Getting Things Done (GTD) - Cult or Awesome?

Is it bad to read Lifehacker when you're supposed to be doing work?

I would probably be considered part of this cult. I use a modified GTD system, I don't know how I could function without it. There is no way I could just remember to do things or just write things down on a piece of paper or in a word document. I need to plan and prioritize.

I'm not down with the whole moleskine and other paper based methods. It jus doesn't make since to me. It's harder to keep things in sync and there is no easy way to do backups.

I'll explain my system later, to really annoy people.

fwiw i fucking hate the term "actionable"

i don't like to actually finish anything, so dud

oops i shouldve put this in this thread Landmark Forum

Jeff I would like to hear about/see your system.

Haha, I knew a kid who went through a Landmark seminar, he went away for a weekend and he came back with this burnished gleam in his eyes and a positive can-do attitude. It was... a little odd.

My moleskine is also my wallet now.

Uhhhghhghg my old roommate was a FANATICAL Landmark devotee. As far as I can tell, though, it helped her make a lot of strides for a not-very-bright, not-very-evolved person!! It's kind of...a catch-up, I think, for people who haven't learned any good ways to think about emotions...? And as such probably very useful for the right person at the right time.

I use a modified GTD system, I don't know how I could function without it. There is no way I could just remember to do things or just write things down on a piece of paper or in a word document.

ha my version of gtd is writing things down on a piece of paper.

Mine, too. And I have an (uncut) moleskine.

I prefer to TCB over GTD.

WHOAS UNCUT MOLESKINE

MY MIND IS LIKE THAT OF PRINCE

HENCE THE FUNNY

Hmm...looking at this system, it looks like it's way overdoing it. They haven't put in little instructions to stare at the wall at eight-minute intervals, either, which I require to make progress.

To clarify, I haven't read the book and agree that the "full" GTD as per the wiki article is overkill for my needs. The skine system is significantly less complicated and does what I need it to do.

GAH even that looks too complicated. It's like learning the rules & methods of some new pen & paper RPG that ends up being just like Candyland.

oh yeah i've listened to a talk this guy did - mostly it made me realize that i am judgemental abt dumb people - am working on it

yeah ok but really i write everything down anyway and have done things systematically like this since childhood. the system it is in my head. all sticky notes and margin-making and wahtever just disrupt the flow (and are insanely boring!)

i know people who are into this though and people who need and would wecome it

lol 'hacking'

A lot of times just writing something down makes me 214% more likely to remember it, and I have a sharp memory anyway. So I write things down in a normal day planner. I have a separate lil' pad for grocery list/tallying costs at the grocery. But fudge, I hate anything where you have to draw some extra structure. One of my high school teachers graded us on if we took our notes in two columns per sheet in perfect outline form. I got a C in the class bcz I did not want to take 3x the needed time to write chapter summaries.

i have the gtd book.. it made some good points for the specific situation i'm stuck in right now which is IT world juggling a bunch of projects at once w/constant interruptions.

the blog devotees of gtd/lifehacking are absurd though. there is something to be said for not getting things done, or not knowing how to get them done, trying, fucking it up, trying again, and maybe getting it done, maybe not, or maybe getting it done in a totally new, weird, interesting way.. or realizing that you're philosophically opposed to the notion of "done".. or at the very least not aspiring to be a unimpeachably correct productivity robot at all hours!

all these humorless kubrick mac geeks with web 2.0 hair..
fight this generation

I AM
I FITE
WATCH OUT SOME DEMOGRAPHIC
I'LL TALK TO YOU ABOUT MISS MANNERS, HUH?

hehe

i do have a lot of "stuff" though... but okay one thing i did learn from listening to a friend talk about gtd is that if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.

every time my schedule/things i do comes up in conversation, people are all 'whoa you do a lot of stuff' and i'm like i guess but i don't really think so, i mean, i could prob do a whole lot more. you know how much i like tv shows, ilx. i bet if i GTD-ed myself i'd be a freakin machine. but yuppie geek tendencies are not a strong force in my life, as much as i like tech and organizing. maybe i am in denial and subconciously crave multicoloured sticky tabs? hm nah

oh okay maybe the more people/groups you have to deal with on a daily basis, the more serious your organizational system needs to be? i guess that makes sense, esp if you are juggling these people/groups throughout the day

xpost
daria-g otm!

if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.

