Konubinix' opinionated web of thoughts

Getting Things Done

fleeting

David Allen

The final objective is to have a clear mind so that you can focus 100% on what you are doing right now.

To do this, you have to may quiet the little voices in your head that say:

  • I need to do X, Y or Z…

or

  • Why I am doing this anyway?

or

  • Should I do something else?

or

  • Is it my role to do this?

…

GTD is a method (and not an implementation) trying to help us being 100% focused on what we are doing. To do so, it

  • explains the limitation of our brain to keep track of our commitments, hence the need to build a second brain, which is a trusted system that does it for us,
  • presents the properties of such a system,
    • easily available and pleasant to use, otherwise, our brain will resist using it. By itself, this property shows that there is no one size fits all system but each person should build per own system,
    • allowing to capture what comes to our mind, so that our brain stops thinking about it and we have a clear mind,
    • allowing to present us what are our options, so that we can assess whether we feel confident not doing what we are not doing,
      • but making sure it does not show us the options we don’t have right now, using contexts, time and energy.
    • it allows us to get a cognitive reload of all our commitments so that we can make an educated decision,
  • provides a framework to thing the commitment so that we can be appropriately engaged
  • takes into account the fact our tendency to fall of the wagon and then provides a mean to get back on it : the weekly review,
  • provides an onboarding process, based on a mind sweep,

It is clearly stated that gtd won’t solve the problem for you. It simply provides a framework so that you can solve your problem.

The method does not make things easy, but gives a way to show you your commitments so that you can more easily make intuitive judgements about what you are doing and should be doing.

misconceptions about gtd

planning will magically happen with gtd

The book makes it clear that planning techniques are out of the scope of the technique. The purpose of the technique is for you to feel confident not doing what you are not doing. Thank to the gtd, you can realize that you don’t feel confident not doing a planning and can look for planning techniques, that’s all.

gtd should help me with procrastination

The whole purpose of gtd is to help you realize what you are not doing, so that you can feel confident not doing what you are not doing.

If you feel confident not doing what you are not doing and afterwards have regrets that you did not do that, you should look for techniques to handle procrastination. But as far as I can tell, the book never claimed to help with that.

gtd has a heavy process,

gtd focuses on the how, not on the why,

gtd is not another list based organization method

The method is very open about what your system should look like, as long as it follows some principles. I did not see anywhere a necessity of using lists.

I think that people believe that because most of the routines of gtd are about processing subsets of your actions. And the most obvious way to process a set of element is to look at them one by one (hence making a list out of them).

But, be intellectually honest, what productivity system would not ask you to process the actions? I don’t think sensible to believe that the system will be productive by itself and your brain is required at some point to process the elements. And because our brain can do only one think at a time, in all systems of all methods, I expect to see formation of lists to feed your brain.

Also, remember that gtd won’t solve the problem for you. It simply provides a framework so that you can solve your problem.

what gtd gives me

gtd helps getting full awareness of your commitments

I think that part of the gtd is about being fully aware of your commitments and values so that you make sure that you don’t do what you are not supposed to do.

This is fully compliant with my values. I guess this is why I like doing gtd so much.

someday/maybe

Someday/Maybe. For anything on that list, you have made no commitment to do it. The only commitment is to review the list regularly to see if you want to delete or activate any item.

— https://forum.gettingthingsdone.com/threads/someday-maybe-projects-vs-actions.16126/

The main thing to observe is whether your system gets stuff off your mind.

— https://forum.gettingthingsdone.com/threads/someday-maybe-projects-vs-actions.16126/

This is not a question of bells going off or little notification boxes. The question is “How would you like this to enter your conscious awareness?”

— https://forum.gettingthingsdone.com/threads/someday-maybe-projects-vs-actions.16126/

If you can’t do the NA right now (if context/energy/time is OK) then it’s not a NA.

If you can’t do the NA because other NA’s are more important right now, then that’s a choice you have made.

The reason we use GTD to keep things out of our heads is so that we can use our heads to make these kinds of decisions

— https://forum.gettingthingsdone.com/threads/someday-maybe-projects-vs-actions.16126/

Notes linking here