The Cranking Widgets Blog

This post is part of a series I’ve dubbed the GTD Master Series – a collection of short interviews with well-known GTD bloggers who many consider to be masters of their craft. Enjoy!

That’s right kids, it’s time for another dollop of wisdom from a GTD powerhouse. This time around, we’ll be learning from Matt Cornell of the famed Matt’s Idea Blog. I haven’t had a ton of contact with Matt, but his blog is a fantastic read for any and all GTDers looking for a good mix of theoretical and practical advice on being more productive. After all, he does this for a living, don’t you know?

Anyway, these interviews have proven (at least in my mind) to be terribly interesting and informative. Prepare to bask in the warm glow of yet another productivity ninja!

For those who aren’t familiar with you, would you give a brief personal introduction?

I’m a geek at heart. I have degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and my first job out of college was as a NASA engineer helping launch Space Shuttles down at the the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. From there I got into programming and AI, which I’ve been doing at UMass/Amherst up until this year when I started doing personal productivity consulting full-time.

How did you get started with GTD? Was there a particular event/experience that led you to want to be more organized/productive in general?

I’d always had it relatively together work-wise, but my boss gave me a copy of the book because he knew I like self-improvement and appreciate being effective. Wow – it blew me away. I lost 15 pounds, cured my insomnia, and made tremendous progress on back pain that had been bothering me for years. I tell people it was either a midlife crisis, or damn good book!

So the results were completely unexpected, and at a much higher level than I was prepared for. In fact, the changes were so big I’ve left my steady job to teach the concepts and method to others. (I’m self-employed – no connection to David Allen’s company, FYI.)

In your opinion, what’s the biggest pitfall of GTD for people just starting out?

I’d say it depends on the person. Some generalities: Beware of the “get it perfect” trap, especially with tools. Start with the tools you are currently comfortable with, learn the *technique*, then adjust a little at a time. Switching organizing tools is not too hard to do, but forming the new habits – that’s the challenge. I tell clients that many of us have never thought about or had education in the area of workflow – it’s tacit knowledge that, these days, is crucial for success, but gets little attention.

What’s the thing you like the least about “canonical” GTD?

Well, I don’t dislike the tickler file idea, but I don’t use one per se. Instead I use the “calendar + hold” method (from one of Stephanie Winston’s books), which is equivalent. Beyond that there are some “holes” in the philosophy, including the concept of no limits on adding items (as opposed to Mark Forster’s “closed lists” idea). Also, I think there’s no built-in mechanism to make planning easy, and over committing hard. But these are niggles – the system David Allen created is brilliant in my opinion, and I’ve studied many competing ones (MissionControl, Time/Design, etc.)

Which aspect of GTD did you find the most difficult to implement? which was the easiest?

I’m probably with 90% of everyone else in finding the weekly review habit a challenge to adopt. And working the next actions rather than checking email or something easy but not very valuable. And a big one: Do *not* try to file your backlog of unlabeled files. I did this with four filing cabinets of old files, and it stretched the two-day process into to months! Instead, making filing them a project, with a next action like “re-file next 10 old files.”

How did you deal with any frustrations when you first started with GTD? Do you have any “inspirational” items that encouraged you to stick with it?

I relied heavily on the excellent davidco GTD forum, and on all the great summaries and blogs on the topic. I also pushed on the ideas by becoming a student of David Allen’s and other “thought leaders,” to see where they came from, what they’re missing, etc. Finally, I started teaching this to others, which really makes you think (they say “if you want to learn, teach!”)

Please briefly describe your current GTD implementation (tools, applications, etc.).

Paper-based: Vanilla DayTimer binder with DayRunner refills, tabs for contexts. More at “Fare thee well Hipster PDA – I barely knew ye“.

Final Thoughts, etc.

All I’d add is that for me, getting on top of the commitments, communication, and information in my life opened up a big intellectual awakening (sounds kinda grandiose, but it’s true) that lead to my asking questions at the higher levels – “Am I doing the right work?”, “What am I good at?”, “Am I surrounding myself with people I love?”, etc. To me *that’s* the major contribution of GTD – freeing your mind so that those amazing three pound universes can do their magic. Great stuff!

Thanks again to Matt for taking the time to indulge me. If you aren’t a regular reader of (or subscriber to) Matt’s Idea Blog, you really should be. Make haste!

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