^ that realness

i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list (this is prob in gtd? i do not know) - dividing energy like this - "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CsLggSo8THePCM:http://billslater.com/tcb_ptch.gif

For me it's less about the system but more about forming good habits. Even with the simplest system in place, it helps you develop a routine that helps you not procrastinate and put off things that can be done in like 5 minutes.

doing yoga helps to keep this in perspective, for me
maybe yoga is my gtd

hahaha hippie geek

Keep your body and schedule flexible.

ohman i could market this scene

except that i wld just make it a community project instead and sell it on a sliding scale and we know how those work

i'm trying to be more of a hippie geek :) it's much better to do things with full attention (sort of zen yes?) than crazy multitask. regrettably the only way I can have this be the case @ my work is to work from home, and I do work when I'm at home, otherwise it's constant do this, do that, join this meeting, blah blah blah.

last couple of years I have discovered the revolutionary technique of making lists on notepad paper and checking things off as I finish them

no lie, this has solved about 90% of productivity problems for me

i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list [...] "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention

I agree completely. When I come to each item on my list I'm not doing or (ideally) thinking anything else. The sys lets me process my stuff with a high degree of focus on each item, and everything gets equal attention.

in other words

(sort of zen yes?)

ya rly

hey there, is that j0hn d of lastplane to j4karta? funny that i am listening to one of yr records at this very moment!

Wait, is LANDMARK the same as VISTAR?

u know what? my most favourite people in the world frequently
*just can't get their shit together*. after years of being subjected to all manner of self-help ball-hoox at various places by various people i swear i'm going to start a cult/self-non-help course or whatever and call it Don't Get Your Shit Together.

i think that is a good idea
though sometimes not have certain parts of your shit together is kind of anxiety-producing and may lead to homelessness
everyone is different as is their shit
but yeah we are not fucking productivity robots and we change and the path is not set there is all kinds of space for creative life etc!

^

all this life hack is pretty inane.

once tho i did read this list of ways to trick yr co-workers/bosses into thinking you were keener that i thought was pretty brilliant.

I like to trick them into thinking I am dull so as to avoid being the one who does everything. This is at shit jobs, tho.

one was to schedule some important emails to send at like 630 in the morning so people will think you were working then.

another was to all in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.

i cant remember the rest. they were sweet. none of them really applied to my job tho.

call in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.

i have done this.

6:30 am email is great.

I have a moleskine which is invaluable to me. It's just like my brain, full of important information scribbled down in no organized manner interspersed with hastily scribbled purse patterns. I often don't look at things once I write them down in there.

I need to be doing my homework. (check)

GUYS JUST LEARN HOW TO PLAY STARCRAFT RLY WELL AND U WILL DO OK. MULTITASKING DOGS

sonned by j0n in a starcraft hack

i think i have anxiety dreams abt losing my planner/datebook

All management and productivity plans/cults/styles are evil. As are team-building exercises and personality tests that you then discuss (a friend was bitching to me about some 'DISC' test his company made him take, then had other people try to guess which letter he was when he wasn't in the room?).

Evil evil evil.

i have never been able to keep an agenda or a planner or even enter shit into ical besides the one time a year (TIFF) i need to plan my life minute-to-minute. it's all in my head/email program.

kinda scary actually!!

I like the idea and see the value of a dedicate device. However, I just do it on my phone. I use the app GoodTask, which is essentially just a souped up add-on for iOS reminders. I use its widget to put all my todo lists directly on the Home Screen of my phone, so that’s the first thing I see when I look at my phone (which is like every 42 seconds). So basically I have three widgets on the Home Screen, 1) active personal tasks for the day, 2) active work tasks for the day, and 3) my more long term personal tasks that I’ve tagged as #later.

The idea is to have something that is always visible on my desk, rather than something I have to make a point of looking at.

you want a little whiteboard on an easel, or maybe a bulletin board with pushpins

i use a gtd app on my phone, but the dedicated device on my desk is an yellow legal pad, backed up every day to an orange rhodia graph paper pad in my bag

yeah, sometimes I just use a yellow pad, but my handwriting is bad and I like organizing punch lists and workflow in digital docs, but then I also want them in view while working on other stuff without having to pull them up.

