GTDer kids?

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samilator

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Just wondering, are there any GTDer parents here who are raising their children with the GTD mindset, i.e. teaching them to keep their stuff out of their heads and make front end decisions about them?

DA talked about it in one of Merlin Mann's podcasts, how kids would say it's dumb and old-fashioned to keep things in your head. So it just got me curious as to how a child would be taught GTD and would practice capturing all of his open loops and closing them. :cool:
 
beginning to teach kids

I am still working on fully "getting it" for myself and have been for awhile. Its implemented but not near as flawlessly as I'd like.

Some items we have taught our children when we first started GTD was about projects and next actions and how it related to their homework. They can pull out one of our project plan sheets and start dividing it up into NAs. They also use the labeler and know how to make files. They sometimes groan, but when they want to know the password to get to their grades online, or the combinations to their bike locks or how to use a household tool, they know where to look -- in the folder!

They also all have an inbox. We have melded a bit of the "FlyLady" and GTD together for the family and household. It seems to be helping.

My kids are 12-22 and we probably started introducing this about 5 years ago. I'm hoping the earlier they know and understand this stuff the better off they will be.
 
As an elementary school principal for nine years, one of the best things we did was to give every student a planner starting in the 1st grade. Personally, I think the project-next action concept is a little abstract for that age.

What does work is having them use the planner to record any date-specific items (soccer practice, dental appointment, spelling test) AND also include to-dos on particular dates. If the project is composing a science project, I would have them turn to the date the project is due and work backwards. Think through the steps from end to beginning and assign each to a specific date.

Sure, things may not get done EXACTLY on that date, just as they don't for us as adults. Kids get to learn this concept early and begin to understand why things don't get done exactly as planned. Later, they will be ready to move to a system where tasks are not so date-specific.
 
I seem to recall one DavidCo insider actually drafted a proposal to teach GTD to high school kids, name of Jason Womack. (It had an impact on me -- why did I have to learn GTD at UHK, University of Hard Knocks?!)

Let's see . . . where was Jason on the night of February 18, 2005? (He does speak of Snooze buttons, their release.) See this next entry where he outlines his thoughts of creating a GTD curriculum for a 60-person student body,
over at http://www.davidco.com/blogs/jason/archives/2005/02/
 
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