As someone who had to read the book “Getting Things Done” THREE TIMES before I understood it well enough to impliment it (and then only after watching the 10-minute video about kGTD over at kinkless.com//files/videos/kgtd_intro.mov ), I believe that the fact that “it’s all in the book” is more of a NEGATIVE than it is a POSITIVE.

Much of the time while reading GTD I heard myself thinking (or saying to those around me), things like:

• “All this information is presented at the same level of importance! I’m having a hard time telling what’s critical for me RIGHT NOW, and what’s not!”

• “What I really need is a video of someone sitting at their desk USING THIS SYSEM, so I can have a starting point to hang all the many details on.”

I believe that there is a BIG SPACE for some sort of “Getting Started with Getting Things Done” that spoon-feeds ONLY what the beginner can take action on RIGHT NOW. Then, once the begginer has some success, they’ll be ready for all the details.

At least that would have worked much, much better for me.

I view GTD as a toolkit rather than a seamless, inviolate system that has to be implemented wholesale or not at all. The concepts are great for realigning your world. I was overwhelmed with the steep increase in work complexity as my job increased in altitude (from being on the ground to overlooking several operating units) and my response was to employ a personal system that became more and more complex. GTD showed me ways to toss out a lot of the complexity in my personal system and deal with having data that’s less in discrete categories and more in actionable buckets. I still don’t mix my personal stuff with my work stuff, but that’s just how I’m comfortable dealing with things.

I very much agree that it takes more than one time through GTD to get it. I listened to the audio book of GTD about a year after reading the book at the same time I had some down time at work. The result was that I had a chance to get stronger at GTD, especially at fixing up my filing cabinet to keep paper momevement fluid and simple.

By the way, as an English teacher, I realized recently that students have trouble editing their own work for lack of a ‘widget to crank.’ I’ve been seeking ways to make editing more like cranking widgets, including having students put a slash after each line they’ve examined. This keeps their head in the game and gives them an ordered process to follow, rather than the amorphous mess that editing seems to be to them. I think it’s working for them.

Mike

[…] GTD 2.0? His Daveness and Merlin discuss the future of GTD in this groovy podcast. In this episode, Merlin asks David one of the most popular questions about GTD; if he could write the book all over again today, what would he do differently? David addresses how people’s understanding of GTD evolves on repeated exposures, as well hinting at future plans for making GTD easier for people to start and maintain. […]

2984: David Allen “Getting Things Done”…

Jag har haft en extremt tung arbetsperiod under hösten, mest beroende på min egen oförmåga att få saker gjort. Därför beställde jag i september den här boken och läste den och försökte implementera en del av idéerna under projektens gång….

I love that GTD is strictly a framework and not a how-to. I have natural tendencies towards certain habits. Because GTD is just a framework, instead of trying to break my natural tendencies, I just needed to figure out how to adapt them into the framework. It works very well for me.

I have tried tools and software other people use. I’ve seen example project and action lists. Nothing ever works quite as well what I’m naturally inclined to do. I’m not sure if adding more “how-to” to the book will help much. If the how-to doesn’t work for you, you’ll just get frustrated and give up.

Fantastic series. In this episode, I was blown away by a statement I’ve not seen in the GTD cosmos before — which summarizes quite a bit in my mind: “… but it’s the most mundane stuff that needs the most complexity to get control of it.” Gotta go; time to meditate on that.

I have to agree with Smithee “Is there a resource out there that shares actual GTD project lists and next actions?”

a nice list would be great.

I discovered GTD 4 month ago(I’m living in France and GTD has not (yet) been translated. Reading the book from one end to the other in one go, I was just carried away. This is a KISS concept! Keep It Simle S….., and no offence meant. In my book the more simple the better. I think I would compare it to certain aplications, in the sence that you get started in one minute. Even if you just scratch the surface when starting (easy to start, but also easy to stall and then restart). However even if you might need month and years to acquire and implement the full solution, you can use it and see results right away. I’ve made HUGE progress managing my mailbox, I’m using the Thinkingrock aplication as my “second” inbox, to keep all the input that comes from outside Outlook, and prerocessed actions and projects from outlook. Reading blogs and websites that talk of GTD, there is often requests for more rules on how to manage the stuff lifecycle. Most of the software that I’ve seen and tried (both Mac & PC software) tries to enhance the system with predefined rules and constraints. I have a certain fear that Thinkingrock might stray from the road of simplicity on which it is now (there are lots of requests for rules and additional features on their forum). The beaty of GTD is that it gives us the WHAT, but not the HOW. This enables the knowledge worker, who has to be a creative person in his job/existance, to creative when adapting himself to GTD. Merlin you use 43 folders, I use no folders, and would go crazy with a filing system, but I still use GTD and while my existence is not stress free, there is more work done in a more efficient way, and stress is less. I just listened to #8 GTD v2 (I’ve have had enormous pleasure of listening to this series of poscaste, a great thanks to both of you) and feel quite content that David sees GTD as complete, with no need for a new book. From a personal level what I like is probably that implementing is probably never over. And that is, for me, extremly satisfying. I feel that I am in a continous cycle of improvement, so why should it stop.

