80. Merry Christmas: Done

Transcript

Automatically transcribed and lightly edited. Timestamps omitted for readability.

Morten: Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Getting Things Done podcast from Vital Learning. I am Morten Røvik, and as always, I'm here with my good friend and colleague, Lars Sjølskjild Henriksen. Privet, Lars, and heløysson.

Lars: Privet, Morten, and I don't know, are you okay? That did not sound right. In any case, good to see you as always, and good to be with our listeners out there. We always start off by reminding you of the purpose of this podcast, which is to help you learn GTD or become even better GTDers. So we hope that this episode supports you in that. If you're new to GTD, we always recommend you go back and listen to episodes 1 through 6 to get an introduction to the basics of GTD, the 5 steps. And today's episode is number 80. And today's episode topic is the fast approaching holiday, the Christmas time.

Morten: Merry Christmas Done is our title for today. And before we go there, I just want to say the reason I smile a little is what I'm trying to wonder if I could make a Danish-English greeting. And we talked about this in the pre-show, and Lars do not like it when I try to speak Danish. He says the hair starts standing on his arms when I do that, so I will not do that. I will be— thank you. I will not do that, Lars. I will keep it— I keep it to myself.

Lars: I'll be watching those download statistics, and if they start to drop now, Morten, I, I know exactly why.

Morten: Okay. Okay, well, today's topic is, um, uh, how can you prepare and get a Merry Christmas done this year? Some tips from us, some ideas that we have when it comes to what you can do to be more present and more enjoying your Christmas. And, um, we've made a few notes, both of us, on what we can talk about, and, um, So, so the difference between you and me, except that you're younger and you are Danish, and you're— but you're also a father of small children, right? And so your Christmas really needs to get merry or it's, it's not funny, I would guess. So, so, and, and, you know, I have a grown-up son and a bonus daughter that are also grown up. So I don't have small children. We have grandchildren we can enjoy, but they are in a different country, in a different part of the world, which makes it a little different, difficult to celebrate Christmas with them. And, but so, so your Christmas is different from mine. So I will take the adults with, uh, uh, sorry, the adult children parent version of this. So, so let's, I would like to hear what is, what is your, you know, tell us, you know, you have a plethora of children. Tell us how many.

Lars: Yeah, I think two. So not really. I don't know if that's, we'll have to look up the definition. Very, very, the smallest possible group of children that we have.

Morten: Yes. We have two sons. Yes.

Lars: Yes, absolutely. No, And it really, you know, just reflecting on that, it really changed when they started caring about Christmas because I think as everyone has, you know, gone through it, Christmas was fun when you were younger and then it started to become a bit, you know, it's nice we meet, but you know, not really caring too much about it. And then as soon as they started, you know, gaining interest in this as they were growing up, they are 4 and 7 now, it just really changed and it's so much more enjoyable. Now, and it really is a very nice time. I know it's a— there's a lot of stuff going on, maybe a stressful time for some, but I really think, again, GTD is such a great help in this case as well. Just, you know, enjoying Christmas and enjoying the— just the, you know, sharing the joy that the kids have for this holiday is just so much fun. We started, I think, over the weekend, so that was around November 20th. That was as far as we could stretch it. When it came to, to, uh, to start to, to hang up all the, the Christmas ornaments. So the first things have already been, uh, being put up. Now we are in Christmas mode. We had a bit of snow in Denmark, and, you know, I have to.

Morten: Tell you, my wife, she loves Christmas, and she starts early as well. So you're not alone.

Lars: Yeah. And then, and then we had a bit of snow, and, um, I don't know who likes the snow more, whether it's my wife or the kids, but they were all so excited and and outside the whole time playing in the tiny bit of snow that we got. So Christmas is fast approaching at our house, definitely.

