Getting things done

Working on your skills for a week or two is not very hard. However, to qualify for sufficient memorization and superlearning skills ~12 weeks of work are required. And once you finally qualify, this is simply a milestone in life-long learning career. This is very similar to sports. Many people are passionate during the first weeks, when every week brings a new level of excitement and achievement. After a while, the progress gets harder, and we need extra boost to our motivation and persistence.

FH
I wanted to ask if you could give me any tips on books about getting
things done, or just one you think is most valuable. I ask this because
lately I found out that I have no system that would motivate me on long term
and would provide me with some feedback about how much progress
I made and so on… What’s your opinion on “Getting things done” by David Allen?
Or maybe you could make a blog post, if you are interested, on this matter and
how do you handle things personally?

LG
David Allen is definitely interesting, maybe a bit over-structured for day to day use. I prefer to keep things simple.
Things that work:
1. Find something you are passionate about. You need to have a clear intrinsic motivation that keeps you going.
2. Have a role model. For me this is something I often fail to do, but if you do find a role model it makes your life much easier. If the person is willing to mentor you, even better.
3. Never work alone. Try to be a part of some group sharing common interests. It is much easier to achieve your goal if you have social support.
4. Define stopping point. Define what counts for successful experiment and unsuccessful experiment, how much you are willing to invest etc
5. Commit in writing in public. Commit on facebook or other social forums.
6. Track you progress vs your goals.
7. Do one thing at a time. Very few people can achieve many things at once.
8. Sometimes we get tired. It is OK to stop doing something for a while and revisit it a week later.

I have a Google document with some of my long-term goals. Each time I achieve a goal I write “done” near that particular goal. When I have an ongoing activity I divide it into measurable milestones, and celebrate reaching each milestone. This is quite boring, so to make it fun I imagine how I would benefit from what I am working on.

You are welcome to share your own thoughts on the subject in the comments.