Why Some People Struggle with GTD

Dave Edwards said:
When David Allen wrote, “Getting Things Done,” he thought the concepts were so easy to understand and follow that everyone would understand them and implement its principles. Many years later some people struggle with implementing GTD.
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I think David Allen would really like to get through to all people who want to learn GTD. whether or not they are struggling to learn GTD. What makes me think so? It looks to me like David Allen tries in every way to help people who want to learn GTD. For example:

He creates YouTube short and long videos to clarify the various aspects of GTD, and he works with you, Dave, to create videos for this same purpose, and his coaches create GTD Focus videos that clarify various aspects of GTD, and he offers a GTD Forum to support people in learning and sharing about GTD, and GTD Connect provides even more resources, such as podcasts, and he has written a number of books and articles that articulate his GTD methodology in detail, and he publishes start-up guides for various software that can be used to implement GTD, as well as a start-up guide for a paper-based system. There may even be more resources that I have not yet learned about.

As David Allen says in the updated 2015 edition of his original GTD book:

"Alas! As easy as it is to actually do what I suggest as best practices in this book, I have been rudely awakened to these two phenomena: (1) the amount of infomation and suggested activities here can easily be perceived as too overwhelming for someone to even begin to implement them; and (2) making some of the fundamental practices habitual can take quite awhile for most people."* " . . . It's really all about one step at a time."**

I think David Allen is behind us all the way in encouraging us to learn GTD, and in acknowledging that this can be daunting and can take quite awhile, and in helping us see that it is really all about one step at a time.

Thanks for your post and your videos, Dave. A great source of GTD wisdom.

Warmly,

Emily

* introduction, page xx
** introduction, page xxi
 
It's a very interesting point. I won't answer for others but just give here after my own experience. I struggled quiet a lot applying GTD and still sometime. About control I think each step is easy to understand. What is more complex is 1) All the little tips and tricks I discovered and I am still discovering and 2) the focus it needs to stick to my habits like reviewing and so on. About Perspective in this turbulent time (as says DA) I feel complex to know what I want and where I want to go. When I fall off the wagon I re launch my project of learning GTD step by step, eg reading the books again and again, noting what are my missing point, reviewing them regularly and optimize my system currently

I sincerely notice that the most difficult and turbulent my life is, the most I conscienciously and hardly focus and stick to GTD. GTD Gives me space and calm my spirit.

I am still learning it. I discovers my own tips and tricks (I collect them in my inbox, clarify and organize them in my reference material). Each time I feel irresolute GTD is my compass. I do the same and take what I learned to make my system better.

I think GTD is like a sport for example skiing. It is a question of will. You can be gifted at the beginning or not. You can learn quickly how to ski because you understood the main principle. But what make the difference is training. The most I train, the best I become. But it can take a certain time. I think it is like a lot of things. It is a kind of quest. A never ending quest.
 
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TesTeq said:
"Why Some People Struggle with GTD?" Because they cannot clearly answer the first question of the GTD workflow: "What is it?"

GTD exposes this problem, but its solution lies somewhere on the higher horizons of focus. Unfortunately they can't take off from a runway cluttered with an unclear stuff. The chicken or the egg problem.

@DavidAllen @Dave Edwards @John Forrister
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@TesTeq

Your astute observation reminds one of what Aristotle said 'On the Heavens': . . . a small error in the beginning is a big error in the end . . .
 
TesTeq said:
"Why Some People Struggle with GTD?" Because they cannot clearly answer the first question of the GTD workflow: "What is it?
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... and cannot decide, what they have to do with it. I observe this again and again. It's like a kind of dyslexia: you check the - sometimes banal - input. For me, its meaning and the appropriate action is obvious and immediately clear. But for them, "the penny just won't drop" (is that how you say it in English?) or they simply can't decide.
 
RomanS said:
... and cannot decide, what they have to do with it. I observe this again and again. It's like a kind of dyslexia: you check the - sometimes banal - input. For me, its meaning and the appropriate action is obvious and immediately clear. But for them, "the penny just won't drop" (is that how you say it in English?) or they simply can't decide.
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@RomanS

As a follow GTDer . . . what you kindly express is so essential: What is it?

What does this really, really, really, really mean . . . and how is it to show up when-&-where necessary as easily/readily as possible ?

Thank you sir
 
RomanS said:
... and cannot decide, what they have to do with it. I observe this again and again. It's like a kind of dyslexia: you check the - sometimes banal - input. For me, its meaning and the appropriate action is obvious and immediately clear. But for them, "the penny just won't drop" (is that how you say it in English?) or they simply can't decide.
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I think it's choice stress mostly. Having a clear mind on what to do during clarification is not a given for everyone. Specially if what is captured is unclear to begin with. Even worse if it needs to be a project with a clear outcome, trying to answer the question what does success look like. I see that around me as well. Mind you, it can take years to master GTD. It took me 12 years and still learning. It is because it's a life changing habit. Same counts for someone who is overweight and goes on a diet. Most do not succeed because they don't accept that you can only be successful of you change your habits permanently.
 
Dave Edwards said:
When David Allen wrote, “Getting Things Done,” he thought the concepts were so easy to understand and follow that everyone would understand them and implement its principles. Many years later some people struggle with implementing GTD.

https://youtu.be/tOiWFeS3NFE
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Hi Dave, in love your videos with David Allen! Specially this episode is very entertaining and funny. Keep them coming.

I don't struggle with GTD anymore because I finally accepted it to be a life changer, I started with TSW and Evernote 12 years ago so that gave me a good head start. But as I said here earlier, it did take me years to fully except it because what many people don't realize that GTD is a life changing methodology.
 
TesTeq said:
"Why Some People Struggle with GTD?" Because they cannot clearly answer the first question of the GTD workflow: "What is it?"
Click to expand...
I think the ability to focus long enough to figure out "what is it" and also practice enough to figure out "what is it" clearly and easily is a learned skill.

When you have spent a lifetime not determining what is it, there is a lot of stuff laying around that is waiting to blow up or is irrelevant and it takes time to figure out what is it enmasse. This is the cluttered runway of which you speak.

One key method for my intermittent success with my system is to clearly delineate what is backlog and what is incoming. The incoming is where my focus must be to stop the bleeding. Decide on the mail delivered today.

Another key method for me was this: once you take the time to decide, you don’t have to do that again. Everything else will wait while you decide on this one thing.

So the combination of these two: 1) decide once and take the time to actually decide so you aren’t revisiting it and 2) park all the undecided stuff in a backlog that you have no obligation to address now, until you feel like allocating time to clear some of it.

As Arnold says, you’ve got to do the reps to get there. The reps are repetitions and you are what you repeatedly do.

Clayton
 
TesTeq said:
@bobusa Great insight! GTD is about changing life! But unfortunately people want GTD to solve their problems without their involvement.
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Yes, agree! There needs to be a form of positive commitment to succeed. One should also realize that GTD is very flexible but if there is low commitment (or understanding!) then it seems the fault of the methodology. And no involvement is presently impossible unless AI makes a giant leap and you just throw everything in the AI bucket, give it the desired outcomes and there you have it all fully clarified and reviewed. Dream on (for now).
 
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