Good evening everyone. I re-engaged with GTD about the middle of last year, starting out with Outlook and currently useTodoist, while using the GTD folders I purchased in 2007. (I still have the blue tickler folders, and I’m keeping them! 
)
After 9 months of using GTD, I thought, rather than offer my own “take”, I’ll instead share my story, both for my own posterity, and for anyone to whom it might benefit. Your mileage will almost certainly vary.
My background: I am (and continue to be) a big 7 Habits fan. My whole interaction with GTD has taught me that GTD and the 7 Habits are complimentary, not a “pick one or the other” scenario in most cases. Like Bob Hendrickson from Steelcase in one of the GTD podcasts from last year, I couldn’t keep up with my workload using the Franklin ABC/123 methodology and was driven to look for better productivity solutions. Enter GTD, stage left. (Actually, GTD was like the girl I should have dated years ago, still had her number, and gave her a call…. Lol)
As an aside to any 7 Habits practitioners here, I would suggest that GTD nicely supplements Habit 3 in particular. David Allen has mentioned (if I understood him correctly) his general disagreement with a “top down” approach of trying to plan a day and a week based on values clarification and mission statement thinking done first, when your head is a mess. I don’t think he is commenting on the value of clarifying mission and values, just don’t get stuck there while your head is cluttered. It would be like putting all the materials together in a room you are planning to redecorate; (the paint, the wall paper, the light fixtures, etc,) while at the same time, your laundry is all over the floor, your bed isn’t made, and the ironing board with clothes on it is in the corner. You can have a vision of the room, and the décor, and buy all that you’ll need for your vision of what the room will be one day. But you still are going to have to clean up the mess first. To me, that illustrates the value of “getting stuff out of your head” before you try to "decorate" your mind with mission statements and values clarification. For that matter, that part of my brain (mission and purpose) works much better since I have committed to GTD…
Onto my adaptation… I read several ideas on this forum, so I just got started with Outlook. Outlook tasks aren’t syncable with an iPhone, which was an important non-negotiable for me. So I played around with several list managers before landing on Todoist. One point several veterans of these boards made, as David Allen has said, is that if you have the GTD principles down, the app, or choices like digital vs paper (or a hybrid) don’t really matter. I agree. I prefer Todoist because it’s a very clean app that syncs everywhere. At the end of the day, it just agrees with my eye. I know GTD well enough now to use all paper if I had to, or another app.
One big lesson: The app ultimately is important only to the extent that you will use it and agrees with your eye. No one app will “inspire” you to do GTD. In fact, that’s probably my biggest learning; GTD is not a trick. It’s a discipline.
The most important event when I got started was the mind dump. I got several pads of small paper and just started writing stuff as it came to me, then put it in my evolving digital system. Now that I am setup on Todoist, I can do a mind dump via their inbox, and not have to deal with paper if I so choose. I still use paper, and the ubiquitous red IN folder is always in my briefcase. It really just depends on where I am and what I am doing as to how I record an idea that is in my brain. That’s why the discipline is so important. If you don’t do a weekly review, and if you don’t regularly engage all inboxes daily, (paper, digital, and email) GTD won’t work. It can’t force you to deal with your stuff. That a decision only I can make.
Another big lesson: I have been a productivity wonk ever since High School. (Did I have a Trapper Keeper back in the day? Of course I did….) I have been guilty of too much “productivity porn”. I love new apps and technologies. I love reading books on organization and management. Now that I am in my 40’s, what I value most isn’t the next cool system, it’s results, and that is where GTD excels. I have resisted the temptation to complicate GTD this time around. I bet there is a better app than Todoist, but I don’t care when Todoist is doing what I need it to do. I have already heard of the next productivity guru, and the “new” tricks that really aren’t that new... The lesson is, fads come and go. GTD has staying power because it works, especially if you work GTD. Don’t get caught up in which app is better, or if paper is better, etc. The better question is, what works best for you? Use that, and incorporate GTD into that system of comfort for you.
So, my results? I have all my projects under control for the first time, and that includes the window washing I’ll have to do this year at home. I am actually learning how to cook. (thanks Home Chef) And I am WAY less stressed. In fact, I am also revising my philosophy on work life. I like the “mind like water”, calm and in control person that has occasionally sprouted up, as opposed to the harried, stressed out Taz character I tended to be. I don’t agree with some of our American culture that puts a premium and manic effort at the expense of a balanced, healthy life. I just didn’t know how to make it all work. (seriously, no pun intended) GTD has absolutely helped me get to a point that I didn’t know I could get to.