Morten: I have a hypothesis about Christmas, is that the level of stress that you feel going towards Christmas is equal to the level of unpreparedness Which means that if you look at reverse engineering, that they said if you prepare for Christmas good, you will not have stress in Christmas because you get to do what you need to get done. And I think that is my thinking about this. Also that I remember before, if I didn't prepare for Christmas, it kind of— we have a saying in Norwegian, it came like Christmas Eve on the wife. It's, I don't know, don't ask me why. It comes from Julikällenbescherung. But it is surprising to a lot of people that Christmas is actually coming. Oh, is it Christmas already? Yes, duh, it is. Look at the calendar, dude, or do that. And then my hypothesis here is that if you prepare for Christmas well, and maybe prepare in the way that you have checklists so that you know what you need to get done and, and that you look at them at the appropriate time and then make a map on how you will achieve what you need to achieve. That will alleviate a lot of stress, I would guess.

Lars: What is your take on this? Yeah, and I think that sounds familiar to just a general discussion about what GTD does, you know, getting ahead of some of those things and, you know, seeing things before they show up when you know they're in the calendar. December 24th, it's the same date every year. So I was looking, you know, earlier this, earlier today, actually, I was looking ahead in my calendar trying to book a client meeting for a client that wanted to drop by our office. And I started to look ahead and yeah, okay, I can see that there aren't many weeks left until Christmas. So again, that reoriented a bit and reprioritized some of the things that I need to start focusing.

Morten: And, and for just a little clarification for our American listeners is that in Norway and the Scandinavian countries, Christmas is celebrated. I know this is heresy, but it's on the 24th. That is Christmas Eve for us. We get all our presents before you. I'm sorry.

Lars: We are less patient. We don't have the patience to wait until the 25th. Not gonna happen. No, no. And I remember this, I lived in Australia in '96, '97 with some different families there as an exchange student, and clearly remember this, having to go to bed. First of all, it was really, really hot, and then on Christmas that was kind of strange. And then going to bed and then getting up really early in the morning, opening all the presents, and then just lying down because it was just too hot to do anything. It was just a very, very different Christmas. But you're right, no, we cannot wait. We, we go for the 24th.

Morten: Yes. And the presents are unwrapped, at least in Norway, as soon as we've finished the Christmas Eve meal, which is always a torture for the children. They have to wait until we finish with dessert before— and all adults, of course, we take our time. And so they have to wait just to torture them some more. So, okay. But leading up to that, I want to talk about a little anecdote. I might have mentioned this before, but the topic of the, or the name of this episode is Merry Christmas Done. And this, my idea stems from the fact that I had a coaching client a few years back who— you know, it was a woman, she had a family, and the family demanded every year that she should— it was like an unspoken demand, but she needed to make all the food ready, and her sister came, children came, all the husbands came, and she had to— her Christmas was being sweaty in the kitchen. And preparing for all the meals that they have to make and all the presents was her responsibility. And I talked to her about, okay, so how can you make your Christmas merry? How can you get your Merry Christmas done? And it ended up with actually that she tried to figure out, how can I be happy in the Christmas? How can I feel good about Christmas? And what, you know what I did? They left the country, stayed at a hotel on Christmas Eve and took their families with them. So that was, you know, a Merry Christmas done. They were in a hotel, you know, in a warm place where the children could swim in the swimming pool. They took, of course, all the presents with them. So the children were happy and it was a very different Christmas. For her, it was the best Christmas ever. Just because she didn't have to be in the kitchen sweaty and working, working, working. Because I think a lot of people feel like that, is that Christmas is just work. It's just stressful. And I think, I don't think you need to leave the country and go somewhere else to stay in a hotel to have a Merry Christmas done. But I think preparation is everything. So how do you prepare for Christmas or your family, Lars? And I know you're Your beautiful wife, Cecilia, she's with you in, at least partially in GTD. And I know that you use GTD to prepare for Christmas. How do you do that?

