Getting Things Done (GTD) - Cult or Awesome?

btw my answer to thread question is "awesome"

i know nothing about it other than the two previous posts. so, 'cult'.

i don't know what this is but i hate it

getting steens driven.

"Moleskine hack"

I can't read more than two paragraph headings of that before eyes start glazing over, so "cult".

open-source trapper-keeper

yeah, can we please have a moratorium on people using the word "hack"? just because you can co-opt techie language doesn't make you proficient at anything. thanks!

calling non-computer things "hacks" in a post-80s world: dud

OMG I totally cut the top off of this juice bottle and now it can store my colored pencils there, what do you guys think of my SWEET JUICE BOTTLE HACK.

drunk woman hotel hack

Is this a method of using a memo pad aka purse book aka a to-do list?

i called the post by its post title lol guys

Yeah, it's a glorified to-do list. Works for me, though.

No, Amanda, it is more than that -- it starts w/ instrux on how to a) recognize, b) select, and c) HOLD a pen and/or pencil.

"hack" is an apt descriptor for people who use the word "hack" that way ;\

http://img.shopping.com/cctool/PrdImg/images/pr/177X150/00/02/7b/a9/68/41658728.JPG

Everybody totally OTM. But "Moleskine hack" still = really fucking retarded/funny.

Almost as funny as the hipster PDA.

But sadly not quite.

No, Amanda, it is more than that -- it starts w/ instrux on how to a) recognize, b) select, and c) HOLD a pen and/or pencil.

-- Laurel, Thursday, August 30, 2007 8:58 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

lol

If it helps get your act together then I suppose it's OK, but when they start evangelizing their "system" they're a colossal dud cult. I don't have/need/want a system and oddly enough, I get all my shit done.

2007 GTD cult = 1980s Franklin Day Planner cult

Tearing Hoos a New One (THaNO)

http://images.jupiterimages.com/common/detail/67/95/23239567.jpg
amirite

I don't know about the moleskine part but the actually GTD part sounds like it could be useful for me. I have a lot of issues with concentration and organization so important things which get put off/forgotten inevitably become huge anxiety issues. I might give some of the basic things outlined a try.

in a way though, i can get behind this-- fetishizing, geekifying, and novelty-izing productivity is exactly what i have wanted to do for years, but never had the energy.

but on the other hand, it's fucking LAME

that was xpost and basically what ms misery said except for the last bit.

The whole GTD thing is based on sound advice -- about externalizing & centralizing a list of what you need to do so it doesn't weigh on your mind, about breaking larger tasks into smaller managable bits, and about prioritizing tasks -- but that's as far as its usefulness goes for me.

The way GTD enthusiasts have extrapolated these ideas into a complex of fussily micromanaged systems seems counterintuitive -- this is supposed to make me more productive and less stressed out how? And the GTD wiki-cult out there just seems like a seething monument to a billion tiny daily freakouts enacted by OCD people across the internet.

But in the end, I think it's just the current business-book fad that's thrilling middle managers this season.

externalizing & centralizing a list of what you need to do so it doesn't weigh on your mind, about breaking larger tasks into smaller managable bits, and about prioritizing tasks

Right! Which is something I'm very bad at. I am, however, an expert at Panic and Last Minute Slopping Everything Together. :(

Is it bad to read Lifehacker when you're supposed to be doing work?

I would probably be considered part of this cult. I use a modified GTD system, I don't know how I could function without it. There is no way I could just remember to do things or just write things down on a piece of paper or in a word document. I need to plan and prioritize.

I'm not down with the whole moleskine and other paper based methods. It jus doesn't make since to me. It's harder to keep things in sync and there is no easy way to do backups.

I'll explain my system later, to really annoy people.

fwiw i fucking hate the term "actionable"

i don't like to actually finish anything, so dud

oops i shouldve put this in this thread Landmark Forum

Jeff I would like to hear about/see your system.

Haha, I knew a kid who went through a Landmark seminar, he went away for a weekend and he came back with this burnished gleam in his eyes and a positive can-do attitude. It was... a little odd.

My moleskine is also my wallet now.

Uhhhghhghg my old roommate was a FANATICAL Landmark devotee. As far as I can tell, though, it helped her make a lot of strides for a not-very-bright, not-very-evolved person!! It's kind of...a catch-up, I think, for people who haven't learned any good ways to think about emotions...? And as such probably very useful for the right person at the right time.

I use a modified GTD system, I don't know how I could function without it. There is no way I could just remember to do things or just write things down on a piece of paper or in a word document.

ha my version of gtd is writing things down on a piece of paper.

Mine, too. And I have an (uncut) moleskine.

I prefer to TCB over GTD.

WHOAS UNCUT MOLESKINE

MY MIND IS LIKE THAT OF PRINCE

HENCE THE FUNNY

Hmm...looking at this system, it looks like it's way overdoing it. They haven't put in little instructions to stare at the wall at eight-minute intervals, either, which I require to make progress.

To clarify, I haven't read the book and agree that the "full" GTD as per the wiki article is overkill for my needs. The skine system is significantly less complicated and does what I need it to do.

GAH even that looks too complicated. It's like learning the rules & methods of some new pen & paper RPG that ends up being just like Candyland.

oh yeah i've listened to a talk this guy did - mostly it made me realize that i am judgemental abt dumb people - am working on it

yeah ok but really i write everything down anyway and have done things systematically like this since childhood. the system it is in my head. all sticky notes and margin-making and wahtever just disrupt the flow (and are insanely boring!)

i know people who are into this though and people who need and would wecome it

lol 'hacking'

A lot of times just writing something down makes me 214% more likely to remember it, and I have a sharp memory anyway. So I write things down in a normal day planner. I have a separate lil' pad for grocery list/tallying costs at the grocery. But fudge, I hate anything where you have to draw some extra structure. One of my high school teachers graded us on if we took our notes in two columns per sheet in perfect outline form. I got a C in the class bcz I did not want to take 3x the needed time to write chapter summaries.

i have the gtd book.. it made some good points for the specific situation i'm stuck in right now which is IT world juggling a bunch of projects at once w/constant interruptions.

the blog devotees of gtd/lifehacking are absurd though. there is something to be said for not getting things done, or not knowing how to get them done, trying, fucking it up, trying again, and maybe getting it done, maybe not, or maybe getting it done in a totally new, weird, interesting way.. or realizing that you're philosophically opposed to the notion of "done".. or at the very least not aspiring to be a unimpeachably correct productivity robot at all hours!

all these humorless kubrick mac geeks with web 2.0 hair..
fight this generation

I AM
I FITE
WATCH OUT SOME DEMOGRAPHIC
I'LL TALK TO YOU ABOUT MISS MANNERS, HUH?

hehe

i do have a lot of "stuff" though... but okay one thing i did learn from listening to a friend talk about gtd is that if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.

every time my schedule/things i do comes up in conversation, people are all 'whoa you do a lot of stuff' and i'm like i guess but i don't really think so, i mean, i could prob do a whole lot more. you know how much i like tv shows, ilx. i bet if i GTD-ed myself i'd be a freakin machine. but yuppie geek tendencies are not a strong force in my life, as much as i like tech and organizing. maybe i am in denial and subconciously crave multicoloured sticky tabs? hm nah

oh okay maybe the more people/groups you have to deal with on a daily basis, the more serious your organizational system needs to be? i guess that makes sense, esp if you are juggling these people/groups throughout the day

xpost
daria-g otm!

if you make a list the best thing to do is, y'know, do the things on it! it feels good, checking stuff off lists, and is motivating.

^ that realness

i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list (this is prob in gtd? i do not know) - dividing energy like this - "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:CsLggSo8THePCM:http://billslater.com/tcb_ptch.gif

For me it's less about the system but more about forming good habits. Even with the simplest system in place, it helps you develop a routine that helps you not procrastinate and put off things that can be done in like 5 minutes.

doing yoga helps to keep this in perspective, for me
maybe yoga is my gtd

hahaha hippie geek

Keep your body and schedule flexible.

ohman i could market this scene

except that i wld just make it a community project instead and sell it on a sliding scale and we know how those work

i'm trying to be more of a hippie geek :) it's much better to do things with full attention (sort of zen yes?) than crazy multitask. regrettably the only way I can have this be the case @ my work is to work from home, and I do work when I'm at home, otherwise it's constant do this, do that, join this meeting, blah blah blah.

last couple of years I have discovered the revolutionary technique of making lists on notepad paper and checking things off as I finish them

no lie, this has solved about 90% of productivity problems for me

i think also though that when you are doing something on the list you should not always be thinking about the other things on the list [...] "multitasking" - is far more anxiety-creating than just going through the day/week/month addressing each thing one at a time and with full attention

I agree completely. When I come to each item on my list I'm not doing or (ideally) thinking anything else. The sys lets me process my stuff with a high degree of focus on each item, and everything gets equal attention.

in other words

(sort of zen yes?)

ya rly

hey there, is that j0hn d of lastplane to j4karta? funny that i am listening to one of yr records at this very moment!

Wait, is LANDMARK the same as VISTAR?

u know what? my most favourite people in the world frequently
*just can't get their shit together*. after years of being subjected to all manner of self-help ball-hoox at various places by various people i swear i'm going to start a cult/self-non-help course or whatever and call it Don't Get Your Shit Together.

i think that is a good idea
though sometimes not have certain parts of your shit together is kind of anxiety-producing and may lead to homelessness
everyone is different as is their shit
but yeah we are not fucking productivity robots and we change and the path is not set there is all kinds of space for creative life etc!

^

all this life hack is pretty inane.

once tho i did read this list of ways to trick yr co-workers/bosses into thinking you were keener that i thought was pretty brilliant.

I like to trick them into thinking I am dull so as to avoid being the one who does everything. This is at shit jobs, tho.

one was to schedule some important emails to send at like 630 in the morning so people will think you were working then.

another was to all in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.

i cant remember the rest. they were sweet. none of them really applied to my job tho.

call in sick, then come in that afternoon saying that you just had to get some stuff done. then people will think you care a lot and you get to take the morning off w/o waisting a sick day.

i have done this.

6:30 am email is great.

I have a moleskine which is invaluable to me. It's just like my brain, full of important information scribbled down in no organized manner interspersed with hastily scribbled purse patterns. I often don't look at things once I write them down in there.

I need to be doing my homework. (check)

GUYS JUST LEARN HOW TO PLAY STARCRAFT RLY WELL AND U WILL DO OK. MULTITASKING DOGS

sonned by j0n in a starcraft hack

i think i have anxiety dreams abt losing my planner/datebook

All management and productivity plans/cults/styles are evil. As are team-building exercises and personality tests that you then discuss (a friend was bitching to me about some 'DISC' test his company made him take, then had other people try to guess which letter he was when he wasn't in the room?).

Evil evil evil.

i have never been able to keep an agenda or a planner or even enter shit into ical besides the one time a year (TIFF) i need to plan my life minute-to-minute. it's all in my head/email program.

kinda scary actually!!

haha for a minute i thought you were referring to like tax season with the ical and tiff talk and then i realized what those words/acronyms meant and then i laughed. but i think that is kind of awesome.

though i have no idea how you manage to live your life

how to work (almost) completely online = awesome.

contents of my google account + my moleskine = like my entire life.

The Zen Habits guy drives me a little crazy.

when the oil runs out where will all yr precious internet-stored files be? it is something i worry abt sometimes
xpost

there is a zen habits guy??

"zen habits" is the blog that the "how to work online" story was posted on.

ohohoh
i'm gonna go see if he drives me crazy

wow it seems I already follow all 50 Cheapskate steps by necessity.

except I make up for not drinking frugally by not owning Only One Car.

tried to get into this book about a year ago... couldn't finish.

i agree with daria-g a good bit. but hey, if you can take a couple good points of advice (and i think the book has a few) and make it work, gouge away!

i would say it's both cult (bad) and possibly awesome.

The way GTD enthusiasts have extrapolated these ideas into a complex of fussily micromanaged systems seems counterintuitive -- this is supposed to make me more productive and less stressed out how? And the GTD wiki-cult out there just seems like a seething monument to a billion tiny daily freakouts enacted by OCD people across the internet.
^^ This.

