I agree entirely with what you’re saying about the term “productivity.” For me it always conjures up “widgets per hour,” or “cases closed.” I for one am more comfortable with phrases like effectiveness, or relevance; especially when I’m trying to get that relevance from someone else.

They are softer terms that put the onus back on the system rather than the individual.

Productivity as a term suggests quantifiable data when so much of how we do things, or how we improve how we do things, is effective and/or relevant, yet too subtle to be quantified.

Productivity or time-management—not quite.

I use the GTD system because when I make all my plans, I get so bogged-down in the details, I forget where I was going with all this stuff.

GTD is my focus reminder…

My “Oh Yeah”

I’d love a better term — the more I work on managing my life, the more I’m convinced that the real benefit isn’t time and money, or even work at all. It’s about losing stress and gaining focus. Finding a life that works better, as opposed to a better work life.

For that matter (maybe heretically) this whole project isn’t really about GTD either. I’ve found more useful stuff there than in any other system I’ve tried, but I can’t quite drink the purple Kool-Aid. If one of the big lessons is that you have to build a system that works for you, then that has to include not spending a ton of time fretting about whether you’re implementing the system right.

The label is important, and “productivity” is wide of the mark. “Life management” works better than “time management”; “life hacking” hit me with an instant “yes, that’s it!” the first time I heard the term, but it’s come to mean something that’s not quite the same.

Great question Merlin - I tend to agree with most of the sentiments here that casting GTD simply in terms of time management or productivity is to narrow and misses the essential point of the exercise.

For me, it’s all about balance and focus. Like you, I often fid myself getting out of balance and a mini-review is usually all that’s required to reduce the stress and anxiety and get me back to a comfortable posture. David Allen told me that this is a true sign of black-beltedness - knowing you’ve gotten out of shape and having the requisite skills to train yourself back into shape.

Having dabbled in too many approaches to count over the years, the reasons why GTD stuck where other disciplines did not has been something I’ve discussed, written about, and mulled over many times. Ultimately, I keep coming back to the inherent flexibility in DA’s approach - technology-agnostic, easily tuned to individual reality, and scalable as your commitments ebb and flow.

Ouch my eyes! That guy should read the 10 rules for web-publishing. rule 1. traditional black text on white background is a good way to go.

GTD - Persoaally I don’t think it matters what you call GTD. It could be a lifestyle, it could be a hobby. What matters is that you make a commitment (or not) to integrate it into your life where it counts. There are a lot of good working tips in the GTD-book. But there are areas in everyones life that just work, regardless of GTD or not. GTD has it’s place, I would say it makes good practices explicit, that may have alrady existed on a subconscious level. In the end, it could just be the beginning of a great thing like starting your own company. I’d like to think so.

I have yet to find a methology which works for me - and while really many, many people are happy about GTD, I am not. I am waiting for the same epiphany I had when I read a book some years ago about time managment, the classical way.

Before that book, all time management bookx always said “you have to sit down, make your list, prioritize it and work on it - this is the only valid way”. The german leading man on those books finally came up with something new from an american author.

It said “the old way is monochromatic working, like many people really found that effectiv. But there are others who start to write down a todo list and end up with 30 pages or brainstorming, categories from aa to zz”. Bingo.

As for GTD - it is much more like I work, but not enough. I think I will have to wait for a few more years, until we really have GTD meets Minority Report or something else, as I have the feeling, that I really need computer support for this.

For me, tasks feel more like a three dimensional cube you can turn around and have different views on it, and want this information in many places in different slices. sigh This is 2005. Perhaps 2010? :)

I read Angie’s response above at first as “I get blogged-down in the details…” and was wondering if that was something that comes from subscribing to too many RSS feeds.

I just recently discovered GTD and am in the initial implementation phase. To me it was this amazing revelation of how disorganized I was simply because I had never been taught a method. I think a lot of people assume that organization just happens, and that there are folks who are better at it than others. It had not occured to me that I could be taught.

It’s not so much the productivity that matters to me as it is the feeling that I can address what might be an undiagnosed mild case of OCD without visiting a shrink and being a pharmaceutical lab rat. I also like knowing that there are other folks out there looking for a better way to manage.

I just wish that David Allen could get to the kids in school instead of waiting until they are mid-30’s and way deep in the mix. Before you get someone to be productive you might need to show them that they are actually being destructive by using ineffective methods.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving - thanks for 43folders it is always a pleasurable read.

Tim K - I think David actually is working on something for kids. I don’t know any details, but I’m pretty sure he talks about it a bit in his blog on the Davidco website.

I completely agree that this kind of thing should be taught sooner. We learn a lot of “stuff” in the various stages of school that we attend, but we don’t really learn how to actually work until several years into the fray (at least for me - some probably get it sooner) and we stumble across a website that leads us to a book… and here we are.

