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A Year of Getting Things Done: Part 3, The Future of GTD?
Merlin Mann | Dec 31 2004
This is the final installment of a three-part series looking back on a year of doing Getting Things Done. Part 1: The Good Stuff; Part 2: The Stuff I Wish I Were Better At. Over the year or so that I’ve been working with GTD, I’ve returned to David’s book on countless occasions for refreshment, clarifications, and, more often than not, encouragement and inspiration. It’s a well-written book that’s full of practical advice—even for the most seasoned GTD nerd. But, as GTD has gained popularity outside the suit-and-tie business world, it’s becoming clear that the stock system has its limitations, and that, frankly, the book is starting to show its age. I think it’s time for an update, some new material, and a few second-generation products. Time to branch out and drill downAs I suggested in “How Does a Nerd Hack GTD,” David Allen’s system seems optimized for a certain kind of professional with a given set of demands on his or her time. I’d peg the notional GTD user as some kind of manager or sales person who works mostly in an office, travels often, and has lots of scheduled appointments in a given week. Each of those factors maps nicely to aspects of the “official” GTD program, but they obviously differ substantially for people with unconventional workflows, advanced technical skills, or highly focused job responsibilities. This seems especially true with contexts, where the needs of, say, a writer, a nurse, and a graphic designer are different enough to merit more specialized help putting together a system that’s feasible to implement and maintain. While most of the basic GTD practices are adaptable in some fashion, I would like to see Davidco make a more formal effort to reach out to specific slices of its audience. One solution would be to roll out a series of short books targeted at the needs of the folks who seem to have taken to GTD most enthusiastically:
While it’s probably not practical (or profitable) to mount a "…for Dummies" scale level of market segmentation, there clearly is a demand for more advanced, specialized help. It would be useful to see more varied scenarios, detailed tool reviews appropriate to skill level, and implementation strategies that address the needs of these diverse audiences (but with the specificity of “my” interests and focus). Having said that, I suspect that David’s toast is pretty well buttered on the seminar side, so there may be modest short-term incentive to devote time to writing and rewriting books that reach out to a “non-business guy” audience. Still I feel it’s time for a substantive update that spends more time on the specifics and speaks to the needs of his broader audiences. Update for an “always-on” generationI doubt that I’m the only GTD nerd who now has faster and more ubiquitous access to the internet than back in 2001, when Getting Things Done was first published. Just as one data point, I work primarily on internet-related projects from home on a 1.5Mb DSL line and house-wide wifi: “@online” is virtually all of the time for me. So, the GTD contexts associated with my work demand more subtlety to be useful (or even worth the bother of maintaining them). Take me and multiply it by an order of magnitude for students with Hiptops, full-time AIM access, and a completely wifi campus with unlimited, lightning-fast bandwidth. I suspect that this desk-free, under-25 crowd are a group worth Davidco devoting some avid attention to. More coverage of the range of tools for implementationVisiting 43 Folders, the Davidco forums, and the many blog posts about GTD, you start to realize how enthusiastic people are about discussing the tools and tricks for implementing GTD. It’s a bona fide fetish. And, as I confessed yesterday, it’s easy to get distracted and disoriented by the range of options that are available. While the GTD book does a good job laying out some basic ideas on how to get set up, we could all use a lot more help exploring which options are right for us and why. Additionally—as I hope sites like 43F have helped show—there’s a growing number of OS X- and Unix-based GTD nerds out there who’ve had a tough time seeing themselves in the Microsoft-centric world described in the current Getting Things Done; there may not be many of us non-Windows users in the aggregate, but a few of the tastemakers out there are definitely using and pimping Macs and Unix. Or, so I’ve heard. Also, I realize this may be far-fetched, but I’d love to see folks from Davidco publicly collaborate with some of the developers who are working on commercial and open source tools for GTD-like implementation. (If they are and I hadn’t heard, please clue me.) This is a crowd than can grok the basic points of GTD over dinner one night and be building powerful apps around them by lunchtime the next day. The GTD/Davidco folks could do worse that to get wired into that audience while plans are still on the drawing board or in the early stages of development. In any case, it’s hard to deny the groundswell of interest in finding and discussing options for GTD projects and tools. Smells like a hungry market to me. Wrapping Up the GTD Year (and looking forward to the next one)Getting Things Done has been a great help for me. No big surprise there. Because of the principles I’ve picked up from GTD, I feel much more in control of my work and have a stronger sense of ownership about what I choose to do and when. I still have lots to improve, and I want to get better at finding focus and agility with whatever implementation ideas come down the road. Plus, of course, I really look forward to seeing the tools that become available as peoples’ apps and site widgets continue emerging over the upcoming year. I’ll also be keeping an eye on David and his estimable colleagues over the next year, more frequently encouraging them to spend some of their considerable web capital (as well as some real-world ducats) to reach out to the folks who have helped make GTD such a hit. It’d be great to see David’s company grow by providing the kinds of materials, support, and access for which their fans are clearly clamoring. Having thousands of smart, evangelistic customers willing to spend a little cash is what the business types like to call “the right kind of problem.” The question for ’05 is how will Getting Things Done help its increasingly broad—and increasingly nerdy—fanbase get things done their way. @Waiting On. So, what’s on your GTD wish list for ’05 and beyond? What kind of products, updates, and community participation would you like to see from David and his company? Let’s give them a little free marketing info to chew on. More on Getting Things Done
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Inbox ZeroThe original 43 Folders series looking at the skills, tools, and attitude needed to empty your email inbox — and then keep it that way. Don’t miss the free video of Merlin’s Inbox Zero presentation. Get Started with ‘GTD’David Allen’s popular productivity book and the system on which it’s based help turn ‘stuff’ into actions that support valuable outcomes. |
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One thing I've always thought...
