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Overview of GTD

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transcript made with medium size fasterwhisper

Great description that summarizes very well the book, in particular the often overlooked horizons of focus as commitments.

From the GTD youtube channel.

Most people actually do versions of this already

[…]

Do you use a calendar? Then don’t be intellectually dishonest, throw it away.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

Make sure you have clear space

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

The problem most people have is control is probably the biggest addiction of the human psyche. The need for control, the fear of being out of control is probably one of the human bigger fear. I think that people keeping all kinds of stuff in their head as a way to try to get control but it is a very ineffective way to do that.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

I don’t want to write it all down because then I’ll be very out of control

[…]

what they don’t realize is that keeping it all in their head is what makes it really out of control. So there is kind of a paradoxical thing you have to step through.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

It is kind of like the martial arts. The initial moves feel very awkward and very unnatural and very unnecessary, until you do them a thousands times and you say there is no better, more efficient, more effective way to move.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

Keep everything out of your head feels very unnatural and unnecessary and awkward until you start to really catch how powerful that really is. So people really have to step through those kinds of barrier of entry to doing a lot of this. Because it seems that unnecessary and it’s gonna feel awkward.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

Getting things done requires two key elements:

what is done mean. This is done when what is true. As simple as it sounds, that’s a tricky thing to answer for a lot of stuff.

[…]

I know what done means, but what is doing look like.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

What’s the next action? If you have nothing else to do than that, where would you go and what would you do.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

  1. capture what has your attention, what is not on cruise control
  2. decide specifically what those things mean
  3. organise the results of that in appropriate places
  4. you need to take a step back and review and reflect on the whole gestalt of your inventory
  5. you then engage meaningfully

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd (around minute 25)

When you walk into your kitchen and your kitchen is out of control. So what’s the first thing you do?

  • You start gathering everything probably not where it belongs, right? It’s the food on the table, it’s the dirty cups that got here or whatever. You gather them all together and ask where they go. What is this mean?
  • Is this food, it should go in the fridge. And then you decide what it means. That is a dirty cup? No it’s a clean cup.
  • Then you put dirty cups where dirty cups go and clean cups where clean cups go.
  • you step back and look at the whole gestalt and say
  • now that the time to cook

Sounds dumb and silly, but this is the five stages you go through.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

if your ship is sinking, you don’t care where it is pointing

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

there are 6 very definable horizons of our commitments

very different content in this different horizons

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd (around 28 minute 30 second)

  1. top horizon. what is your commitment as a human being or as a company. IOW, what is your purpose. At the same level would be your values. you don’t care where you work as long as X. Are gonna be your prime drivers.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

  1. vision, the long term picture. If you’re fulfilling your purpose successfully, what would that sound like or feel like, 5 years from now, 3 years from now, 10 years from now, whatever. Whatever way long future out there you give you permission to say « wild success would look like this »

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

  1. in order to make that great successful wild vision come about, what are the things I need to accomplish over the next 3 months or 24 months. What are the goals and objectives.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

  1. what are all the things you need to maintain, so that you have balance and stability to be able to get those goal and that visions. Areas of accountability, or interest, or focus.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

  1. what are all the things you need to finish about all that.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

  1. ground level. phone calls, emails, talk with my life partner. The physical, visible activities that needs to go on, about any of these open loop or to make all those horizons viable and aligned. Real stuff to do.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

We all have implicitly this kinds of commitment.

I don’t tell people they should put things at horizon 3, but I say if you got them, then you need to identify them, because they are pulling they are pushing you anyway so you need to make those conscious so that you don’t break agreements with yourself.

You don’t have to have a vision, unless of course you do.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

most people have between 150 and 220 next actions at any point in time.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

two words: outcome and actions are great to bring to a meeting.

What are we trying to accomplish and by what time today? And do we have the right people in the room to do that?

What would be success by 2 o’clock?

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

I’ll give you the secret. It’s pretty simple.

  • get anything that’s potentially meaningful for you out of your head and around your environment collected into one place
  • sooner or later decide what exactly those things mean to you in terms of outcome and action
  • organize the results in appropriate categories so you can step back and reflect or review your multiple horizons of commitment at any point in time
  • and trust your heart or intuitive judgement calls about what you do at any point in time

That’s the whole game

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

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

Getting it all out is not getting out of the challenge. It does get rid of the risks you take. It does not make your life easy. It puts your hand on the helm and makes it a positive adventure.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

read this book and sleep like a log

You cannot advertise “Read this book and sleep like a log” because people will get the wrong idea.

— https://gettingthingsdone.libsyn.com/ep-53-an-overview-of-gtd

Notes linking here