Comments on: My Scandelous Confession and A Royal Rant About GTD

By: grosshandelschmuck

grosshandelschmuck — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:44:59 +0000

Very good Information

By: Basement Bathroom

Basement Bathroom — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:31:11 +0000

I just bought GTD.

By: techdigest

techdigest — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:10:26 +0000

I agree that GTD should not be so hard. I think the only way to fully utilize the philosophy is by keeping it simple. GTD should not require a great deal of effort. But a simple workflow with simple tools should relieve the stress of getting things done.

By: just me

just me — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:02:40 +0000

Forget GTD. It's far too cumbersome. Weekly reviews? Oh, please! Read the book “Do it Tomorrow” by Forster instead. GTD is a great idea, if you are ALREADY a super-organized freak. But if you are a normal human, you just need a simple, easy plan that keeps track of things and helps you to get things … actually … done.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:28:01 +0000

Goes a long way in explaining the direction and quality of Cranking Widgets content of late.

By: Productivity overload « Just another Mac guy

Productivity overload « Just another Mac guy — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:49:21 +0000

[...] Brett Kelly writes: The amount of time and effort it takes to (according to the book) manage a list of tasks, a calendar and some filing shit has become prohibitively long for me. I look at a scrap of paper in my in-basket, and I’m positively put off by the effort it will require to add it to the project list, choose the next action, pull out a blank folder, label it and file it away. Perhaps I’m just being lazy, but that’s the freaking honest truth. Built-in anxiety is almost a guarantee. Unless you’re a poster child for GTD, you’re going to have shit slip past the defenses of your system. [...]

By: NeilOJWilliams

NeilOJWilliams — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:15:02 +0000

Good to hear. I'm going to check out those ZTD posts, sounds promising.

I'm by no means expecting a panacea for my productivity woes, and perhaps that's where people fail (the religious road to Damascus moment – then the crushing disappointment when they realise they haven't changed at all).

I'm using RTM – and don't think the technology is my problem. It's definitely better rewriting task names and reassigning them to contexts/lists using a digital tool than paper. And my handwriting doesn't make for attractive lists

My problem at the moment is doing the review (of course, same as everyone) and – as you say above – moving beyond collection into tackling those tasks. Still not escaped that email inbox really..

By: paul

paul — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:59:29 +0000

For all these reasons, I embraced and have benefited enormously from Zen to Done which is way simpler.

My wife loves GTD though although there are signs she is falling off the wagon

By: Andy P @ Cranking Widgets

Andy P @ Cranking Widgets — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:43:12 +0000

Hi Neil. Your post does indeed reflect the best of GTD, and what most people take away.

I think it can work, just need to figure out how to better apply it to the digital world. We'll be exploring solutions over time. I don't like that people just say “GTD sucks” then you discover they are still doing 80% of GTD in their “own” system. I think the key is figuring out what about the other 20% is making GTD hard to stay behind.

By: NeilOJWilliams

NeilOJWilliams — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:34:19 +0000

Oh wow. I totally recognise all these symptoms and have been lying to myself about them. And everyone else. Here, I just did it just now, on my blog: http://neilojwilliams.net/missioncreep/2008/the... – literally minutes before reading this post of yours.

Hmm. I hope not to throw the baby our with the bathwater though. GTD *can* work, right?