One thing I’ve always thought would be very cool is a web enabled “desktop” for GTD. Right now, it fits well into a Palm and PC desktop model, but if you want to webify it you need use a Wiki, or sync your todo.txt to a web server somewhere. Somebody taking the Salesforce.com concept and twisting it for GTD would be powerful. It probably wouldn’t be that big of a stretch at that point to roll out GTD for Sales Reps, GTD for Programmers, etc all by tweaking the dB sitting behind GTD-on-the-web.com
Now I’m off the buy those domain names… :)
I don't know that diversifying...
I don’t know that diversifying is the answer. What I’d like to see is a companion to GTD which talks about: strategies for adapting GTD for your personal situation; how to resolve conflicts and inconsistencies (e.g., I use a PC at work and a Mac at home; and some methods for quickly and simply evaluating new tools as they become available.
Thanks for replying to my...
Thanks for replying to my previous post, Merlin. I’m honored.
I suspect David works from home. The “43 Folders” method works iff you have access to the shelf where you keep them 24/7; eitherwise, you need two sets of 43 folders, one for the tasks you’re up to in the office, and another for the things you’re doing at home like concert tickets and mortgages and the like. (My wife works at home and is notoriously disorganized. She’s going to do the David Allen gather/purge thing Monday; I think I’ll prep a set of 43 Folders for her.) And if you’re going straight from the office to the baseball game, do you put the tickets in the previous day’s home tickler file to be moved to the office tickler file, or what? And if, like me, you have a third place, a cafe where a remarkable amount of work gets done… You can get lost in details like this. Not all of us have a car where we can keep the 43 Folders in the trunk either.
One of the things that I carry with me from my Franklin Planner days that’s an awkward fit for GTD is the notion of roles. For each project, there’s meta-info about the role I’m playing: I’m a father, a husband, a writer, an open-source programmer, an employee, and so on. David has his own context lists, things he can do out on the road, things he needs his wife’s advice to accomplish, things he can do when connected to the Internet, and so on. Working “context” into GTD seems to be an uncomfortable fit at the moment precisely because there’s a centralized repository that’s as big as a milk crate.
I wonder if investing in a hand-scanner and using a “43 Pages” Wiki is the solution. The two things I’m guaranteed to have at my side at all times are my laptop and my moleskien.
I got into the GTD...
I got into the GTD bandwagon from this site, obviously. It has helped a lot in terms of managing the vast array or projects that I manage. I’m a full time student, I run a non-profit online community, write texts and do consulting. Before GTD it was difficult to keep track of the open loops in each of these. After, and after implementing a Wiki to keep track of everything, its much easier.
I do have a ways to go in terms of productivity. Mostly this deals with information overload and how to manage it. As well, I want to add more projects to the pile and manage those sucessfully.
I’d also like to better integrate different tools into my arsenal, like finally using my Treo as a PDA instead of a phone that checks e-mail.
I've been using a homebrew...
I’ve been using a homebrew web-based (php) calendar system based on GTD for over a year now, and it’s been just the thing for me.
Under the hood is a database of one table: “items”. An item has a text field, a date, a status (done/open) and a type: appointment, to-do, tickler, waiting-for, project, maybe, weekly-recurring, monthly-recurring, yearly-recurring, diary-entry.
New items can be easily created on the web page, and existing open itmes are displayed sorted into lists by type; in addition, each item displayed is a hot link that will pop up a text editor for a text file that can be attached to the item.
The display of each list appropriate for the type: for example, the list of open appointments only shows appointments in the future; the list of open ticklers shows all ticklers until they’re marked as done. Essentially undated types — projects, maybes — are all shown until done, regardless of their posting date. Each item has a checkbox next to it to ‘close’ it.
