Being Things Done

Transitive Tasks

transitive |’transitiv; ‘tranz-| adjective

Grammar (of a verb or a sense or use of a verb) able to take a direct object (expressed or implied), e.g., “saw” in “he saw the donkey.” The opposite of intransitive. (from Oxford American Dictionary)

As you may or may not remember from those long ago English classes, a transitive verb is one that has a direct object for its action, either (as the definition above says) expressed or implied. This also means there is a subject acting on that object. Some examples:

• I read the newspaper.
• The Terminator scanned a motorcycle.
• Indiana Jones shot the Nazi.
• The poodle gnawed his squeak-ball.

It dawned on me recently when I was going over my todo list for an upcoming week that all of the actions I was writing down were transitive:

• Brush dog.
• Wash dishes.
• Write backup script.
• Update checkbook.

And when tasks were not obviously transitive verb phrases, I had to transmute or atomize them until they were.

Merlin talked about this a few months ago in Building a Smarter To-Do List, Part I in which he said,

“Framing your work in the physical world is easiest when you imagine what’s being done, and the best trick here is to simply phrase your task in a form like: ‘verb the noun with the object.’”

“iPod problem?” turned into “Research iPod problem” which then required refocusing into “Search Apple support for iPod issue.” Longer, yes, but an actual task that can be done. A direct object for my verb. “NaNoWriMo!” begat “Continue NaNoWriMo” which begat “Write Chapter 5” — again, an actual action.

GTD theory talks about this idea of making sure your todo list consists of Next Actions, which is to say the next physical action required to complete a given project. Not “clean garage” but “buy trash bags.” Not “write novel” but “write character sketch.” Not “get car fixed” but “call for car appointment.”

Paying attention to the grammar of my tasks seems to help in that regard. If I cannot visualize the todo item, if I’m not able to see myself doing it, then there’s something wrong with it. What is the verb? What is the object?

And if you’re not the subject of your own task-sentence, make somebody else do it. ;D

Intransitive Tasks?

Not to stretch the grammar lesson too far, but what about the alternative of a transitive task? Is there such a thing as an intransitive task? Absolutely!

• Sleep 8 hours.
• Bicycle on Sunday.
• Run until I can’t feel my legs anymore.

Of course, there are also ambitransitive verbs, which are transitive or intransitive depending on if you include the optional object.

• Cook.
• Read.
• Write.

Stative Tasks: Being Things Done

If you think about it, our Things are never really Getting Done. Sure, you might complete a given todo list, but there’s always more to do. That project might be out the door at last, but there’s always another right after it. Still, most of us accept this Sisyphean existence as an inherent aspect of leading a productive life.

Less easily handled by all the productivity schemes are non-actions.

There is a class of verbs called “stative” — they have no time component, no action per se.

• I believe.
• You think.
• She knows.

States of being, in other words. How do you get your belief done? How do you atomize knowledge?

Most of the time, so-called productivity gurus add a puffy clip-art cloud to their PowerPoint slide and label it “The Big Picture” and leave it at that. Oh, and be sure to add a todo item scheduling a “strategic planning” session.

Right.

There is an old adage in music about the rests being at least as important as the notes. A purposeful pause in a speech can lend multiple levels of unspoken meaning.

Silence is golden. Sometimes it isn’t about what you get done, it’s what you are. Or aren’t.

Can you add stative tasks in iCal? Will Remind remind you to be?

There are 10 kinds of people in the world…

A computer is good at some things. Computing, mostly, although all that math is often disguised as web browsing, image manipulation, music playback, and other human-stimulating activities. Emotional computers would probably like todo lists with their binary checkboxes. It’s either off or on, incomplete or done, zero or one.

Stephen Hawking likened asking what happened before the Big Bang to asking what’s north of the North Pole. Since the question is without meaning, there can be no real answer. How do you compute living? The answer is that you don’t because you can’t.

Everybody out there raise your hands if you’ve recently felt guilty about not getting things done. Assuming you don’t work in one of the life-saving professions, why? Sure, there are some big items you have to get done, but why feel guilt over not picking up the dry cleaning today?

What’s north of the North Pole?

One of my favorite writers, Albert Camus, wrestled with meaninglessness in his famous essay “Myth of Sisyphus.” Absent some external meaning like religion, he wrote, life is fundamentally meaningless — given this, what can we grab onto instead of self-destruction? Camus rejects both faith and a humorless existence, instead reveling in the absurdity inherent to the Sisyphean myth, as a metaphor for modern life. Sisyphus pauses at the top of the hill, content before the boulder rolls back, then returns down the slope, absurdly happy.

It’s not the boulder that’s the point, it’s the moments when you aren’t pushing. The effort makes the rest of it worthwhile. “There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.” If it wasn’t for all the work, the downtime would be worthless.

Ethics

What does all this highfalutin talk have to do with productivity?

In a post on the 43folders board, a user asked about the necessity of blogging, whether it took too much time away one could use “more productively in other things.” I asked her how the question changed if she substituted the word “write” for the word “blog.” “Productivity,” I said, “is not the end-all be-all of existence.”

That’s not to say that productivity or utility or whatever other Protestant-Ethic noun you want to use aren’t important. Of course they are.

But sometimes, it’s best to turn off the computer, close the Moleskine, toss the Hipster on the counter, and leave the office or house with as little guilt as possible. And just maybe with some absurd happiness that even though you’ll be back at it tomorrow, nose to the boulder, you’re going to enjoy the trip back down the hill. Stative tasks — ones without a checkbox.

Two weeks ago at the time of this writing, my stepfather passed away after a long illness. And even though I miss him terribly, he is no longer in terrible pain — so by any real measure, he is better off now.

Late in life, after a long, successful, productive career, he found new paths to go down that led him to be happier than he ever had been before. A new career, creativity and an artistic side, relationships, peacefulness. Just like in other ways, the changes he made inspired me to look at my own life, at what it was I was doing and why.

He was still very much “productive,” but it became only a part of life… not a reason for living. This is a distinction that is easy to forget when the stress (both internal and external) is up to your neck and rising.

Life, the cliche goes, is short. Make sure yours is also to the point.