GTD seems like a really good way to fill up all the time I could be using for getting interesting shit done with filing bills and boring stuff into its system. Then printing a wee label. Meh, that stuff gets done anyway, and the interesting things don't really break down into "next actions".

I haven't read the book or even finished the wikipedia page on it. Overwhelming, too much for my needs. GTD via moleskine is fine for me, but then I'm not mid-management. I don't fuck with "next actions" or "43 folders" or anything.

So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

basically, yes. as i said above, i'm using this tweak. capturing, "processing" (which i guess is just "next action"ing, but i hate anything that turns "action" into a verb), archiving.

I thought this was going to be a Larry the Cable Guy thread.

when i asked the gf if she'd heard of "gtd" she said "you know i fucking hate larry the cable guy"

As do all right thinking folk.

So what part of GTD are you doing, then? Writing stuff down in a black notepad?

I'm guessing that, as Jeff kinda said, the "system" is just being organized. And maybe a few common motivational tools thrown into the mix can't hurt. I don't have a problem with any of this, except maybe that some is getting rich off of "inventing" it.

someONE

being organized is for suckers

no it's not

That's what The Man wants you to think.

who wants to DO shit, right?

Obviously there's something to be said for beauty in chaos, structure visible only to the eccentric, whatnot. Systematizing can definitely come off as kinda soul-deadening. I spent a while on drugs, sleeping on books I'd never read, writing half-assed poetry (that coulda been great if I'd revised the shit), and spewing ideas about my Great American Novel. It was fun and I was often admirably described as a wild-eyed romantic.

I'm done with that now. I'm actually writing down those Great American Novel ideas, but now I'm paying some bills and actually completing errands & assignments too. A little organization is doing me a lot of good. I'm pretty sure I've kept my soul in the process.

I like index cards. A folded index card doesn't get lost in my pocket like a folded-up piece of thin paper. And if I'm really feeling Alzheimerish I make a list and put it on the passenger seat of my car and cross things off as I do them. One time I actually did all the things.
If I don't do all the things, which is always, I just throw the list away.

After doing what I can. Doing what is humanly fucking possible.

Which isn't everything. Fuck it.

hoos and beth both otm... you have to DO shit. How do you menage to feel good if you never DO anything?

Cult OR Awesome?

it could be an awsome cult?

My system is pretty simple. I like using a combination of web-based solutions and I always roll with my USB drive.

I use Remember the Milk (RTM) for task management. I love its simplicity and that I can drive it entirely with the keyboard shortcuts. I create tasks and tag them with all the different contexts (@computer, @home, @work, @errands, @school, etc). I set due dates and prioritize here. Basically any task that isn’t set in stone with a specific date goes on here. I can add and retrieve tasks with my cell phone, and have reminders sent to my phone. I try to do a weekly review with my tasks list.

For date specific tasks, appointments, etc, I use Google Calendar. It integrates well with RTM as well. I have reminders sent to my phone. This is probably one of the most important features for me, I always have my phone, so I’ll always get a reminder of when I need to do something or be somewhere.

I use Gmail for mail. I also use my email as a dumping ground for whatever random thought that I have that I feel I may need to remember later. I do this two ways. I can use a text message just to my email address. This way whenever I get back to my computer, that thought will be at the top of my inbox, I can move it either to RTM if it is a task or my personal wiki if it is just something I need to revisit later. I also use Jott. I do this if I don’t have the time to text, I just dial Jott, say “myself’, then record my message. Again, when I get back to my computer, it’s sitting there at the top of my inbox, ready to be moved to the appropriate area.

I keep a very plain wiki on my USB drive just to capture random thoughts. Very little time is spent formatting this, it’s basically a dumping ground for ideas.

Also I my USB drive, I keep all the portable applications that I might need. Keepass is great for keeping all my passwords. Also have encryption software, firefox, and few other applications. Also keep copies of my resume in all kinds of formats and academic papers.

Other things that I won’t go into more boring details, but they are still integral parts of my system

Bookmarking: del.icio.us, indispensable
Text macros: ActiveWords, totally indispensable software. I use it constantly throughout the day to save keystrokes.
Contact Management: Plaxo, still trying this one out, so far so good, big plus is that it syncs with Google apps.
News/Web browsing/Information: Google Reader. I don’t browse websites. I have everything from productivity website feeds to CTA transit alerts to a feed that reports all reported crimes that occur on my block.
Collaborative documents: Google Docs, good for sharing documents with my wife, since she uses it as well. Christmas lists, household things, etc.
Finances: Quicken, I keep track of every single transaction we make. Always good to know my balance since Washington Mutual seems to always have it wrong on their website.
Citations: Endnote, I basically make a reference and write a short annotation for every book I read or use. A global bibliography.
Backups: SyncBack SE, I do daily backups of all my documents, settings, and music to an external drive. Backup logs are mailed to me every morning.
Browser: Firefox with tons of Firefox extensions, greasemonkey scripts, and stylish scripts.
Physical activity tracking: Sanoodi, I try to keep track of all my runs, but I haven’t been good about entering them all. I need a GPS device.

In a nutshell, brain dumps go via text message or Jott call to my email, where I transfer it to RTM, gCal, wiki, etc. Tasks get done, get checked off. I don’t think I spend a lot of time micromanaging. I get a lot done. However, it never ends.

How to make POCKET

AWESOME

why is del.icio.us good if you only use one computer

BOOKMARKING - I dunno, however Safari does it
TEXT MACROS - waht?
CONTACT MANAGEMENT - 'recent calls'
NEWS/WEB BROWSING/INFO - um, Safari
COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENTS - other people suck
FINANCES - a prayer every now and then, check Bank of America on occasion
CITATIONS - I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in 18 months
BACKUPS - an extra birth certificate in my parents' gun safe
BROWSER - Safari
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TRACKING - how tired my feet are and how much my left shoulder hurts

I have a lot of issues with concentration and organization so important things which get put off/forgotten inevitably become huge anxiety issues. I might give some of the basic things outlined a try.

For me the biggest enemy wasn't concentration or organization, but distraction. Surprise, surprise I discovered I got more work done if I kept IM, email, and my RSS reader either closed or sent off to another workspace. My personal mandate is if I add another feed to the reader, I have to remove two.

Checking things off my list = biggest productivity boost ever.

i swear i'm going to start a cult/self-non-help course or whatever and call it Don't Get Your Shit Together.

http://events.sut.org.uk/otmlogo.gif

Jeff, goddamnit, go to hell. If you can keep track of all that shit at once, I do not believe you need software to help you keep track of what's in yr brain. Your "keeping track of things" routine is about 19 times more complicated than my daily life. No, 29. 39!

Maybe I'll start to understand where you are once a doctor puts me on way too much medical speed and I start to freak out. Your system does sound like more fun than cleaning the bathroom floor with a toothbrush. Apart from that...

I'm sorry, jeff. I don't want you to go to hell. I'm horrifically envious.

from the "Don't Get Your Shit Together" blog (that doesn't have a lot of links and has the standard blogger template)

lifewhacks tip #34: Move back in with your parents

I dunno, it just sounds like a good idea.
posted by "the dude" on 12-12-2007 12:12:12pm

did that at 26.

Scarring experience.

Mister M uses a version of GTD in his work, and it works very well for him, because he is one of those people who will look at a huge block of work and kind of panic. It's a good way to turn an amorphous project into discrete tasks, and it suits him because it kind of calms him down.

I, on the other hand, have streamlined my life by having a job which features one task and one task only, which I do over and over again. No organization needed. Of course, now all my nice notebooks and pens and things that I love to buy are completely redundant. I might have to start writing letters to people.

mmm... assembly line

BOOKMARKING -
TEXT MACROS -
CONTACT MANAGEMENT -
NEWS/WEB BROWSING/INFO -
COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENTS -
FINANCES -
CITATIONS -
BACKUPS -
BROWSER -
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TRACKING -

Jeff's post confuses me - people really link in to this network of software to track their life? REALLY? How many people do this? I'm not kidding here, or trying to be funny -I know I'm a luddite - but WHY? How in hell does this not stress you to death? What if this support system malfunctions or fails? I cannot believe that this way of life can make you more productive or happier, sorry.

Also, what are these tasks referred to above? Are they work-related or personal or a mixture/continuum of both? Are they related to a specific job? Some are obvious - finances, for example. What's contact management? I have a 20 year old filofax with addresses in, but I don't manage it. Does that count?

Text Macros? You save keystrokes - why?

Bookmarking? I use a bookmark.

Physical Activity Tracking. Why on earth do you want to do this? If I go for a run, then, well...I've been for a run. Why do I need to log this in a computer. If my time was good, bad or indifferent, then that's what it was.

I believe that I am about as productive as I can be, or want to be, using bits of paper and my memory.

I have never heard of this before, but it just sounds ridiculous. And by ridiculous, I mean, so blantantly stupidly obvious that it would take the biggest charlatan in the world to make a copyrighted "system" out of it and an even bigger idiot (no offense to the people here that use it or find it helpful) to fall for it hook, line and sinker.

In what way is any of this new? Writing things down? Making lists? Evaluating the importance/priority of things as they come up? Isn't that called Just Being Organised? You need a BOOK to tell you these things? I learned them in the 5th grade.

Or did you really think that all that homework was actually to teach you algebra or the fall of the Holy Roman Empire? No! it was to teach you to be organised and develop your own system for managing your workload. I guess I did learn something at those expensive schools.

I don't vote cult or awesome, I vote so patently obvious it's up there with selling bottled tap water and, I don't know, repackaging sliced bread as an "innovative sandwich solutions".

I guess I did learn something at those expensive schools.

Well, you didn't learn any tact. I am offended that you have called my husband an idiot because he finds this system helpful. No amount of "I don't mean to be offensive" before saying something offensive like that really helps.

Yeah, I freely admit. I learned task management skills, but I never learned people management skills. But it does shock me that people can be so disorganised in the same way it shocks you that I can be so rude.

And what I actually said was, you're not an idiot if you use it and it's helpful to you, but you're an idiot if you think this is something new or unique or amazing. It isn't, it's something most people learn in grammar school. And making a copyrighted cult out of it and charging people money to learn it *is* ridiculous.

See also EVERY OTHER BUSINESS INITIATIVE EVER.

I am happy to be disorganized, to be honest.

If I come across as angry or beligerant, I apologise. I'm not angry at people who use systems like this, I'm angry at the kind of people who make shedloads of money hawking books and clinics and workshops and charging consultation fees to teach people perfectly common sense things. It's like snake oil salesmen or travelling tent preachers to me.

I cultivate an air of completely disorganisation because, as Feynman said, it gets you out of having to do unpleasant things if you cultivate an air of unresponsibility. But I am actually a keenly organised person underneath the hippie pose. Ha ha. I would never admit that in the office, though.

http://www.akira2019.com/images/characters1/thecolnel.jpg

"They don't teach tact at the academy."

In what way is any of this new? Writing things down? Making lists? Evaluating the importance/priority of things as they come up? Isn't that called Just Being Organised?

There's much more to it than that. See Google for details.

I don't buy into the basic basic premise behind GTD that "stuff" that is in your mind that you haven't yet done is causing you untold psychological anxiety.

GTD people need more of:

Do you ever stop to consider the fact that one day not only will you be dead and everyone you know will be dead too, but that the planet will probably fall back into the sun and the entire universe w

I don't buy into the basic basic premise behind GTD that "stuff" that is in your mind that you haven't yet done is causing you untold psychological anxiety.

Oh it does for me, totally. Brains work and react differently etc.

but but Kenan, it really isn't complicated once it is all in place.

As for why I feel the need to track all the minutia in my life. It's part OCD, but I actually find it makes such tasks more interesting. It's like smoking pot while doing the dishes.

One day I would like to be able to capture every thought I have.

brain.xls

This should sufficiently infuriate most people on this thread

LOL@ "this image has been stolen from..."

Put it back on the server where it belongs right now!

