Slashdot Mirror
Getting Things Done?
machinder asks: "In reading Cory Doctorow's notes for the Life Hacks presentation at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, I saw reference to David Allen's book Getting Things Done. Casting about for it a bit, I see a lot of developers have touted the thing in their blogs. I'm sold, and am starting to implement this system, but I'm wondering if any other Slashdot readers have used the system, and if they have any advice?"
No, you aren't making first post. You're six minutes too late for that.
And yeah, the site was inaccessible before the story even hit the front page. I wasn't even able to get to it when it was still queued for the front page.
Lame.
- Someone who uses planner.el to support GTD
- My thoughts on GTD
- My page on PlannerMode
- The EmacsWiki page on PlannerMode
Our mailing list has around 80 people from around the world. I love trying to get planner.el to fit people's working styles instead of forcing a particular method on them. =)Could someone please provide a summary describing what the hell the story is about?
Handywrite is a shorthand system based on the gregg system, but is unambiguously readable. This lets you use it for general notetaking without later transcription to english words. Recommended. It can be learned quite quickly.
http://www.alysion.org/handy/handywrite.htm
http://notanumber.net/
ermm... if i'm not mistaken, you should mod parent down. this is an amazon affiliate link. this is like karma whoring except with money instead of karma points :)
Some tasks have to be accomplished by a certain date, so you write those down in a special area. Some tasks can only be done in a certain location or context, so you note those as well.
Keeping your goals in front of you and thinking of the next step you need to accomplish makes even intimidating projects seem much easier. =)
People who are interested in getting things done seem to be drawn from a different group that the people who post to slashdot.
Hurrah! Another passing fad comes along. I can't wait to know what the next "big thing" in self improvement will be called. How bout "common sense"?
The King prefers TCB. Takin' Care of Business. Seems way catchier than GTD.
There's also an Outlook plugin available.
I like using Ecco Pro and Shadow Plan. Details here and here.
and let me tell you, he is one amazing person. I have been to his seminar (and one of his trainers' seminars) and it really makes you think about the way you do things. You start by extracting your brain into pages and pages of thoughts (called a brain dump), and then you practice moving each item into this process (the GTD process) whether you define it as a project, an action to complete a larger project, or just a "Someday Maybe" that is important only in the long term. There are a lot of details to the process, but you really need to read the book or go to one of his seminars to understand it fully, and even then you need a lot of practice and dedication beyond that. I highly reccomend both the seminar and the book.
One thing I have to say about GTD is the end result -- you end up with a process to control your life. I can't remember the quote David had -- but basically, his idea was that if you had all the "things" controlled, then you were free. Its honestly a sort of nirvana -- when you reach the point where you have everything you do into this system, and it becomes part of your life, then you don't have to think about the system anymore. So, whatever you had before -- oh, I have to do this and this and this today, but right now I'm doing this with this other thing on my mind but I really want to do this... becomes I am doing this. It's an amazing feeling. But there's more to it than that, so go to David's site and get into it.
"!"
I've been using GTD for many years, and it is truly a transformational system. It takes the mass of coulds, woulds, and shoulds and transforms them into something that you can do. The reason people are so exuberant about it is that it is life changing, and it does work. I've implemented a system using the Palm and Outlook, and it works well for me.
During high school, I used to read a lot of self help books. Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins, Covey etc were my gurus. Now I don't read them anymore. I have become apathetic to them.
The buzz lasts only for a week or two before you realize that you are low on inspiration and go buy another book... get another fix.
As the years went by, I found just two principles that work for me.
1)Prioritize. Some tasks are more important than the others. Concentrate on them more.
2)Recognize that some info is more important than others. If you know few key things, it is enough. There is no point in learning/knowing other useless stuff.
The 1st one is just basic common sense. Except that the authors use fancy methods like "mind maps", "brain dumps", GTD software etc to help you prioritize stuff. Understand the underlying principle. It doesn't matter if you use paper computer or pda in order to achieve it.
