Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Attempting GTD for the umpteenth time

I'm coming to recognize a high level of dissatisfaction with myself as I've been far less productive than I know I can/should be. So I'm trying to get through the Getting Things Done process for the umpteenth time. I've listened through the Getting Things Done Fast seminar a few times over the past few years (though it would be more accurate to say that I've listened through the first few chapters a multitude of times and finished it only maybe once as such things go).

By way of introduction, you can find a pretty good balanced overview of the process from Wired. Going through the process you don't really get any of that new agey stuff that Wired talks about though there is a considerable amount of stress reduction as you go through it since I found it really effective at decluttering my mind. The problem is sticking with it, but I think I may have found a solution by working with someone through it if he ever gets to finishing the book himself - hint, hint, hint. A search for GTD will get you far more resources.

Update: A friend emailed me asking if maybe I would be more productive if I stopped spending as much time online. After I had an opportunity to stop hyperventilating after thinking about the possibility, I replied with a fairly adamant "No."

2 comments:

Troy Malone said...

My only recommendation is to not worry about following it to the "t". Find what works for you and implement it. You don't have to follow everything with exactness for it to work wonders!

@troymalone

Clement Wan said...

@ Troy - Thanks for the commiseration and comment! I think my biggest issue is just ensuring that I keep at it. Figuring out where to keep a home base is also an issue. The horrible thing about my life at the moment is that I'm sort of of no fixed address traveling a lot between China and Canada for 1-2 months at a time in each location. If it were for shorter periods of time then I could move files. Unfortunately it's not. The last issue is also somewhat psychological in that my work habits reset every time I move back and forth. The jetlag is especially jarring so I sometimes stop doing things that had become habits like working out, and things like this. That said, I think even my limited adoption of GTD has been fairly helpful. Each time I try, I become a bit more committed to its successful implementation.

@ Dannielo - The thing I worry about some of those services is that this would be mission critical for me. I had a look at the site and it certainly seems ideal particularly with how married I am to my blackberry. But if the site ever fails (as I'm sure more than a few web services will end up doing), I'm pretty screwed if I've invested the time into it - so I figure it's better to go with a lower tech solution. Granted it's a bit of a circular argument since if those like me don't use services like gtdagenda then how are they ever supposed to succeed? I'll definitely keep an eye on it for a while though and I've also tagged it (http://delicious.com/clementwan/productivity)