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Fractal Implementation, or, On the Dangers of David Allen's Finger

BnugWiki : GtDBackToBasics

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:

  1. First, understand that the primary focus should always be the projects & tasks at hand, rather than the mechanics of the methodology.
  2. Scrap (or freeze for the time being at least) the extant implementation - trying to retro-engineer is just backward tweaking…
  3. Start again immediately with just tasks — a To Do list (minimal notes) and hard landscape stuff in Calendar…
  4. 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?

Ella's picture

I think that last comment...

I think that last comment is very apropos whether or not it was intended to be. I've been thinking a lot lately about the whole 'GTD/Moleskine' obsession so prevalent amongst the early-adopters and hipsters of the moment. now don't get me wrong, I love Moleskines - they're good quality, well-made, nicely proportioned little notebooks - but when it comes down to it, they're really just notebooks, one brand of many. Sure, there's the elastic band and the little pocket, but that kind of thing is so easily retrofit. I think it's just because they're European and kind of illicit looking. But I'm going to blow all of you guys' minds when I bring out my (wait for it) Mead Five Star hipster PDA!

 
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