It isn't, it's something most people learn in grammar school.

not a fair argument at all considering how much we now know about how school works and does not work - if school really worked for everyone and all the things people "learned" were actually learned and remembered and integrated into everyday lives, then fine, everyone should be getting As. the divide in grades/aptitudes is not all about how "smart" someone is, but how smart one is in school, how well someone works within that particular education system. all people/brains are different, as said above.

things like GTD while super obvious on some levels, does teach certain things in different ways, so while some people may have picked them up fine in elementary school, other people look at these newly organized & taught concepts and go "ohhhh" and get it and it makes their life happier in whatever way.

that said, i'm much more about finding your own way of organization/non-organization/shit-not-together-eff-you above all else, rather than trying to cram your life into a system that might not work for you (see school argument above, history of school as a destructive force for so many people), as long as you're happy with it whatever happy means to you

whoa HOW TO MAKE POCKET has just mitigated my caffeine buzz

people really link in to this network of software to track their life?

it occurs to me, this is prob doing just the usual stuff many of us do but suddenly it's been reframed in terms of 'productivity' and 'lifehacks' and 'task tracking' instead of 'surfing the internets' and 'f***ing around with web 2.0 software' and 'putting off stuff to do later'

I don't buy into the basic basic premise behind GTD that "stuff" that is in your mind that you haven't yet done is causing you untold psychological anxiety.

I buy it! I buy it completely. But I'm not buying this dude's book.

I can lend it to you once Jenny finishes reading it.

Honestly, the many many websites that talk about this stuff have been much more helpful than the book ever was.

srsly some of these hyper productive people i'm like.. 'i just don't believe you' i bet half of them are like the fashion bloggers who can't really even dress themselves (some of them can't)

well sure, grain of salt and all that.

Jeff's system appears complicated to me, too, but it makes him happy, he enjoys farting around with it, and it helps him, dare I say, get things done. This in turn creates a more egalitarian domestic partnership between us since it does not automatically fall to me, as the person with the better head for nit-picky details and commitments, to remember everything and dole out tasks and reminders accordingly, a role that I resent deeply as being very intrusive on my free time and my own thought processes. So in summary, I suggest you haterz all capture your judgments in your inbox and sort them into contextual actionable items during your weekly review. Or, to simplify it for you, stick it in your ear.

No domestic partnerships are egalitarian.

...creates a more egalitarian domestic partnership...

I am like Mr. Monkey. I have to use systems to break down tasks (at work, I'm much less organized in my personal life) or otherwise I'm like a deer in the headlights.

People learning and thinking in different ways non-shockah.

I think it can actually be counter-productive to rush to complete something off you list for the rush of Getting Things Done (TM).

Loads of (work) things I procrastinate over, and without much anxiety, because some things need time to take shape properly in your mind and make wider connections.

To clarify, I haven't read the book

HALLO, 99% OF THE FOLLOWERS OF GTD-THEMED WEBSITES!

I benefit well from making lists and scheduling tasks, but that's kind of common sense without using a "system" -- make a list, figure out what's important, and do tasks as time allows. By having a "system" it's like some 12 step program where the first step is to admit you have no control over your task-minding abilities and GTD is the higher power.

I have a coworker who apparently went to some short session on GTD with Outlook. He photocopied the info from it for the new guy, who I just found out yesterday still doesn't know how to make Outlook rules to file things in folders.

I like these Jeff and Jenny characters, do they have a newsletter?

Loads of (work) things I procrastinate over, and without much anxiety, because some things need time to take shape properly in your mind and make wider connections.

These go at the bottom of the list.

And yes some of us have no control over our task-minding abilities.

But from what I understand of it, it's more than just "make a list of the stuff you have to do". It's more of a systems-thinking approach, which involves breaking jobs down into their constituent tasks, which can then be approached in a more logical fashion if possible. It also seems to me that some of the objections to it seem to be based on the idea that it takes a long time to do, but as far as I understand it from Mister M (who clearly must be some sort of mindless disciple to it, given that he actually sprang for a copy of the book) there is a bit of a learning curve at first, but after that it becomes a normal part of your working day and saves you time overall.

Also, I resent the idea that anyone who looks about for a way to become more organized and more productive must necessarily be incredibly disorganized and non-productive to begin with. Just because you want to be better at something doesn't mean you were shit at it to start with.

You are right. Obv I have to a way to be organized and productive otherwise I'd never manage getting dressed and making breakfast in the mornings. It's just my natural systems are often deficient for our modern workaday world.

I'd also trust the dude's book a million times more than the websites, because he's selling one book or a seminar that basically gets you excited about making lists, whereas the sites are foisting software or trying to hook you into return visits for ad revenue.

For perspective, this is coming from me, someone who has that "deer in the headlights" look about being organized that Ms Misery mentions, owns the book, has tried some software systems (kinkless, that omnioutliner doc), and pretty much revels in disorganization and procrastination. This is good stuff, but it's a cult of being enthusiastic about... being organized.

I don't think I could ever be enthusiastic about it. I would just appreciate less stress.

lotta player hatin in this thread

lotta player hatin' in this thread on ILx

I benefit well from making lists and scheduling tasks, but that's kind of common sense without using a "system" -- make a list, figure out what's important, and do tasks as time allows. By having a "system" it's like some 12 step program where the first step is to admit you have no control over your task-minding abilities and GTD is the higher power.

qft

Since I'm an unmarried student working a Service Industry job, my setup is pretty uncomplicated.

(Sidebar: does "setup" un-ick it for you people? Jesus, the word "system" makes some of you go into conniption fits.)

It helps me keep track of internets stuff, blog entry ideas, story ideas, class assignments, errands to run, and phone calls to make. It's organized in such a way that (given that I actually trawl through my notebook at the appointed times) I'll actually get everything on every list in the little notebook done.

But I'm hardly some ardent defender of GTD. I'll let you happily disorganized people get back to your groaning. I gotta do some things.

(and please note that "happily disorganized" refers to those here who say they're disorganized and don't mind so much, it's not a general diss aimed at all the anti-GTD folks in the thread)

For all of the benefits of having a "system," I know myself well enough to realize that I work better and I am MUCH happier if I can slowly adapt and acquire new, better habits, rather than trying to commit myself wholesale to a specific detailed system.

There's always been, for me the, fetishistic impulse of buying and designating a really nice notebook / moleskine / day-planner / pda to invest $$$ and emtional energy into and then attend to it as a totem of my personal productivity (read: worth). This always fails; after the first few times I forget to include something, I get discouraged with myself and become more convinced than ever what an ineffectual scatter-brained slob I am.

So I don't have trouble with GTD as a set of principles, but I'd rather take them on as set of good habits, rather than try to shoehorn my life into a GTD rubric.

x-post

Uh, "set-up" and "system" both sound like you're trying to qualify something that is ho-hum everyday shit. Do you say that the stuff in your fridge is "quantified" by type and refrigeration needs? No, you put stuff in the fridge. Vegetables go in the damn crisper. Technically if you do things the same way consistently in any task that's your "setup" or "system." Hey guys, my system for driving to work where I get in the car, turn left, right, right, right, and left works perfectly! Overuse of words to qualify everyday tasks to add some sort of level of management to them makes it sound like you're more interested in how you do things than actually doing them.

If you're a process analyst or information architect I guess that's cool, because it's your job.

http://www.organizingla.com/photos/uncategorized/taxi_driver_still_1_1.jpg

Travis: I know what you mean. I've got the same problems. I gotta get organized. Oh little things, like my apartment, my possessions. I should get one of those signs that says 'One of these days I'm gonna get organizized.'

Betsy: You mean 'organized'?

Travis: Organiziezed. Organiziezed - it's a joke. O-R-G-A-N-E-Z-I-E-Z-D.

Betsy: Oh, you mean 'Organizized'. Like those little signs they have in offices that say "Thimk".

Jesus, the word "system" makes some of you go into conniption fits.

xpost

BIG MOLES aka the skinedriver

Aside, what burns me is that I have a moleskine book that I scribble, draw, make notes, etc. in (I like the paper and the binding stands up to abuse well) and I hate to be mistaken as a "system" person like that woman in Slacker that puts post-it notes on everything.

I actually never think of people I see using moleskines as "system people" but usually creative people.

Post-it notes are infinitely more useful anyway, because then you're not carrying around a notebook with 90% of the pages consisting of checked-off items. I could never figure out how the electronic ones are all about the mental clarity of completing things and.. poof! they're gone... whereas carrying around a notebook of dead tasks seems less rewarding.

notebooks that flip up >>>>> moleskines

Superior to moleskine:
http://www.duncan-wilson.com/website_thumbs/pixelnotes_02_small.jpg
http://www.duncan-wilson.com/website_thumbs/pixelnotes_04_small.jpg
http://www.duncan-wilson.com/website_thumbs/pixelnotes_05_small.jpg

The binding of the moleskine is great for me as regular notebooks get tore up in my bag.

ok the pixelnotes wall is pretty great xpost

You people and your paper.

haha
i have just run out of printer paper AND post-it notes!!
but yaay beginning of school year and everything being on sale

Vegetables go in the damn crisper.
haha how many roommates have i had that did not appear to understand this??

i got stuff/things done today

rrrobyn, that is because they did not have a good Getting Things Cold system. You should see my hack for chilling wine and beer, it involves a tub of salt water in my freezer.

Kevin: Things to do, things to do today. Got a big day ahead of me, several things to do. Gotta keep on top of my life, gotta keep on top of my life. I have seven things to do. Number one: Banking. Number two: Pick up dry cleaning. [He walks into an old lady and knocks her down.] Okay, ya just knocked over an old lady, keep moving, ya got seven things to do!

http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/archives/git-r-done.jpg

can't believe this didn't show up sooner.

I really never want to hear that again.

I listened to the GTD guy's book on CD on the drive to work (one hour each way, so eat my bottom). He's got a lot of wacky components in his "method" -- e.g., the 43 rotating folders -- but most of these can be largely ignored, I believe. The essence of the GTD programme, which has gotten short shrift in this thread in favor of taking down easy targets like Moleskines, etc., is the project/context matrix: You break down projects into context-specific components and then complete the components according to whatever context you happen to be in. For instance, you might have a home improvement project with a buy a hammer component and an office-decoration project with a buy a cactus component. If you have, say, a hardware store context, then when you consult yr GTD-compliant organizer at the hardware store -- Mr. GTD uses a Palm, not a Moleskine, but I use neither -- you will see these two items under the hardware store context and be able to take care of them more efficiently than if you were following a linear, project-based "method". In short, GTD is a two-dimensional multitasking algorithm.

The hoos-hah, er, hoo-hah about how people have these amorphous psychological to-do list entries terrorizing them that they need to put in an "inbox" is mere rhetoric dressing up the rather common-sense notion that humans have a difficult time organizing their ideas at the instant they occur to them. Even if you prefer project-based organizational methods, you probably allow yrself to jot down notions, free-form, before integrating them into a project, nay?

GTD is essentially quite simple, but even so, I think it works better for folks who have a lot of high-priority projects and a lot of contexts. Myself, I have a small number of manageable projects and few contexts. I just tend to lose track of the low-priority tasks, not the high-priority ones. I'm not a very good GTDer, but it works better for me than a to-do list, and the fact that I've got this big yellow icon on my dock at least reminds me to check it once in awhile.

I use iGTD, which is free and good enough for my minimal needs, but the Omni Group has an app in development that probably will be better. For PC, tho, I dunno, 'cause I am a total Mac snothead.

two quick notes

notebooks that flip up >>>>> moleskines

-- milo z, Friday, 31 August 2007 18:17

hi dere i have this one

http://www.uncrate.com/men/images/moleskine-reporter-notebook.jpg

deuce: Minimal ZTD: The Simplest System Possible really works for me.

!!!!

You should see my hack for chilling wine and beer, it involves a tub of salt water in my freezer.

-- mh, Friday, August 31, 2007 4:10 PM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Link

Wow! I am going to post this and then go mix up a jug of salt water and stick it in the freezer, to be put in a bowl when needed. That is a beautiful solution.

ALSO - I am pretty goddamn disorganized by nature, but I have been getting better at it, partially through necessity since I started an office job a couple months ago, making long-term organization necessary (as a waiter my "projects" were individual tables and I only had to keep myself organized for really hectic 2-hour +/- periods, and each day was a new start).

Anyway, I was reading Jeff's comprehensive post (not realizing it was Jeff) and while I would sooner die than live that degree of organized, I thought, "1. Oh, wow, I do some of this (texting my email for reminders, or texting my own phone) and 2. This guy is my guru."