Lars: Yeah, no, no. And as we were talking about what we were going to go through in the podcast, just a quick, you know, 2-minute mind sweep relating to all the things that I do from a GTD perspective when it comes to Christmas. And it really is There's a lot. There are a lot of things that really, really come into play. First of all, just, you know, all of the different, like you said, preparations that will happen, different projects that will show up on my radar. Some of them, like buying Christmas presents, they're actually part of a yearly checklist for me. So actually, I just did a Level 2 seminar earlier this month, and I noticed how many of those things actually also relate to how I spend my Christmas when it comes to to a yearly checklist, and of course also a natural planning model. So in, in the early days when we were planning Christmas, you know, a good starting point might be a natural planning model as to, you know, what would it look like, why you're actually doing this, and walking through those steps. But looking at my projects list, there would be things like buying Christmas presents, having a good idea about that and getting those done in time. I used to be the guy that would run around on December 22nd or 23rd, and I would, you know, be in the big shopping mall where they had everything you could ever want. And then I would just pick things off the shelves and people would be happy. Of course, they were nice presents, but they weren't really thought through. So I was looking at this with my wife and just, you know, starting to pick up that planning and walk through that. And it was nice to see some of the things that I'd captured during the year, uh, some, some fun things. Um, we're, you know, looking into this year whether we can buy more presents that are recycled instead of buying new things all the time. Um, so there were some ideas from, from that perspective, and then just some, some fun quirky things that, that had showed up in, you know, when we were together with my, my sister and her husband, for example, some of the things that they mentioned or some things that we noticed that they, they might benefit from, from having. Uh, it's so nice to capture these, and they were captured like 6 months ago, maybe. And it's just so nice to have that list. So perhaps that is my, my best and biggest tip to leave us off with that. Gift ideas in your reference system. Gotta have it. All the good ideas have to have somewhere. I guess you have one as well.

Morten: Yes, I have one. And I have a ninja trick for, you know, the gift idea list. If you are on an iPhone, and this is iPhone specific, I'm sorry, Android guys and girls. But if you are in, let's say you're in a shop, your better half or some person says, oh, that's nice, this I like, but you know, pass, and you think this, ah, this could be a good Christmas idea, Christmas gift idea, then what you could do is that to take a photo of that and then open that photo in your, you know, the Photos album app on your phone, and then just say to Siri, remind me— and put— sorry, put this on my Christmas ideas list. And that photo will go into that list with, you know, the GPS locations on where that was, where that shop was. So if you ever decide to go buy that, you know exactly how it looks, which model it was, where you can buy it.

Lars: Good tip.

Morten: Yeah. And if somebody sends you, you know, an SMS with a tip, you can do the same things. Remind me of this or put this on my Christmas ideas list and that SMS will go into that or the message will go into your reminders list or sorry, reminder app on your phone.

Lars: No, that's a great tip. And I actually, I use a variant of that when it comes to email. So I like to use the the standard email client. Now we're diving into tools, but let's go there. No, one of the things that really bugs me about the iOS client is that you're not able to share. So I would like to bring my emails with me to my task manager, and that does not yet appear to be an option in iOS. But you can actually do what you just said, remind me about this when I get to the office. For example, I saw an email here and I really need to deal with this as soon as possible. There's no way for me to take that and put that in my my task manager, but I can do that trick and say remind me about this. And like you said, it's a, it's actually a really cool feature when I.

Morten: Arrive at the office. And then you can arrive at the office and ping, that is, that is so cool. Um, yeah, and, and that is, um, you know, gift ideas list, just to keep one, just to have one. I find having it on my phone is a good idea. And to be able to either attach when you when this idea occurs or when you want, either with a picture or just write down. And I'm not sure if you can capture location on that. I'm not sure if that's possible. You know, when I get back here, maybe. Yeah, you could. When I get back here again. Yeah. Say that, remind me, remind me to buy this when I get back here. And then suddenly you will get back to this place and ding ding. Yeah. Okay.

