“Getting Things Done”… again

If you are not familiar with “Getting Things Done” or “GTD” then click here for a little background.

I first bought “Getting Things Done” by David Allen in early 2007.  I read through about half of it and then skimmed the rest – got frustrated/overwhelmed and put it down.  Really… a 43 folder system for organizing my crazy hectic life?  I don’t need 43 more of anything – unless it’s hours of vacation time.  Wait, who really uses paper anymore?  Don’t we live in the digital age with computers, PDAs and mobile phones with email?  A series of lessons learned and a 5 minute conversation brought me back to the book.

It was early 2007 and I was nortoriously unorganized.  I would agree to small, simple, to-dos from my manager and then… forget.  It frustrated the hell out of my managers and became something that would hold me back in my career if not rectified.  I was in search for the perfect tool, yes… THAT is what I needed.  If I could just find the right tool then I will be organized and all of my problems will magically disappear and I will be organized.  So I turned to Microsoft OneNote.  What a great tool!  It was perfect – note pages, tabs, colors, free form highlighting, print to pdf – it was all there.  No.  No it wasn’t.  I found that I was glued to my PC which is just a source of distractions – meeting reminders, emails arriving, other open windows of work – all grabbing for my attention.

My manager in early 2007 had these legal pads full of bad hand writing – I couldn’t read it, I assume he could.  He wrote all kinds of stuff down – small to-dos, big projects, random reminders – when a page got full he started another one.  This guy remembered everything… or did he?  No, he remembered to do 2 things… to write things down and to look at his legal pad.  But paper?  Yes, yes paper.  No computer, no power – no problem.  I ordered these and I was back to paper – writing everything down.  The difference was night and day.  I was doing 2 things… writing “it” down and reviewing my list.  I was able to freehand all kinds of notes, cross things off the list, see progress – it was great.

So why did I go back to the “Getting Things Done” book?  Well, recently I had a chat with a partner at Rosetta and he was talking about keeping a clean inbox and processing emails/tasks which lead to talking about GTD.  I told him that I felt GTD was so heavy on what methods to use with the folders, seemed outdated.   I just didn’t feel that meshed with our company’s dependence on email and the web.  His point was to re-read the book and forget about the folders and the tickler files and focus on the workflow – collect, process, organize, review, do.

I dug out the book this past week and started back up – this time focusing on the workflow and the new way of thinking about work.  I am through the first 2 chapters (pg 53 of 259) and the book already feels different.  I will NOT put this book down again until I have finished it.  I believe that I have reached the ceiling of my own productivity thoughts and ideas – I think this book will take me to the next level.

- Bill Weber

photo credit: monsieurlam