Why Being Awesome Can be Frustrating

We love a good task manager! In fact I (Frank) really learned how to be a good self-manager by learning how to use a good task application. I was never really good at managing myself in the past. I’m more of a creative, impulsive, idealistic, artist, thinker type. But I love a good application, so that made it fun for me to learn some basic productivity techniques. Now, I can honestly say that I’m a pretty decent manager of my time and attention.

Actually, I’m kind of awesome at it. (Awesome? Yes. Humble? Not so much.) I have a bunch of jobs (by choice), all of which require creativity, frequent production of fresh content, and balancing the urgent vs. important. I fail often. I really do. The key thing is knowing how to get back on track when balls get dropped or a project falls apart. I can usually pull that off.

Becoming an awesome self-manager has two negative side effects.

First, you might make the mistake of taking on too much. When you suddenly become exponentially more productive you need time to test your limits. Not easy at first. I use the GTD approach to self-management. It took me a few months to master it. After that, it took me 6 more months to dig myself out of a lot of over-reaching. Now I coach others to take it slow. The increased productivity at the beginning can be deceptive. You feel like superman and then realize you’re not when you get buried under a mountain of over-commitment.

Second, you might start to get annoyed with the “uninitiated” among us. When you get comfortable in the world of good self-management you start to think everyone else is lame or even crazy. “What? You didn’t write down what you just agreed to do? Can I punch you in the face now?” “Are you going to put that on your calendar?” “What’s our next-action folks? Or are we just going to blow smoke all day?” Obnoxious, I know, but when the best productivity practices become intuitive, the worst practices become more and more unacceptable.

What is a self-management Ninja to do?

First, be gracious, you cocky jerk.  “Wink” implied, but really, be nice.

Second, use Ta’Go Pro to hold people accountable for the things they agreed to do. Let’s face it, if you are into this kind of thing it is because you are looking to encourage better collaboration, communication, and (dare we say it) get control over some of the slackers around you! Some great ways to get started with this in this article.

No one wants to be controlling, but in most situations someone has to have some control. Not only will Ta’Go Pro enable better communications; it will facilitate accountability that no staff meeting could possibly produce. Imagine that key tasks assigned to your work group were easily monitored by the whole team. Imagine being able to easily track where each team member is in a project by simply opening a tab in your browser. Imagine having an easy way to remind a team member that they made a commitment to do something and simply didn’t do it.

Priceless, isn’t it? Yes, but it will actually be pretty affordable. We’ll talk about that another day.