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It’s rather funny to me that I write all this stuff about productivity, GTD and the like - the truth is, I’m probably one of the poorest practitioners of this stuff that there is. My system is constantly a mess, I’m always trying new little tricks and whatnot to get things working better (which typically blow up in my face). Even though many people think I’m all organized and such (seriously, people tell me this), I’m actually quite a wreck a good portion of the time.
And even though I might know a fair bit more about this stuff than the average person, there’s another area that I’ve gained a hell of a lot of experience with during this last year of “doing” GTD:
How not to do it.
Despite having countless blogs, articles and other resources at my disposal, I still made all manner of rookie mistakes. My system went “un-reviewed” for several weeks, projects weren’t managed, stuff fell through the cracks. The worst part was, I was frustrated, tired, stressed out and - obviously - grossly unproductive.
So, having said that, if you want GTD to over-promise and under-deliver, follow these simple steps…
- Do your weekly review when you’re damn good and ready - Make sure to never even attempt to schedule a regular time for your weekly review. Friday afternoon, Saturday night, Wednesday during lunch. You’re a busy person with a dynamic life - you clearly can’t be expected to block out 1-2 hours per week!
- Give your projects really ambiguous, confusing names - A few good examples might be “kitchen” or “make more money”. After all, you’ll look at “kitchen” and clearly know exactly what that means and what you need to do about it. All this stuff about how your brain is unreliable is a bunch of bull! I don’t recall hearing about how Einstein did GTD, do you?
- Make sure your never know when a project is done - Because you’ll know when you can fill in the checkbox next to “Be a better person”, right? I mean, come on, there has to be some little contentedness switch in my head once I’ve crossed this line.
- Don’t practice GTD at home - Your work is serious business. That’s where you make your money, that’s where the advancement, hell it’s the source of most of what makes your life work! What do I care if my house looks like a toy factory and a book factory got into an Epic Battle right in the middle of it? My personal life is a snap compared to work, I don’t need any help there, thanks… sheesh…
- Make sure your filing system consists of unholy amounts of papers and crap strewn around your entire physical life - My office is too full of stuff to make room for a filing cabinet! I’ve had this “unorthodox” filing system for years and it’s only let me down… well, a couple of times. But who has the time to organize when you have as much stuff as I do!
- Never keep a pen and paper on your person - If I get stopped in the hallway by a coworker, they need to realize that I can’t be expected to take serious note of those types of conversations. I have a desk, email, voicemail and an (overflowing) in-basket for a reason. What, should I take out my hipster PDA while I’m taking a leak just because I happen to have an idea?
- “My email inbox is my to-do list” - I’m perfectly fine having an email from my wife about cupcakes right along side an email from my boss about a new acquisition. They’re all projects, right? I know what to do with them when I see them - and if I have time, I do it! Besides, every single thing I’m responsible for comes through my email! Well, except for phone calls. Oh, and voicemails. Oh, and…
As I said, I’m no expert on this stuff. I’m just a dude who has been doing his best (and failing miserably, in some cases) to keep is ducks in a row. All of these things were, at one point, symptoms of my own weak understanding of GTD and productivity in general. Hopefully you find them useful.
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28 Responses to “A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure”
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Great post! You pretty much described everything I do.
Man… I am so glad that I am not alone. My system is in pretty bad shape at this point. I feel your pain, I also feel like i know quite a bit about the whole GTD thing but things are still a mess. I guess I need to decide on some “actions steps” to get organized…
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD FailureCranking Widgets explains in some detail how NOT to do GTD. Not being specific about your tasks and projects, not carrying some means to record your thoughts as they occur to you, not keeping yourself organized — lead to worry and leaving things undone.Tags: gtd organization advice [...]
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD FailureCranking Widgets explains in some detail how NOT to do GTD. Not being specific about your tasks and projects, not carrying some means to record your thoughts as they occur to you, not keeping yourself organized — lead to worry and leaving things undone.Tags: gtd organization advice [...]
I think this is what the adult educators call the “Knowing-Doing Gap.” We know we’re suppposed to do something a certain way, but we don’t. Everyone suffers from this to one extent or another. Some in productivity, others in other areas of their life (health for instance).
I struggle to do my weekly review on a regular basis. I’ve created an Excel Workbook for my next actions. In addition to the standing lists, I create a “next actions” list for each day of the month. After procrastinating on the WR’s I finally went in and typed “Do Weekly Review” every Tuesday and Friday.” My compliance has increased since then.
