GTD and Flip!

[Foxman]

About half way through the Michael Sheenan book Flip! and was very comforted to see how GTD fits in with what the book suggests.

There is a chapter on Action Creates Clarity, which in a nutshell talks about how you can screw things up by planning too much! According to the book it is far better to take action, then adjust course if the feedback your getting tells you your not going to get the result your after. This to me is very much inline with the Next Action method, just get stuck in and deal with things as they turn up.

Anyone come across, any other systems/approaches which are mirrored in GTD practices?

 

[empty inbox]

The idea of 'not planning too much' works for me. I may start a project, but limit it to 1 or 2 next actions. If I don't get the results I need from those NAs I may bail out on the whole project.

 

[ozspyke]

Hi was intrigued by what you said about this book but had a bit of fun finding it:

I think this is it - I'm off to get it it:
http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Everything-Head-Succeed-Imaginings/dp/0061558958

Title: "Flip: How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head--and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings (Hardcover)"
Author: Peter Sheahan

Thanks.

 

[QuestorTheElf]

Are you by any chance a musician? If not, find one and ask them how they improvise.

Or a comic, anybody who has to deliver on the spot while sounding competent. (Which is what I'm trying to do here.)

Improvisation requires a structure in order to mean something. Yet you can't coordinate too much of it. It's a really interesting tradeoff between spontaneity and planning.

Musically speaking, you may see certain chords and determine what specific types of scales fit them best. Yet if you think about it too much, it becomes mechanical. The music sounds forced, it doesn't flow naturally from you. (The audience definitely notices, even if they aren't musicians (or drunk.)) That's why you're advised to practice until you don't think too much about it.

Yet it doesn't mean hours upon hours of practice. In fact, you can really advance a lot with only 5 minutes of deliberate practice. Then at other times, it's become part of you.

I got most of this from the book for musicians _Effortless Mastery_. When you first start out, you may think a lot about what you're doing. It's advised to give that up as soon as possible, yet get acquainted with the basics nonetheless.

Another book once said almost Zen like that you know you're on the track when you accomplish a lot yet conclude it's really "Nothing special."

 

[Oogiem]

According to the book it is far better to take action, then adjust course if the feedback your getting tells you your not going to get the result your after.

I've always heard that phrased as "Ready, Fire, Aim".

It's part of why machine guns have tracer bullets, so you can adjust on the fly.

I do agree that in many instances, doing something now, getting feedback and adjusting, is far better than infinitely detailed planning. But the real trick is knowing which project plans have to be done in detail before implementation. It also requires that you not be wedded to your initial plan or you will resist the need to change in the face of adverse feedback.

 

[hgill]

Scrumm in project management

Speaking off analogies:
The Scrumm method does about the same, like in the picture at the bottom of this page: http://www.interesting.com.au/Portfolio/ProjectApproach.aspx

Development is done in 2 week sprints.
After a sprint a review is done, to ajust the scope or direction of the project then the next sprint, review, sprint,.... (overly simply put)

So it's like: sprint, stop, adjust direction, sprint, stop ajust direction, ...

In software development, to much planning up ahead can cause trouble pretty quick.

Huibert Gill

 

[TesTeq]

Similar to artillery procedure.

I've always heard that phrased as "Ready, Fire, Aim".

It's part of why machine guns have tracer bullets, so you can adjust on the fly.

It is very similar to the artillery indirect fire procedure:
0) Ready.
1) Aim using settings based on the available information.
2) Fire.
3) Obtain Forward Observer's report.
4) Correct settings, aim and fire.

 

[Oogiem]

Yep, lots of military applications require constant feedback and adjustment. Also the reason "Battle plans never survive first contact with the enemy."