Why GTD doesn’t work for me
I read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done about one year ago, and being generally enthusiastic about improving my productivity while maintaining a relatively stress-free existence, the methods in GTD were a revelation to me. I was particularly excited about the prospect of not having to continually remember to-do items, but rather, have a system to remind me when the appropriate time came to do them. I implemented the methods laid out in the book with one modification - instead of using 43 folders to lay out the next 1 year of my life, I used text files in a folder on my computer desktop at first, and then switched to task managing website – rememberthemilk.com.
Once implemented, I immediately felt a load off of my shoulders. I felt like my life was better organized, I was more productive and that I was on my way to a better and brighter future. For a while, I felt like I had completely mastered the art of productivity and that I couldn’t possibly more so. However, after a little while, I felt a bit of heaviness come over me when I would open the to-do list and the tickler file each morning. For those who are unfamiliar with the tickler file, it is a list or a folder of stuff that you want to accomplish each day for the next 30 days. According to GTD, you should also have a tickler file for each month for the next 12 months.
Looking at the to-do list and tickler file, which was another sort of to-do list each morning was cumbersome to me because they felt like additional responsibilities – both looking at them as well as carrying out the items contained within them. It was like an additional job or a to-do list that would never end. I wouldn’t always finish what was in the tickler file for each day, and when that would happen, I would feel like I had failed. I compare it to being on a vacation but having list of things you want to see or do and feeling like you have to do it. I was forcing myself to carry out the items on the list whether I felt like doing them or not, and whether I was feeling creative that day or not. How about if the weather was nice, and I felt the urge to just take the day off and go sailing? Needless to say, I felt tied to my desk all the time, and going sailing was associated with a feeling of guilt - this at a time when I was trying to free myself from a 9-5 schedule.
I think part of the reason why GTD doesn’t work great for me is that my work ethic and the level of creativity I’m feeling fluctuates on a daily basis. In college, when I would maintain erratic hours, I recall that there were days when I was so lethargic that I would sit in front of the TV for an entire day with my roommates, but there were also times when I felt so motivated that I would sit in a study room with my classmate Bob for 8 hours at a time reading and learning about neuroscience. As I write this blog post, I’m sitting in Tea Spot, a café in the Village in New York City, but this type of post isn’t one that I could just sit down and write at will. As a matter of fact, the motivation to write this came just about 45 minutes ago when I was surfing 43folders.com.
The other day, while watching a TV show about powder skiing in Canada’s British Columbia province, I myself felt the urge to do some research and plan just such an excursion, so I spent the next 2 hours doing research on various ski areas and tours in British Columbia. It was 2 hours spent being very productive in my opinion – I got the information I wanted and I was having fun. Now, what would have happened if I were following the GTD protocol? I would’ve created “Ski in Canada” as a project, then place “Research skiing in Canada” on my to-do list. This would mean that I wouldn’t get to do this research until working through all the to-do items above it. Once the time came around to doing it, however, it would probably feel like a chore rather than the pleasure that it actually was.
The GTD method takes spontaneity and instant gratification out of work and morphs it into lists and order. However, I think that these are valuable elements to life whether you’re working or not.
To me, whenever something is done and completed impulsively, it feels like a pleasure whereas if it’s on a list, it feels like a chore. Furthermore, I’m the most productive when I act on some sort of impulse, get lost in it, and am fully engaged. I’ve recently re-learned to act spontaneously and it has worked wonders for my productivity level. I still make sure not to keep to-do items stored in my head, but I also maintain no sort of timeline associated with getting certain things done.
Edit (Jan 10, 2007) – The comments to this post made me think that my understanding of GTD wasn’t the same as some other people’s and prompted me to re-read it keeping in mind many of the comments. Here is where I think I fell short:
- The first time I read GTD, the concept of context-separated lists didn’t really resonate with me I think because none of the examples given really pertained to me. Due to my line of work, I’m usually at home and in front of the computer and contexts such as @computer, @home, @work, @phone don’t really apply to me. One of the commenters pointed out that contextual lists can be based on energy level and frame of mind as well and this was a lot more applicable to me. I now have such contextual lists as work:next, research:fun, research:work and web development:next.
- For some reason, I didn’t understand that the lists are for when you want to be productive as opposed to something that has to always be in your hand and you are constantly working off of it and checking off things as you accomplish them.