Lars: Yeah. So that's certainly good. Yeah. No. So that, that, that project of course is, is pretty significant. A lot of people to buy presents for and just having that list to walk through is just so, so much more pleasant, so much more fun gifts to give when, when we get to that part. So, so that's, that's certainly a key project. Otherwise, you know, there's, we don't celebrate the Christmas at our place. So we'll go to my mother-in-law. On the 23rd. So we'll actually have a pre-Christmas Christmas. We cannot even wait to the 24th, so there will be some presents there as well. And then on the 24th at my mom's place this year. So if they were stuff that we were involved in in some way, there might be projects there. There might be projects relating to— we meet to create our own Christmas ornaments and things, you know, like cutting things and gluing things together and whatever that might be called. We have a day for that as.

Morten: Well.

Lars: Some celebrations after Christmas. Where we meet, celebrating New Year's Eve, all of those things. When we, when we do them, we have them as projects on our lists. And, you know, that's just one way to make sure that we can have that Merry Christmas.

Morten: Exactly. So, and for those of you who don't know what Lars talks about when he says you have to glue things together, and that is— so we have Yeah, I think we have the same traditions more or less in Denmark and Norway, is that we, or at least some families have this as a family tradition, that you will make Christmas tree ornaments. It's like you cut out strips of colored paper and you create kind of like a ring that's connected to a ring, so it becomes a chain, and you put that chain of different color paper shiny on the Christmas tree as part of preparation. It's to do something nice together with your children, you know, so that you can get that, you and they can get that good Christmas feeling.

Lars: Yeah, exactly.

Morten: But something that does not give you the Christmas feeling is in Norway, I mentioned this in the pre-show to Lars and he goes, what? We have, if you want to be, this is, and I'm saying this with a smile around my face, but it is actually true. A lot of women feel that they have to make 7 different kinds of cakes before Christmas because that's Christmas tradition here. So if you want to be a good housewife, you have to make 7 different types of cakes. And, and I'm not sure if that's something that's anywhere else in the world, but the pressure is on for, for a lot of, for a lot, especially I don't know, maybe I'm a little old-fashioned and sexist there, but for women one could say that this is what is traditionally been that women bakes these cakes. And if you are one of those, so then maybe it is a good idea, don't try to make all of them at once, but make, you know, one checklist could be your recipe where you have to buy the different things, have that ready so when you can buy for all the 7 different cakes you must make, you can buy them in one go and then have recipes ready available. So, and make a plan for when you're supposed to bake them so you get them done in time, if that's what you want to do. And that goes to any other preparations. I know that you also have in Denmark, and I'm sure around the world, special food that you only eat in the Christmas time or Christmas days. So, so that goes there as well. If you want to buy that, create that shopping list in advance so you don't have to run around frenzied, but, you know, before, a couple of days before, and trying to buy everything at once. Maybe it's a good idea to just make shopping lists in advance.

Lars: And maybe, maybe a tip on that. We have actually a Google Doc that is called family recipes. So all of the different family recipes that we have from my mom, from my grandmother, or just nice recipes that we sort of, you know, consider part of our family, we have that as a shared Google Doc. So that actually happened recently. I was out shopping and I was just running, you know, maybe I should buy— this sounds very strange. We we have a specific recipe for these fermented herrings that we, that we eat around Christmas. So we have a— that's actually a Norwegian recipe from my grandmother there. So we make them every year, and I just picked up that list, added it to the shopping list, and now it's ready to go. So hopefully this weekend we will make them, and we'll also make some cupcakes. My boys and I, we try to become really good at making cupcakes. We watch these baking shows, and we're trying to become really good at making fancy cupcakes. So, so that'll be part of the— maybe that counts for one of the 7 cakes. At least I plan to mention that Norwegian tradition to my wife and maybe stress my Norwegian heritage is, you know, we really need to have 7, 7 cakes.

