A Few Concerns

[yasirkhan]

As I can see, this thread shows different opinions on a single method of applying GTD. I wonder what Mr. David Allen would say about his methodology after reading all these comments. @DavidAllen. This would fulfill the need and satisfy everyone's desire to apply GTD in their own way.

 

[DavidAllen]

Interesting discussion. But, frankly, I hope it's just at least fun for all of you.

How many ways can you apply the core principles of GTD? Well, how many ways can you describe the ways to deal with gravity?

 

[Allenori]

What’s often called GTD now is just “GTD-inspired.”

 

[Stefan Godo]

The use of the idiom "getting things done" was first, then a few American authors used it as a title for a book on, well, getting things done. It is natural to think of "getting things done" in the general sense of that idiom, which is broadly used by speakers of the english language. So I would say that any use of "getting things done" will receive it's meaning from the context it's used in.

You see what I did there?

Now if we use the term "getting things done" in a setting, where it is understood to mean the exact methodology developed and taught by David Allen, for something else, then that is just bad communications.

If the need is felt to clarify, I would suggest to use the term "David Allen's Getting Things Done" instead. This pattern is observed in other realms as well e.g. "Sid Meier's Civilization" and that should suffice.

there were actually TWO time management books titled Getting Things Done, BEFORE David Allen wrote his.
But those were only loose collections of tips and tricks, not a SYSTEM.

 

[Stefan Godo]

I'd like to share a few concerns I have about GTD, and I'll be happy to read your comments.

Lately, I've had the impression that the term GTD has become increasingly blurred among many website/blog/video authors. A list of projects with a few items to accomplish is enough, and they're using the term GTD loosely. I'm afraid that soon I'll see a simple To-Do list without verbs and then be labeled GTD.

I don't question that people are different and that completely different approaches may work for them. But we can't lump everything into one category called GTD.

For example, we recently saw a video I commented on, which I'm not sure fully covered the GTD methodology. (Again: I'm not criticizing other approaches, but I am questioning the methodology's terminology.)

Or I read this website:

Getting Things Done with BuJo

I have seen more than a few mentions of GTD in BuJo U that suggest I am not alone in my GTD history, as well as questions about how BuJo might work with GTD, so I thought I might contribute something about this.

bulletjournal.com

GTD x BuJo Part II: Tactics

I wrote before about how I use BuJo as a means of following Getting Things Done (GTD) practices, but I thought I'd expand a bit more on some of the specific tactics I use to combine the two productivity methods.

bulletjournal.com

I can understand the author preferring Commitments to Projects.
But I don't see any criteria like time or priority being used here.
The Daily Log as a list of what I've done is perfectly fine, but if I were to use the BUJO method exactly (thankfully, the author doesn't mention this), it would be a list of tasks to be completed on a given day—something Allen wanted to avoid.

In summary: I'm increasingly seeing the intersection of various approaches (often: GTD, Deep Work, BUJO), which may work, perhaps even work better in synergy, but my question is, is it still GTD? And what determines whether we're still moving within the GTD realm? Are there any boundary criteria here?

All comments are welcome...

the net is full of opinions and misinterpretations of anything, why would GTD be an exception?