Getting Things Done (GTD) - Cult or Awesome?

i have the gtd book.. it made some good points for the specific situation i'm stuck in right now which is IT world juggling a bunch of projects at once w/constant interruptions.

the blog devotees of gtd/lifehacking are absurd though. there is something to be said for not getting things done, or not knowing how to get them done, trying, fucking it up, trying again, and maybe getting it done, maybe not, or maybe getting it done in a totally new, weird, interesting way.. or realizing that you're philosophically opposed to the notion of "done".. or at the very least not aspiring to be a unimpeachably correct productivity robot at all hours!

all these humorless kubrick mac geeks with web 2.0 hair..
fight this generation

I AM
I FITE
WATCH OUT SOME DEMOGRAPHIC
I'LL TALK TO YOU ABOUT MISS MANNERS, HUH?

hehe

i do have a lot of "stuff" though... but okay one thing i did learn from listening to a friend talk about gtd is that if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.

every time my schedule/things i do comes up in conversation, people are all 'whoa you do a lot of stuff' and i'm like i guess but i don't really think so, i mean, i could prob do a whole lot more. you know how much i like tv shows, ilx. i bet if i GTD-ed myself i'd be a freakin machine. but yuppie geek tendencies are not a strong force in my life, as much as i like tech and organizing. maybe i am in denial and subconciously crave multicoloured sticky tabs? hm nah

oh okay maybe the more people/groups you have to deal with on a daily basis, the more serious your organizational system needs to be? i guess that makes sense, esp if you are juggling these people/groups throughout the day

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daria-g otm!

if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.

^ that realness

i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list (this is prob in gtd? i do not know) - dividing energy like this - "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CsLggSo8THePCM:http://billslater.com/tcb_ptch.gif

For me it's less about the system but more about forming good habits. Even with the simplest system in place, it helps you develop a routine that helps you not procrastinate and put off things that can be done in like 5 minutes.

doing yoga helps to keep this in perspective, for me
maybe yoga is my gtd

hahaha hippie geek

Keep your body and schedule flexible.

ohman i could market this scene

except that i wld just make it a community project instead and sell it on a sliding scale and we know how those work

i'm trying to be more of a hippie geek :) it's much better to do things with full attention (sort of zen yes?) than crazy multitask. regrettably the only way I can have this be the case @ my work is to work from home, and I do work when I'm at home, otherwise it's constant do this, do that, join this meeting, blah blah blah.

last couple of years I have discovered the revolutionary technique of making lists on notepad paper and checking things off as I finish them

no lie, this has solved about 90% of productivity problems for me

i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list [...] "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention

I agree completely. When I come to each item on my list I'm not doing or (ideally) thinking anything else. The sys lets me process my stuff with a high degree of focus on each item, and everything gets equal attention.

in other words

(sort of zen yes?)

ya rly

hey there, is that j0hn d of lastplane to j4karta? funny that i am listening to one of yr records at this very moment!

Wait, is LANDMARK the same as VISTAR?

u know what? my most favourite people in the world frequently
*just can't get their shit together*. after years of being subjected to all manner of self-help ball-hoox at various places by various people i swear i'm going to start a cult/self-non-help course or whatever and call it Don't Get Your Shit Together.

i think that is a good idea
though sometimes not have certain parts of your shit together is kind of anxiety-producing and may lead to homelessness
everyone is different as is their shit
but yeah we are not fucking productivity robots and we change and the path is not set there is all kinds of space for creative life etc!

^

all this life hack is pretty inane.

once tho i did read this list of ways to trick yr co-workers/bosses into thinking you were keener that i thought was pretty brilliant.

I like to trick them into thinking I am dull so as to avoid being the one who does everything. This is at shit jobs, tho.

one was to schedule some important emails to send at like 630 in the morning so people will think you were working then.

another was to all in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.

i cant remember the rest. they were sweet. none of them really applied to my job tho.

call in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.

i have done this.

6:30 am email is great.

I have a moleskine which is invaluable to me. It's just like my brain, full of important information scribbled down in no organized manner interspersed with hastily scribbled purse patterns. I often don't look at things once I write them down in there.

I need to be doing my homework. (check)

GUYS JUST LEARN HOW TO PLAY STARCRAFT RLY WELL AND U WILL DO OK. MULTITASKING DOGS

sonned by j0n in a starcraft hack

i think i have anxiety dreams abt losing my planner/datebook

All management and productivity plans/cults/styles are evil. As are team-building exercises and personality tests that you then discuss (a friend was bitching to me about some 'DISC' test his company made him take, then had other people try to guess which letter he was when he wasn't in the room?).

Evil evil evil.

i have never been able to keep an agenda or a planner or even enter shit into ical besides the one time a year (TIFF) i need to plan my life minute-to-minute. it's all in my head/email program.

kinda scary actually!!

haha for a minute i thought you were referring to like tax season with the ical and tiff talk and then i realized what those words/acronyms meant and then i laughed. but i think that is kind of awesome.

though i have no idea how you manage to live your life

how to work (almost) completely online = awesome.

contents of my google account + my moleskine = like my entire life.

The Zen Habits guy drives me a little crazy.

when the oil runs out where will all yr precious internet-stored files be? it is something i worry abt sometimes
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there is a zen habits guy??

"zen habits" is the blog that the "how to work online" story was posted on.

ohohoh
i'm gonna go see if he drives me crazy

wow it seems I already follow all 50 Cheapskate steps by necessity.

except I make up for not drinking frugally by not owning Only One Car.

tried to get into this book about a year ago... couldn't finish.

i agree with daria-g a good bit. but hey, if you can take a couple good points of advice (and i think the book has a few) and make it work, gouge away!

i would say it's both cult (bad) and possibly awesome.

The way GTD enthusiasts have extrapolated these ideas into a complex of fussily micromanaged systems seems counterintuitive -- this is supposed to make me more productive and less stressed out how? And the GTD wiki-cult out there just seems like a seething monument to a billion tiny daily freakouts enacted by OCD people across the internet.
^^ This.

GTD seems like a really good way to fill up all the time I could be using for getting interesting shit done with filing bills and boring stuff into its system. Then printing a wee label. Meh, that stuff gets done anyway, and the interesting things don't really break down into "next actions".

I haven't read the book or even finished the wikipedia page on it. Overwhelming, too much for my needs. GTD via moleskine is fine for me, but then I'm not mid-management. I don't fuck with "next actions" or "43 folders" or anything.

So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

basically, yes. as i said above, i'm using this tweak. capturing, "processing" (which i guess is just "next action"ing, but i hate anything that turns "action" into a verb), archiving.

I thought this was going to be a Larry the Cable Guy thread.

when i asked the gf if she'd heard of "gtd" she said "you know i fucking hate larry the cable guy"

As do all right thinking folk.

So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

I'm guessing that, as Jeff kinda said, the "system" is just being organized. And maybe a few common motivational tools thrown into the mix can't hurt. I don't have a problem with any of this, except maybe that some is getting rich off of "inventing" it.

someONE

How many things do you typically have to do in a day that require a list?

Work could anything from 6 to 12. Just looking at today's other 'things' though, there's: shopping, tasks that need doing around the home, finance/bills, renew prescriptions, book tomorrow's visit to textile show, start to research holiday and get dates in calendars, start getting a passport renewed etc.