read and implement Getting Things Done

Well, i’ve finished reading Getting things done. Some parts I skimmed since the author tends to boilerplate quite a lot in the book. What I thought was lacking in the book was a reference section where everything is condensed into a few pages for a quick recap.

So what did I think of it? It’s not bad at all. It does base most of it’s stuff on manual tools such as the retro pen and paper and loads of folders for filing. I fortunately am in a position where work is digitally stored and categorised. The hard work is literally done, leaving me with my inbox to sort out. This (and remember the milk) are the areas I will working GTD on. Though you can see the difficulties of implementing stuff that’s mainly done via pen and paper hard on the PC.

The processes it teaches are quite similar to what I originally had. i worked at a zero inbox methodology where I treat each email as something to action, they are filled into appropriate sections once I’m finished with them so a zero inbox would literally mean I have done all my tasks and have nothing to do.

The book teaches you to store things under sections such as “next action” for those tasks that need to be completed asap, “waiting for” for tasks that require following up by someone and “tickler/someday” for things that can be done… someday. I was particularly keen on the “someday” folder as it was something missing from my system, work out of the ordinary were collected into the system and stored somewhere where I knew I could access and start work on if I felt it was time. Everything begins to feel more logical when you start implementing it though. It’s hard to persuade someone to implement this since people tend to be resistant on their current methods and systems. Bringing a new system introduces the idea of “when it’s not broken, don’t fix it” so I’m quite stuck in telling people what they should do. But I suppose I can give my feedback on how the book has changed the way I work.

I’ve not implemented the task full yet (so I’m not counting that as complete) but soon I will.

Usually I’m not a fan of reading books that “teach” you to do things in a certain system. I myself am already pretty organised at things with my holy sync grail and my always empty inbox at work. But after hearing enough entries posted on lifehacker and seeing this article about using GTD on remember the milk. The curiosity of looking into this methodology has increased by ten folds. It seems like every geek’s dream. A world where tasks are managed, organised and logically categorised and worked on in a stress free process. Something that seems quite a far fetched ideal.

Nonetheless I bit the bullet and ordered myself a copy of the book. I was pretty amazed after reading a few chapters of it. The fact that we use our brains to do constantly remind and remember “stuff” that needs doing makes you suddenly realise how inconsistent we are as humans. Things really make sense in the book so my goal is to be able to follow this book and implement it at my work area. I probably won’t need to do the manual stuff purely because I work pretty much online and on the computer meaning there isn’t any paperwork to file at my end. This will be interesting.

So yeah, if you’re interested I recommend you grab a copy of David Allen’s “Getting things done”. It’s the perfect read for those who constantly have things on their mind.