The 2nd point, is important as it reduces info overload. Some wiseman once said "Yes. The learning curve for Unix is certainly steep, compared to other OSes. But you only have to climb it once". The value of having system administration knowledge in Win NT is much lesser than Unix sysadmin skills. Why? Because you will have to relearn it when they change the layout and placement of the buttons in Win 2k, Win XP, Win 2003. But your Unix knowledge from years ago is worth it's weight in gold, as it is still applicable now.
Recognize, this fact and you wont waste your time learning/studying/reading something that has no value.
The above are guidelines that have served me well. I don't claim ownership of these ideas, or affix a fancy name for them. Because they are just common sense.
I have many friends who swear by self-help stuff now. It is interesting to hear them speak at length on the virtues of "mind-maps", on being "in the zone", and what not. I am glad that I completed my self help phase early on in life.
If you feel that you really could use the inspiration from these schemes, go right ahead. Otherwise you may just discover that you can actually get by pretty well in life, without paying attention to them at all.
... but the Scientology policy letters on DEV-T (which are also about this particular subject) get completely ignored?
...
I don't see much difference, personally. In fact, it seems like "Getting Things Done" is in many ways derived from the Dev-T series
I guess people just don't like the idea that Scientology make actually work, and that all this bullshit harping about it being 'an evil cult' really is just a major distraction from the one fact that would make everyone seem a fool: Scientology Works.
Has anyone dropped the $30 for the Outlook GTD whitepaper? Is it worth it?
GTD is an excellent book. I wish I had read it right out of high school so that I could have used the GTD method at college.
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After reading the book and implementing the GTD method I feel much more in control. I now feel sorry for the people I see at work not using the GTD method. Its like a conversion experience that needs to be shared.
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I have used the method about 4 months now. I wonder how this method works long term. Anyone been using David's methods for years?
Simple people talk of people, better people talk of events, great people talk of ideas.
David uses plain PalmOS, not some fancy GTD software:
Simple people talk of people, better people talk of events, great people talk of ideas.
Yes, indeed.
I'm surprised the advertisements on Slashdot don't target the demographic more effectively with, say, appeals for "new, more challenging job"
"Provided by the management for your protection."
I have used it to organize my plans and set milestones for some of the websites I work on and have been very pleased with the results. Free trails are available, so there is no reason not to try this if you want to be more productive.
I'd be curious if any users here have tried both GTD and basecamp and do they prefer one over the other, or are they complementary, etc.
People get very emotional about tools that help them get things done. Read some of the posts here or the feedback on the basecamp website and you'll see what I mean :-)
slashsearch.org - slashdot search. powered by google.
I have come to believe (partly from my own experience, alas) that these books are so appealing because they offer a quick jolt of mastery and competence (maybe even with a chemical burst, too).
I think we're wired to enjoy realizations, and these books are like canned realizations you don't really have to work for.
this is an amazon affiliate link
Indeed it is. Good try, shahicomomar.
I downloaded an electronic copy of this book, and I'm in the middle of the first chapter. So far, it has made some pretty interesting arguments, especially how people can only manage their 'actions', not their time or priorities. It also states that you need to have a clear mind to truly be productive, and that anxiety is caused by uncertainty about what to do next. The idea is to make goals and think about the first action you can do to work on the goals.
Very interesting.
I've been using David's model since 1994, when I worked with him on a piece of software which sort of automated the system. If you get a chance to attend one of David's seminars that's when it will truly make sense. Not to be too mystical or anything, but I've gotten anything I've wanted (be careful what you ask for)as a result of using this system. It's really easy once you get a feel for it. Read it, try it and keep refining your system and you'll be amazed at the results. jeff
"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."
Trolls lurk everywhere. Mod them down.
I got a BA in college, that's for Bustin' Ass, and that's how I GTD.
"After that, you can change your name from Kickin' Wing to Kickin' Ass! I would!" -- Joe Dirt
stuff |
What techies need is a fast handwriting script that handles the weird capitalization that is all too common in tech matters.
