GTD, Dreams and ThingsThatMakeMeHappy lists

It's easy to get focused on how GTD helps you manage the day to day stuff. You might overlook that the reason for managing the day to day stuff is so that you can spend time figuring out the big picture of your life. I work with folks who are basically trapped in the job. And there are a couple who are just passing through on their way to doing the other things they've planned to do. If you have a plan that you are working towards, it's a lot easier to sort out the things that really do need to be done.

And that leads to dreams. You can have those vague, gotta do something kind of dreams. When you make that commitment to making it come true, the universe responds. That's when things start to happen. There is a huge difference for us between last year's had-enough-what-can-we-do-about-it and this year's we're-selling-the-place-and-moving-there. Once we put that money down, things started to happen. And it's given me the strength to ignore conventional wisdom about taking your time to sell the place and looking for the best possible deal. For us, sooner is better. We'd planned to try to move by April 1st but I'd like to be out of here in March if possible. It's time to move on.

I don't know if I'm the only one with a ThingsThatMakeMeHappy list. I think I put it together a few years ago. For the most part, I haven't made a lot of changes to it. The things on the list really don't cost any money. When I'm trying to figure out what I need or want, I take a quick look at the list to see if it matches. At some point, I'd like to have a day, week, or month of just the stuff on that list.