Sometimes, I will read something and take it perhaps too literally, and I think that might have been what happened here. In any case, thank you all for the comments.
This would mean that I wouldn’t get to do this research until working through all the to-do items above it.
Wrong.
Comment by sumfag — December 18, 2006 @ 10:30 am
If you could elaborate on that, it would be more helpful.
Comment by Shig — December 18, 2006 @ 8:56 pm
GTD can be applied less rigidly than as you describe it. I don’t think GTD evangelists would tell you that you should have “followed protocol” when you started to research your ski trip instead of pursuing your whim. I would have done the research, then used GTD to review what I had learned and which “next actions” would need attention when I continued to plan the trip (unless I had finished the project in the two hours).
Also, my use of GTD would have assured me that I was using my time well, by helping me stay on top of everything that needed my attention at that moment.
I’m not sure what the first commenter was thinking, but here’s my guess: I don’t organize my to-do lists by priority, and I think that most GTD users recommend against the practice. I divide my tasks into time-sensitive (which I track in iCal) and “can be done anytime,” which I dump onto contextual lists (@home, @computer, etc.). As long as I’m not facing a time-sensitive task, I can pick up pretty much whichever task I want to focus on.
Thanks for the thought-provoking post.
Comment by Mike — December 19, 2006 @ 12:30 pm
I think you are taking the incorrect stance that you need to do everything on your to-do list in a specific order.
I have a to-do list under GTD that has about 500 items on it - but I am completely free to choose to work on any item from that list.
In your situation, you had the immediate opportunity to work on something pleasurable,and you seized that opportunity, and felt good about it.! Kudos!
David repeatedly notes that the purpose of GTD is to feel good about what you are *not* doing. If you feel good about what you are doing (researching skiing in BC), and you feel good about what you are not working on (your to-do list) then you have already reached GTD zen.
No problem!
Comment by Crispy — December 19, 2006 @ 12:30 pm
Although no one but the original poster will ever know exactly what he meant by “Wrong,” I can comment on my interpretation of GTD and how it fits here. GTD is actually very much against arbitrarily assigning a time or an order to doing things, unless those are things that absolutely have to be done at a certain time. (Like appointements, meetings, etc.).
One of the most important aspects of GTD is that is allows - no, encourages - you to review your lists and do your own planning and prioritizing based on the task and on your ability to do it.
This is where contexts come in. Those can be physical (@ work, for something you can only do at work, @computer, for things that require a computer) but they can also be based on your energy level or frame of mind.
There’s definitely nothing wrong with with having a context for different types of work, and doing academic research if you’re in the mood for research, or researching a ski trip if you’re in that kind of mode. Or you can just address this when you review the lists (balance checkbook - not in the mood for that; call Jim - I don’t have his info with me at home; read blogs on Thai culture to prep for upcoming trip - yeah, i’m online, I have some time, and that sounds really good…).
GTD is just a way to keep all of your to-do’s (bigger projects and more granular actions) together and off your mind. It’s not designed to replace your mind in terms of deciding what to do, and when.
I think, if you want, you can work the way you want to and still benefit from the tools of GTD. It feels to me like you’re allowing the existence of your lists to be a pressure on you to complete the items on the lists. I think your current practice is really closer to GTD than when you were feeling like you were doing GTD, if that makes sense.
Comment by Paul — December 19, 2006 @ 1:30 pm
Also the tickler file is for tasks that must be done on a specific day, and not for tasks that you think you should do on that day (actually the book says this explicitly). So if you have a meeting with someone on a specific day that could go in your calendar or tickler, or if you have to bring out the trash on wednesdays because that’s when it’s emptied than it could also go on the tickler, but if you think that you should research your holiday on the next friday, than it should not go into the tickler file. It should go to your “next actions” list (or you could call it the “as soon as possible” list).
If you see your next actions as “as soon as possible” tasks, then your example with the “ski in canada” has the following procedure:
1. Oh, I’d like to go for skiing to Canada
2. Make this a project
3. What’s the next action?
- research it
4. put research it to your as soon as possible list
5. choose something from that list, if you feel like doing this research now, than do it
if not than you can do it later but at least you have it on your list, and you decided what is the next action.
