The Nine Lives – Ian Cheung, Information Architect in Osaka, Japan

I finally finished completing the sorting and planning of all my projects, at least all the ones that I thought of when I started the clearing process. It took a long long time, much longer than I expected. But now I feel more at ease knowing I have at least 80-90% of my open loops down on paper. Open loops are things that take up your thinking time.

Of course there are some things I may have missed and some new projects to start, especially since I am now unemployed but at least I have a feel of planned/unplanned projects.

I was going to explain the difference using a car trip analogy but a thought just occurred to me, mortgages are probably a better analogy to use. (Mortgages are the long term loans for buying houses).

Many people take out mortgages to buy a house. The mortgages sometimes are 25-30 years long but even though that is a very long time (most of a person’s adult life) people still do so because they know that after a certain amount of time the paying will be finished and the house will be theirs. (Also they know that while the are in the process of paying they get to enjoy the use of the house).

They also know that after 10 years they have 15 years to go, and x amount left to pay. They gain strength from the sight of their progress and the knowledge that the finishing line is closer.

Whereas is the mortgage was for a undefined period of time, it would have a draining effect on their energies and willpower to continue.

Before implementing GTD it was like paying off a mortgage with an undefined time period, I was sure I was making some progress but I wasn’t sure how much in relation to the whole. Now I can see that I have a whopping big mortgage to pay but I can see each penny I pay brings me closer to the end result.