-
What I'm Doing
-
My GTD Tool of Choice - Try it!
-
Vote for Topics
-
Recently Written
- My Son Teaches Me about Professional Communication
- How I Use Evernote
- Thing to Remember When Your Kids Are Driving You Frickin’ Insane
- I Have a Ton of Beta Invitations - Want One?
- The Secret to Mastering the iPhone Keyboard
- Parents: You are Their Best Friend
- Web Warrior Tools - Get Your Smart On
- Productivity vs. Social Media
- Friday Fun: Flip Video
- Brand New Site by Cranking Widgets
-
Categories
-
Archives
A blogger named Z.D. Smith recently posted an entry to his blog titled “GND” (which, I can only assume, means “Getting Nothing Done”) where he (eloquently, albeit with a healthy dose of bitterness) lambastes GTD/productivity bloggers, as well as GTD, itself. From the post:
How have we come up with an entire caste of productivity gurus, each with their own foolproof 13 step ‘how to get things done’ system? Who, more to the point, would possibly put their faith in some idiot on the internet whose only demonstrable labor is utterly useless blog posts?
It gets much better from there, believe me 
His apparent contention is that all we productivity bloggers do is foolishly squander our time (and terribly limited intellect) on the futile pursuit of “hacks” that don’t actually simplify our lives, but instead give our employers even more of our collective souls. Another quote:
What waste of human potential feeds this particular industry, whose chief value in life is productivity, who every day refresh their newsfeeds for new ways that their employers can squeeze more work and money out of them, being as they are obviously good for very little else?
Well, Mr. Smith, I’d like a word with you
First of all, I’m not stupid. Most of the other folks that fit into the category of “productivity blogger” aren’t stupid, either. All of the five-dollar words in the world won’t change that. You can consider our efforts to be a waste all you like, but accusing people of being idiots just because they don’t spend their spare time in a manner that suits you… that, my friend, is dumb.
Second, I care. While you may think that I spend every non-work moment of my life dreaming up dumb little things to do (and blog about), most of the things I blog about here are things I actually do/use in my actual life. If you are blessed with the ability to never forget anything and don’t see any reason to try to improve and streamline your life, well I guess I envy you (on that level, anyway).
Last, I won’t sit here and tell you that I think everybody who doesn’t prescribe to some sort of productivity methodology (such as GTD) is hopelessly doomed to a life of running into walls and forgetting to pick up dinner on the way home. Like most other situations in life, there is no silver bullet. I (and several others) have just found this particular way of doing things to be helpful. And, because there exists in us a desire to share what we learn, we post to our little blogs. Most of the time, the little shortcuts we discover aren’t life-altering or even terribly impressive. But, hey, we like this stuff and, judging by the number of readers some of these blogs enjoy, others do too.
I noticed on your blog that you spend time “fiddling” with your font collection. I might ask, how is this any different? What people do for fun and relaxation is hardly a bar by which to measure their effectiveness as human beings.
Anyway, not trying to start some epic battle or anything, but I hope you can distinguish “idiots” from people who just enjoy different things than you do. I’d love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment or contact me.
Oh, and I have to ask - why is Merlin Mann the exception? By all accounts, he’s probably the best-known GTD blogger on the web. Yet, you have no problem with him? I find that curious…
Yours,
Brett
Technorati Tags: productivity, gtd, rants
If you enjoyed this post, won't you consider a Stumble?
Popular Posts
comments
16 Responses to “Getting Nothing Done: An Open Response”
Leave a Reply
Nobody cares, asshole. This blog along with 1000 others are all pointless wastes of time. Blogging doesn’t make you any more important than the homeless guy you didn’t give change to on your way home yesterday.
I find it really odd that he thinks that productivity only helps people give more of their time to their employers — I know that for me, the more efficient I am at work, the more free time I have for, you know, the stuff I WANT to do.
@assman - thanks for the comment. I hate to disagree with such a compelling argument, but the author of the GND post thought it was worth blogging about. So I think it’s safe to say that somebody (namely, Z.D. Smith) cares.
Have a nice day!