I wonder, though, if open loops and next actions would mean much to kids. Today’s kids seem busier and more structured than I was, but I doubt I would have understood the need in my teens or sooner. This may have helped me in college, though.

How about “self-management”, or “stuff organization”? Replace “stuff” with “task” if it’s your boss asking.

Actually any combination of “self / task / stuff” and “management / organization / control” would suffice.

I’m with you on “productivity” perhaps not being the best term. It emphasizes a weakness in the American mindset - an inability to value people (or oneself) except in terms of what they can produce.

Of course, other labels are deficient in other ways. My best efforts after a lunch break’s worth of rumination are “life control” and “life sculpting”, the latter of which sounds like something taught and The Learning Annex by an aged Tim Leary acolyte. I still like it better than “productivity”, though.

Gratefully, nowhere does The David say you have to turn into an enormous-toothed White Guy running sales seminars at the La Quinta Inn.

Love this metaphor.

In fact, he’s pretty clear on the fact that GTD has no underlying ideology; it’s just about clearing the underbrush so that you can get on with whatever is important to you. If you don’t know what that is, you might spend a lot of your saved time twiddling your thumbs. I suspect that’s why some people get so obsessed with complex, technology-intensive implementations of the system.

Hmmm. I don’t mind the “productivity” tag, because in my current work, productivity means being able to hold a whole system in my head and reason about it effectively and efficiently, i.e. without too many distractions, red herrings, or errors of reasoning. The number of ensuing lines of code is only a secondary (or lower) measure of productivity. Using GTD certainly helps reduce the level of distraction and the feeling that I’ve lost track of something critical.

OTOH, productivity in my non-work life has a lot to do with completing craft projects, recipes, photo projects, home improvement, exercise sessions, etc. All very quantifiable and time-able. The challenge there is to NOT treat those activities as mere productions, but to be aware of the whole “doing” experience. Considering the overall balance is all it usually takes to stay within whack.

Consider this another vote for “teach effective task balancing skills to kids BEFORE college and work”. I thought I was organized in high school, but it was really the small scope of assignments that made it possible for me to manage a lot of things. College was a lot harder to manage and I floundered. Using GTD would have helped at least moderately.

Great question Merlin. I think that there’s a deeper connection between GTD and David Allen’s quest into buddhism. If one looks at GTD like they would, say a yoga practice, or a meditation and mantra, they’re each a set of activities that, when done regularly, result in a positive, balanced state of mind and body. Productivity might be one result, but that’s looking at it from a pretty simple perspective, just like someone looking at yoga solely for the health benefits. The yogis had way more in mind than staying flexible when they came up with the practices and poses that make up hatha yoga and pranayama breathing.

GTD is a focus algorithm.

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I agree that GTD isn’t just about productivity, though a main component of it is to make you more productive.

I use GTD, in my slightly warped way, and when I refer to it, I call it an “Organizational System”. That is, I use it to organize my life. Productivity is a byproduct, peace of mind is a byproduct, strange stares from your significant other are a byproduct.

GTD, for me, is a life balance thing. I need a good third word, life balance system makes me feel stressed out, most of the other words - paradigm, facilitation - that I can think of get too airy-fairy and eggheady and then I am back to not being in balance.

Life balance way.

Perhaps.

I think it’s a philosophy.

You know? Like Epicureanism is a philosophy, or Materialism is a philosophy, or Marxism is a philosophy. A system of belief that guides how you act and behave.

I really agree that the term “productivity system” seems very limited, and does conjure up physical workplace concepts like putting all your tools the same way up, or maybe putting the stationary cupboard closer to the photocopier. “Organizational system”? Makes sense - but isn’t it more than that? An organizational system is along the lines of “socks in drawer one, shirts in drawer two, shorts in drawer three”. I think it’s a philosophy: it’s a philosophy that lets you be more productive, sure. And it’s a philosophy that helps your organization, sure. And it does other things too; I gather it does different things for different people.

So why not go back to the old word? A “philosophy” means a system of thought, or an attitude. What better term to describe GTD?

Maybe a philosophy of work. I’d hate to imagine thinking in GTD terms in down and personal time. Unstructure can be respite, in controlled doses.

Moreover, a philosophy in the traditional sense entails some kind of metaphysics. GTD is very superficial in this sense. It accepts a here and now sort of world and leaves questions of the soul to others.

Frankly I wish we lived in the days before computer. The arrival of a letter was an event. The sound of the pen on paper, the time spent on the journey, the resounding thunder of a a theatre after a world-changing premiere.

Instead we have a massively distracted collective consciousness which requires heavy doses of GTD to manage anything.