I think you should read the book more carefully because from your post it seems you missed some of the key concepts
Comment by istvan — December 19, 2006 @ 1:49 pm
Thanks for all the comments. This is helpful and is encouraging me to re-read the book keeping in mind some of your comments.
Comment by Shig — December 19, 2006 @ 2:50 pm
Very interesting to read your post and be allowed to follow through your thinking regarding Canada-powder, ski thing. My most relevant thought is how often David Allen refers to the flow of your energy in a moment to moment stream must determine what item or project you address. Never in all the millions and jillions of time management, organization, productivity books has the concept been so well addressed to me. I, also, some days find myself futzing around the house being not only nonproductive but sometimes actively destructive, you know, days when your hair sticks straight up and nothing is in the fridge. On those days, looking at a list of current projects and next action lists makes me want to spit up.
It’s having it down on paper and not having to sort it out at that time that makes me have some peace. Time to go draw a frog, say.
I appreciated much the time you took to write this and it was very thought-provoking.
Elsiepie
Comment by Elsiepie — December 19, 2006 @ 3:18 pm
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Pingback by 43f Links for Wednesday, December 20th | 43 Folders — December 20, 2006 @ 6:25 am
I agree with a number of comment posters here. GTD is not about doing things in order. It’s about a methodology that ensures you can brain-dump, and retrieve information when it’s required. This project, “Skii-trip Canada” would end up having it’s own folder, or it’s own project heading in my project list, and under @online would get the next-action “Find 2-day prices for Skii Resorts” When I found myself online next (perhaps you jotted this down at a lo-fi coffee shop with hand-grinders and no wifi access…) I’d look down my online list, and notice the fun next-action of “Find 2-day prices of Skii Resorts”. Off I go, surfing and enjoying my research. It might have been the 10th next-action item on my “online” next-action context list… who knows. But, I did it when I wanted, and when I felt it was necessary to do. I didn’t do it because it was at the top of the next-action list. Of course there might be other actions in that same project: “purchase 2-day tickets”, “purchase plane tickets 2 months in advance- duedate: xxx”, and “Ensure Will is up to date for double-black diamond skiing.” Those three come after I’ve checked prices, and ensured I’m headed on my skii-trip. So, they don’t hit the next-action lists until they’re the actual next action in that project. This frees up your mental space by keeping tasks unable to be accomplished at that time out of your short-form context lists. [This is IMHO where kgtd is failing me at the moment.]
I hope this helps a bit in terms of methodology. Please keep in mind most of the above could be wrong, but this seems to me to be how things are supposed to work.
Whether I actually implement them or not is up to me of course.
Ultimately, GTD is a method to help you accomplish your tasks. If you’re interested in researching the skii-resorts right now, and you have time, and you have the way, why not? The only thing I can think of, is you’re ignoring a more important next-action on your list…
Comment by a11en — December 20, 2006 @ 8:17 am
[…] There is nothing that I would change about this book, but the second time I read it, I decided to glean from each chapter, the ideas that I thought were most important to my personal growth and write them down so that I could easily review them whenever I wanted to. Taking the GTD (Getting Things Done) approach, I wanted to take this book of ideas and make it more actionable to me. […]
Pingback by Zen Productivity Blog » Making “The Art of Happiness” more actionable — January 10, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
You have wonderfully described what everyone goes through in adopting any personal productivity or personal organizing system–the dynamic tension between discipline and passion.
In re-reading GTD, you may want to review the Four-Criteria Model for Choosing Actions in the Moment on page 192.
According to this model, your researching of skiing in Canada is covered within the GTD system as follows:
1) Context.
I’m at my computer.
2) Time available.
I have enough time to do research before the next appointment or urgent task.
3) Energy available.
I’m in the creative flow for this project specifically.
4) Priority
If I don’t act on the energy and passion I have now, I’ll miss the muse, so it’s top priority.
The keys are energy available and priority. Many GTD’ers don’t notice energy available, nor do they prioritize creative tasks and projects when feeling inspired. Your blog rightly points out that one should at times do exactly this.
Comment by Duff — February 18, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
Great post, and kudos for the courage to challenge the GTD establishment. I hope the commenters haven’t dissuaded you from continuing to evaluate what works, and what doesn’t, from David Allen’s book. Since it’s been almost a year from the original post, I’ll be looking for an update on your story!
Comment by Ian — October 30, 2007 @ 11:26 am