Today i want to write about GTD. It is another buzz word that got reinvented and sold to stupid people.
Guess what, I've been doing GTD for at least 10-15 years. We just called it frigging note taking back then. You took your little notebook and a pencil and you started writing down stuff. And if you wanted to scribble something next to an objective then you did it in under half a minute.
GTD didn't require a fancy UI. Fancy UI is just distracting. It takes your heart of the task ahead. And despite any kind of alert you never will use a software for GTD. Because they are cumbersome. They don't work fast enough, they aren't around, you close them or put them on tray and never ever care about them again. And they are slow. Sure you can add a new task in under a minute but you wont. Because you play around with the time and deadline and stuff like that.
You don't have to and it's only distracting you. And if you want to doodle a picture next to a task? Sure you can attach nice picture. Nice pictures are good. BUT THEY ARE NOT HELPING! Why? Because they distract you. You begin to look for the task only to see the nice picture but you aren't actually working on the task.
Imagine i write down a task and draw a little dog next to it. With a pencil? 25 seconds. With the machine? More... You search for the picture, that doesn't quit do it, this one isn't black, on this the dog looks stupid, the task has a false dead line, maybe i add some more... The list looks not organized... etcetcetc...
So I've been doing this for years and now some guy comes around and tells me i gotta give him credit because i'm doing what he said?! Hell no!
Programs will never be able to give you the satisfaction a good pencil and a good moleskine notebook will give you. I'm coming in every day and the first thing i do i writing down my tasks ahead of me for that day. Every day a new page even if i have some tasks left on the other day. then i'm writing then down again. Because you have to remind your brain every day. And then i leave my notebook opened on that day in from of me or next to my laptop. It's always around i can always see my handwriting and the fine paper of the notebook wanting me to write on it. Wanting that i have to complete some tasks and fine some new ones i can scribble down.
So people... Get to it. Get some paper and a good pencil and you will see production increase. And forget GTD it's only a damn word. Do what you like and how you like it. NOBODY can tell you what you want and how you want to do it.
You are absolutely right. GTD is not about tools and not about technology. The creator of GTD agrees with you 100%. But it seems the whole industry got it wrong and people believe that GTD = tools or software. It is not.
VálaszTörléshttp://www.gtdtimes.com/2010/04/21/how-important-are-the-tools-you-use-with-gtd/
David Allen never took credit for inventing writing down and completing tasks. He invented a clearly defined process with strict boundaries:
http://sethigherstandards.net/gtd_workflow_advanced.pdf
Writing down tasks and completing them is only a very very small subset of what GTD is all about.
GTD is not for everyone. It is a methodology that you may choose to follow fully, partially or not follow at all. The benefits are same as with Scrum, TDD, BDD, etc. You may come up with a fully clarified process that took 20+ years to evolve, or you can come up with your own. It is completely up to you and David Allen suggests you do whatever you think is the best for you.
Hope that makes sense.
Absolutely!
VálaszTörlésThanks for the insightful comment!
I don't fight over good comment and good suggestions and information. I learn from others that is why i appreciate a good comment. :)
I am glad that Allen says what he says. I'm however not so glad that the industry made a fuss out of his work. That is a sad thing to happen.
And i'm sure that the inventor is not so happy with it too. Sadly there are a lot of good things around in the world that got spit out by the community as an abomination...