Getting Things Done (GTD) - Cult or Awesome?

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!!

haha for a minute i thought you were referring to like tax season with the ical and tiff talk and then i realized what those words/acronyms meant and then i laughed. but i think that is kind of awesome.

though i have no idea how you manage to live your life

how to work (almost) completely online = awesome.

contents of my google account + my moleskine = like my entire life.

The Zen Habits guy drives me a little crazy.

when the oil runs out where will all yr precious internet-stored files be? it is something i worry abt sometimes
xpost

there is a zen habits guy??

"zen habits" is the blog that the "how to work online" story was posted on.

ohohoh
i'm gonna go see if he drives me crazy

wow it seems I already follow all 50 Cheapskate steps by necessity.

except I make up for not drinking frugally by not owning Only One Car.

tried to get into this book about a year ago... couldn't finish.

i agree with daria-g a good bit. but hey, if you can take a couple good points of advice (and i think the book has a few) and make it work, gouge away!

i would say it's both cult (bad) and possibly awesome.

The way GTD enthusiasts have extrapolated these ideas into a complex of fussily micromanaged systems seems counterintuitive -- this is supposed to make me more productive and less stressed out how? And the GTD wiki-cult out there just seems like a seething monument to a billion tiny daily freakouts enacted by OCD people across the internet.
^^ This.

GTD seems like a really good way to fill up all the time I could be using for getting interesting shit done with filing bills and boring stuff into its system. Then printing a wee label. Meh, that stuff gets done anyway, and the interesting things don't really break down into "next actions".

I haven't read the book or even finished the wikipedia page on it. Overwhelming, too much for my needs. GTD via moleskine is fine for me, but then I'm not mid-management. I don't fuck with "next actions" or "43 folders" or anything.

So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

basically, yes. as i said above, i'm using this tweak. capturing, "processing" (which i guess is just "next action"ing, but i hate anything that turns "action" into a verb), archiving.

I thought this was going to be a Larry the Cable Guy thread.

when i asked the gf if she'd heard of "gtd" she said "you know i fucking hate larry the cable guy"

As do all right thinking folk.

So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

I'm guessing that, as Jeff kinda said, the "system" is just being organized. And maybe a few common motivational tools thrown into the mix can't hurt. I don't have a problem with any of this, except maybe that some is getting rich off of "inventing" it.

someONE

being organized is for suckers

no it's not

That's what The Man wants you to think.

who wants to DO shit, right?

Obviously there's something to be said for beauty in chaos, structure visible only to the eccentric, whatnot. Systematizing can definitely come off as kinda soul-deadening. I spent a while on drugs, sleeping on books I'd never read, writing half-assed poetry (that coulda been great if I'd revised the shit), and spewing ideas about my Great American Novel. It was fun and I was often admirably described as a wild-eyed romantic.

I'm done with that now. I'm actually writing down those Great American Novel ideas, but now I'm paying some bills and actually completing errands & assignments too. A little organization is doing me a lot of good. I'm pretty sure I've kept my soul in the process.

I like index cards. A folded index card doesn't get lost in my pocket like a folded-up piece of thin paper. And if I'm really feeling Alzheimerish I make a list and put it on the passenger seat of my car and cross things off as I do them. One time I actually did all the things.
If I don't do all the things, which is always, I just throw the list away.

After doing what I can. Doing what is humanly fucking possible.

Which isn't everything. Fuck it.

hoos and beth both otm... you have to DO shit. How do you menage to feel good if you never DO anything?

Cult OR Awesome?

it could be an awsome cult?

My system is pretty simple. I like using a combination of web-based solutions and I always roll with my USB drive.

I use Remember the Milk (RTM) for task management. I love its simplicity and that I can drive it entirely with the keyboard shortcuts. I create tasks and tag them with all the different contexts (@computer, @home, @work, @errands, @school, etc). I set due dates and prioritize here. Basically any task that isn’t set in stone with a specific date goes on here. I can add and retrieve tasks with my cell phone, and have reminders sent to my phone. I try to do a weekly review with my tasks list.

For date specific tasks, appointments, etc, I use Google Calendar. It integrates well with RTM as well. I have reminders sent to my phone. This is probably one of the most important features for me, I always have my phone, so I’ll always get a reminder of when I need to do something or be somewhere.

I use Gmail for mail. I also use my email as a dumping ground for whatever random thought that I have that I feel I may need to remember later. I do this two ways. I can use a text message just to my email address. This way whenever I get back to my computer, that thought will be at the top of my inbox, I can move it either to RTM if it is a task or my personal wiki if it is just something I need to revisit later. I also use Jott. I do this if I don’t have the time to text, I just dial Jott, say “myself’, then record my message. Again, when I get back to my computer, it’s sitting there at the top of my inbox, ready to be moved to the appropriate area.

I keep a very plain wiki on my USB drive just to capture random thoughts. Very little time is spent formatting this, it’s basically a dumping ground for ideas.

Also I my USB drive, I keep all the portable applications that I might need. Keepass is great for keeping all my passwords. Also have encryption software, firefox, and few other applications. Also keep copies of my resume in all kinds of formats and academic papers.

Other things that I won’t go into more boring details, but they are still integral parts of my system

Bookmarking: del.icio.us, indispensable
Text macros: ActiveWords, totally indispensable software. I use it constantly throughout the day to save keystrokes.
Contact Management: Plaxo, still trying this one out, so far so good, big plus is that it syncs with Google apps.
News/Web browsing/Information: Google Reader. I don’t browse websites. I have everything from productivity website feeds to CTA transit alerts to a feed that reports all reported crimes that occur on my block.
Collaborative documents: Google Docs, good for sharing documents with my wife, since she uses it as well. Christmas lists, household things, etc.
Finances: Quicken, I keep track of every single transaction we make. Always good to know my balance since Washington Mutual seems to always have it wrong on their website.
Citations: Endnote, I basically make a reference and write a short annotation for every book I read or use. A global bibliography.
Backups: SyncBack SE, I do daily backups of all my documents, settings, and music to an external drive. Backup logs are mailed to me every morning.
Browser: Firefox with tons of Firefox extensions, greasemonkey scripts, and stylish scripts.
Physical activity tracking: Sanoodi, I try to keep track of all my runs, but I haven’t been good about entering them all. I need a GPS device.

In a nutshell, brain dumps go via text message or Jott call to my email, where I transfer it to RTM, gCal, wiki, etc. Tasks get done, get checked off. I don’t think I spend a lot of time micromanaging. I get a lot done. However, it never ends.

How to make POCKET

AWESOME

why is del.icio.us good if you only use one computer

BOOKMARKING - I dunno, however Safari does it
TEXT MACROS - waht?
CONTACT MANAGEMENT - 'recent calls'
NEWS/WEB BROWSING/INFO - um, Safari
COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENTS - other people suck
FINANCES - a prayer every now and then, check Bank of America on occasion
CITATIONS - I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 18 months
BACKUPS - an extra birth certificate in my parents' gun safe
BROWSER - Safari
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TRACKING - how tired my feet are and how much my left shoulder hurts

I have a lot of issues with concentration and organization so important things which get put off/forgotten inevitably become huge anxiety issues. I might give some of the basic things outlined a try.

For me the biggest enemy wasn't concentration or organization, but distraction. Surprise, surprise I discovered I got more work done if I kept IM, email, and my RSS reader either closed or sent off to another workspace. My personal mandate is if I add another feed to the reader, I have to remove two.

Checking things off my list = biggest productivity boost ever.

i swear i'm going to start a cult/self-non-help course or whatever and call it Don't Get Your Shit Together.

http://events.sut.org.uk/otmlogo.gif