I'm so proud of you.

Let's GTD each other.

you're both fired.

^ stop loss

Hee hee.

While Jeff can tell you that I'm pretty much the polar opposite of a GTD disciple, I am enthralled by organized people. Hell, I'm enthralled by Jeff's ability to file his taxes on time and keep from overdrawing the family checkbook!

Wow! I am going to post this and then go mix up a jug of salt water and stick it in the freezer, to be put in a bowl when needed. That is a beautiful solution.

i assume this pun was accidental? it still made me laugh.

jeff, your system sounds like a more advanced version of what toby uses, and what i'm too lazy to try. do you endnote fun reading/fiction/etc as well as things that might need to be cited somewhere?

Nah, I don't endnote fiction. I don't really read much fiction though.

I thought about getting organized, bought a lined moleskine, shoved it in my "go-bag," and then decided it was easier just to grow some unruly facial hair in order to diffuse any assumptions that I should be getting anything done, ever.

I am liking the alpha build of Omnifocus. I tried reading the GTD book, but I put it down 20 pages in a couple of weeks ago and haven't felt the urge to go back. Overall it's too early to say if this is C or D - probably closer to C though?

"go-bag"

i work two jobs, i have a witeboard at each job w/ various projects written on them, give them a weekly revision to keep it up to date. seems to work well!

my personal life is nowhere near as organised.

There's an article on GTD creator David Allen in the latest Wired that brings out the 'new age' background to the origins of GTD.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-10/ff_allen

Yeah that shit kinda disturbs me.

The article makes apologies for it though!

Although the article tries to make GTD link to his new age background, it's not very convincing, and rather stretching the analogy:

Allen recommends that we take regular comprehensive inventory of our intentions, which he calls open loops. Any open loop requiring more than one action is a project, and projects, naturally, go on a list. The project list is not a reminder of values or deeply held beliefs. Rather, it is an exhaustive external repository meant to capture every single thing that you may want to do. The project list must contain everything, otherwise unlisted items will return to our minds at unwelcome moments and cause suffering. A New Age cliché holds that every intention generates a chain of spiritual effects we ignore at our peril. This is karma. In GTD, karma makes the last stage of its journey from a Hindu theory of cosmic justice to a rational tool in the American self-help kit. Karma is now just an open loop.

I think its far more mundane than that though. GTD is just the equivalent of some of the 'lean manufacturing' processes that have been in industry for years.

It's caught the zeitgeist because it gives people an opportunity and purpose to mess around with mac programs (and moleskines) in a way they love to do anyway.

lol

http://www.myticklerfile.com/public/examples

Is it any good?

I was looking at life balance but it's expensive and complicated.

Guys I have fallen off the wagon. David Allen has to sacrifice me on altar or something, right?

And the Great American Novel you're writing?

Kate was kinda a bitch on this thread.

Not that I have room to talk, I came off pretty cultish. "GTD saved me from drugs and self-destruction!!!"

I don't think she was really. (x-post)

She was outspoken or even dismissive, but bitchy? I think someone took unnecessary offence (on behalf of their husband!).

I suppose, more than bitchy, I mean that she was a little sharp in her dismissal. I got a whiff of classism out of it that rubbed me the wrong way.

Kate was kinda a bitch on this thread.

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, 17 November 2007 23:54 (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

[OBVIOUS ZING DELETED]

As I type this I have a bottle of Gatorade chilling in a bath of sub-32-degree salt water. What a great idea.

hands up who likes being banned?

Are you threating me?

http://www.tomasleal.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/cornholio.jpg

i've been using omnioutliner's omnifocus. it's good for keeping track of big multi-task things but not that great at keeping track of nonlinear projects. it'll only cost $30 but that's because i'm already an omnioutliner user.

admission: i'm really into gimmicky productivity software like omnioutliner and devonthink and iwork and ilife, so i might actually buy this lifebalance thing

i've also been doing the "moleskine GTD" thing w/ the reporter notebook + the double flags ... nice!! it's basically a fancy way of having a "things to do" list in your bag but whatever, fancy is as fancy does

Getting Things the Fuck Done with Henry Rollins

My notebook has been invaluable while we've been moving. There's no way I would have been able to keep track of all the phone numbers and work order numbers etc etc without this thing.

writing things down in a notebook is hardly a new weird thing to do, though.

Indeed! I think that was discussed upthread a bit, buncha people going "lol you guys = aspies for making a whole system around your to-do list."

The heart of the whole thing for me is the "processing." It forces me to either get the Thing done or schedule it for a specific time in the future on my GCal or my cell phone calender. Then I can move forward in the notebook without worrying "did I schedule/do that thing?" I can be confident that it's done. Less worry, more organization in my life.

So I'm trying to figure out if a "personal wiki" for Someday/Maybe stuff has any benefits over a simple file in Google Docs. Are you still around, Jeff? Anything you think makes a wiki a must-have?

GTD is saving my ass right now. Saying "no" to shit would be better though.

For about a year and a half I've been using this awsum GTD tool to rule my life and make everyone genuflect at my organisational brilliance (and even impress my future boss enough that she asked me to teach her how to use it!).

However, since getting a new position in September (partially because of my wikkid org skillz) I'm in so many meetings and following so many different projects that my GTD system is srsly fucked. By the time I get back to the PC to add everything I've forgotten what it was. As a result, my organisation is rooted, I regularly forget to do some really important things, and I'm frequently stressed about forgetting stuff.

So, I'm going to have a crack at this Moleskine thing. I have a fresh Moleskine here but it's a standard book style, not the reporter-flip-up type. Does that matter?

There's also this 'hack,' which seems to be a bit less anal about where to draw margins etc. I don't know which one to go with yet.

Does anyone have helpful advice before I start wrecking my Moleskine?

(I didn't want to derail rrrobyn's diary thread as it's not technically diary-keeping)

just wreck it!!

wtf with the colored markers and organizing

I dunno, I've not read the instructions properly yet

you should use a black ballpoint with it. for best results and long life.

i just read the first wikipedia link but isn't that just saying "get a diary and write down a to-do list"?

Autumn:

My only advice is to always have a pen on you and always be ready to write something down. I use little page markers that get me directly to a blank page/directly to my last-processed item, respectively. When something hits the brain, out comes the notebook. Flip to the pink tab, write it down.

Like I said on the other thread, Jott is a lifesaver for when I can't write stuff down.

I should clarify that I have a Google Docs file for Someday/Maybe stuff & a whiteboard for projects. The moleskine is strictly for capturing & notes on the way to processing.

ken:

see the long, unclear discussion upthread, but in short: yes. plus another thing or two. really only helpful if you have difficulty remembering Stuff/have a high volume of Stuff etc.

Cool, thanks hoos. I'll go with yours because that other one I found is disastrously anal and would break my brain within 12 minutes.

We don't have Jott in Australia, as far as I'm aware.

Yeah I use a really really simplified version of the half dozen GTD Moleskine things floating around the internet.

http://www.davidco.com/blogs/kelly/archives/2008/01/david_allen_giv.html

^^^^^ The Man Himself gives a talk at Google on the basics of GTD.

Though if you want the short version try

http://www.the-happy-manager.com/david-allen-time-management.html

and scroll down

45 mins vs. 7

HI DERE UNREFLECTIVE SUCK-UP TO NOB-SUCKUNTRY. I HOPE YOU WANNA DIE SOOON. PEACE OUT I'M NOT GENERALLY FLECKING

the triumphant return of noodle vague

if I ever arrive at a point in life where I genuinely feel that my brain is incapable of dealing with the volume of shit that I have to keep track of to function like a normal person, then I'm going to ditch out of every commitment I have and go live in the goddamn woods. or beach bum it. regardless.

^^^^^^^^^^ this

- BIG AND aka the whatdriver

For me, the feeling that you need a system or need to do a better job keeping track of things stems more from thinking you could do a lot more than you do usually do if you could just keep up with the little random "oh, i should xyz" ideas that come and go all the time. It's not at all about functioning like a normal person, it's a sense that there's some next level, training montage shit out there.

yeah that concept can also eat my balls. human brains are not for being pushed beyond their stock performance in every aspect just because a few latter-day snake oil salesmen talked some Type-A bozos into believing that the answer to their chronic insecurity was to augment said insecurities with pen-and-paper DIY databases on top of their other imaginary friends mr. e-mail and mr. cellular

if I all of a sudden started "doing more than I usually do" it would just make relaxing that much harder and not actually get me extra vacation or a bigger paycheck - and I'm saying this as a person who has felt many times that I'd feel better if I could just be another overachiever, tried, and learned otherwise

you boys have fun

my favorite posters to 43things.com are the ones who just wish they could wake up on time in the morning

<3 <3 <3 tombot

im getting all abbott here

that's what y'all get, working for the MAN

Thanks hoos, I'll have a look outside work.

Others: I don't use 90% of the GTD shit, just recording things and sorting them into do now / do later / information only (by project). No 43 folders, no any of the other stuff, I just can't be arsed with it.

I don't have too much to do, but I do have too many things to remember. A system like this just works like an organised to-do list for me.

same here

but i don't plan on wasting any more breath defending this stuff to people who aren't interested. no reason to defend it anyway. works for me. you'll never want/need it. a+ everybody.

ja. More absolving myself of wankery than anything.

moleskine hack

watched hackers this morning and all we could keep saying was 'check out this sick xxxxx hack'

'check this epic hamburger hack'

'peep this ocean hack'

had-to-be-there hack

l337 grilled ch3353 hack

Jott. Jott! A THOUSAND TIMES JOTT!!!!

(http://www.jott.com)

Dude one of my buds I visited in Boise had like 7 filled-up Moleskines on her shelf on a moleskin display box she stole from a store. And I told her 'lol orange juice hack' (w/context). She was not sanctimonious tho and did not have the FOLDERS.

This is the most useful thing in my life since the cell phone. I always have my phone on me and a "jott" takes less than 30 seconds from dialing to hangup. On average I use it at least once a day. Recent Jotts:

- 4 or 5 reminders of supplies I need to buy at my job (they always seem to occur to me when I'm not at my desk, or when I'm at lunch)
- Xmas gift ideas
- movies or books I want to buy or check out of the library or go see (probably the most common way I use the system--used to carry around a scrap of paper but lots of time didn't have a pen)
- reminders of Dr. or dentist appointments
- work/meeting schedules

Jott takes a load of my mind.

Oh man but finding yr old movie/book lists is the best! "I was that convinced I had to see Pump Up the Volume? wtf?"

Went with a tailored version of this method. More suited to the type of work I do, and projects can go in the same book. Now I have to get all the SHIT I have to do in there.

She was not sanctimonious tho and did not have the FOLDERS.

-- Abbott, Wednesday, January 9, 2008 4:04 AM

yeah i totes do not need the folders

We need a thread for what the hell to put in 43 folders

botw

We need a thread for what the hell to put in the other 38 folders

i'm doing pretty much the same thing as jesse, but with toodledo. when i think of stuff (really similar stuff to his list), i just email it to my toodledo account from my phone, and it puts it on the list. i am way too lazy to properly GTD, but as i have a crap memory it's a lot nicer to just send an email rather than feel like i have to get out of bed to do x because otherwise i'd forget and then something bad would happen.

colette, I was just texting and emailing notes to myself, but Jott made the whole process faster and way, way easier.

gtd: invented by steely dan

?

"send it off in a letter to yourself"

every time your collection list gets out of control you go back back do it again

I don't remember writing 'CLEAN YR FUCKING DESK' in my collection list yesterday.

lol my gf adds notes to my stuff all the time

But I actually wrote this and can't remember doing it. Yesterday was insane.

you guys i lost my moleskine. major ;_; + panic. stupid me focusing on the redhead in front of me instead of noticing the notebook wasn't in my pocket until i was down four flights of stairs.

not on the bus. not on any of the stairs. information & library lost/found don't have it. it's got my phone # in it + a reward listed on the front page, but way in back is my debit card (which i just canceled), my DL, my student ID, and my fucking social security card.

shit.

and all this on the first day of the new semester too.

oh and a check for my gf's half of the rent. fuck.

no worries though, it's just my ENTIRE FUCKING IDENTITY that's in it.

get a new Moleskine and then make a to do list in the moleskine:

HOW TO FIND MY OTHER MOLESKINE

1. Retrace steps
2. Check with lost and found again.
3. Think: if I was a Moleskine where would I hide?
4. Pray to St. Anthony

P.S. All kidding aside I hope you find it

carrying around your SS card is a terrible idea!

