the right tool for the job

the right tool for the job

More on 'Getting Shit Done: The art of feeling worse about doing nothing, faster.'

Chapter 1: The Right Tool for the Job (or, 3 x 5 is 5 x 5 with me)
i use a lot of 3 x 5 cards. to throw at annoying people who seem to be getting more done than me. if you spin them at just the right angle, you can give a wicked paper cut. i also use them to leave notes on people's cars when they're taking up two spaces in a parking lot, i'm feeling pent-up and want to kick the metaphorical dog.

Chapter 2: How It Really Works
the cornerstone of Getting Shit Done is the PARADOXICAL EFFICIENCY OF PROCRASTINATION AND INDECISION.
take a 3 x 5 card and write down three things i call the Triptych of Triumph:
-an impossible multi-phase action (e. g. lose two pounds this week)
-an unreasonable abstract expectation (e. g. 'i should be a better guitarist by now, but i can't get myself to practice the damn scales')
-a mundane concrete task (e. g. pick up dry-cleaning)
studies show the barrage of 21st century communication sends us continually in and out of varying degrees of post-traumatic stress disorder.

One minute we're on-track and unpredictably reeling the next. by jolting the mind solidly back into trauma with an impossible action and an unreasonable expectation, we actually bypass the frontal lobe and route the only clear action possible (dry-cleaning) directly to the nervous system. years of experimentation developped this system, and i've taught myself to implement it so efficiently that i pick up other people's dry-cleaning.

About Administrator

Alicia Dattner is a comedian and speaker who jousts with such topics of love, time-management, money, environmentalism, politics, spirituality, and creativity. Her first solo show, The Punchline, recently won Best of the Fringe in the San Francisco Fringe Festival 2008. Her second show, Eat Pray Laugh won Best Storyteller at the NY United Solo Festival. Her company, Making Light, is dedicated to bringing humor and lightness into spirituality, relationship, and every day life.

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