- You may have stumbled upon David Allen’s action management methodology “Getting Things Done” just recently…
- You may have been Getting Things Done for some time now…
- You may even consider yourself to be a GTD Master (!)…
… but I am pretty sure the following 5 things will hold true for you, especially if you are a GTD novice.
It is important to realize the following 5 “facts” about Getting Things Done; even more so if you are still wondering whether to start GTD or not:
1. GTD is easy to learn but difficult to master
After reading David Allen’s excellent book “Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity” for the first time, you will probably conclude that his action management methodology is strikingly obvious and can’t be all that hard to learn. And you would be right! The principles he describes are easy to grasp, the tools he describes are easy to acquire and use, and the goals he writes about (stress-free productivity, “mind like water”) are very attractive. In other words, GTD is easy to learn!
However, GTD is difficult to master! Making it the solid foundation of your personal and professional life is hard. Really keeping your inbox empty at all times, keeping track of all your “open loops”, collecting and processing all your “stuff” consistently, and most of all really cranking widgets to get things done, is a process that will require at least 2 years to really embed into your life!
2. GTD requires relentless discipline and persistence
OK, so now you know that GTD is easy to learn but hard to master. This is mainly so because GTD requires relentless discipline and persistence. Many GTD enthusiasts have fallen off the bandwagon after the initial enthusiasm because it is so hard to really keep GTD going in their lives (this is the key property of all good habits 
). If you want to attain stress-free productivity, you need to be ready every day to do the things you need to do to make GTD work for you… and keep jumping on the bandwagon again if you happen to fall off along the way!
Relentless discipline is key to keep the GTD machine going. Unlike other good habits, GTD actually has the benefit of being easy and fun to do! However, if you skip your daily or especially your weekly review session, your mind will not be like water… more like mud . If your in-baskets become insurmountable heaps of digital or physical items, you will quickly lose your potential to really get things done. I could go on like this for some time… my point is clear I think: you need an iron discipline to successfully keep GTD going!
3. GTD takes time!
This may seem counter-intuitive at first for what some people call a time management method. However, I have found this to be true in many cases. First of all, the previous 2 points may be indicative of the (extra) time you need to put into really getting things done.
Second, be prepared to put substantial time into the daily or weekly review process (this could take hours!). The return-on-investment for the weekly review is huge, however! You will also find yourself reading more and more about GTD, especially how other people are doing it. You will quickly discover that there are many digital and analog tools and toys to play around with… which takes time of course. You will be ditching one GTD system for another… starting from scratch in many cases. Needless to say, this takes time, time, time!
4. GTD is not the final answer
A quick search on the internet or in your local bookstore will show the existence of a large number of productivity methodologies. You have to realize that Getting Things Done is basically just one of them. It is not the productivity methodology to end all others. It works for you or it doesn’t. To me it has proven to be the one best suited to my personal and professional way of life. However, I still view GTD as a building block in my personal development as a whole… an important building block, but a building block nonetheless. GTD has to integrate and cooperate with your other habits and your personal development goals. It is wrong to assume that adopting GTD will magically make your whole life better, instantly!
5. There is no particular right or wrong way to do GTD
Having discussed the previous 4 points, I guess it is now safe to say that Getting Things Done may be incorporated into your life in any number of ways. In my opinion, a successful GTD system is easy and fun to use but doesn’t rely on a particular set of tools (physical or digital). People use different contexts, different formats for next action lists, different ideas about what a someday/maybe list should contain, different reference systems, different types of in-basket, high tech versus low tech and so on. It doesn’t matter… as long as you are Getting Things Done!
Conclusion
Getting Things Done is an excellent “bottom-up” approach to manage the actions and projects in your personal and professional life. It is easy to learn and simple to begin with, but prepare yourself for a bumpy ride because it will take a couple of years to really get things done. If you do not have the required discipline and persistence, or if you are not prepared to invest time to really embed the methodology into your life, then think again before starting GTD. Finally, remember that GTD is one of many productivity methodologies and that there is an endless number of ways to implement it and not one of them is the right or wrong way!
In the end, you’re doing it to further your personal development and to finally, really Get Things Done!
Your thoughts?
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Related Posts
Nice post. I particularly like points 4 and 5, which are often not emphasized enough. When getting others started on GTD, I usually recommend two lists (Action and Projects) and a calendar. The real power, I think, is training the habits of collection, processing, etc. As the habits begin to take hold, you can then expand, either along The David’s suggestions or in other directions. Just curious, what other systems or approaches have you found value with?
@David
Thank you for your feedback!
In my quest for personal development - a better self if you will - (in my personal as well as my professional life!), I have taken valuable lessons from general time management, Stephen Covey, mindmapping, speed reading, memory training and general psychology, to name but a few
My whole strategy is based upon taking from them what feels right for me and combining them into a Grand Unified Methodology for me personally!
GTD does take time! You are correct that this is a counter-intuitive statement, because incorporating a new mind-set and skill-set is one of the hardest things to do (think of dieting or exercising!).
The best part of GTD, IMHO, is your point #5: you can “do” GTD anyway that you want to. This really appeals to my creative/crafty side. I have been struggling for a long time with putting together a time/project management system and now I have a framework that allows me to categorize my activities horizontally, and then get to work on them in a vertical fashion. I love GTD, and thanks for putting the Index together!
@Stephen
My pleasure! And thanks for your interesting addition to my post. Do you have a description of the framework you’re talking about somewhere on your blog?
Why, yes - and I would love to share it with your readers. The physical aspects of the system are described here (with photos!).
The photos are not the best, I need to invest in a real digital camera. I will be writing a post on how I actually implement my system soon.
Well done!
[…] marvelz-Blog standen diese Woche fünf interessante Feststellungen über GTD, die ich hier mal ins […]
Nice one!
I have one question for you in this context. We are all reading about how you use GTD and as we can see in this article a profession influences how one uses GTD. I was wondering if you could put more info into About section about you, what you do for living and so on. That helps other people to understand why are you using GTD the way you do.
@mond
I think it’s fair to say that not only your profession but your entire life and personality influences the way you use GTD (and even if you can stand to do GTD at all!). Since this blog is supposed to be about my experiences with GTD, I hope you have read in (some of) my articles not only how but also why I use GTD.
Finally, I admit that I haven’t looked at my “About” page for quite some time, and maybe it does need an update!
[…] ç?µæ„Ÿæ?¥è‡ªäºŽhttp://gtd.marvelz.com/blog/2007/02/20/5-thin… […]
[…] gtd@marvelz.com ??: ?? (Blog) ?????06/04/2007 ???? GTD?“Getting […]
I really love the #4. You nailed it in the head. Sometimes people tend to get so cult-like-minded about a system and start seeing others who are not using their methods as infidels…
A system is just a(nother) tool, another ’self building block’.
Leave a Reply