The best life hacks I’ve found so far…
Five things that make me more productive…
So, assho–I mean, “assman” thinks 1001 blogs on productivity are a waste of time. I know he wouldn’t make a statement like that without reading every single one of them, so he must enjoy wasting his time, including leaving tactless and bland comments on others’ blogs.
Now, here’s where I (hopefully) continue the discussion. I say, you can read all the productivity blogs, books, and other resources you like, and you can adopt many of those practices. But, if your productivity is not increased, as in “quicker progress toward your goals” or ” continued progress toward your goals using fewer resources”, then you are not, in fact, productive.
It’s not enough to be more efficient. You must become more “effective” in the Peter Druckerian sense. He defines “effectiveness” as progress towards your business goals.
Regards,
Glenn
Rather than give the homeless money, I prefer to give them advice, life hacks if you will. Specifically, “get a job”.
To the assmans of the internet: 1001 posts on thoughts about productivity are not a waste of time. Coutning them is. No one, and I mean no one, is sitting over anyones desk making them search for, read, and appreciate ANYTHING in the blogosphere. (Well in horror novels maybe. Hmmmm… idea….) Spending time to complain about a phenomenon that no one else may care about is wasting time, not the production of content that someone may care about. And, the fact that so many folks are talking about productivity (and here’s a clue - they were talking about it before the blogosphere existed) means that some folks do care.
I don’t care for vietnamese food. I am not going to bother spending my time in the non-productive task of counting how many vietnamese recipes are available online along with how many folks post about experiences eating vietnamese food. Get a life, and be more productive about it.
The interesting thing about productivity blogs is that there are all these different ways and perspectives that can help people be more productive — or not. I read all the cool tools, new upgrades, and just Twitter at how much more effort it takes to implement all those tools compared to what I do.
But, the tools are available to me. And someone else did the research on them for me. Someone else tested them for me. Someone else made them available to me in a readable format. So, I count that as productivity on my part! ;>)
I’m not productive so that I can do more for my employer. I’m using productivity tools, specifically GTD, because it gives me a great way to effectively do stuff and give me time to NOT work as many hours with a lot less stress than if I wasn’t using it. For everyone, there has to be a payoff to the effort these systems take. That’s why we read.
I think the best way I can personally respond to this topic is an explanation of why I read (and actually enjoy!) blogs on the topic of productivity tips in general, and GTD in particular.
My idea of productivity and effectiveness is perhaps different from how others perceive it. I once had a friend who valued efficiency above all else, to a nearly “brutal” degree. Her approach was that, by increasing efficiency, she had more time to do other tasks. Her friends saw the way she approached this as a ruthless method of doing work quickly enough to take on more work.
I have long looked for ways to do the things I HAVE to do more quickly, with less effort, in order to have more time to do the things I WANT to do.
I work a 40 hour per week office job. If I am more productive, I don’t go home early or get paid more. Available time will likely be filled with more work. But I don’t study productivity in order to get more work to do. My primary use of what I’ve learned from GTD and other discussions of productivity is for my personal life. I have errands to run, tasks to complete after I clock out from work. When I get these done effectively (I prefer not to think of it as “efficiently”), I have more time to do the things I enjoy.
However, I do find I accomplish (professional) work more effectively as a result of what I have learned. I may do more work, but it is often with less effort and stress.
I practice GTD so I can feel more flow while I work, flow being “the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.”
I also practice GTD so that I can have more time to do what I want, and so I can feel empowered to create what I want in life.
GTD has also helped tremendously with low-level anxiety which I seem to have been born with. The release of that anxiety is ecstatic!
I’m serving my troll food here.
[...] periodic sweep through various web blogs related to personal productivity I came across an “open response” to the blog entry found over here. In summary a blogger named Z.D. Smith questions the [...]
Cheap Custom Built Computers…
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…
[...] Oh my god! Don’t worry though because Brett over at the Cranking Widgets blog has made some good points in response to recent criticism of all the productivity blogs out [...]
aebn myfreepaysite
[...] Oh my god! Don’t worry though because Brett over at the Cranking Widgets blog has made some good points in response to recent criticism of all the productivity blogs out [...]