Why Are You Doing That?

I’m reading Getting Things Done, a book about getting things done. It was pretty good until it started talking with great passion about filing cabinets. Now I’m not so sure. Where will I put a filing cabinet? On the ceiling? Come on, David.

One of the smart things it said was:

If you don’t know why you’re doing something, you can never do enough of it.

This was on the subject of how identifying the purpose of a task or project is important but often overlooked. Like, why are we having this meeting? Why am I going to the gym? Why am I saving all of my Q-tips? (JK I’m not.)(Seriously.)

So I thought about my own life and how much I could benefit from going through everything I’m doing and asking why—what is the purpose of this activity? This goes for:

• Social activities
• Writing
• Clowning
• Improv
• Job
• Travel
• Hobby
• Sundry (ESPECIALLY THIS ONE)

Remembering why you’re doing something in the first place provides clarity for action and opens up new ideas because if you know the end result you’re trying to achieve, you can think of other ways to get there.

It could even lead to cutting out activities that don’t square with the purpose they’re trying to achieve. That makes more free time, to be filled with long walks along the beach or looking up Paleo recipes online. But only those things.

It’s about getting control over your life and how you’re spending it. Another guy that I like (not like that)—Derek Sivers—often mentions how he says no to absolutely everything so he is rarely busy. He only works on things that he really wants to be doing.

I think I could definitely use some activity pruning in my life to let the rose bushes of projects I’m excited about grow and blossom.