Morten: Before Christmas. Yeah, you need to set up a hotline to me so that I can, I can talk her down from that. So one of the things that I thought we could mention is that, you know, one of the things that like the 7 different kinds of cakes and the, you know, the expectations we have for what is a Merry Christmas done, that's very individual. I'm sure that your wife has a set of expectations. You have a set of expectations. And, you know, the family has a set of expectations on what is a Merry Christmas done.. And to make sure there's alignment between those, or at least having a discussion whether we want to have alignment between that or celebrate Christmas without each other, which is, you know, my— I'm sure the listeners have found out, but I've talked about this many times. My wife is French with Turkish heritage, and her idea of Christmas is totally different than mine. So, and she's never heard about these 7 different kinds of cakes and I never tried to enforce that on her. But one of the things that I've been trying to do with her is that we use the natural planning model in getting things done to avoid crucial conversations. Oh, did you see the segue?

Lars: I noticed.

Morten: I noticed. Well done. Yeah. But, and this is just a segue for for people to also just briefly mention what is a Crucial Conversation. That is actually a course that we are now carrying. The new set of courses that we got from Crucial Learning is— one of them is Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue. And in this, they talk about what is a crucial conversation. And crucial conversation is opposite opinions high emotions and, and, um, what do you call it, opposite. Now I translated into Norwegian.

Lars: What is this in English?

Morten: Opposing views, maybe? Yeah, opposing views. Okay, so, so, so, um, no, it's a high, high risk, high risk conversations. So high risk, different opinions, and, and high emotions. If you have that You will have crucial conversations. And to avoid that is, of course, to avoid having that conversation at all by using the natural planning model and asking, what is the purpose of celebrating Christmas together? What do we want to achieve? Why do we want to achieve this? What is important for us? And to map the purpose of celebrating Christmas. And if you can get a common understanding on that, then it's a lot easier to move into planning together, understand what is our framework. Do we need to have all the 7 different kinds of cakes? So maybe we can just make one. Or, you know, how many presents should we buy and at what price? And what is your expectations for what I need to buy for you? And what is my expectations for what you should buy for me? And just to have that kind of conversations in advance. Will make more of a Merry Christmas than I think. I don't know.

Lars: What do you think, Lars? No, absolutely. Absolutely. Getting ahead of those with the natural planning model. And again, my agenda list around Christmas for my wife is pretty important to go through as usual, but maybe even.

Morten: More important in those days. But you've been married for a few years and you've been having your children are not newborn, but they are getting, boys are getting older, 4 and 7, you mentioned. And so you have some experience of celebrating Christmas together. But I'm thinking a lot of, or maybe some of our listeners has never had a Christmas with their spouse. Or better half. And that for them, the natural planning model might be something you could look into. And we have an episode on that. And I'm sure that Lars will now take a note to make sure that the show notes have a link to that.

Lars: Episode. At least we've referenced that so many times. So I already know it's episode 10. So you can go back and find episode 10.

Morten: That's the natural planning model. Episode 10, go there if you're interested in natural planning model to avoid the crucial conversations, you know, as a measure not having them. But if you have them, then have a look at the new offerings that we are going to bring to the Nordic region now by virtuallearning.eu. That might be the best place to go.

Lars: Yes.

Morten: Okay. Um, Yeah, I'll leave it to you.

Lars: What's next? No, I think just reflecting on Christmas and then looking at the schedule, there are just so many things going on. In Denmark, we also have a pretty significant tradition to meet up with friends or business networks to eat together and enjoy. So the weekends are busier than normal. And I think there's just so many ad hoc things that show up that we are going today to a Christmas celebration at the school. Tomorrow we're going to a Christmas celebration at the kindergarten. There are, you know, they will buy some presents for some of their friends. There's just so many planning tasks and ad hoc tasks that just show up, both, you know, ad hoc, but also just, you know, planning that maybe there should be some presents during December, or maybe there'll be some, I don't know what we would call that in English, but sometimes we have a, like, a— is it an elf maybe? I don't know what you call this in English. It's a small Santa's helpers maybe? Let's call it that. Who is, you know, will drop by our house. Yeah, perhaps.

