not too complicated. You gotta get your porridge just right.
In our experience the "standard" GTD classifications for lists come close for most people—next actions by context, projects, somedays, agendas by person and meeting, etc. Simple, flat lists without a whole lot of structured trappings that may get in the way, once they're in these discrete buckets.
Consequently, the best personal management tools will be whatever manages those kinds of lists most easily for someone. My educated guess is that, for senior professionals, about ten percent are most comfortable with simple pieces of paper or documents inside folders (e.g. a file called "Calls" with post-its, call-back slips, or just papers torn off pads for their at-phone reminders).
Another twenty percent probably prefer some form of loose-leaf planner or notebook, with their lists on separate single pieces of paper within tabbed sections. And the rest like some digital form of list management—usually the tasks within a desktop or PDA application sorted by a category as the list title.
The good news is that once you really get comfortable with what kind of lists you can maintain the easiest and which support the most elegant simplicity for your focus, you could use any of these tools with equal ease. That's why, as we've noticed with many GTDers who have been in this game long enough, they sometimes find themselves shifting comfortably from one to the other, as how they spend their time changes with shifts in life- and work-styles. I've met several hi-tech-oriented people who've gone "retro" and taken up a new version of a paper planner again.
So, if you have any level of angst about what list-organizing tool is best for you—relax. Find a happy medium between what tool is already comfortable for you and what tool is attracting you, and get going. You really won't know what's going to work best until you engage with the GTD model for a few weeks. The important thing is to train yourself to collect and process your stuff in the most efficient and effective way, and to organize the results of that in some way.
(This article originally appeared in a publication for our GTD Connect members. Read more articles like this on GTD Connect in our extensive GTD Document Library.)
David Allen - founder/author of GTD
"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
-Chinese proverb
You will need a good filing system, an inbox and a ubiquitous capture tool, a box for stuff to read, and maybe a tickler file; but for the most part, all you need are lists. But you'll need several. And they need to be complete. And you'll need a place to keep them.
For many newbies, the multiple lists they may see in any of our systems can overwhelm them at first glance. The various classifications we recommend as best practices present a significant increase in complexity over what most pre-GTDers are working with: a calendar and some amorphous kind of "to-do" list, at best. Their responses to our typical sets of lists (calls, office, errands, agendas for boss, agenda for staff meeting, projects, someday maybes, etc.) are "That's so much work to set up and maintain!" and/or "That's so confusing!"
The cause of their push-back is twofold. First, few people on the planet, prior to GTD, have had any commitment at all to capturing and objectifying everything they're committed to. So, indeed, if all you wanted to keep track of is what they are currently keeping track of (outside their heads), you probably wouldn't need more than the one to-do list they have. And secondly, because of the incredible amount of input, distraction, rapid change, and consequent over-commitment gnawing at everyone's gut, there is a huge desire for simplification to relieve the pressure. People often come to GTD for that relief and are negatively surprised to see what looks to them like additional work and complication. "My goodness—look at all those lists!"
As someone gets just a little further into the game, however, and is willing to try out some version of our recommended set of lists, they begin to experience the clarity and focus that's been unavailable using his/her previous system. Here's why:
There's an interesting phenomenon which was explained to me once as a key cybernetic principle: in order to create simplicity amidst complexity, your system must be equally complex. The corollary to that would be that if you're trying to manage something very complex with too simple a system, it will over-complexify it! And that's just what I've seen over these many years as a coach and educator. People's lives are way more sophisticated, intricate, and multifaceted than the systems they are using to manage them. A calendar and to-do list pale as puny weapons against that kind of universe. In some ways their incompleteness and insufficiency just make the situation worse.
On the other hand, the system (and lists therein) can't get too complicated. For many who step into GTD and taste the transformative power of its BFO's (Blinding Flashes of the Obvious), they swing on the pendulum too far in the other direction. They over-classify. This seems particularly to afflict the technophiles, who often try to create too many lists with too many subsets and connectors and relationships. They find themselves getting hung up with only a partial implementation of the method and rationalizing that they found a way that "works better for them." Though that in itself, if true, would actually still be GTD (as GTD is an approach, not really a system), the reality is, from our experience in working with many of these folks after the fact, they just get themselves detoured because of the burden of their complexities.
GTD requires some important thinking on the front end (meaning, outcome and action determinations especially). But if you have to think too much before you can put something on a list ("will this task require a '3' or '6' level of energy on a scale of 10 to accomplish it?") you're likely to run into quicksand in trying to work it. Your system has to be easy enough (and complete enough) that you will be motivated to work it even when you have the flu. The system is only as good as what you're willing to maintain when you don't feel like it. It's fine to let your "inner geek" create a system for yourself on a rainy Saturday, but it had better be tested and continue to work amidst the firehose-gushing realities of Monday mid-mornings as well.
So there's a sensitive center point to find and maintain in terms of how to keep track of your multiple commitments and information—not too simple, not too complicated. You gotta get your porridge just right.
In our experience the "standard" GTD classifications for lists come close for most people—next actions by context, projects, somedays, agendas by person and meeting, etc. Simple, flat lists without a whole lot of structured trappings that may get in the way, once they're in these discrete buckets.
