GTD Black Belt:Does it take as long as a regular Black Belt?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ashok Atluri
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Ashok Atluri

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In Ready for Anything DA says that an intelligent person, after nearly 2 years, was still working to get the GTD principles integrated. So how long does it take normally to by a GTD BB?

How many BBs are actually around?

Are the coaches at Davidco BBs?

Personally, I have been carrying around the GTD like a reference book, and everytime I read I find something of value there. Even though in the first reading I skipped the last 3 chapters (The Power of Key Principles) I later found that they were the most important (philosophically). And even though at a conscious level I am more than convinced about the utility and profundity of the principles I have difficulty implementing them.

Weekly review is still my Achilles' heel. And sometimes I am not even aware that I had a thought that I need to capture. And DA, very rightly says, that in GTD the chain is as strong as its weakest link.

I would particularly like to hear from those who have slipped and then got back on track. I don't want GTD to be another fad that I worked on and let it go. I have benefitted from GTD principles but I know there is still a long way to go if I want be a Black Belt.
 
Yep. I slipped. I got back on track. And I then I slipped again.

I reread the book many times. I listen to the 3 hour CDs in my car. I come back to this forum on a regular basis. I've subscribed to David Allen's blog. And I plan to enroll in the GTD Barnes & Noble course starting in May.

I find that this periodical reinforcement helps, but I still have lots of trouble staying the course.
 
Ashok,

The answer depends entirely on your focus and effort level.

It took me 5 years of constant training and practice to earn a black belt in karate, and few legitimate black belts in any style earn them in less than 4 years.

When it comes to getting organized, however, I have wandered around trying to find one that worked and that I would stay focused on. I originally started with 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in the early 1990's, then drifted away from that after several years. I've done some Franklin stuff. Thus I was not a neophyte at trying to get organized, when I first tried GTD a few years ago when I went from green to brown in a few months, but drifted away from that too.

About a year and a half ago, I went back to GTD, and I just reached the GTD black belt level. The difference this time was motivation. I've really worked at understanding and implementing ALL of GTD. I really needed have a seamless system for handling the little details before I started to get that level of confidence in my system, and its taken that long to put the system in place and understand how it all worked.

My guess then is that it could potentially take less time (the 2 years you mention seems reasonable) to get a GTD black belt than to get a karate black belt, but it took me a lot longer because I was not nearly as focused on getting it.

David
 
Grading systen in GTD - To David and Jason

Got an idea. It seems that it is difficult to be a black belt in GTD in a few weeks. Of course, like in martial arts it is impossible. You need to work on in for years and make small steps forward.

What if there was an "official" grading system in GTD. Yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black 1 dan, black 2 dan. I think I saw something Dave wrote about this. Then many can give themselves a belt, when you can see that you have hold some behaviors for some month. You will get the feeling that you are on your way to GTD BB, and keep focusing on next belt level.
 
Getting better...

I think I am getting better at implementing GTD principles. And I think the weekly review is the key to effective and lasting implementation. You slip - but then you don't if you implement the WR. I think the best thing is to faithfully follow whatever David has to say in the book to the letter t. Like buying support equipment (for eg: filing system, labeler, processing tools, plain paper, file folders, etc.), setting up the tickler system, etc. To adapt the system to your unique needs you need to understand this system fully. Once you implement the system fully I think then you are eligible to create your own 36th Chamber.

Ashok
www.zentechnologies.com
 
Black Belt Level

I have recently taken up yoga as a means to improve my health and well being. In my yoga practice one of the things we are constantly reminded of is to not worry about what and how others are doing and not to really worry about whether we are the best in whatever position we are working on ... we just work at doing what we can where we can and being mindful of what we are doing in the moment.

Similiarly perhaps the challenge we all face in using the GTD philosophy and methods is to do the best in the moment with what we have at that particular time and not worry so much about becoming something (being better than x or getting to y by such and such a date as examples). And then perhaps by doing that we would become exactly what we wish to become ... a practitioner of the high art of "mind like water" and someone who does get things done.

Just a thought ... I'm still experimenting with it all myself.
 
Re: GTD & Martial Arts, Yoga, Eastern Philosophy, etc...

Please see my (many) earlier posts regarding this.

(I would link them here - but I am too busy "Getting Things Done")

8)
 
Accumulate practice day by day

I think we need to accumulate the practice day by day. Like seeking to achieve black belt we need to constantly train ourselves so that we can do the techniques (katas) automatically. To think GTD is easy to implement is to fool oneself. It is difficult, but it is the easiest and most fool proof solution available.
 
No one said it would be easy

JohnGalt said:
I think we need to accumulate the practice day by day. Like seeking to achieve black belt we need to constantly train ourselves so that we can do the techniques (katas) automatically. To think GTD is easy to implement is to fool oneself. It is difficult, but it is the easiest and most fool proof solution available.
Click to expand...

I keep the following quote in my PDA:
Elegantly dealing with the stuff of life and work demands a rigorous focus on what you're doing and a high level of awareness and acceptance of all the details of your world. It might sound easy, yet it's quite a feat to be able to stay conscious about what you're doing, know where you're going, identify all the things you're committed to, and cooperate with what's not happening--so you can totally concentrate on what is. (David Allen, Ready for Anything, p. 11)
 
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