And once again thank you for 43 folders, the podcasts, and a special thanks to David Allen Best regards Lars

I’m a big fan of GTD, and a regular reader of 43Folders - but I have to say that I’m tired of David Allen’s “I’m old and cranky” routine. It’s the excuse he uses when he shows great disdain for people that are genuinely interested in learning the system.

His whiny-voiced mimicking of “people on this site” crossed a line for me. David, you might be really, really productive, but that doesn’t make you kind. And I suspect kindness has more to do with your ultimate happiness than does productivity.

But I’m still a fan…

Merlin, thanks for a great series of interviews. You asked very insightful questions.

I had the exact opposite reaction when David Allen brought up the issue of tying actions to projects — I burst out laughing, and, as I understood what he was saying, had a moment of satori. He’d just given me the key to getting on with GTD — to quit futzing with overly complex hacks, to streamline my reviews, to trust my brain to do what it does best.

I also felt there was a lot of love in that remark. He’s clearly committed to bringing GTD to as many people as he can reach. If there was also a note of exasperation, that’s certainly understandable.

Merlin,

Thanks for a great series and a single file d/load will be great - will this include your thoughts on the series?

Again - thanks for the ‘DA goodness’ :-)

GTD 2.0 - 43Folder’s Last Interview with David Allen…

43Folders' Merlin Mann has just published the 8th (and last) episode of the series of talks with David Allen, the creator of Getting Things Done. This time, Merlin and David discuss whether there will ever be a GTD 2.0? It's interesting to he…

The book is great, the CDs are great, but I want more examples. I would love to get my hands on tons of real-world examples of other people’s project lists and next actions. Is there a resource out there that shares actual GTD project lists and next actions?

Loving this audio series!

By the by, on an unrelated note… have you heard of this: http://www.stikkit.com/ ?

I’m wondering at how it could be used for GTD implementation. It’s just a beta at the moment, but it looks like something to watch.

[…] Merlin Mann has another podcast up with David Allen By Ed You can find it at http://www.43folders.com/2006/11/21/productive-talk-08/ […]

as I discussed in my post in the gtd-forum, the major drawback of the GTD system for me were two points: -the difficulty of prioritizing with multiple lists -the non-support of regular activities (piano lessons, writing)

for, me, a compromise works very well: -a sacrileg: a short, daily to-do list with just the most important task(s) that have top priority tomorrow (everything else, I enter in the next-action-lists) -on that short list, regular important activities, like “writing for >1h”

so it is possible to still use the useful project- and next-action-lists, but to get this “mission accomplished”-feeling-back, which is so rewarding when you have limited time and resources.

Thanks for a fantastic series Merlin, and quite a coup getting interviews like this with The David.

Personally, I quite like the fact that there isn’t a big pile of career-specific GTD handbooks out there, because tailor making a GTD implementation to suit you is half the fun for me.

Oh, and after hearing one of the episodes, I now keep going into meetings and talking about having widgets to crank. Without even knowing it, some of my colleagues are now just a tiny bit GTD, while I get to keep saying good, crunchy words like widget and crank. It’s win/win.

[…] I first discovered David Allen’s Getting Things Done about a year ago through Merlin Mann’s 43folders.com. (Incidentally, Merlin has just put up the last in a great series of podcast interviews with Allen.) After years of failing to master time management and to-do lists and calendars, Allen’s approach to the concept of mastering productivity in the face of an increasing number of things to do in less and less time was not simply a breath of fresh air but felt almost life-saving. […]

[…] I was a bit surprised when I read about Merlin Mann’s post at 43folders about his very simple folder system for email. I have ten folders and it still doesn’t seem like enough. Then I read his notes about the latest podcast with David Allen. And I must agree that the more I struggle with this time management stuff, the more I find out that it is indeed, after all is said and done, in his book. For some reason, it’s just not easy to see that on the first reading. […]

Thanks again for a great article for GTD fans!