Consequently, the best personal management tools will be whatever manages those kinds of lists most easily for someone. My educated guess is that, for senior professionals, about ten percent are most comfortable with simple pieces of paper or documents inside folders (e.g. a file called "Calls" with post-its, call-back slips, or just papers torn off pads for their at-phone reminders).
Another twenty percent probably prefer some form of loose-leaf planner or notebook, with their lists on separate single pieces of paper within tabbed sections. And the rest like some digital form of list management—usually the tasks within a desktop or PDA application sorted by a category as the list title.
The good news is that once you really get comfortable with what kind of lists you can maintain the easiest and which support the most elegant simplicity for your focus, you could use any of these tools with equal ease. That's why, as we've noticed with many GTDers who have been in this game long enough, they sometimes find themselves shifting comfortably from one to the other, as how they spend their time changes with shifts in life- and work-styles. I've met several hi-tech-oriented people who've gone "retro" and taken up a new version of a paper planner again.
So, if you have any level of angst about what list-organizing tool is best for you—relax. Find a happy medium between what tool is already comfortable for you and what tool is attracting you, and get going. You really won't know what's going to work best until you engage with the GTD model for a few weeks. The important thing is to train yourself to collect and process your stuff in the most efficient and effective way, and to organize the results of that in some way.
(This article originally appeared in a publication for our GTD Connect members. Read more articles like this on GTD Connect in our extensive GTD Document Library.)
David Allen - founder/author of GTD
"Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are."
-Chinese proverb
On Master-Daily Task Lists
I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't make a
list every day. I'm a compulsive list maker.
Every day I make a list of what I need to do that
day. And if the list gets too long and ridiculous,
then I know that something is wrong... I need to
zero in on the MOST important tasks of the day.
It is a wonderful feeling when you get things
done. That sense of accomplishment builds you up
in all areas of your life. It starts a chain
reaction of positive experiences.
When it's tough to get started, the single
most important thing you can do is to make a
list.
In the long run, making a list will help you,
even if you decide to put off doing everything
for now. Just keep making those lists anyway.
Lists will focus you on what you need to do,
and they will ultimately motivate you.
Sooner or later, you will find yourself being
more in touch with your true goals. You'll
also take action on this list.
Sure, a list won't do the job for you, but
when you write that list out, day in day out,
you will get that fire lit under you and
you will get things done.
Have a separate list called your "Master List"
that has EVERYTHING you need to do, now and
in the future, and then you can use your
daily list to just focus on TODAY.
When you have been writing lists as long
as I have (decades), then you develop your own
special touches on this habit.
Each new day, I get a new piece of paper
and write a brand new list, transferring
what didn't get done from yesterday's list
to today's list.
The time it takes to write these things down
helps to focus my mind on my goals.
On my daily list, I have a little section on
one side for what has to be picked up at the
grocery store (my least favorite task).
There is another section for any calls or emails
that have to be made. Sometimes I also have a small
section for each of my children.
During the day, if something comes up that I
need to remember, I add it to the list, so I
don't have to worry about forgetting it.
One reason it's important to be organized
is that it keeps a person in a GOOD mood.
Clutter and disorder and not having things
done can put you in a bad frame of mind.
Order and accomplishment and things done
equals absolute bliss. That is why this book,
"Declutter Fast," is very close to my heart.
Your whole world is affected by the order in
your life.
And don't get down if you are not "there" yet -
because a little order goes a LONG way.
Mimi Tanner
www.DeclutterFast.com
list every day. I'm a compulsive list maker.
Every day I make a list of what I need to do that
day. And if the list gets too long and ridiculous,
then I know that something is wrong... I need to
zero in on the MOST important tasks of the day.
It is a wonderful feeling when you get things
done. That sense of accomplishment builds you up
in all areas of your life. It starts a chain
reaction of positive experiences.
When it's tough to get started, the single
most important thing you can do is to make a
list.
In the long run, making a list will help you,
even if you decide to put off doing everything
for now. Just keep making those lists anyway.
Lists will focus you on what you need to do,
and they will ultimately motivate you.
Sooner or later, you will find yourself being
more in touch with your true goals. You'll
also take action on this list.
Sure, a list won't do the job for you, but
when you write that list out, day in day out,
you will get that fire lit under you and
you will get things done.
Have a separate list called your "Master List"
that has EVERYTHING you need to do, now and
in the future, and then you can use your
daily list to just focus on TODAY.
When you have been writing lists as long
as I have (decades), then you develop your own
special touches on this habit.
Each new day, I get a new piece of paper
and write a brand new list, transferring
what didn't get done from yesterday's list
to today's list.
The time it takes to write these things down
helps to focus my mind on my goals.
On my daily list, I have a little section on
one side for what has to be picked up at the
grocery store (my least favorite task).
There is another section for any calls or emails
that have to be made. Sometimes I also have a small
section for each of my children.
During the day, if something comes up that I
need to remember, I add it to the list, so I
don't have to worry about forgetting it.
One reason it's important to be organized
is that it keeps a person in a GOOD mood.
Clutter and disorder and not having things
done can put you in a bad frame of mind.
Order and accomplishment and things done
equals absolute bliss. That is why this book,
"Declutter Fast," is very close to my heart.
Your whole world is affected by the order in
your life.
And don't get down if you are not "there" yet -
because a little order goes a LONG way.
Mimi Tanner
www.DeclutterFast.com
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