Morten: But this figure will drop by. Just call him Nisse.

Lars: His name Yeah, well, we'll introduce the concept of Nisse to the world with this podcast. So Nisse will drop by and sometimes it'll leave presents if you're nice to him or her. And sometimes they'll do crazy things like play with their toys in the evening. When they get up in the morning, it's all over the floor or the milk turns green or red or whatever it might be. So those kinds of planning ad hoc things also just show up. And then it's just, you know, Christmas holiday, Christmas break, and maybe taking some time off, taking that into consideration also is really an important part of a Merry Christmas for me, that I can really disconnect and take some days off in good conscience and with a calm.

Morten: And clear easygoing mind, I would say. And it all comes down to get it out of your head as soon as possible. Decide what does it mean to you and are you going to do something about it and then create a next action if the answer is yes, I have to get something done with this. And then what's my desired outcome? Put those on two different lists and away you go. And heavy use of checklists in the.

Lars: Form of— Definitely a big recommendation that you can, you know, whatever works well this year, capture it on a checklist so you know that you don't have to rethink this every year. Have that checklist, you know, that is just so helpful and keep iterating on that. So whatever you learn this year, you know, capture that on the list. So when you pick it up next year, you can trust that it's even.

Morten: A better checklist for you to work I remember listening to David Allen back in the day before I started approaching him for getting the Getting Things Done franchise to Norway many years ago. And I remember he said one of the things that really grabbed me is that I'm really lazy and being really lazy is a good thing. And when it comes to listing, Checklists, grab what worked this year so you don't have to rethink the whole thing next year. Make good checklists so you don't have to go back again and again and again and again for, you know, remind what did we do, what did I, what, where, how much, where. This craziness that we have adds to stress. Stress, and it's totally unnecessary, but you have to create some sort of structure to capture this, whatever it is you want to do, and then just get it out of your head and into the structure. I almost say if you want freedom, create structure, because if you have everything outside your head in a structured system, so you can get it done without thinking about it too much, or more than necessary, Then, then that's good, good, getting things done, good practice and good laziness.

Lars: So be really lazy.

Morten: Productive laziness. Yeah, productive. Tell your spouse, be lazy.

Lars: Let's be lazy about Christmas. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And one thing I like to do as well is, and it's also a recommendation I think from the Level 2 seminar, cleaning out the archives. So clean them out. I think actually we even mentioned it on Level 1 workshops. Cleaning them out once a year. I really find that valuable. You know, when I first heard it, I thought, I don't know. But when, you know, it's just such a nice thing. Typically on December 23rd, just, you know, sitting down, just running through the archive doesn't really take long, but it's just nice to be reminded about what's in there. And often I will find, oh, cool. I didn't, I had forgotten I had that. So it's nice to remember. Also just to clean out the things that I don't need to have in that archive anymore. I know I'll come across some things, if nothing else, then just receipts that were saved due to, you know, might need them for warranty, but at some point they get too old anyway. So, you know, clean that out. So you actually have what is relevant in your archive. So that might also be a Christmas activity out there.

Morten: At least it is for me. Yeah, for me as well. I go through my digital archive and also, you know, archive, archive things that are not, you know, to clean up, just to clean house. It's like cleaning the drawer if it's getting a little messy and you make sure that the old, old crap doesn't stay there, just move it out. And one thing that I've been doing very successfully is that I always, when I have either structure in my folder system for, you know, project support in emails. I have a folder for that, and that's only active projects. Always cleaning that up and just do an extra cleaning in during, you know, Christmas or, or just over New Year so that you can do that. And I do— I use, I use the same technique in my Devonthink database for, for reference material. I, I go back there and I, I delete things that I I don't think I ever will get, you know, use. And I use, I use my son before as a reference there. Seriously, are you going to do, are you ever going to use this for anything? And if the answer is no, then okay, I don't hold. Because all the old things that you keep around are having some sort of hold on you, whether you like it or not, or whether you are aware of benefit or not. So just cleaning, just make sure it's clean and more easy to use for the next year. It will, you'll be happy after the fact.