I know right? I'm thinking that maybe I was smart enough to transfer it to the I-keep-it-in-my-glove-compartment-and-never-open-the-damn-thing wallet. But then maybe I wasn't.

OK I'm not panicking anymore I'm just pissed at myself for doing this and worried about the poss of my SS card floating around. Debit cxl'd, can get a new DL (it expired in a couple months anyway), new student ID is no thing, but SS card floating around = fuck.

GTL

Most frustrating things about this:

-can't buy textbooks until new card comes in next week
-can't renew voter reg with no forms of ID
-can't get new DL without SS card
-can't get new SS card without DL
-can't get new student ID without DL

-can't get served alcohol

shit that hadn't even hit me yet. ;_;

gf lost her license last week too! now there will be no liquor in the home until we get new ones. wau

-no student discount at the tittybar

o dude stop it

will the horrors never sees

Oh you poor bugger.

Not much help now but when you replace/find it, should you take photos/scans of each open page once a week?

Well thankfully I was 3 pages from the end of the book and had already processed everything new AND had a spare in the bag because I fully expected to run out of pages today.

So the concern is mainly for the ID info rather than for the loss of the contents of the book.

Shame I won't get to shelve it with the others though.

Yep.

Shelving old to-do lists is a bit OCD, isn't it? 'What was the thing that I successfully completed on the 17th of July 2004? <rustle rustle> Ah yes, wash the cat. I did that.'

(aimed at the wacky Moleskine hack guides, obv)

Yeah I mainly shelve for aesthetic reasons. They look too good to toss out!

Looks dead arty too, rows of used Moleskines.

'What's this?'

'It's, uh, research for my memoirs'

So it turns out I was smart enough to leave my SS card in an old wallet (I'd been hoping against hope), and in selfsame wallet is an old DL! With the debit cxl'd, and with two forms of ID + SS card on hand, this may not be so bad after all.

Time Bandits
Yachts and jewels are all well and good, but nowadays the ultimate luxury is extra time. Here’s how to get some.

One of the joys of being super rich is thinking up new ways to flaunt your wealth. For the Medicis and the robber barons, palaces and art were the trophies of choice; for Larry Ellison and Roman Abramovich, massive yachts do the trick. But in today’s hyperactive, overscheduled world, more and more squillionaires have their eyes on a different kind of prize: free time. Days, hours and minutes are the new currency, the units by which the very successful measure their worth. So how does one perfect the art of time hogging? Here, a few tips from the masters:

Delegate. Name any task—somewhere, a billionaire is outsourcing it. One well-known mogul favors shabby chic cashmere sweaters but doesn’t have the patience to let them get slightly worn at the elbows, so he employs a man to wear them around for him first.

Delegate the delegating. Anyone with household help knows that, unfortunately, staff are people too. Employees have emotions and think everyone else wants to hear about them. No, no, no. Take a cue from the Victorian grandees, who kept their minions below stairs and under the thumb of a highly paid head butler. Hire an in-house shrink to listen to your staffers’ complaints and an aide to sort out their schedules.

Don’t read — digest. Never waste time even opening a book. Be like the high-flying producer who summons writers and thinkers to his office to give him highlights of their work.

Jump the gun. One British filmmaker keeps a closetful of gift baskets to dispatch the moment he hears about a friend’s new baby or award. These baskets contain cashmere throws and other generic treasures, along with presigned cards. The filmmaker knows that others might spend more time looking for meaningful gifts—but that time is wasted, since everyone remembers the first present to arrive.

Prebook. Not sure where you want to go on holiday next year? Save time and avoid weeks of stress later on by booking all the nice islands and villas now, just in case. After all, you can afford to lose the deposit, and you’ll be glad to see everyone else lose sleep.

Don’t divorce. When will people learn? A divorce is the surest way to waste time, emotion and money. Instead of trading in your spouse for a new model, just stay married and have affairs. Jimmy Goldsmith had it right when, during his third marriage, to Annabel Birley, he said that marrying a mistress just creates a vacancy.

Skip the party. Fundraisers are tantamount to torture and should be avoided at all costs. Giving money directly to charities makes one feel much better and saves on taxes. So send a donation to that good cause now, and skip the benefit. At a recent fundraiser, a powerful hedge fund manager was seen twiddling his thumbs while Elton John treated the crowd to a significant percentage of his repertoire. “Just during ‘Candle in the Wind’ I could have closed a deal in Shanghai,” the financier said with a huff. “Next year I’ll pay Elton to do one song and get out of here.”

Simplify. Truly successful people understand that time really is money; they’ve streamlined their lives accordingly and won’t waste a moment on fripperies. When Warren Buffett, the richest man on the planet, went to China with his close friend Bill Gates, he took along a hamburger chef. What? Burgers in Beijing? Well, imagine the amount of time he saved by not arguing with Gates over which restaurants to try. In the Forties, Miriam Rothschild, a brilliant self-taught scientist, believed that the real reason women lagged behind men was not because they were downtrodden but because they spent too much time buying clothes and choosing hairstyles. She wore only Wellington boots, had one style of dress and pulled her hair back in a chignon. And she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her services to science.

By Gordon Bennett

rich fuckers edging in on the web II.o hipster moleskine game

yeah i read that this morning and i hope to god that at least the sweater elbow thing is a joke

Oooooohhhhhhhh, it was the clothes and hairstyles all along!

Problem solved!

Hire a shrink for the staff is an complicated/amusing but considerate thing.

The 5 Kinds of Productivity Dbags

Be like the high-flying producer who summons writers and thinkers to his office to give him highlights of their work.

^^^^ Brian Grazer, who hires a cultural attache to read for him and arrange meetings with 'interesting' people

o god I read about that in the New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/03/10/080310ta_talk_widdicombe

good link HOOS

http://thegrowinglife.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/diy-banan-protector-glennqync.jpg

Hahahahaha

Anyway, Mr. Life Hacks wishes he were McGyver and probably wanted to be a real hacker back in the late 80s, early 90s, but ended up settling for a less exciting desk job and ends up consoling himself by hacking non-technology items.

It should also be noted that Mr. Life Hack uses the term “hack” pretty broadly and in conjunction with just about anything. One can properly refer to date hacks, marriage hacks, diet hacks, child hacks, food hacks, kitchen hacks, parents hacks, brain hacks, etc. If these whackos figure out a new way to use catsup then the solution just might be called a “catsup hack.”

;_; guilolty as charged

if i could've finished this book, i might've really had an opinion.

i think a few things the book said early on about how time management made me think "gee, i need to stop doing so much stuff"... which quickly became, "reading this time management book is one of these things i didn't need to start doing." consequently, i got some other things done. hey, maybe it worked?

I don't know why, but I find that 'by Gordon Bennet' part of the article hilarious.

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/5435/moleskine.png

^^^^ gag, right

Since I started using a notebook I think I've become MORE annoyed by 43folders/GTD bullshit. Why do adults (ok maybe only in the statutory sense) need a blog and a book and a bunch of articles to tell them to write things down on paper to remember them? This is like Gawande's writing a book -nay, a manifesto!- about checklists. Are you fucking kidding me? The methods engineers used to get humans on the moon are, in fact, worthwhile, and might be employed in non-aeronautical contexts? Holy shit.

GTD is absolutely a cult. It's like turning "eating oatmeal for breakfast" into a diet book. Fuck you, Fuck a "Franklin Planner," fuck the entire Covey family, fuck a bunch of stupid apps for "helping" you treat your personal life like it's a software development project, and fuck anybody who needs to be told what kind of pen is best for their goddamned shopping list.

...

there was some column a while back making some comment about how "multi-tasking erodes executive function" within a context that implied multi-tasking itself is the problem in society e.g. "internets BAAAD! boo hiss the web, curse a book on a phone!" We know for a fact (proven by science) that multitasking makes it impossible to evaluate anything properly. But people all know this already from childhood, the first time they're ever told by a teacher or a parent to settle down and concentrate on something. The issue isn't multitasking, the issue is that our society doesn't give a shit about "executive function." Taking in lots of information, discarding most of it, drawing a conclusion, and acting on it - lol OODA, there goes aerospace again - how did we get to the point where this is anathema to "normal" people? Why is that some kind of "hard charger" shit? Since when in god's name are "decision" and "action" fucking macho tough guy words?

In short, people be sheep, that is annoying to me a lot, and yes I got married again.

Just want to drop in and say that 43 Folders, the blog, hasn't been about "GTD" or productivity since 2008: http://www.43folders.com/2008/09/10/time-attention-creative-work

It's actually one of the most consistently high-quality blogs I read! Merlin's a great writer.

But yeah, GTD and all the rest of this stuff is a total dud. I gave it all up, and I'm doing fine! Better, even.

Also, Merlin made a great video that takes on a lot of the issues surrounding the online self-help industry, and how it's kind of bullshit: http://www.43folders.com/2009/10/22/who-you-are

(Even before fall 2008, though, 43 Folders was still a really good blog. The best "productivity" blog I read, back when I read "productivity" blogs.)

if you happened to work in an organization where the best way to get along was, look like you are doing work but really not do much of anything, GTD might be effective, since it would look like you were quite occupied and had lots of Important Priority Tasks in your workspace that you'd set out all by yourself. but in reality GTD was your passive-aggressive smokescreen that made it possible to be a slacker. and in some super bureaucratic organizations (HIGHER EDUCATION) imho the best you can do at your job to keep the place running smoothly is.. nothing. the reason you need to be there is to mostly do nothing and be a roadblock for people who want to actually GTD and change shit and thus, fuck it up worse than it was before.

maybe "executive function" has always been anathema to lots of people b/c naturally lots of people aren't good at things? there will always be incompetent people. of course, there is the problem that the more tv/internets/technological distractions are around, the more we reprogram our brains to expect constant distraction.

i don't understand what this is. teaching people how to write things down?

they make notebooks with dates already in them and lines for writing on. it's not a "hack." lol.

i have trouble accepting that "naturally lots of people aren't good at things" sometimes, sorry :(

if you tell nerds something is a hack they will do it

i guess in general i just think.. if the goal of xyz system like GTD is to make everyone good at doing the tasks at hand, it's not the case that everyone can be good at them, even with a time/task management system. for example, out of people who program for a living, a certain % are always going to be average to below average at it. or in my case, trying to do academic writing, i am not a stupid person but i could schedule, plan, and organize til the cows come home, and it still won't be possible for me to do this work well. but i could waste lots of time and energy and bring plenty of guilt on myself by thinking GTD was the answer, instead of looking for a different vocation that suits me better.

oh, not good at that kind of thing sure. neither am i. it's that sometimes i just don't realize how people can't manage daily tasks without using a pre-formulated "system." then i get irl frustrated at them because my brain has always worked that way, i'm bad

daria I think the point you make about competency & GTD dovetails with what I'm trying to get at regarding "erosion of executive function" or "OODA interruption" or whatever the cognitive science literature at hand happens to call it - the root cause of gross (here meaning over-all, consistently demonstrated) incompetence isn't poor time management, task recall, or clear communication, it's that so many adults are incapable of performing the least little bit of lateral thinking or, frankly, root cause investigation on their own.

In order to solve a difficult problem, a person typically has to be able to remove themselves from the immediate context and "play house." I have a strong suspicion that most children are more capable of metaphorical conception of new challenges than their parents (up to some age that a lengthy literature review might identify - anybody got a working university library card and a lot of spare time to help me out?). To me, the presence of so many plz-to-tattoo-the-staples-easy-button-on-my-forehead problems in work environments all over the world is a bright shining signal that the self-help literature is all a sham, a failure, and our methods of preparing young adults for entry into work are a big batch of horrible, axiomatic procedures leading to negligence.