I like "Things" app on Mac - I guess Ticktick is the nearest PC equivalent. They're both based in the GTD philosophy - which I haven't read and don't really understand. But what I like about them as apps, is they both make it easy to schedule and plan without the planning taking over the process. Like, they don't make planning so time-consuming it gets in the way of the *doing* part, and they fit in pretty seamlessly so you don't have to keep having to "make a point of looking at them"

(Ticktick is much uglier and better for work; Things is pretty and better for not-work life stuff)

i also use things! though i'm thinking of switching to something else, since i can't install things on the surface book my work gave me and afaict there's no things web app (and i don't want to be looking at my cell phone at work too much)

i find the most useful thing for the past 3 years is about 4 4x6 note cards clipped to 4x6 piece of cutting mat. i put only action items on it, each morning and cross each out as completed/periodically during day. each day gets a new sheet, which i must manually recopy (i use a mech pencil).

i don't carry it around, it stays at base. it's manual and physical enough to feel real, annoying enough to encourage action, iterative enough to become part of my routinization. it has infinite shortcomings, but is more effective both psychologically and actually (for me).

How many things do you typically have to do in a day that require a list? I usually have between 5 and 7, mostly writing to different deadlines or "Call Insurance Company" and things like that, so I just make a handwritten, numbered list in one of these little notebooks, which I buy from Muji about 10 at a time:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0556/8066/3742/products/4550182108569_org_700x.jpg

ha, this is true! my case is complicated a bit by needing compensatory strategies due to a severe TBI while getting struck on the road on my bike several years ago. so yeah, my version of ADD and impulsivity often takes me WAYYY off the beaten track if i don't keep a list, even if it's only 5-7 things. it's often more, but not by much.

i'm good at one. thing. at. a. time. it's the transition times between those items that are very very difficult, and if you ask me shit in the middle of something, i may never get back.

Yeah, my work and life have just gotten too complex for pen and paper, plus I am constantly moving between home and office, so I'd prefer stuff that stays with me (e.g. via microsoft office 365) even though I don't have a particular device on me.

For example, I might be working on 2-3 cases at the same time, each of which with 5-7 near-term tasks that I need to keep track of (some of which I have to do, others which I have to delegate but stay on top of) as well as multiple longer term tasks/deadlines, plus general work housekeeping tasks, home stuff, kid activities, etc. If I just try to put it all on paper I lose track, and if I keep it in an app like Todoist I just forget to look at it.

I mean I am able to effectively used outlook/ical/google calendar synced when it's just a matter of keeping track of appointments and deadlines, but that's not that helpful for workflow

I used to use Things, maybe five or so years back, and then went through several different apps until I landed on OmniFocus for a long stretch. Ultimately, I gave up on OF because its organization method was just too overthought for everything. I'm 100% running on Apple, work from home, and everything in my work life is client/project driven. Billable hour/time tracking is done with Timelime, exports out to Calendar, Reminders (stuff like "add a reminder 30 days from now to see if the bastards paid"), and scripts an export out to whatever the appropriate billing option is and into my local FileMaker database of work done.

Project management stuff is a mixture of pen & paper (the black Rhodia N°16 dot pads are my total fucking jam) and iA Writer markdown files. Mostly Rhodia pads. macOS Reminders is also where I put my repeating household "clean kitchen floor," "scrub toilet" stuff. The Streaks app has been really good at nagging - things like spend 45 mins M-F on this or that.

I forget when Reminders on macOS/iPhoneOS was recently overhauled, but it works great for my purposes now.

yeah i used omnifocus for awhile but it was just too damn much. maybe if i had 2-3 projects going on with 5-7 action items for each i’d look at omnifocus again

damn i had such an overdeveloped evernote system back when. It worked but was laborious. I wonder of they even exist anymore

Evernote was sold off last November - searching "evernote downfall end of era" will bring up the post morteums. Current status unknown. I used to work with a dev who was all-in with an incrediblely complicated Evernote system that he used for everything in his work and life - whether it was his wedding or PDF processing job workflow code.

I use Todoist for everything: ie across work, home, hobbies, holidays etc. Looking at Reminders, it seems that it could replicate almost everything Todoist does - except that Todoist has a somewhat cheesy productivity levels flattery reward system that I quite like.

How many things do you typically have to do in a day that require a list?

Work could anything from 6 to 12. Just looking at today's other 'things' though, there's: shopping, tasks that need doing around the home, finance/bills, renew prescriptions, book tomorrow's visit to textile show, start to research holiday and get dates in calendars, start getting a passport renewed etc.