Lars: Yeah, I think. I agree. No, it is interesting. I saw this so clearly with a coaching client earlier this year. I don't know if I already mentioned it on the podcast, but it was just, it was a physical coaching where I was there for 2 days and we spent some time just cleaning out her cupboards. And she really looked at me very strangely when I said, let's do that. But it really made a big difference when it was all cleaned up. And it didn't really take that long to get all that stuff out. So it's just, you really see it when things, you know, when they're not in that messy state that they might have been in. It really makes a difference.

Morten: It really does. And one of the things that if you want to, you know, either restart or kickstart your GTD system If you have, you know, some downtime in the Christmas, you know, in the days in the Christmas time, and then set aside, you know, David Allen, he talks very adamant about this, that to get your system up and running, get your own methodology practice up and running, to restart or to kickstart it, it's always good to start with something that that clears out the old you, the old system, and then initiate the new system. So if you don't stay in your old system, move everything if you can to the new system. So, so if you are in a semi-functional task manager, get a good one, and then, you know, move everything there and start using it after the best practices. That is always good. And I know a lot of our listeners are avid GTDers, but I'm sure quite a few of you would love to restart your GTD. It's more like, I knew GTD at the time and I did it and it works fine, but I'm not doing it anymore. And I'm listening to your podcast as a way to remind me that I should get back to that.

Lars: And hey, consider your butt kicked. Now's the time.

Morten: Friendly reminder. Friendly reminder. Start the new year fresh with getting things done.

Lars: Yeah, exactly. The last one on my list, at least, was that we do this half-year review. So we do a half-year review. I sit down with my wife when the kids are asleep and a good bottle of wine perhaps on that evening and just talk through what happened this year, what do we want to have happen next year. Could be specific projects or could be things to focus more on. So, one of the things that we made a few years back that I just came across again was things that we wanted more of in the new year. So, more exercise with the kids, more nature, more walking in nature, more more time outdoors, that kind of thing. So, and I just really, really, really like that half-year view. I think one thing we will do different this year is that I have a feeling these days, and that's where I am with GCD now, that these are feelings that are guiding how I want to structure things. I want to have a, you know, if we create a list of things that we want to have happen in 2023, I'll want to have that printed and on the wall in the home office. I want to be able to go just walk past that, just see that, just be reminded of that and have that bit more clear because I find that, you know, even though I do see that list and being reminded about what we talked about, I think there are some different formats that I want to play around with for next year. So that'll at least be one thing that I'll try differently. Or perhaps I know you. Yeah. And I think you also did a version, at least earlier, I don't know if you still do with with these vision boards.

Morten: I guess. Yeah, we do that every year, my wife and I.

Lars: Is that a Christmas thing as well?

Morten: Or is it— Yeah, it's a before New Year thing. So we do it in the days between Christmas and New Year. We sit down with a bunch of magazines and sometimes, because what I want is so specific, I have to go and print them for put them up and cut them about. But, um, what to, to, to, uh, and, you know, envision what, what, what do I want the next year to be about. And, um, and, and the word— I wouldn't say the worst thing, it's more like the best thing about it is actually works. Yeah. Um, like we wanted to have a sofa, we decided this sofa looks good, so we found one. Um, not same, but it's all— it It is just affirmations, but it's also the process of making that board together as a couple helps us align what we want. So when my wife wants to go on a cruise ship, I might not want that, but I know that she wants that. This is her desired outcome. So maybe we must go on a cruise ship.

Lars: One day. So that doesn't really sound like a shared vision for it.

