David Allen’s GTD

Many of you will already be aware of a book by David Allen called ‘Getting Things Done’. This book, published in 2001 has become something of a phenomenon over the years. Allen has gone on to publish a couple of other books which build on the concept. The approach, ‘How to achieve stress-free productivity’, is known on the net as GTD. I first came across it back in 2005 and have been experimenting with the techniques since. They are a really useful add-on to the underlying principles to be found in ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey.

Well, over recent months I have been revisiting the GTD book and have found myself stepping up to the next level with this approach.

I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts from the GTD community (try here and here) over the last few days. It’s helping me to get GTD to the next level. David Allen talks about GTD in the same way as Aikido and other martial arts, so he adopts the belt model in the same way that processes like Six Sigma have. In that context, I am just moving up a belt as I get to grips with more of the key principles of GTD. I have to say, I think this only takes me from White Belt to Yellow. There’s still so much to learn!

One particularly interesting idea which I came across on several of the podcasts is the ‘Pomodoro Technique’ which is essentially a focus tool, using a timer to ensure that you stay to task for 25 minutes. I also like the idea of seeing specific tasks in units of pomodoro. Interesting idea! I’m going to try it out for some of the tasks that I have trouble getting to.

In progressing from White Belt to Yellow as I grapple with some of the key concepts of GTD, I would summarise these as follows:

•  Weekly Review – not doing this at all regularly yet. See the need, and am aiming for a set time each week
• 6 Level Model for Review – not really got this at all. The idea of the different altitudes of perspective. Needs more study. It captures the idea that we need to see our life from different levels all the way from the ‘runway’ i.e. day to day actions, up to a view of our life’s purpose.
• Inbox to Zero – must have only achieved this a couple of times in the last few years. I am conscious that the reason I don’t get there often is indecisiveness in the moment.
• @Context – finally getting my head around this now. I’ve found the division of lists makes sure that I push my focus where it needs to go at the appropriate time. This is all about not having the complete list of tasks in front of me at any time – only the tasks that fit the context I am in right now.

So much to work on, but the payback in terms of both productivity and what Allen calls a ‘Mind like Water’ is huge.