Black Belt Productivity recently posted about GTD and whether it is a flexible framework open to interpretation or something that is set in stone with strict rules that need to be followed to allow it to work. Given how so many people implement GTD I would have to say it’s the former. David Allen’s book (whether intentionally or not) gives you so much freedom on how to adopt GTD and more importantly what tools you wish to achieve it. Everyone works and lives differently. We all have different expectations and demands on our time and lives so it’s important to create an approach that fits around you.
LifeDev takes the thread of thought further:
I don’t know about you, but fun for me is constantly tweaking my system. I’m always on the lookout for productivity tools that enhance or completely change my system
I find this especially true. My own system has had three major alterations over the few months I’ve been using it and it’s actually quite fun to evolve it over time and experiment with different tools. Of course, the trick is to actually make sure your system improves with each iteration. With this in mind I thought it would be interesting to describe my own evolving implementation of GTD in upcoming posts. Hopefully it will help to emphasise the point that you need to create and adapt a system that works for you personally, and most importantly, have a system that is fun to use. Keep an eye out for it over the next week.
January 22, 2007 at 10:19AM
When I wrote this last week (or whenever it was), it seemed that both me and Jason were in a kind of strange state of un-productiveness. We both, it seems, like to tweak our system… but it looks like that was actually hindering our productivity. I did really good at not playing with my system as I stated in a recent post. I remarked that I would stick with that system through 2006, which I successfully accomplished. When the New Year rolled in, I felt that I needed to make a few changes that fall more in line with my workflow.
David Allen’s forums are crawling with people who constantly ask permission and there are a handful of experts who always reply with their feelings on what David would think. It is just frustrating to see people not understand that they have the power to do whatever needs to be done to get themselves more productive. They do not need to ask permission from anyone, especially if they are getting things done.
January 24, 2007 at 05:51AM
Michael, you have reminded me of a interesting point, you can tweak too much. I switched from paper and folder to index cards and it just didn’t work for me. I kept playing around with it to the point where my productivity dipped, as I did not have a fully functioning system in place. I will be covering this more in the future.
January 31, 2007 at 12:44AM
Great post! I also wrote about my GTD implementation recently, and included a link to this post.
January 31, 2007 at 06:37AM
Thanks for the link. Not seen your site before, it’s very interesting!
February 18, 2007 at 08:53AM
Yes, you’ve got to make it your own, but don’t forget the point, you’re meant to be getting things done. I love tweaking my implementation. It’s not something I do outside of my system, though. Applying the GTD process to my tweaking helps to keep me going in the right direction. Use your current implementation to track your fiddling (I have a project to try five different calendar apps every month, for instance).