Also possibly related (and I don't really think the humanities tag is the only one that applies): http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the-Huma/44846/

I can't write code worth a shit and I've never tried to get better at it - the reason being I've always outsourced my best ideas for automated analysis/task triage/data presentation to people I know who are exceptional at the implementation side - those same people will lean on me to find the tent pole and get a fix for the resources they're missing or the bureaucratic potholes.

Maybe I'm more aggravated by this kind of thing because my chosen (given?) area of expertise is in leaving the box and finding answers outside of the typical contexts of my colleagues' offices.

And now I've just gone looking for some "makers vs managers" bullshit and have been reminded again that most professional engineers still never, ever, ever remember that there are end users - phonewallahs and customers - who have to use their stupid tools day in and day out. I've been the guy who thinks everything is a dialectic between me and my bosses. That guy is always wrong, and again, we have a problem of context.

I'm really just writing out loud, you can all ignore me.

what's the GTD consensus on smoking weed?

this is interesting.
i have def sent that benton essay (the original, and the followup) to people who are kind of musing, oh maybe i'll go back to school for a phd. i think my liberal arts education from undergrad was pretty helpful in developing critical thinking skills & learning to think outside the box. the trouble was i didn't realize for a long time that these skills themselves were useful in a professional workplace, having believed the subject to which you applied them was the most important thing. in other words, wth do i do about finding a job, if nobody cares how much i know about poststructuralist literary theory?

far as investigating the root cause of a problem (my experience, in troubleshooting tech stuff), my favorite part is when people quickly assume you can't solve it & get all pissy if the FIRST THING you look at isn't the problem. or then they lose patience if it isn't the second thing. because they don't comprehend that the process of the getting to the root of the problem requires eliminating obvious possible causes, one by one.

that's frustrating if engineers don't think about end users. is there a culture (again i saw it in web development, depending on the workplace) where they assume the users are stupid, if they don't do things how the engineers have decided they should? i tend to believe, some users will always be stupid, but they still have to use the thing (or the site), let's design so they don't have to think about it. and most users are not stupid, they have more important things to do than deal with an unnecessarily high learning curve because of bad design.

http://www.break.com/usercontent/2008/4/Office-Space-I-have-people-skills-488721.html

tbh I have found that my own mental faculties are ossifying one and a half years out of school - part of it is I can do my current job on autopilot pretty much and do nothing to improve myself besides posting to ilx and watching movies. I need to find the mental equivalent of jumping jacks or something to keep my brain from losing its plasticity.

I remember trying to figure out what GTD was back when it was a 'thing' and back then it seemed like some sort of hilarious parody - like why on earth would anyone take the time to remember what these color coded index cards are when you can just make a 'to-do list' with a single piece of paper and pen

gtd has good elements and dumb elements and really the problem with it is not that it exists but the amount of white collar professionals who are straight up SUCKERS and think that throwing a bunch of money at the problem of their own intellectual limitations will get them promoted to vp or whatever.

yes that

i didn't realize for a long time that these skills themselves were useful in a professional workplace, having believed the subject to which you applied them was the most important thing

and this
I think this is a v. typical blind spot for employers and employees. When I'm handed a stack of resumes to mark up I tend to take a high view of candidates who have an interdisciplinary background - and then have to explain myself to both the hiring manager AND (if they make it through opm, dhs chco, security, etc.) the employee, because most workers seem to have never been exposed to the idea that you can relate experience from a job in one field to a job in another.

With experienced folks it's even worse. Like Gawande's checklist essay that became the book, there's resistance everywhere to try and introduce tools or concepts from one field to another, emphasizing the little obvious differences instead of seeing possible benefits. To some degree this is probably more annoying to me because I get extraordinarily frustrated at people's simple inertia.

Maybe I'm underestimating the impact that 2.5 years of anthropology had on me, since the term "holistic approach" isn't totally verboten in that field (yet).

i'd been hoping that was the way to go in cover letters for job applications right out of college - i had some administrative work study and summer jobs but little non-menial full-time work experience, figured explaining skills i thought were relevant would help - but either i did it badly, or it's not something employers take well! i guess it must vary wildly depending on employers.

So I'm like, super back on this wagon.

getting steens driven.

― s1ocki, Thursday, August 30, 2007 8:53 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god yes

http://www.projectcheck.org/checklist-for-checklists.html

lols

I've got things down pretty simply now:

- a text file where i write stuff down as it occurs to me, then transfer to appropriate project lists during reviews. i also record tasks completed during the course of the day (by the end of the day i wind up with a list that's 'the date and the stuff i did')

- a folder called 'projects' full of text files, which themselves have notes and the next relevant todos for the individual projects

- an outlook calendar that's like the map for my day--i spend my day knocking out tasks within each project within the time boundaries i set on my calendar. the last thing i do before i leave the office is sync my cal to my phone so i can review it on the train and prep in the AM.

for non-work-related i use

- a set of index cards bound with a binder clip to write stuff down when i'm away from the computer
+ lists on the back of the index cards with tasks divided by the places i need to be to do them, namely '@home' '@work' '@[girlfriend's]' and '@train'

Using GTD's 'contexts' in my work life has proven pretty useless--if I was strict about it my whole day would be crossing items off a comically long list called '@computer'--so the project thing is an adaptation, but using contexts in my personal life has proven to be hugely useful for me--now instead of puttering and tooling around on my phone on the train, I wind up writing emails I need to send once I get out of the tunnel, etc.

I think the reason this has proven to have so much staying power for me--it certainly isn't for everyone--is that it helps me manage my worst habits and tendencies (forgetfulness, distractability, overcommitment as my spirit animal) in a way that keeps me moving forward in all the projects I'm involved in and care about.

http://5by5.tv/mpu/132

i have been 'blogging' abt 'productivity' and i can't decide if i should still like myself or not

former

latest post now in instapaper

aw ty

daria I think the point you make about competency & GTD dovetails with what I'm trying to get at regarding "erosion of executive function" or "OODA interruption" or whatever the cognitive science literature at hand happens to call it - the root cause of gross (here meaning over-all, consistently demonstrated) incompetence isn't poor time management, task recall, or clear communication, it's that so many adults are incapable of performing the least little bit of lateral thinking or, frankly, root cause investigation on their own.

In order to solve a difficult problem, a person typically has to be able to remove themselves from the immediate context and "play house." I have a strong suspicion that most children are more capable of metaphorical conception of new challenges than their parents (up to some age that a lengthy literature review might identify - anybody got a working university library card and a lot of spare time to help me out?). To me, the presence of so many plz-to-tattoo-the-staples-easy-button-on-my-forehead problems in work environments all over the world is a bright shining signal that the self-help literature is all a sham, a failure, and our methods of preparing young adults for entry into work are a big batch of horrible, axiomatic procedures leading to negligence.

Also possibly related (and I don't really think the humanities tag is the only one that applies): http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the-Huma/44846/

― El Tomboto, Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:34 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can't write code worth a shit and I've never tried to get better at it - the reason being I've always outsourced my best ideas for automated analysis/task triage/data presentation to people I know who are exceptional at the implementation side - those same people will lean on me to find the tent pole and get a fix for the resources they're missing or the bureaucratic potholes.

Maybe I'm more aggravated by this kind of thing because my chosen (given?) area of expertise is in leaving the box and finding answers outside of the typical contexts of my colleagues' offices.

And now I've just gone looking for some "makers vs managers" bullshit and have been reminded again that most professional engineers still never, ever, ever remember that there are end users - phonewallahs and customers - who have to use their stupid tools day in and day out. I've been the guy who thinks everything is a dialectic between me and my bosses. That guy is always wrong, and again, we have a problem of context.

I'm really just writing out loud, you can all ignore me.

― El Tomboto, Sunday, January 17, 2010 5:50 AM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

tthis is a great pair of posts

For about a year and a half I've been using this awsum GTD tool to rule my life and make everyone genuflect at my organisational brilliance (and even impress my future boss enough that she asked me to teach her how to use it!).

However, since getting a new position in September (partially because of my wikkid org skillz) I'm in so many meetings and following so many different projects that my GTD system is srsly fucked. By the time I get back to the PC to add everything I've forgotten what it was. As a result, my organisation is rooted, I regularly forget to do some really important things, and I'm frequently stressed about forgetting stuff.

So, I'm going to have a crack at this Moleskine thing. I have a fresh Moleskine here but it's a standard book style, not the reporter-flip-up type. Does that matter?

There's also this 'hack,' which seems to be a bit less anal about where to draw margins etc. I don't know which one to go with yet.

Does anyone have helpful advice before I start wrecking my Moleskine?

hahaha

Not to get all That Guy, but in the 5 years since I started this thread I've learned a lot about the kinds of things I want to spend my time fucking around with--and ultimately 'making lists' and 'comparing notebooks' and 'searching through emails' in hopes of Finishing The Project is decidedly *not* the thing that I want to have receiving the lion's share of my energy and time. I have shit in my life--people, passion projects, meaningful hobbies--that matters way more to me than Accomplishing Decontextualized Things as such. My tools are simple enough that they do what I need and then get out of my way so I can do the shit the list helpfully reminded me is the Thing That Matters Right Now. I'm glad I've grown up enough that I don't waste time trying to decide what list something should go on anymore--it just goes where it should go, so that I can get it done.

my new gtd strategy involves moving to a career that lets me do one thing at a time, although i do now use http://workflowy.com to manage my work. best to do thing i've ever used.

yeah it's been so liberating for me to move into a position where i can construct my day and decide my own priorities, cause i get to firewall ~relatively~ focus time based on when i know i'm most productive. i keep hearing workflowy is good, i might peek at it at some point if the text file thing starts t obore me.

that's the other half of this--as much as i appreciate the GTD workflow and the tools its pushed me to adopt as a way to handle my attention management probblems, it also gives me a useful framework to lean back into when those tools are no longer so interesting and engaging that their implementation is fun enough to maintain my attention: i can trust that when the text files start to bore me, i can look for something else that suits my needs, because now i know my needs well enough to recognize what meets them.

it's odd that my career allows me to firewall focus time but people in this company interrupt me every 1m 52s

so of course i never get things done ever

ha==the other day i was at work and i caught some article about average uninterrupted time at work, and was making a note of it, when i was interrupted--resulting in this:

http://distilleryimage9.ak.instagram.com/e32594849c8011e2802a22000a9f3c9c_7.jpg

the longer you aren't interrupted, the more you might be doing something besides working

'are you busy? oh sorry. can you do this? oh, you're busy. can you just do this now? and where's that other urgent thing i asked you to do? oh, is that what you were doing? can you do that now?'

EVERY DAY

I have felt your pain, AA.

:(

i even put up a sign, no use

they just go 'oh lol sign' and talk anyway

how's it goin?

where are we at with that?

pestering disguised as polite chitchat drives me up the wall

just wanted to check in, make sure you didn't need anything

by the way can one of you take care of these 7 things

the worst is having multiple of these people in your life who don't really communicate or care about the larger scheduling picture but just whatever little task they're worried about at the moment. particularly if one is more experienced/savvy/devious and knows how to constantly get me to do their stuff before the other guy's stuff.

'not interrupting, just making sure everything is okay'
'EXCEPT YOU ARE INTERRUPTING'
'oh sorry'

A long time ago I worked for two senior people at the same time, both of whom thought their work took precedence and both of whom piled it on (in one case I had to type up her rolodex cards on an actual typewriter--she would put them in my inbox hand-written on post it notes, which, lady, if you had time to write the whole thing down, why don't you just WRITE IT ON THIS ROLODEX CARD).

I frequently said, I'm working on all these things for the other person, can you please prioritize? so they changed it to alternate days, but it was definitely perceived as my being "unhelpful" and unable to accomplish all of both of their tasks.

we have the same problem, and need to bang some heads together at some point

The other senior editor at the same place would litter his office with reams of random notes and papers and have me pick them up one by one and READ THEM TO HIM, so he could tell me which shelf pile to put them in. He seriously just wanted to sit at his desk and have me do that for him. Editorial asst life is hell's nearest half acre.

jesus god

'also, lick my boots'

do these people discover one day that this is 'a way to work' ('it's so much easier!') or do they just have all these fantasies stored up about how they can dominate their subordinates once they have some

Don't go into publishing, kids.

damn. i am currently looking for an entry-level position in publishing because i am afraid of going into academia. i hate being a (semi)recent college graduate.

but in terms of this thread, i am reading all about GTD and the moleskine hack. i am a sucker for this stuff because i am really inefficient and forgetful and i always believe that if i just found the right system these things would no longer be true.