Morten: Yeah, but it is, it is, it is. But we have our two halves. So she has her half, I have my half. And for my wife, that's also a spiritual thing. It's kind of like what she wants from God the next year. And for me, it's more— I'm not that spiritual as her, so it's more like me. I'm looking what do I want out of this, the year to come, and how can we create that and make it happen. So, but are we at the end of this episode?

Lars: It.

Morten: Feels like that. And Lars froze. Okay, Lars, I think that was the last word for you, and I will pause. And we are back. We just lost internet for a little while, but we are back now.

Lars: So, and it was the Nissan. The Nissan made something happen. Morten, you have to be nice to.

Morten: The Nissa, otherwise he'll make that kind of tricks. He's trying to steal our internet.

Lars: So that's, um, technically very technology savvy.

Morten: Uh, savvy Nissa you have in Norway. Yeah, I know. So we are, I think we are at the end of our episode now. And, um, do you have some announcements to make? I know Before we go there, like, this is the last episode.

Lars: Okay, that was it. Should I announce something more? No, exactly. Yeah, we just wanted to make sure that to let you know that this was actually the last episode of 2023. We, sorry, 2022. We will be back in 2023.

Morten: Don't worry.

Lars: You're ahead of your time, Lars. Yeah. I wanted to say it was the last episode before 2023. So that's where that came from. But yeah, just so just I wanted to thank our listeners. It's just, you know, as always, so nice to get all your feedback during the year. And thanks for listening along. We love doing these. And this year, I think we crossed a while back, actually, 100,000 downloads in just 2022. So still so much fun.

Morten: And thanks so much for listening. Indeed, indeed. And And before we do the, you know, the normal Lars takes us out, I just want to show you this for those of you who are on YouTube. What are your desired outcomes for the next year? And how do you make your Merry Christmas done? And with those words, I leave it.

Lars: Up to you, Lars, to take us out. Take us out for the last time in 2022, which we always do by wrapping up and telling you to head on over to vitallearning.eu if you want to have a look at the different offerings. Morten mentioned Crucial Conversations Mastering Dialogue. Find more information about that and the other seminars, including Getting Things Done. All of that on vitallearning.eu,.no in Norway, and now I can see.dk in Denmark as well. So head on over there, have a look around. Let me know if you find any spelling It just launched, I think. So let me know if you're outside the Nordics. Head on over to cruciallearning.com to find your local partners. And I think by the time this is being released, I think we can also say that you can go over and sign up now for the summer camp. So gtdsommercamp.com, that will redirect you to the right page on vitallearning.dk. And from there you can read a bit more about what our thinking is is for this year, and you can sign up and save your seat. We've set up an early bird version, so be sure to sign up quickly so we know where we are going this year with the participants. So we really hope to see you there, hope to hang out with you June 17th to 18th, 2023. Those are the dates, but you already put those in your calendar, so that should be fine.

Morten: It should be. And for those of you who don't know, that this is more or less a pro bono thing for us. We don't get, you know, paid for being there. We are there because we love getting things done, love hanging out with your— you are, you know, the D2Ders that come. And it is very affordable and it's a beautiful place, beautiful nature in Denmark.

Lars: You should come and hang out.

Morten: Beautiful people, the nicest people. The nicest people in the world are it here, as we say. So, so very.

Lars: Welcome you are. And the last thing we like to mention is that we, as always, hope that you find these episodes valuable. If you do, please give us a rating on whatever platform you're using, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, Downcast, Pocketcast, whatever else they're called. If you can give us a rating there, that really helps us with discoverability. So as always, thank you for that as well. If you didn't buy us any Christmas presents this year, that might be the.

Morten: Christmas present we would wish from you. Yes, yes, yes, indeed. A 5-star review would be very much welcome. Well, thank you all so much for listening to us continuing. We hope that we bring you value and we have a ton of new content coming next year. Some really interesting interviews coming and some listener questions, they are pouring in. Please keep them coming. And until next time, I would like to say stay safe and stay productive.

Lars: Bye-bye.

Morten: Bye everyone.