The issue I faced in the past is that this system requires work
The idea is that the decision work you are doing when you are doing the core loop of GTD (processing input and turning it into projects, next actions, calendar items, reference material, delegation, and trash) is decision work you would've needed to do anyway. You're just doing it right away.
Some of the benefits of this include
- You can see if you are overloaded with work&projects and therefore cut some projects out or hire more
- It helps you see which projects to cut and which to accept
- You can get practice making tasks more atomically defined which is good for delegation
- Projects can move along briskly that would've otherwise been procrastinated upon because they were vaguely defined
- You can create efficiency by "batching" similar work
- You can put decision-making and open loops out of your mind by committing to a plan for them instead of juggling them in your mind
sometimes the number of projects are so high that organization and task management/reviews are disregarded in favor of completing the projects.
Completing projects is a good thing. Well done.
You need to be a ruthless ninja and not turn every "Oh, yeah, it would be nice if..." into projects. Throw them in the big old Someday/Maybe bin! GTD shouldn't really be "adding" work.
Example 1. Let's say a vague email comes in. You think it might be something worth doing you're not sure uhh...
With GTD:
Just toss it in the archive you have plenty of
actionally actionable things to do already.
Without GTD:
Let it sit in the inbox and bug you everytime you open the mail app. And eventually three years later finally delete it because the offer in it expired two years ago.
Example 2. Let's say a great suggestion comes in over phone. You think it's a great new client to work with and you're happy to get going.
With GTD:
You decide a rough idea about the outcome you want, commit to it, and pick out some first steps to take to make that outcome a li'l bit closer to reality. And later you take those steps.
Without GTD:
You want to work with the client but it never materializes for some reason. You just never could figure out how to move on...
If GTD is adding work, the most common reason is one or both of these problems:
- GTD tempts you to take on more projects, or to your projects more seriously. The dangerous thing about being kind of a slacker and letting some things slip through the cracks is that it does lighten your workload (at the expense of success). But I sure as heckfire value a light workload! Give me slack or kill me! Fnord! I just... want to decide what projects to cut vs just letting things randomly fall through the cracks.
- You are doing GTD in an overly cumbersome way that makes you fiddle with the project&task descriptions themselves too much, postpone them too much, review them too often, rewrite them, move them around, instead of actually doing the action the description is signifying.
Several times per day I bring my inboxes to zero. That costs 0 time, because, the time I spend deciding on the inbox stuff is time I would've needed to spend eventually anyway. It's time
shifted (to be more upfront) rather than time
spent.
Once a week I double-check that all my projects are moving along and that I haven't forgotten anything. With a good well organized system this can be really fast, and good apps can help here. And since it can help me catch important things that would've gone seriously awry, it's time well spent.
I'm doing GTD in company management, not only personal.
I'm not sure a "shared list of next actions" is a good or even feasible idea. Who would do what exactly?
Kanban stuff can work for work that is already very well defined and clear. But if all you're doing is very clear and well defined work, then you don't need GTD. GTD is to help you when you're being overloaded with vague and weird stuff!
My suggestion is that you do a personal GTD first and foremost. And since you're the boss, delegate stuff af! And then follow up!
And if you have workers that are delivering on that stuff then you don't need to micromanage them and force them to do GTD.
But if you have workers that are getting confused or procrastinate then you might need ta show them how to decide upfront on how to handle the incoming weirdorama requests from you or from your clients.
Good luck darl!♥