Second pass at GTD

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DoingIt

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Before you read on, in case you may not be interested in the topic, the purpose of this posting is to suggest how useful it may be to do a second reading of GTD (the book) after implementing the system for a little while.

I started applying the GTD methodology last October. It was after I came across a mention of the system by chance. I think it was in the DIYPlanner website. I hadn't bought the book at the time, so I started reading about GTD on the Internet as much as I could. Of course this forum was very important in providing me with a lot of useful information.

Finally, I implemented the system after reading the GTD book. Since I had some background information, I read the book rather fast, skimming and skipping a few sections. However, I continually updated myself by further reading this Forum as well visiting as other relevant websites. I also listened to the GTD Fast audio.

Having reached a stage of certain familiarity with the system, I recently started reading the GTD book a second time. For the reasons explained above, I find that the second reading of GTD is worth while. I now see more sense in a lot of the points made by David Allen in his book.
 
Second, and a third, and a fourth....

Great observation here...

Personally, I've gone through portions of that book many, many times. Oh, and listening to the abridged audio version is another way to "get it on another level" (especially for those of us who are auditory learners).

Thanks for sharing your experience of re-reading GTD.
 
> in case you may not be interested in the topic

Well, it's timely for me, as I've started to revisit the book.

Over on the podcast network there's an interview with David, where the inteviewer suggests that sometimes the stuff towards the back can get
relatively overlooked, so I intend to read the last bit first this next time round.

http://productivity.thepodcastnetwork.com/2005/06/14/the-personal-productivity-show-003/

While you're there there's a couple of interviews with Jason Womack there too:

http://productivity.thepodcastnetwork.com/2006/01/29/55/
http://productivity.thepodcastnetwo...uctivity-show-022-the-return-of-jason-womack/

I guess I would be missing an opportunity If I didn't invite any of you to indicate some of the things you missed on the first reading, that you gained on the 2nd / subsequent readings...
 
Also...

Reading Ready for Anything can be an interesting refresher as well.
 
Treetops said:
I guess I would be missing an opportunity If I didn't invite any of you to indicate some of the things you missed on the first reading, that you gained on the 2nd / subsequent readings...
Click to expand...

Alright, folks. I finished my second time reading of GTD. It was a fairly pleasant experience, partly because it validated to a large degree what I have been doing in the last 7-8 months.

My main new discoveries are:

Checklists: I hadn't paid much attention to these the first time I read the book. Now I see that these can be useful especially when doing my periodic reviews. I decided to implement this idea.

Confusion about the Calendar: I'm still confused a little as to the use of the Calendar. I raised this point in an earlier posting. David Allen emphasises that the Calendar should be used for time or day specific actions or day specific information only (see page 39 of his GTD book). However, in page 171 to 173 he suggests that the Calendar can be used for "future options". This seems to be contrary to the idea of "hard landscape" etc.

I would appreciate any comments.
 
DoingIt said:
Confusion about the Calendar: I'm still confused alittle as to the use of the Calendar. I raised this point in an earlier posting. David Allen emphasises that the Calendar should be used for time or day specific actions or day specific information only (see page 39 of his GTD book). However, in page 171 to 173 he suggests that the Calendar can be used for "future options". This seems to be contrary to the idea of "hard landscape" etc.
Click to expand...

Let's suppose I'm planning a vacation. I haven't figured out the dates yet, but I know I'm going to Nova Scotia sometime this summer. So I get on the mailing list for the Nova Scotia tourism folks. (An astoundingly helpful organization, by the way.) They send me all sorts of information about cultural festivals, art exhibits, and so forth. I put "Halifax Highland Games and Scottish Festival, July 6-10" on my calendar. Then, when I'm ready to pick exact dates, I can plan my visit to include (or avoid) the Highland Games. (Although this is a bad example. If I wanted to go to the 2006 Games, I should have made plans months ago.)

Now, I might also put this information in my "Project: Nova Scotia vacation" folder, or in my tickler file. But if it's in my calendar, I'll have it handy when I'm negotiating deadlines with a client or planning vacation days with my husband.

You might do the same thing with conference dates, concert and theater dates, family holidays, and so forth.

Katherine
 
Agreed with kewms. In fact, I've started using different colored pens for different things on my calendar:

Black is for scheduled meetings, appointments, etc.
Blue is for important things happening to my friends (birthdays, getting exam results, vacations, etc.)
Red could be for potential activities, like kewms's Halifax Games example.
 
I see the point and the usefulness from a planning point of view. As Brent wrote, I agree that it would be necessary to make sure that these dates are clearly identified as tentative and not fixed.
 
Confusion about the Calendar: I'm still confused a little as to the use of the Calendar. I raised this point in an earlier posting. David Allen emphasises that the Calendar should be used for time or day specific actions or day specific information only (see page 39 of his GTD book). However, in page 171 to 173 he suggests that the Calendar can be used for "future options". This seems to be contrary to the idea of "hard landscape" etc.

I would appreciate any comments.
Click to expand...

Well DoingIt, I'm still a newbie at GTD so prepared to defer to our more expert posters, but as I read it after p39 , David continues with a section marked
'day specific information' - not 'hard' in the sense that you must do soemthing that very day, but gives you info that may be useful.
For example "Nov 30th (a)last day to tax the car ; (b) one month to Sarahs fancy dress party (if you choose to go you need to sort an outfit soon)"
(a) is hard landscape
(b) is information that may be useful in relation to a future option.

So I think it works fine without any contradiction.

Hope that helps
 
Thank you for the comments so far.

A couple of areas in the book that became clearer and more significant for me on second reading were the Six-Level Model for reviewing my own work and the options for dealing with broken agreements.

In conclusion, I would reiterate that it was very useful to have read the book after a short period of implementation. This is a strategy that I would recommend for other new users.
 
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