That’s it, it works and it’s simplified my life immensely. The greatest insight for me of GTD is the idea that if you write everything down, you don’t have to worry about it.
I've been fighting with all...
I’ve been fighting with all the same demons over last 3-4 months after finding about David’s GTD by way of Emacs PlannerMode. Naturally, my experience is much more limitted at present. At the same time I am trying to work out something that I can use at work and at home at the same time. This means it should work equally well on PC (work) and Mac (home).
I’ve thought of Palm that could be a mediator b/w the two big boys — but on a more careful consideration it won’t work all that well. An alterntive I’m still (mentally) playing with is running some sort of a web service that could be used to sync with Outlook at work (at least to-do’s and calendar + list of active projects and maybe a few other odd bits), and text files on my Mac…
One of my New Year's...
One of my New Year’s resolutions (!) is to be a GTD born again. A couple of thoughts on David and GTD. I’ve yo-yo’ed quite a bit on fully implementing the system, but having the insight from your sight and the 43folders groups really helps. (Consider that a testimonial.)
Some thoughts on GTD: 1. I don’t think he is a geek nor does he really understand technology. He is a businessman and comes at technology from that perspective. Thus you’re points about always on and instant access to data are not really anything that I have seen him address. Outlook, Word and the Palm are about as techie as he gets.
I long for a GTD for teams—I think he addresses it slightly in the sense that GTD in many respects is about delegating and tracking projects, but looking at how GTD could be implemented for a project team would be superb.
I know he is in the business of selling books and seminars, but I would like to know more about success stories (and failures) of the GTD systems. Too much of GTG and Ready for Anything is about David hisseslf and how he implements GTD.
I agree with the whole tinkering with the system thing. I tend to do that too much as well.
Anyway, Merlin Happy New Year and keep up the good work.
Thanks for the great series...
Thanks for the great series of articles on GTD. It’s certainly got me thinking about what I do well and don’t do well with the system.
One of the things I’d like to see is some way of linking what I’m doing with why I’m doing it, as a way to keep me on track and keep me motivated. Sometimes GTD just seems like an endless list of actions — it’s easy (for me anyway) to lose sight of the goal. I need a systematic reminder of, as you say, “…the valuable, desirable, and well-articulated outcome” toward which I’m striving with my tasks.
One of my “attractive nuisances” is thinking about how I’d desig a mash-up of GTD and the 7 Habits.
Merlin, I enjoy your blog...
Merlin, I enjoy your blog a lot. You can call me one of your converts. This time, I disagree with you, though. A series of targeted editions of GTD would NEVER be close to enough. I think everyone must use his/her imagination to tailor GTD. Imagination? The full power of his mind! Even if you are “some kind of manager or sales person who works mostly in an office, travels often, and has lots of scheduled appointments in a given week”, heck, even if you’re David Allen you cannot just let the book do the thinking for you. One think we all must know is that the GTD method is really hard! It’s not for the faint-hearted. Sure, a lot of copies have been sold, and yet, the ratio of “successful stories”/”copies sold” must be between 0 and 5 percent. Why? Because it must be YOU who does all the WORK! Now, who likes that?
I don't think Merlin meant...
I don’t think Merlin meant for the “GTD For …” books to replace the GTD book. They’d work in addition to the base GTD book, giving you ideas and tips on how to customise GTD for various specific occupations.
I’d love to see some books like these released - maybe even as PDFs or audio books or something. I’d buy the “GTD For Programmers” one straight away! They could put a few case studies into each one, showing how real people in those fields have adapted GTD to increase their productivity. Merlin would make a great case study subject!
So really what you're saying...
So really what you’re saying is that GTD should be transformed into Dungeons and Dragons in order to appeal to nerds more.
i.e.
GTD for Engineers = The Complete Fighters Handbook.
GTD for Salespeople = Monster Manual.
GTD for CEOs = Dungeon Masters’ Guide.
The original GTD book would be, of course, merely The Players Handbook.
Wow, I finally have something...
Wow, I finally have something to contribute. I’m really excited.
I “stole” all your thoughts and ideas about GTD, got index cards, and did “stuff”. Then I was driving home from work one day and said to myself “What happens if I lose the deck?”.
So I started zeroxing the lined up cards. NBD
But, I was sitting looking at my little Cardscan 600c on my desk and I said to self: “Self, can you scan an index card like a business card?”
BINGO
It works very nicely. The Corex software allows you to save it in hte Corex Cardscan DB. It’s neat. It looks just like a business card. Sort of.
You can then print the images. Make them into a jpeg.
Here’s a link to what I did.
http://ferdinand_reinke.tripod.com/indexcard.jpg
Now I don’t know if this is any use to anyone, but please accept this “finding” as recompense for the great ideas you’ve given me.
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