I checked out on the thinkTQ site yesterday and, I have to admit, I found it intriguing.
I have read bucket loads of “self help” books and websites. After a long time I figured out that many of them just throw a mish-mash of random tips that do not gel together into any sort of meaningful system. I still don’t know how to apply many of the “techniques” that they tell me I must execute.
For example, does anyone REALLY know how to prioritise? Yes, it’s easy to plunge into an important project, but what about all the little things left undone? What about the great saying, “the devil is in the detail?” Any good quality article on prioritising should show us how to deal with the things that, apparently, are on our to do list, but which we are never supposed to do.
High quality sites and systems, like GTD, propose a very specific methodology, and do not pretend to handle all of life’s big questions.
To get back to my main point, I found the test questionnaire on the thinkTQ to be very good in that it divided up the process of taking action into 10 sub-components, which is helping me to zero in on my own weaknesses in getting to action. (Beats the hell out of “Take massive action!”). In doing so, it drew together ten discreet activities, which I have never before seen presented correctly together.
Far too many sites, as I already said, have just taken some of these sub-components at random, out of context, and pushed them forward as cure-alls for procrastination. But to draw on the thinkTQ list, how can we set goals and be organised if our energy levels are on the floor? What’s the point of being organised if we do not clearly understand how to set goals?
I think there is a lot of thought gone into the thinkTQ site. Furthermore, as I said above, I think it has clearly defined the area it intends to deal with. More importantly, I do NOT think it is borrowing form GTD. I think it addresses a point that comes up form time to time in GTD, which is, “now that I have my weekly review done, my projects listed, and my NA’s identified, how do I get the whole thing rolling?”
The thinkTQ website addresses our ability to begin to take action. (GTD shows us how to manage multiple workflows).
DFE
(P.S. I am not connected with the site, and I have not made any payment for its services).
I don't think this is a GTD wannabee --I think they're competing more with Franklin Covey and Tony Robbins --I must admit I always found phrases like "take massive action " a bit too "infomercial " for me.