This was an interesting discussion. DA is clearly concerned that his theories not be used to further the culture of finger-pointing. MM couldn’t get him to budge off point. It’s a fine point, but an obvious one: my company makes money off sales not me keeping my in-box empty. However I can increase sales, that’s up to me.

After a year and a half at my current job, I can finally and consistently keep my in-box at zero, but only becaue I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out what they all mean. I’ve had to go through several systems, each progressing from the previous, designed to increase my understanding of both the inputs and my relationship to them. My current process wouldn’t have worked for me a year ago.

It seems to me that David squarely focuses on that relationship, rather than on process. His previous statement, that administrators are basically people who hold buckets and run after other people, hit me square between the eyes. It helped me to understand that I do GTD because others can’t or won’t. I don’t dare pay too much attention to processes; I have to pay close attention so that I don’t break my ankle tripping over my co-workers piles of stuff.

You have to be able to view your circumstance from a half-dozen altitudes at once, and you have to come to terms with the fact that it’ll never look good from all altitutes at once. When too many views look bad, it’s time to move on.