Priorities and Goals... The GTD Achilles Heel?

[NewbGTD]

I'm yet to read the replies but my initial thoughts are that I agree with you for the most part in that I think GTD is great at getting things done and getting A LOT of thing done with great clarity and ease but lacks in minimalisation, cutting back, eliminating the non-essential etc. i think i wrote a post about this before on here, once you actually edit your life as a whole you don't really need a productivity system or at least not a complicated one.

[NewbGTD]

I'd add that pre-planning priorities does work so I disagree with David stating that they don't. To me, if something is important enough I will make sure I'm in the right context no matter what, I while make sure I have the time, and I wouldn't really care if my energy levels were low. Thats how success is done!

[SiobhanBR]

If your life is such that pre-planning works for you, then great! You can still pre-plan within the structure of GTD, no problem.

What David Allen was getting at though is that, for many people, no amount of pre-planning can predict what the actual priorities are going to be. In my situation I may have a very clear idea of my priorities the evening before and spend time deciding the most important thing to get done tomorrow. But I can guarantee that before nine am, something has happened that affects my priorities (a phone call, an email, a front page news story). At the very least, I will need to reassess what I had planned to work on against all the new work coming in and that is true GTD.

To be able to confidently say "not right now" to the new work or to say to the old work "this new thing is more important than you" is the benefit of having all of your committments out of your head and available for review at any moment.

[Cpu_Modern]

I'd add that pre-planning priorities does work so I disagree with David stating that they don't.

Well, David agrees with you then. In standard GTD we have the Someday / Maybe and Projects list, the Calendar to schedule the Hard Landscape and the Tickler file to manage urgency for various, ahem, things.

I personally do not like to call them priorities. This term is too vague or plainly wrong. As long as we are free to choose what to do, I believe it holds true to say: if it is a priority it is already done (or is in the process of getting dealt with).

[cwoodgold]

But I can guarantee that before nine am, something has happened that affects my priorities (a phone call, an email, a front page news story). At the very least, I will need to reassess what I had planned to work on against all the new work coming in and that is true GTD.

Usually, that type of thing would add some new, higher-priority work, or
else raise the priorities of some specific work you'd already planned.
It wouldn't usually change the relative priorities of other actions not connected
to it.

So, I think pre-prioritizing is still useful: I compare the new action to the
top few priorities I already had, and think "OK, it's more important than any
of these, so I'm confident it's more important than any of the other actions
in my list ... I don't need to read the whole list."

This could be a mistake. Er, here's a bad example. Suppose I had an
action in my list "Before the next time I go to that restaurant, set up a
reminder to myself to watch out for the extra step at the entrance so I
don't trip and fall." And suppose I've put this as a low priority because I
don't expect to go there again for months. But the new email results in
a meeting today at that very restaurant, and I forget all about the step,
trip and fall and have to visit the chiropractor.

On the other hand -- reading over your whole list (and perhaps all
your Someday/Maybe's too) could be a mistake too, because it takes time
at a time when you may need to react quickly to a situation.

[SiobhanBR]

Usually, that type of thing would add some new, higher-priority work, or
else raise the priorities of some specific work you'd already planned.
It wouldn't usually change the relative priorities of other actions not connected
to it.
...
So, I think pre-prioritizing is still useful: I compare the new action to the
top few priorities I already had, and think "OK, it's more important than any
of these, so I'm confident it's more important than any of the other actions
in my list ... I don't need to read the whole list."
On the other hand -- reading over your whole list (and perhaps all
your Someday/Maybe's too) could be a mistake too, because it takes time
at a time when you may need to react quickly to a situation.

Sure, time planning and thinking about priorities is time well spent. But at least for me, there is no point spending a lot of time on this every day. Perhaps my work is more interdependent and reactive than most, but I can be told one day not to spend any time on that (moved to Someday/Maybe) and the next day it's due by noon and rearranges the priorities (or eliminates the need for) other projects and actions.

For me, it is much more important to have clearly identified projects and the true next action so that when something is imposed as a priority I know exactly the next thing to do. There is so much more to do than will ever get done and I've played the game of rewriting my to do list from day to day, week to week and even month to month. I much prefer the GTD method in general. I will absolutely identify priorities during weekly and daily reviews - I just don't spend a lot of time trying to get it perfect.

[artsinaction]

I was a little upset at how well this experiment went...

The results? I got what would have taken 20 days done in about 4. I achieved my goal, and it moved the company and my life forward in a really big way.

I can't believe I'm the first to say this (and if someone did and I missed it, I apologize!)... CONGRATULATIONS!!!! And if GTD helped with your success, then good for GTD!

I think that we - myself included - get bogged down in the minutiae of the system sometimes. You used the perspective you've gotten from GTD and, I'm sure, other sources, and gave yourself a HUGE win. So bravo to you!

Dena

[cwoodgold]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Yes -- Congratulations, commmmodo!!

Good catch, Dena!