Cursive writing is a bit faster than printing, but Camel case (setIntegerValue), acronyms (XSLT), etc really aren't very compatible with cursive. Cursive assumes that capital letters will be the first character in a word, so their strokes don't connect with the prior letter. Something like 'aKeyCode' would be discontinuous between 'a' and 'K', and between 'y' and 'C', which discards the continuity that makes cursive writing faster in the first place.
It's easier to just use print instead of cursive, or to revert to print for terms that contain weird capitalization. I, at least, tend to end up with a mixture of scripts that looks like ass.
Any typeface artists in the audience could garner some fame (or at least famous-for-slashdot fame) by designing a good, fast, readable handwriting script that is compatible with technical capitalization.
But the lack of a system to manage my work has caused me so much trouble in the past
Why not just *do* your work instead? All work management systems never have actually answered this point, for me.
When I want to get something done, I do it, and then it's done. It's really pretty damn simple here. I mean, if you have a lot of work to do, then wasting your time by writing down lists of what it is that you have to do seems pretty pointless.
I don't know.. Maybe it's just me, but I've got a frickin' ton of work, and the way I manage it all is that I do it and then I don't have it anymore. I never have had any problems with this method. Maybe I should write a book called "Getting Off Your Fat Ass and Doing the Shit You Need To Do" and make a fortune or something. I could steal Nike's slogan: "Just Do It."
In any case, I have everything I really want because when I want to do something, I do it, and then I'm done and I don't waste my time enumerating the various things I do in my life. Writing down everything you want to do is great, but totally useless unless you actually go and do them. All it does is make you feel like you accomplished something because it's just busy work. And if you do end up actually doing those things, then writing down what you were going to do was a waste of time, because you could have just gone and done them in the first place, no?
Now, to be fair, enumerating what it is you need to do may give you the kick in the ass you need to actually go and do it, and in that sense, it may be worthwhile for you. However, I don't need that kind of motivation. If I want to do a thing, I do it. What more motivation than "I want to do this" should a person need to actually go and do that thing? I don't understand it, that's all. GTD and similar method all seem useless, for me and my life and the way I do things. If they work for you, then more power to you.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/
also for a commercial application.
http://www.mindjet.com/
And the originator:
http://www.buzancentre.com/TBuzan.html
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Sorry pal, but I haven't had any "homework" for over 10 years. I have a job, I make big phat cash, and I have a lot of responsibilities. But thanks for the assumption, however I'm not a kid anymore and my days are not carefree. However, when you finish up your script-kiddie ways, and want to actually have a conversation without having to hide behind the AC moniker, let me know, yeah?
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
After reading this thread the other day, I went out at lunch and bought the book. I read it skeptically, but really liked many of the ideas, so I decided to give it a try. Went out the next day and bought office supplies.
I'm finished with my office at work and I'm going to tackle my house probably over the weekend. Cleaned and sorted 1000+ e-mails, dumped my filing cabinet and started over, did a lot of brainstorming and planning. If I don't do anything else, I've actually accomplished quite a bit.
While I understand the criticisms of (a) management fads, (b) self-help seminar sales, and (c) silver-bullet, one size fits all plans, what I don't understand is why people fail to look at this the same way they look at, e.g., software development methodologies.
Sure, (a), (b), and (c) above all apply to software methodologies (waterfall, extreme programming, etc.), but you don't hear as many people saying you don't need to read or follow any of these, it's just common sense. Or, just do it.
I'm looking at GTD as the equivalent to a software engineering methodology for processing all of the tasks and information that I have to deal with. I don't expect it to be perfect. I don't expect to have the discipline to follow it religiously. I do hope to keep it up for a while and follow the principles.
The thing that impresses me the most is that it attempts to be streamlined. The reason I need some help is the fact that I am undisciplined, so following a few habits that are designed to be quick and easy and don't require double-entry bookkeeping or writing down every single thing that I do seems to be a good idea. So far, so good -- I hope I keep it up.
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness