Dan Owen
06-20-2009, 06:29 AM
This statement from DA in the GTD List Manager Part II podcast really struck me. I love when DA makes these kinds of direct, unqualified, clarifying statements.
The question was, which list manager is best? The answer, spread out over two podcasts, was: paper, but really whichever one gets the job done for you. The fundamental criteria for both a list manager and for those using them, though, is whether it answers the following question:
"Do people have to look at their lists in order to really stayed focused and know what to do, and as soon as they do, the system's working .... You're really a black belt when you have to look at your Calls list to know who to call because your head's empty."
So many of the forum discussions (which I love and participate in) focus on how to organize the lists, and which item goes where. But the real habit is to look at your lists before making a move. In a work culture that prizes multi-tasking above all other skills, orienting your attention around your lists is a real challenge. There are so many active and passive obstacles to working this way.
I'm finding, as I discipline myself to work exclusively off my lists, that it's changing the direction of my implementation. I started by cultivating the collect/process/organize habit, but if I had started with the habit of working exclusively from lists, I think it would have driven home the point that collect/process/organize is not something you do for its own sake (even though it has its own benefits). It's there to serve the list-oriented work habit. Obviously, it's a system in which all the parts function together, but we all tend to pay more attention to one part than another, which I find steadily undermines my overall trust of my system. Even when my collect/process/organize is thorough, if those next actions are sitting in lists that I don't look at, the system simply doesn't work for me.
Here's a link to the podcast:
http://www.gtdtimes.com/2009/06/09/the-perfect-gtd-list-manager-part-ii/
The question was, which list manager is best? The answer, spread out over two podcasts, was: paper, but really whichever one gets the job done for you. The fundamental criteria for both a list manager and for those using them, though, is whether it answers the following question:
"Do people have to look at their lists in order to really stayed focused and know what to do, and as soon as they do, the system's working .... You're really a black belt when you have to look at your Calls list to know who to call because your head's empty."
So many of the forum discussions (which I love and participate in) focus on how to organize the lists, and which item goes where. But the real habit is to look at your lists before making a move. In a work culture that prizes multi-tasking above all other skills, orienting your attention around your lists is a real challenge. There are so many active and passive obstacles to working this way.
I'm finding, as I discipline myself to work exclusively off my lists, that it's changing the direction of my implementation. I started by cultivating the collect/process/organize habit, but if I had started with the habit of working exclusively from lists, I think it would have driven home the point that collect/process/organize is not something you do for its own sake (even though it has its own benefits). It's there to serve the list-oriented work habit. Obviously, it's a system in which all the parts function together, but we all tend to pay more attention to one part than another, which I find steadily undermines my overall trust of my system. Even when my collect/process/organize is thorough, if those next actions are sitting in lists that I don't look at, the system simply doesn't work for me.
Here's a link to the podcast:
http://www.gtdtimes.com/2009/06/09/the-perfect-gtd-list-manager-part-ii/