Getting Things Done vs. Fear of Failure

Dave Pollard is on to something. What if you’re following along with David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and for whatever reason, it’s still not working? He suggests you consider your feelings around failure.

As the delightful Imogen Heap song suggests, maybe you’ve got your heart in a headlock. Fear of failure is not the same as procrastination: Procrastination is usually the result of a project or Next Action just being too large or overwhelming — breaking it down into manageable pieces, identifying what’s blocking it, and drawing on inspirations and the assistance of others can usually resolve this. But if you’re afraid of failure, if that’s what’s holding you back, breaking it down may just deprive you of plausible deniability of your reasons for putting it off.

Pollard goes on to discuss how fear works, and some ideas on how to get at the symptoms before just dismissing the feeling. For instance, he mentions the addition of a Plan B as a “hack” to GTD. Getting Things Done: Fear of Failure – [How to Save the World]