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July 02, 2007
Describing GTD
We've all been there. You meet someone new and they ask the proverbial question, "What do you do for work?" The easy part for me is that by saying I teach a class called Getting Things Done it's usually self-explanatory. Lots of people have heard of David's book or have their own idea what that phrase means (work/life balance, time management, productivity, get organized etc.) This person was intrigued and asked, "If you had to give me a few tips for how to get stuff done, what would you suggest?" In a few sentences I walked her through the core of GTD:
- Collect and download everything that's got your attention, especially the stuff you're holding on your mind.
- Decide the very very next action you need to take on any of those.
- Organize it into a few key buckets:
a list of your outcomes (Projects)
a list for the things you need to do (Next Actions)
a list of things other people owe you (Waiting For)
a list of the things you might like to get to (Someday/Maybe)
- Look at it all on some kind of regular basis to make sure it's still current (Review)
- So that you can always trust you are making the best choices (Do)
By the way, for those of you who've been wondering how to explain or get someone else up on GTD, you might find this is a good way to share what it's all about. I always try giving people the core concepts without getting tangled into what tools they would use to do any of this. I let them choose that because at the end of the day, everyone has a different style of how they want their system to look. I compare it to choosing what house you want to live in. Everyone has a different style. If you really get what GTD is all about, there's a tremendous freedom about where you want your lists to live--from a stone tablet to Outlook and everything in between.
I was flying home from a class I did in San Francisco last week and the guy next to me pulled out a copy of GTD. I was all excited to talk to him about it but he tucked the book in the seat pocket in front of him and proceeded to sleep the entire flight. I guess he needed sleep more than GTD!
Posted by Kelly at July 2, 2007 10:40 AM
Comments
I like the concepts of lists and buckets etc.
One question that I have... how do you tie the projects and the next actions together?
In other words, how do you 'point' from the project to the next action? Does each minor project get assigned a number that you have to prefix each next action with?
Don't you have to 'use up psychic ram' to maintain the links? Or is there a better way?
Posted by: Jason at July 2, 2007 02:49 PM
Hi Jason,
You've hit upon one of the most common questions I get in seminars. It's the reason I did this podcast with David Allen on organizing projects:
http://www.davidco.com/podcasts/play/12.html
The Weekly Review is the best way I know of to tie projects and actions together. Literally, the process of reviewing my stuff gives me enough confidence to know what's on my lists, if it's current and what my status and priority is with any of it. It also relieves any part of my brain from thinking something is falling through the cracks.
That's not to say that a keyword isn't useful for seeing everything related to a project or topic. David suggests that as an option in the GTD & Outlook guide on page 18. For example, pick a simple keyword that you can use when capturing actions related to a particular project. That way, you can always rely on the Search or Find function (if you're using an electronic system to manage your lists) to see all of the actions related to a particular project.
Hope this helps.
Posted by: Kelly at July 2, 2007 05:36 PM
Kelly-
Thanks for getting back to me. That was a helpful podcast with David Allen.
As I graduated from college this May and start my new job next week, with one of the big four accounting firms, I am reviewing my time management processes.
Thanks for blogging.
(And note that I didn't sleep through it! )
Posted by: Jason at July 2, 2007 07:50 PM
One more thing... I just joined a GTD fan club on Facebook to meet other like minded people.
Leaving the url here so people are aware of it.
http://minnesota.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2226255355
Thanks again!
Posted by: Jason at July 2, 2007 08:04 PM
Hi Kelly-- In your last post you said: "I always try giving people the core concepts without getting tangled into what tools they would use to do any of this."
I could not agree with you more and your statement reminds me of "someone" who once said something like : "give people fish and you feed them for a day, show them how to fish and you feed them for a lifetime".
After reading and listening to many excellent pieces of information on GTD, I found your summary particularly interesting as it really deals with uncovering the obvious in a comprehensive and concise way. Indeed, as David says, there is more to GTD than meets the eye... My hat goes out to anyone with your kind of attitude.
Thank you for showing us how to fish! --
tonyc
Posted by: tonyc at July 3, 2007 07:21 AM
Thanks Tony. I do love this work and I want people to experience it as profoundly as I have over the years.
It can be tempting to make it about the tool, and believe me I can get into the nitty gritty as much as anyone about perfecting my system and lists. I love finding the best tips & tricks for managing my stuff. But tools change and everyone has a different style. If it becomes too much about the tools, the core concepts can get lost or overcomplicated.
When people comment that GTD is "complicated" I have to wonder what the focus is on: concepts or tools? There are a million ways to implement GTD, but I think the core of GTD really comes down to clarifying your work with these two questions:
What's the outcome?
What's the next action?
Doesn't get any simpler than that.
Posted by: Kelly at July 5, 2007 11:58 AM