If you made it this far without an energy drink, congratulations, and thanks for reading. I am writing this as much for me to revisit down the road on my journey, as to preach GTD. If this long story helps you, awesome. Looking forward to the continued learning I will get on these forums. Thanks for everyone who shares…
)After 9 months of using GTD, I thought, rather than offer my own “take”, I’ll instead share my story, both for my own posterity, and for anyone to whom it might benefit. Your mileage will almost certainly vary.
My background: I am (and continue to be) a big 7 Habits fan. My whole interaction with GTD has taught me that GTD and the 7 Habits are complimentary, not a “pick one or the other” scenario in most cases. Like Bob Hendrickson from Steelcase in one of the GTD podcasts from last year, I couldn’t keep up with my workload using the Franklin ABC/123 methodology and was driven to look for better productivity solutions. Enter GTD, stage left. (Actually, GTD was like the girl I should have dated years ago, still had her number, and gave her a call…. Lol)
As an aside to any 7 Habits practitioners here, I would suggest that GTD nicely supplements Habit 3 in particular. David Allen has mentioned (if I understood him correctly) his general disagreement with a “top down” approach of trying to plan a day and a week based on values clarification and mission statement thinking done first, when your head is a mess. I don’t think he is commenting on the value of clarifying mission and values, just don’t get stuck there while your head is cluttered. It would be like putting all the materials together in a room you are planning to redecorate; (the paint, the wall paper, the light fixtures, etc,) while at the same time, your laundry is all over the floor, your bed isn’t made, and the ironing board with clothes on it is in the corner. You can have a vision of the room, and the décor, and buy all that you’ll need for your vision of what the room will be one day. But you still are going to have to clean up the mess first. To me, that illustrates the value of “getting stuff out of your head” before you try to "decorate" your mind with mission statements and values clarification. For that matter, that part of my brain (mission and purpose) works much better since I have committed to GTD…
Onto my adaptation… I read several ideas on this forum, so I just got started with Outlook. Outlook tasks aren’t syncable with an iPhone, which was an important non-negotiable for me. So I played around with several list managers before landing on Todoist. One point several veterans of these boards made, as David Allen has said, is that if you have the GTD principles down, the app, or choices like digital vs paper (or a hybrid) don’t really matter. I agree. I prefer Todoist because it’s a very clean app that syncs everywhere. At the end of the day, it just agrees with my eye. I know GTD well enough now to use all paper if I had to, or another app.
One big lesson: The app ultimately is important only to the extent that you will use it and agrees with your eye. No one app will “inspire” you to do GTD. In fact, that’s probably my biggest learning; GTD is not a trick. It’s a discipline.
The most important event when I got started was the mind dump. I got several pads of small paper and just started writing stuff as it came to me, then put it in my evolving digital system. Now that I am setup on Todoist, I can do a mind dump via their inbox, and not have to deal with paper if I so choose. I still use paper, and the ubiquitous red IN folder is always in my briefcase. It really just depends on where I am and what I am doing as to how I record an idea that is in my brain. That’s why the discipline is so important. If you don’t do a weekly review, and if you don’t regularly engage all inboxes daily, (paper, digital, and email) GTD won’t work. It can’t force you to deal with your stuff. That a decision only I can make.
Another big lesson: I have been a productivity wonk ever since High School. (Did I have a Trapper Keeper back in the day? Of course I did….) I have been guilty of too much “productivity porn”. I love new apps and technologies. I love reading books on organization and management. Now that I am in my 40’s, what I value most isn’t the next cool system, it’s results, and that is where GTD excels. I have resisted the temptation to complicate GTD this time around. I bet there is a better app than Todoist, but I don’t care when Todoist is doing what I need it to do. I have already heard of the next productivity guru, and the “new” tricks that really aren’t that new... The lesson is, fads come and go. GTD has staying power because it works, especially if you work GTD. Don’t get caught up in which app is better, or if paper is better, etc. The better question is, what works best for you? Use that, and incorporate GTD into that system of comfort for you.
So, my results? I have all my projects under control for the first time, and that includes the window washing I’ll have to do this year at home.
I am actually learning how to cook. (thanks Home Chef) And I am WAY less stressed. In fact, I am also revising my philosophy on work life. I like the “mind like water”, calm and in control person that has occasionally sprouted up, as opposed to the harried, stressed out Taz character I tended to be. I don’t agree with some of our American culture that puts a premium and manic effort at the expense of a balanced, healthy life. I just didn’t know how to make it all work. (seriously, no pun intended) GTD has absolutely helped me get to a point that I didn’t know I could get to.If you made it this far without an energy drink, congratulations, and thanks for reading. I am writing this as much for me to revisit down the road on my journey, as to preach GTD. If this long story helps you, awesome. Looking forward to the continued learning I will get on these forums. Thanks for everyone who shares…