I so rarely use paper.

oh man, i never saw this thread before, first 50 posts or so are amazing

he's been beloved for so long that sometimes i forget what a good old fashioned HOOS hazing looked like

the preferred nomenclature is HOOSAZING

ftr i regularly punch myself in the face for including ~this moleskine hack~ in the OP

https://photos-6.dropbox.com/t/0/AABaQjT3Iu4DSHL9yAJbCGbLnTujmn2D76NAvncd3FVP2g/12/30623206/jpeg/32x32/3/_/1/2/dominateyrcleaning.JPG/w6g9vCBTgJ2VRQ3mcB1Ahk-UditRsFdfyQP9bClBNxk?size=1600x1200

i blame these people

i've got this on right now: http://www.43folders.com/2006/11/28/productive-talk-comp

Hoos & others - are you still doing this? any advice on how to get started?

read the book (srs.)

i think i've done it twice

what caek said i mean

the next action idea is useful

yeah - i'm reading the book now and starting to apply some of it. the basics seem really solid. what I was hoping for more was any advice on adjusting to it/sticking with it, how strictly you guys think it's necessary to stick to the book version. Thanks.

also thinking of projects as a collection of tasks or whatever

idk but i definitely do not DO gtd

no weekly reviews

i go in and out--i'm much more successful at applying GTD specifically in a work context, weekly reviews included--i really struggle to apply it throughout life. i'm on a downswing right now, but i'm very much aware of the degree to which my work is suffering as a result.

this is kinda posts very much in character but there's a podcast i listen to pretty much every week that is basically about how to do this ~productivity~ stuff on a consistently applied basis, and just the act of listening to it and being reminded and inspired by it is really useful. they did an episode a little while ago specifically on 'troubleshooting,' making sure you stick with it, and it's one of my favorite episodes of the show: http://5by5.tv/b2w/99

preemptive hi 5 markers

yeah - i'm very much on a loose summer swing right now, so I want to tighten things up this and next month and go into the fall feeling really solid and for lack of a better word - inspired.

between this and buddhism thread, which I'm also reading, I think markers and I are on parallel paths right now.

thanks - podcast looks great

haha i just checked it again and i recommend skipping to minute 26 to get past a long & jokey intro that won't make a lotta sense if it's your first episode

thank you for this time-saving productivity tip

every episode starts w/ that stuff i think

it's the way of the future

way of the FUture

if i've learned nothing else from marc maron, it is skip at least the first 15 mins of jokey intros that don't make sense

bulk bag

ive really got to get my shit together and hack together a hack to hack my hack

if i've learned nothing else from marc maron, it is skip at least the first 15 mins of jokey intros that don't make sense

There must be some sort of editing drinking game that takes place whenever there's a minimum tl;dr criteria.

bulk bag

― markers, Tuesday, July 16, 2013 8:29 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its your thread

how strictly you guys think it's necessary to stick to the book version.

I would say not very? I got into GTD maybe 6 or 7 years ago, did it mostly by the book for about a year, but that got to be too much -- now I don't think an outsider would think of me as doing GTD at all, but I feel like the residue of its basic ideas stuck with me and are very useful -- especially things like "you are not going to do all five of these things you think you should do, so your choice is not whether to do all five or to bail on some, the choice is whether you're going to decide now which ones you care least about or whether you're just going to let circumstance decide for you which ones you don't do"

a comparison of my calendar when i was really on my game, and now, when i'm not

http://hcd-1.imgbox.com/adm1frLs.jpg?st=7CPrUYpJ-zWbTmbpfYg99Q&e=1374101244

wait did you just stop showing up for your monday meeting or something?

what happens during all the white space?

HOOS ffs that's as koan as fucking koans get

am i gonna have to remind you you're Buddhist on every g-d thread

it's not what happens in the white space it's what happens between the white space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H67uEgRZs2Y

... which on wednesday looks like a 3pm conference with nerf herder

also maybe you don't care but there are ppl's irl names on those screenshots

what happens during all the white space?

― markers, Wednesday, July 17, 2013 10:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i deal with the flaming bags of dog shit on my desk based on which one is about to light my whole career on fire first

which is probably not the best way to handle things.

wait did you just stop showing up for your monday meeting or something?

― markers, Wednesday, July 17, 2013 10:20 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well there's some collusion in the breakdown here--regular meetings w/my biz unit & mgr have basically stopped despite my requests to get them going again. twice weekly check ins to recalibrate priorities had been really helpful.

not that you need to tell us in a public forum or whatever, but i don't really even know what you do. that being said, it seems kind of odd that you wouldn't meet regularly w/ your boss? but maybe that's not what you're saying. whatever's going on, there is a huge difference between the two schedules, and from what you're saying that's not a good thing.

said "from what you're saying" too much

anyway, i hope you can turn things around. i hope i can too tbh. haha

, it seems kind of odd that you wouldn't meet regularly w/ your boss?

the workload has just been so batshit for all of us lately that the time hasn't been made for anyone on the team, and as helpful as it would be, we could all just as well use the time for the stuff on our desks

by the way not to put too fine a point on it, but the new podcast i'm doing is happening in part out of my ongoing effort to reconnect with obtaining...task accommplishment. we talk about the creative process and the methods and style of people we admire and stuff. it's fun. we just put up our second ep here: hoosteen.net/defart/2

hm sorry try this link http://bit.ly/1aWIZyJ

(notice that in the episode about influence the top link in show notes is b2w)

de fart

i've completely stopped using these systems and haven't noticed a dip in my productivity yet :/

wish these systems worked for me better because, uh, i really love all the software and stationery that goes with them

de fart

― the late great, Friday, July 19, 2013 8:26 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

as the french say

i've completely stopped using these systems and haven't noticed a dip in my productivity yet :/

― the late great, Friday, July 19, 2013 8:28 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was gonna say 'awesome, you're on top of shit' til i read the next post where you said 'i wish these worked better for me'

are you saying you're doing fine or that you noticed no change in either case

itunes at some point?

yeah we're working on that, finishing up logo design now which is the only thing we still need

kk

the cohost passed on the logo instructions and they weren't what i would have suggested--i woulda been thinking all "something that looks like it's in iOS--but i love the kinda album-cover-looking ralph steadman style thing we wound up with

my shit is somewhat together but i feel like it could improve

gtd seems like a huge waste of time. a friend's friend used the system, and he had pages upon pages of notebook entries organizing everything he had to do, and ended up spending the time he could've spent doing things organizing the things he had to do. it's like a procrastination enabler.

"show all messages" imo

we've gone down that rabbit hole before

yes, it takes work to set yourself up for this/any system to process the incoming stuff in your life. yes, it takes "meta-work" to maintain and track the work/life stuff you're trying to track. it's just a question of whether or not you find the effort expended in maintaining the system worth the effort, stress and relative chaos reduced through the processes of better planning, more thoughtfully executed actions, and reduction in general 'am i missing something' anxiety. nothing will ever work for everybody, though.

and i think it's worth noting that no one i know who's ever adopted any of this stuff has maintained chapter-and-verse GTD techniques--it's about adapting the concepts to get the effort:reward ratio right for your own work and life style.

fair enough, that was my only exposure and i'm usually wary of gurus of any kind. is there a good introduction to this system? i could use a little organizational tune up.

http://coffitivity.com/

podcast in the itunes store

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-definite-article/id677967879

we recorded #3 last night, tentative title "world-historical typos"

i kinda love our logo

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Buzzorhowl.jpg

she told him to go for steadman i think

will listen *makes note i will never pay attention to*

yes, it takes "meta-work"

man that shit just sounds unamerican

my personal GTD adaptation is:
if it takes under 5 minutes, do it immediately
if it takes over 5 minutes, refuse to do it

i like it

sweet hack

After all the novelty wears off, I think there's a few points about GTD that are just indisputably brilliant. The "no duh" obviousness of it all only becomes apparent at those times when you've lapsed into bad habits again and start stressing about being in the weeds. That's when "obvious" ain't so obvious anymore.

First, I love the idea that all of the inputs of our lives are things that we allow on some level-that to have any meaningful relationship to your work, in particular, you need to be very picky about permitting any new input without understanding what your commitment to it will be. Anyone who's sat through a meeting where no one understands why a project is happening knows that feeling of running the gerbil wheel. Well, it's unacceptable to feel that way about your entire life. If you're going to agree to do something, you want to do it right, and need to understand that it means you're necessarily going to have to refuse other commitments in order to make it happen. There's only so many bricks that fit in the box, and you're ultimately the one who will need to find or make the space needed to do the stuff that matters most to you.

I also really like the idea of the "next action." This just means that you plan your work in terms of the next physical activity needed to keep the project moving. No more mystery meat to-do lists that you stare at for six months. When in doubt, just do something. Even if it's a small thing, if it keeps you moving in the right direction, you'll be better off than waiting around until The Big Perfect Solution™ rolls around. The next action is useful to GTDers from the first hour they pick up the book.

vintage, pre 5by5 merlin: http://lifehacker.com/038062/interview--43folders-merlin-mann

oh man

this week on the show we're talking about knowing when it's time to walk away from something--when the poem is done, when the project shouldn't be salvaged, how you know you're at a stopping point

i had a jag written down in my notes, and i was all 'hey, this is pretty good'

and i just heard this week's B2W, where as a throwaway merlin says almost the same thing word for word

and i can't tell if i should be annoyed or feel like i'm on to something

lol

still two episodes behind of yr thing i think

also need to get better at . . . life

http://99u.com/articles/17643/its-not-about-productivity-its-about-living-purposefully

It becomes less about tips and tricks and more about making sure you’re allocating the most scarce resource in the universe, your attention, in ways that most closely align with who you are and what impact you want to have on the world. It’s about eliminating the unnecessary tasks and demands that are eating away at your 150 billion bits so you can focus on something that helps another person or creates a little more beauty in the world or solves an important problem or makes you feel like you’re on this planet to do something worthwhile.

I'm interviewing this dude on the program next week.

would it be real vainglorious of me to start a thread for the internet program

i'd do it on 77 prob just to keep the show disconnected from ilx history

don't be self-promotional. i never am.

i mean cause the thing is the show's not focused on GTD at all, really, i just post about it here cause it touches on things folks into GTD might be interested in--but ultimately i think it might have a broader base of interest. but i'm not married to it. anyway.

my post was sarcastic btw. if you want to start a thread for your show, i don't think there's anything wrong with that!

on the Louie CK thread people linked to "Talking Funny," Louie & Seinfeld & Chris Rock & Ricky Gervais in conversation, and I rewatched it last night. at one point they’re talking about the difference between comedians with gimmicks and comedians with real jokes, and chris rock says something like “you can have your goofy glasses and your funny voice, but the jokes are the base--you can have whatever furniture you want in your apartment, but the steel girders in the walls are what keep it standing up.” that hit me pretty good, speaks to some of what this cat (and merlin, and, um, me) are getting at, obviously.

calling non-computer things "hacks" in a post-80s world: dud

― Will M., Thursday, August 30, 2007 4:55 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

except uninteresting writers

those are still hacks

i got cards

http://distilleryimage1.ak.instagram.com/7650dcf4fdda11e280f522000a9e17fb_7.jpg

I have index cards and pens all over the house—by the bed, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, by the phones, and I have them in the glove compartment of my car. I carry one with me in my back pocket when I take my dog for a walk. In fact, I carry it folded lengthwise, if you need to know, so that, God forbid, I won’t look bulky. You may want to consider doing the same. I don’t even know you, but I bet you have enough on your mind without having to worry about whether or not you look bulky. So whenever I am leaving the house without my purse—in which there are actual notepads, let alone index cards—I fold an index card lengthwise in half, stick it in my back pocket along with a pen, and head out, knowing that if I have an idea, or see something lovely or strange or for any reason worth remembering, I will be able to jot down a couple of words to remind me of it. Sometimes, if I overhear or think of an exact line of dialogue or a transition, I write it down verbatim. I stick the card back in my pocket. I might be walking along the salt marsh, or out at Phoenix Lake, or in the express line at Safeway, and suddenly I hear something wonderful that makes me want to smile or snap my fingers—as if it has just come back to me—and I take out my index card and scribble it down.

anne lamott

but what does she then *do* with her cards? or is the exercise and end in itself.

