unstuffed;48058 said:
My top 3:
1) The book.
2) This forum.
3) The book.
In all seriousness, my journey through GTD has, thus far, gone like this...I read the book, and lo, I saw the GTD light.
I discovered the forum, and here I can access the skills and perspectives of a lot of GTDers, which is an incredibly valuable resource. And I'm continually re-reading the book and discovering more in it.
As for implementation, although I'm a geek, I use a low-tech system. Just because it's simple and quick, with no extra administrative overhead.
My sentiments, almost exactly.
It's all in the book.
Having said that, this reminds me of a story that David Allen told, I think in the GTD Fast audio series (mine was on tape, so I can't listen to it easily). He wonders what he would do if there were a devastating disaster. He would try to get a pad of paper, a pen or pencil, some file folders, and a door.
He would put the door on sawhorses or file cabinets or anything he could get to make a desk. He would then make lists with his pen and paper. If he had folders, he'd keep his lists in folders.
GTD is about productivity. The most effective productive force is human knowledge. Imagine two science fiction scenarios. In one, the material workplaces are destroyed. The factories, offices, highways, stores are annihilated. But the knowledge remains in the brains of the populace and they rebuild.
In the second scenario, the material plant remains intact but the productive knowledge of the populace is wiped out by aliens with powerful mind control techniques. So, we would have people with prehistoric minds wandering a 21st Century landscape. It would take centuries for people to regain contemporary levels of productivity despite having all the tools readily at hand.
With knowledge, everything can be rebuilt. With only the material products, you have very little.
The core of GTD is the productive knowledge it gives the practitioner. The practitioner may lose her wallet, her PDA, her planner, her pen, and her paper. But if she retains her understanding of the method, she can rebuild everything eventually, even if she needs to start by chiseling lists in stone tablets.
Practical GTD knowledge cannot (IMHO) be acquired in a week. It takes months to acquire the understanding and the habits of GTD. And it's all in the book. But to sustain oneself over months, it helps to have the support of others. So this forum is a great help. Some people might be helped by having a coach to turn to every few weeks. In my view, there is no substitute for a careful study of the book. That means referring to the book many times over those first few months.
Please note that the thrust of my point is
not that material things are unimportant, or that all we have to do to change the world is to change our ideas. I think that material products are very important. I think it is the basis of modern civilization (both what is good and bad in modern civilization). Ideas that are not materialized are impotent. But matter itself is inert unless there are knowledgeable people manipulating it. The most powerful productive force is productive knowledge. The most powerful David Allen Co. product is the knowledge of the GTD system contained in the GTD book.
