Podcast #50: State of the Systems 2016 (Spiritual)

An everyday system, TM, is a simple, commonsense solution to an everyday problem, grounded by a pun or metaphor. Propose/discuss new systems here.
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reinhard
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Podcast #50: State of the Systems 2016 (Spiritual)

Post by reinhard » Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:48 pm

No S for the Soul! 14-Year Jubilee updates on 8 "spiritual" systems: Weekend Luddite, Audiodidact, Chain of Self-command, Low Smoking, G-Ray Vision, Monthly Resolution, Lawful Good Biker and The Study Habit.

https://everydaysystems.com/podcast/episode.php?id=50

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Post by MD » Sat Jul 30, 2016 11:18 am

Thanks for the new podcast episode!
I leaned about some systems such as Low Smoking and G-Ray Vision that I did not even know you had -- I realize now that these are detailed in Everyday Systems Lab from this site's Home page, so I looked there today and it led to some interesting reading.
Your reflections in this new podcast on Personal Punch Cards was interesting. I use a daily card nearly every day, and I also have not found much use for cards other than the daily one.
During occasional phases of feeling overloaded, I sometimes write down every small and large task in my mental "to do" list in a notebook, like in the Capture phase of David Allen's Getting Things Done system on http://gettingthingsdone.com/fivesteps/ . I find this to be cathartic, as it seems like I then have less mental baggage. Perhaps a mod/tweak to Personal Punch Cards would be to write a shorthand key to everything in my notebook and refer to the one(s) I want to accomplish that day on a Personal Punch Card. For example, in the notebook, one of many to-do's might say "STRETCH = Work on getting more flexible by watching a youtube video on stretching exercises and practicing stretching.", and the Personal Punch Card would just say STRETCH.

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Post by reinhard » Mon Aug 01, 2016 12:37 pm

Thanks for the feedback, MD!

Somehow Dave Allen's stuff never quite clicked with me...

But perhaps it's worth another look.

I think one little rule of his turned my off perhaps a little too much: the "two minute" rule, which holds that if you can do a task in two minutes or less, don't even bother writing it down, just do it NOW.

Love the idea -- but as a working parent of three small children I have an infinite number of 2 minute tasks that could/should be done. I could literally spend the rest of my life doing 2 minute tasks and never be done.

I do like what he has to say about getting churning ideas out of your head and onto paper (the "someday maybe list") but again, I find I have an almost infinite number of these. I write one down, and like hydra, 2 new ones take its place churning in my brain.

What I'm having a really hard time with, and I'm convinced it's the key to the whole thing, is figuring out what's actually important. Whenever I arrive at something that seems like a candidate, I hear this annoying child's voice in my head, "but what about this other thing that's obviously even more important..." and it never ends. And the next important thing often completely undercuts and invalidates the last important thing, makes it actually counterproductive.

I think I lack some psychological valve that cuts off at some point with a "this is important enough, stop. This is appropriately important. This is YOUR important."

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Post by MD » Sat Aug 06, 2016 5:34 pm

Yeah, I can relate to your point about one idea for a task to do, once written down, leads to another, and another, ad infinitum (ad nauseam?).

The dilemma is that these ideas all seem important enough, at the time, to be written on the front of the personal punch card, leading to overambition when planning my day, and no * later indicating that all that stuff got done. Maybe, for me, putting it in a Maybe Someday category of a master plan notebook or some other capture device, until ready to move to a personal punch card, to commit to what I can realistically accomplish in a day, is the way to go.

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Post by MaggieMae » Sat Aug 13, 2016 1:11 am

This was the first time I heard about the G-Ray vision. Thanks for sharing and being honest about this subject. My previous marriage ended because of his addition to such online shenanigans. It has damaged so many relationships. What you said about people not knowing about what goes on in that industry is too true. People won't support restaurants or companies that aren't humane to animals, but will support businesses who abuse humans. Strange and sad.

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Post by reinhard » Mon Aug 15, 2016 1:53 pm

I'm glad that resonated with you, MaggieMae.

I'm surprised by how cartoonish most discussions of pornography (and sex in general) are these days.

On the one had you have the "sex positive," who think that sexuality is an unalloyed good, innocuous and to be innocently enjoyed, celebrated, and displayed. The only danger is repression. Or the intrusion of non-sexual passions (violence).

And various strains of "sex negative" puritanicalism, ranging from mere lack of appetite to more ideologically based positions. Sex isn't necessarily bad, but most modern manifestations are to be regarded with extreme suspicion.

Both of these positions can have a "left wing" or "right wing" flavor to them.

To me, it seems way more complicated. I think there's a reason so many old works of art focus on sexual love gone violently wrong: "the face that launched a thousand ships" to take the seminal example. We acknowledge that Helen of Troy is beautiful, that sexual beauty and enjoyment is something, but that it also has an intrinsic destructive streak, and that perhaps it isn't quite possible to disentangle the two. I don't think you can take the bits you don't like out of sex and pretend they have nothing to do with it. Nor can you honestly say, hey, they're not that bad! Nor should we delude ourselves into thinking that we aren't powerfully affected by sexual images and encounters, that they really can be superficial. And if we really have made ourselves numb with repeated exposure, that numbness comes with a heavy cost.

So what to do? Respect the power of sex. And be a little humble before it. It isn't a tame pussycat, and it isn't a dumb brute either. There's a time to back off, a time to avert your eyes, a time, perhaps, to be swallowed up and hope for the best. No wonder the greeks made a goddess out of this bewildering passion.

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Post by Losingthediets » Thu Jan 03, 2019 1:30 am

In response to your repulsion to the "2 minute rule" as a GTD user : The whole purpose of the inbox is to drop thoughts you've had without having to identify what it is- and that includes identifying whether it's 2 minutes or not! Later, when your current task is getting your inbox to zero, that's when you hold the thing and decide whether it's 2 minutes or not, and at that point in theory you've already settled with a little free time to process your system in the first place. Yes, often someone who has a thought in an idle moment and doesn't want to clog their inbox might want to go ahead and do one of those 2 minute tasks, but GTD wouldn't suggest you do all 2 minute tasks immediately on thought- the point of GTD is to stop being that reactive, and do things when it is most appropriate/convenient!

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