[DivaLion]

I tend to like Steve's more "brutal" posts, I find...I often feel that I have so deeply internalized the teachings from the "softer side" of personal development, that Steve's more difficult, kick-in-the-butt posts pose a welcome challenge to me. (For me, there's also a clear difference in my reactions to challenging articles, between "definitely not something I'm interested in right now" and "ow...hey! no! get that laser beam out from between my eyes!" that's a little uncomfortable but in a "truth hurts" kinda way. *g* The latter is something I know I need to think about and use *because* I'm feeling resistance.)

ANYWAY! =) The CARVER system ended up being a "truth hurts" sort of post for me, not because I had any resistance to the system itself (rather, I tend to be so overcurious and full of plans and ideas that I welcomed something cut and dried that'd help me sort them out) but because I minimized the article window, wrote up a CARVER chart on the spot, and then had to deal with the ouchie reality of which of my many queued up projects should be put on hold indefinitely. My problem, it seems, is not prioritizing but letting go!

It was a big reality check to see that "clean/organize house" is, on the whole, an item not worth much of my time (time to get a cleaning service...) while improving my finances and my health/fitness were very big items.

I think any rigidity in the system is offset by the simple factor of free will. For example, I could see that a lot of cleaning and organizing tasks didn't make the cut of top tasks worth my time & resources in and of themselves, but because I'm hosting a big party at the end of the month, I could accept that they *had* to get moved up the list for a short time until the party's over. Similarly, one or two tasks that did make the cut might end up getting done before the highest-ranked project, because they can be done quickly, be done *with*, and will continue to affect my life as I work on the lengthier projects. But at least I had a clear, measurable way to make those choices, which was really the help that I needed.

Finally-- I tinkered with the categories a bit, and added one for Urgency (meaning a specific, upcoming, inflexible timeframe as opposed to Criticality, which to me was how big a part of the Big Picture it is) and one that measured whether something I could be done with quickly vs. something that requires an ongoing investment of time without a foreseeable end. Then I added a column for Overlap, and gave each project a point for every other goal on the list that it intersects with (for example, completing one film-related goal helps a few other film-related goals). I did two totals, one counting the overlap, and one without.

Totaling with the overlap, I felt, gave me a better structure for attending to "mundane" projects that have a bigger ripple effect than they seem to on their own, as well as the more obviously big-picture ones, and helped me see which items were best poised to do the most good across the board in my life.

The total minus the overlap column was actually not much different (telling me that the items that fell into both are of highest importance overall), but gave me more of a big-picture view of which projects will advance specific major goals in my life. I found both totals valuable and I liked the added benefit of contemplating which of my goals and projects are loners and which ones are integrated into bigger plans. I also felt that this column helped me to see where I might be able to combine tasks to save time (for example, using a film blog [Project 1] to increase my networking within the local film community [Project 2]).

Sorry for the long long post, but I thought these modifications might be useful to others, and I also wanted to share how jazzed I am to tackle my project list now that I've used this tool to sharpen my focus!