If you search for the term “getting things done (GTD),” you’ll find hundreds of sites that discuss the phrase, coined by David Allen. My website is one of the ones that will show up in your search (generally several pages down unless you add the term PDA to the search).
It almost seems as if every blogger on the planet wants get in on the discussion of this topic, because of its popularity.
But, is its popularity waning, or I am I the only one who feels it stale and who “needs” something different? (And is this because I have gotten lax in how I am using it?)
As I increasingly focus on making sure I am working on the Right things, I’m not finding a role for GTD in helping me do that. I use Covey’s four quadrants to help me decide on what to do and when (to be covered in another post later this week).
But, I do want to thank David Allen for helping me to really internalize an important fact: our task lists should only contain Next Actions, things that we can really work on, instead of disguised projects (like Buy New Car, which is really not a task but a project consisting of several tasks).
Maybe the GTD trend really isn’t dying … I don’t know. I do know that, when everybody gets on the bandwagon for something, it eventually loses popularity. It seems that we get burned out on what we hear over and over.
What are your thoughts on this?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Business trends are always moving toward the Next Big Thing. A while ago everybody was lugging around a Franklin Planner. I attended a seminar in NYC that charged an outrageous amount of money to instruct me in the ways of adapting the Franklin Planner system and software to a Palm organizer. (ok, I confess - I attended more to get out of work for a day on the company dime than I did to be indoctrinated into the FP cult.) Shortly after that, the system evolved to include Stephen Covey’s philosophies and methods. Lately the trend has been GTD. Eventually it’ll be replaced by something else. Any of these systems, as well as numerous other hybrids will work if practiced consistently. I think the root problem is that time management requires work and discipline and a lot of people just want to plunk down a credit card and buy a magic system to do it all for them.
I think you are very much on target with this capo, very much.
It saddens me when I see people pleading for help to find “just the right software” to help them manage their time right … you can look at the GTD forums and find one reader there after another who you can tell just does not get it: they keep thinking that they need the right software, instead of realizing they just need to apply the basic principles. Heck, basic pen and paper will do the job. I reported directly to a retired admiral for four and a half years, and never saw him once work off of any task list other than a single sheet of paper with twenty or so handwritten items on it at a time (of course, we had to use goals and objectives and budget reports, but you get my drift) … he was exceptionally effective and efficient. Come to think of it, during that time I used a paper planner myself.
My sense is that there will be another time management “fad,” soon. Some guru will come out with some different way of saying what people have been saying for years, and will sell a ton of books on “how to really manage your time.”
I hope I don’t come across as down on GTD: it has several great points. But, I think people will soon tire of trying to figure out how to apply its wishy-washy priority philosophy to their lives in which they know some things are more important than others.
Thanks for letting me rant a bit.
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