What a great bunch of anti-pattern examples. I’m guilty as charged, when it comes to trying every little new GTD trick under the sun, while I really should focus on making the ones I do have, work in the 1st place…
I think it took over a year before I realized how important the weekly review is. Sure, I did it whenever I had time but once I started to schedule it on a regular basis everything fell in place like magic.
I’ve also been in the try-everything-new but I really try to refrain from it. The last six months I have had a pretty static system that works for me. There are a few problems but I’ve decided to live with them rather than try to fix a system that works 95% of the time.
[...] this one hit home. What’s made you fall off the GTD wagon? Let us know in the comments. A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure [The Cranking Widgets [...]
[...] home. What’s prefabricated you start soured the GTD wagon? Let us undergo in the comments. A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure [The Cranking Widgets [...]
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure · The Cranking Widgets Blog [...]
[...] dbarefoot wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt [...]
Hmmm… I really have a problem with weekly reviews. It’s just such a mammoth task to complete.
Instead I have tried to split it into bits that I perform when needed. So instead of procrastinating on one big task, I perform smaller tasks like “Tidy Actions” or “Project Refocus”.
I know this is against the “old time religion” but it just works better for me. (You can check out the system at http://poder.dk/lean-gtd)
But all the points are well taken. It’s always nice to hear from fellow non-perfects GTD’ers. Thanks for posting!
Cheers
- Jens Poder
[...] aktuellem Anlass hier meine zwei Löffel Senf zum Thema ‘Getting Things Done.’ (GTD). David Allen bringt [...]
[...] read a great article over at the Cranking Widgets Blog that provides a Roadmap for GTD [...]
What does it mean when I’m reading this article and I look over at my “Unreviewed Inbox” and just shrug?
I’ve also had some problems with implementing GTD, especially those reviews
I found my answer to that question in the product blog of this tool http://www.wrike.com/. They offer a bit different way of GTD practice, but you need not to review your “lists” all the time. It’s just easier with Wrike.
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure Here are a few tips about how NOT to do GTD. I should certainly take these into consideration. (tags: gtd tips) [...]
[...] Widgets has a good article covering the roadmap to GTD failure and covers such as points as only doing the weekly review when you feel like it, and never carrying [...]
[...] read more | digg story [...]
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD FailureI was frustrated, tired, stressed out and - obviously - grossly unproductive. [...]
[...] Next up, Staci talks about her experience with the popular self-help book, “Getting Things Done,” by David Allen. The book focuses on helping people organize their life and responsibilities in a more efficient way. The biggest thing Staci learned from reading the book was that there were a lot of projects, tasks and errands that were stashed away in her sub-conscious that she never felt she had the time to deal with. By recognizing the existence of these open loops and figuring out a plan for each of them, Staci realized that she could let go and clear her mind…getting her a huge step closer to a stress-free existence. For more organizational tips check out Merlin Mann’s website, 43 folders, which offers helpful geek-based, GTD tips. Other related sites include: Lifehacker and Cranking Widgets. [...]
[...] Next up, Staci talks about her experience with the popular self-help book, “Getting Things Done,” by David Allen. The book focuses on helping people organize their life and responsibilities in a more efficient way. The biggest thing Staci learned from reading the book was that there were a lot of projects, tasks and errands that were stashed away in her sub-conscious because she never felt she had the time to deal with them. By recognizing the existence of these open loops and figuring out a plan for each of them, Staci realized that she could let go and clear her mind…getting her a huge step closer to a stress-free existence. For more organizational tips check out Merlin Mann’s website, 43 folders, which offers helpful geek-based, GTD tips. Other related sites include: Lifehacker and Cranking Widgets. [...]
[...] I found a pretty interesting article on failing to get things done. This article take a reverse look at getting things done by laying out the step to take to be highly inefficient. It’s funny how looking at the opposite side of gettings thing done can be so revealing. Take a look at the article [...]
@Glenn: What you’re referring to is also known as Cognitive Dissonance or the difference between our attitudes/beliefs on something and what we actually do. When we analyze them we typically see the CD being large, but there are many things we do on a day to day basis that helps us to narrow that gap in our mind (aka Excuses..)
Great post, I’m definitely guilty of the last and some of the others…
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure: This article tells readers what NOT to do if you want to implement a successful GTD [...]
[...] A Roadmap to Spectacular GTD Failure: This article tells readers what NOT to do if you want to implement a successful GTD [...]
Well I am reading this article and I am wondering have you ever truly understood this GTD stuff.
But HEY, who am I to teach you!
[...] til anden. Mest i forbindelse med 2 minutter og inbox zero. Det går ikke så godt. Listen her lister stort set alle de fejl jeg har begået. Derfor - hvis du prøver at gennemføre [...]