Selection Problem
I'm finally reading Leo Babauta's The Power of Less. I have read, or have on the list to read, many productivity books. It is a fascination of mine.
The aspect of the problem that I am struggling most with right now is the selection problem.
Leo has been broadcasting a powerful message of simplicity for a while now. I bought his book the moment it was available based upon my experience with Leo's writing at Zen Habits. I discovered Zen Habits during an exploration of David Allen's Getting Things Done. That exploration had begun with Merlin Mann's 43 Folders. Before any of that I had drank the Franklin Covey Kool-Aid.
Each of these attempts to articulate productivity principles have had an impact. My own decision making is informed by aspects of each that have resonated with me. Still, today, one core problem remains for me. That problem is the selection problem.
Which of the many opportunities, tasks, projects, items, emails, websites, phone calls, interruptions and interactions will hold meaning for tomorrow? How does one decide?
Each of the systems gives some guidance on selection. The advice and recommendations in these expressions of possibility are not the issue. The issue lies within me. I have no idea how to rate and rank the possibilities right now.
It is perhaps because I am hard afloat within a personal period of transition. It feels almost as if I have no past. At least no past that doesn't consist of experience informing today. It feels as if I have almost any future. I stand at a fork. Yet, this fork is not the one I imagine when I read Robert Frost's words.
I do not see a choice between a well trodden road and another less travelled path. Not at all. I see uncountable possibilities. I see a Mandelbrot Set, fully developed, completely opaque to understanding meaning. I see so many of the possibilities of a universe full of quantum fluctuations.
Perhaps this isn't a selection problem at all. Perhaps this is an existential problem.
The aspect of the problem that I am struggling most with right now is the selection problem.
Leo has been broadcasting a powerful message of simplicity for a while now. I bought his book the moment it was available based upon my experience with Leo's writing at Zen Habits. I discovered Zen Habits during an exploration of David Allen's Getting Things Done. That exploration had begun with Merlin Mann's 43 Folders. Before any of that I had drank the Franklin Covey Kool-Aid.
Each of these attempts to articulate productivity principles have had an impact. My own decision making is informed by aspects of each that have resonated with me. Still, today, one core problem remains for me. That problem is the selection problem.
Which of the many opportunities, tasks, projects, items, emails, websites, phone calls, interruptions and interactions will hold meaning for tomorrow? How does one decide?
Each of the systems gives some guidance on selection. The advice and recommendations in these expressions of possibility are not the issue. The issue lies within me. I have no idea how to rate and rank the possibilities right now.
It is perhaps because I am hard afloat within a personal period of transition. It feels almost as if I have no past. At least no past that doesn't consist of experience informing today. It feels as if I have almost any future. I stand at a fork. Yet, this fork is not the one I imagine when I read Robert Frost's words.
I do not see a choice between a well trodden road and another less travelled path. Not at all. I see uncountable possibilities. I see a Mandelbrot Set, fully developed, completely opaque to understanding meaning. I see so many of the possibilities of a universe full of quantum fluctuations.
Perhaps this isn't a selection problem at all. Perhaps this is an existential problem.