Fractal Implementation, or, On the Dangers of David Allen's Finger
Submitted by Merlin on May 31, 2005 - 1:43am.
While doing some file pruning yesterday, I ran across a printout of a page I’d visited (and linked to, via del.icio.us) back in January.
In it, BigNosed UglyGuy throws down a sobering bitch-slap on the impulse to tinker endlessly with your GTD system—to try and catch yourself as you start into the inevitably fractal “Cycle of Implementation.” All the better, one hopes, to stop your meta-work before your head slips—completely efficiently, mind you—up your butt. Quoting:
- First, understand that the primary focus should always be the projects & tasks at hand, rather than the mechanics of the methodology.
- Scrap (or freeze for the time being at least) the extant implementation - trying to retro-engineer is just backward tweaking…
- Start again immediately with just tasks — a To Do list (minimal notes) and hard landscape stuff in Calendar…
- Only when the basics are working smoothly, start reintroducing the elements of one’s preferred implementation…
Yep. Brilliant, and right on.
This is my stake in the ground about GTD: if you can stay focused on drawing from its best practices to get more of the important things in your life accomplished, then you’ll be a happy kid. For real. But if, like a seeming majority of people I encounter these days, you allow yourself to obsess endlessly over the minutest details of implementation and maintenance—well, you’re screwed. You’re wasting your time.
Not to rely too heavily on the Zen parables here, but keep checking yourself: are you gazing at the moon, or just staring at David Allen’s finger?
- Merlin's blog
- 28576 reads
I disagree. Firstly, if...
I disagree.
Firstly, if you have strong grounded fundamentals in the habits of collection, next actions, and outcome focusing and use the GTD method as a delivery system to get organised there shouldn’t be any problem ‘straying from the path’.
Secondly, the ‘play’ factor is important because it increases innovation, creativity and stops you from being so monastic in day to day implementation of GTD. Playing and tweaking with the system in real life organisational moments makes you appreciate the importance of the fundamentals and the GTD delivery system and allows you to come up with your own personal GTD ‘style’.
Like Pat Kane, author of the Play Ethic, said “The trivialization of play was the work ethic’s most lasting, and most regrettable achievement.”