I imagine they're a way to capture ideas, phrases, metaphors, etc for later use, along with idle notations ("oh right, that book I've been meaning to read"), that sort of thing.

yeah even if you never touch notes again, just getting the ideas out of your head is a big deal for me.

If only we could write things down on our phones.

yeah even if you never touch notes again, just getting the ideas out of your head is a big deal for me.

― caek, Wednesday, August 7, 2013 4:55 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, i had a moment yesterday where i'd written down a bunch of street names and landmarks i'd planned to use in a poem, and then promptly used the other side of the notecard for something else and so didn't have it with me when i sat down to write--but the act of noting them to begin with had planted the strongest ones in my memory, and they were easy to recall in writing.

If only we could write things down on our phones.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, August 7, 2013 5:03 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The notecard launches faster than my Drafts app.

And I **love** Drafts.

I mean ultimately stuff like this comes down to what's comfortable and works for you--the notecard is flexible, doesn't need batteries or boot time, and can have as much or little psychological sense of permanence as you want--which can be especially important when you're dealing with the inevitable "getting started" hurdle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CHxhjDPKfbY

dammit

well whatever, its david allen giving a 20 min primer on why gtd can be useful and how it works. a good crash course for folks who don't wanna read the book or listen to the podcasts or follow the links or look at the articles itt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHxhjDPKfbY

ty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hck-0UEij0

scintillating

@adampash

Weigh yourself before, then weigh yourself again after. You just weighed your poop. #lifehack #backinthegame

There's another way to weigh your poop. And it only requires using the scales once.

the germans have tips

#backinthegame

just when you think you're out

you're weighin your poop

what is your podcast with the productivity interview?

oh wait i found it! carry on poop optimization.

checked this out of the library

http://i.imgur.com/8o3Ae2tl.jpg

^^ areas of focus

on the wagon?

off the wagon?

what is it?

i thought you weirdos used cool notebooks

nah these days its any.do on the phone & in chrome, and the bullet journal when i'm stuck in a meeting

http://www.any.do/

the to-do integrating with the cal is pretty slick too

gotcha, was getting into rhodias for drawing/skecthing/thoughys for awhile

i really liked the dot grid field notes for a while, felt more disposable than like a moleskine but still substantial enough that i didn't crap it up like i would a memo pad. lost my last graph-paper moleskine at my local dive which is a shame, only half full and a lot of useful & meaningful stuff in there. haven't had the heart to throw money at a notebook since.

in the interests of relating my narcissistic instagramming back to the thread topic

(god this is gonna sound so insane and in-the-weeds to the people who already think this is a bunch of crazy overdetermined bullshit, but it does me good, and maybe if you're my kind of insane you might find it useful)

Part of the reason my last run through with GTD fell apart was that I was struggling with how to bring 'recurring projects' into my workflows--how do I fit a set of actions I have to do relatively consistently, with flavors of variation, into a do/defer/delegate framework? I tried things like "Project: Solving X for JANUARY 2013," followed by "Project: Solving X for FEBRUARY 2013," or just keeping "Solving X" as a constant ongoing project. Eventually I realized that the overlap and constant motion of activities made the project framework useless for me and created more "how do I track this task" problems & meta-work than I had time for.

So this week I was listening to an old ep of Back to Work and Merlin was going on about 'areas of responsibility,' saying "if you find yourself getting confused and bogged down, it could be that you're thinking of an area of responsibility like it's a discrete project with a beginning and an end, when really it's a whole section of your life with a lot of moving and overlapping parts." Something clicked, and I realized that by stepping back to get a wider view of how my individual projects fit within different areas of my work & life, suddenly things *were* organized and sensible to me--they'd just been living in a broader framework than I had been thinking about. It was like I'd spent all this time trying to chase tornadoes by looking at the sky instead of the radar.

So this is feeling good. Even if I look a little crazy to everyone else.

really useful summary of the GTD take on 'perspectives' here

Totally awesome ED of the Brecht Forum, Matt Birkhold, says this on a recent podcast that I loved (produced by my local organizing power and center of awesomeness, the Brooklyn Movement Center):

One of the first things I try to do is, I don't talk about being productive; I talk about making a contribution. And I do that because I think about productive... I'm originally from Michigan, the home of the revolutionary working class, the home of industrial production. Cars get produced, refrigerators get produced. ...And those are all produced under capitalism and there's great pressure, there's always the pressure to live up to a deadline or whatever. One of the first things I do around self-care and as a conscious attempt to not live by capitalist values and utilize capitalist logic, is to make a contribution, rather than being productive, rather than holding myself to a standard that really just heaps piles of pressure on me. ... So what I try to do is be like, okay, what can I contribute here? How can I improve this situation; what do I have to give? And that for me is helpful because it limits the amount of strain I put on myself to live beyond my capacity.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 Really all those hearts for this WHOLE podcast, which resonated with me like crazy and I'm taking notes from ALL the speakers, but also for that sentiment of Matt's in particular.

cool gotta listen to that

a friend of mine takes me to task (lol) every now and then for like ~reinforcing the logic of capitalism~ by pursuing 'productivity' in this mode of trying to find ways to make myself do more in less time--"like dude you realize you're just making each of your working hours worth less money as you do that right"--and i've struggled with reconciling that with my need to get as much stuff done as i've obligated myself into.

my real problem, as has becoming glaringly clear to me in the last few weeks, is my fear of saying no. i want to please everyone, so i want to say yes to everything thrown at me, because i want to be seen as someone capable and involved in all the things i say i care about. but the reality i'm starting to recognize is that you can't care about everything--when you elevate everything to the level of being worth your time, you're not really singling out anything for care at all.

ugh not that i've thought about this stuff this week or anything

oh hey IO they interviewed my man robert in that first episode--i produce his radio show!

er not interviewed him i guess, just see they're talking about his 'social justice outrage machine' article

people are always telling me "dude you're so much more organized than me" and i'm like "if that's true why do i keep dropping the ball and fucking up"

so this hit me like bricks

The book is for people who are striving hard. "The people who take to GTD are the most organized people," Allen says, "but they self-assess as the least organized, because they are well-enough organized to know that they are fucking up."

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-10/ff_allen?currentPage=all

hoos i might re-read this book this week

i'm about to read 'making it all work' for the stuff about horizons of focus

just what i've read in articles and stuff has really helped me rope off different work into different mental spaces, and that's done a lot for the sense of heaviness i've been carrying around

a lot of the stuff i've learned from apple is relevant in this area

esp. wrt stuff you've posted about before, like "focus"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8eP99neOVs

there's more than that

a lot of the stuff i've learned from apple is relevant in this area

― markers, Thursday, March 27, 2014 1:36 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i mean i'm not an apple dude really but more and more lately i've admired one-app-at-a-time as a design choice

it's funny you mention that, because a lot of the "system" i'm in the final stages of "designing" to use to run my life off of is based largely off of using my ipad. shit's gonna be awesome

one of the things i need to do is to look into google now too

also, i really think that if merlin mann and david allen have part of the picture here, apple and steve jobs have another very, very key part, in some ways perhaps more key than the others', but

feel free to laugh at that shit ilx but it's true

lol *loop closed*

(i've been reading gtd i like it)

the next actions idea is one of the best in there. simplest too

one of the things i need to do is to look into google now too

― markers, Thursday, March 27, 2014 4:55 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i've been using it pretty regularly in hopes i can "train" it but so far its just good at guessing how long its gonna take me to ride the bus+train to work.

well that's a good feature but i was also interested in its telling me the weather and whatnot immediately and something else i can't remember

calendar stuff might be nice but i'm not sure how much of an improvement that'd be over push notifications

anyway, if anyone's interested i'll share my setup when it's done, which it better be soon because it's taking too long. it's well thought out though and will mean i can do a lot of my media consumption digitially

like i can think of all sorts of things itd be nice if google now did--sleep tracking/reminders or easy access to contact/document info for upcoming meetings (which Cal gives me), or syncing with Google Tasks--but it's just not quite there yet for me.

I strung together Sleep w/Android's with Tasker, so now I get a nightly "hey if you really want these 6 hours it's time to go to bed" spoken at me while I'm working through some textbook, and it's actually done wonders for my sleep.

would you say that you need . . . to sleep?

*cue pavement*

well that's a good feature but i was also interested in its telling me the weather and whatnot immediately and something else i can't remember

― markers, Thursday, March 27, 2014 7:27 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha yeah my alarm is now "Good morning, today's forecast is...your next four appointments are...here are this morning's headlines" and i feel like George Jetson

the "sleep tracking" and other stuff like that will probably get taken care of by wearables, esp. the iwatch. like, for sure. my setup is pretty ios specific, and i think you're on android now?

wait does android do that for you or an app?

see, i use the ios music app w/ brown noise running to help me fall asleep. and then the ios clock app to wake me up. it's pretty stock. for weather i have dark sky which i should use but don't. tasks is ios reminders. calendar is ios calendar app w/ icloud, but that looks like it's gonna change to google calendar w/ the ios calendar app on my ipad for mobile

this is a pretty merlin theme, probably, but it doesn't matter what apps you use if it gets the job done. of course, you and me and merlin to some degree seem to like this kind of stuff. but i'm gonna try to do something nuts which is to run a (possibly/probably reduced) gtd system off of calender/google calendar and reminders. w/ a bunch of other apps doing other things. a lot of my media is going to go 100% digital too, like my music, which will be mostly spotify with some itunes.

i might even try to do some digital banking/financial kind of stuff, which until now i've not done really, minus some minor paypal shit back in the day

wait does android do that for you or an app?

― markers, Thursday, March 27, 2014 7:32 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

android's stock clock! the 'headlines' bit needs improvement--sometimes instead of reading the headlines it just starts reading the world news top story verbatim in full detail

any.do on the phone & in chrome, and the bullet journal when i'm stuck in a meeting

― purposely lend impetus to my HOOS (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, March 13, 2014 7:11 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is working for me well enough rn that i'm considering doing a little writeup too

i would buy a nexus 7 or something if i had cash b/c i'm clueless about android, and i shouldn't be.

would read

i also bought david sparks' ibook "paperless" a little while ago and want to read that. i won't go paperless fully, but i'd like to run a lot of stuff paperless.

When I read acolytes debating sleep monitoring processes I begin to think "I dunno, maybe stress free productivity just isn't for me."

yeah you probably shouldn't get too deep into most of this for too long. i don't do any of that shit you're talking about yet, but the iwatch might change that

although i have spent/wasted many many many hours over years on this kind of stuff

i was reading merlin mann in like 2007 or 2008

When I read acolytes debating sleep monitoring processes I begin to think "I dunno, maybe stress free productivity just isn't for me."

― a nation filled with lead (Hunt3r), Thursday, March 27, 2014 11:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ha i mean it's just about figuring out what works for you, and sleep tracking stuff does me a lot of good in terms of making sure i get more than 3 hours a night--otherwise everything suffers.

hoos omg 3 hours- *sputters* you NEED sleep monitoring, bro. GO TO BED, YOU KIDS!

(i am old and boring and get my sleep and plenty fiber)

I don't think I've stuck with a single task list or w/e for more than three weeks before I decide life is good enough and start leaving garbage on the floor in my living room and binging netflix over beers :/

getting beers drunk

Whereas purpose provides juice and direction, principles define the parameters of action and the criteria for excellence of behavior.

Just so.

purpose: because of this
principles: this is how

that is a p nice sentence imo

just popping in here to ask... does anyone here use Omnifocus? I bought the Mac and iphone versions on a whim a few months ago when I felt the need to organize my life... and its just sort of sat there mocking me. I can tell its a pretty powerful tool but I just can't seem to find a way into using it regularly. Any users here have suggestions/resources/guides?

i don't use it, but i could probably dig up some stuff for you that might be helpful later today

i haven't looked at this stuff and have no idea how relevant, accurate, good, or useful it is. that being said:

http://macsparky.com/omnifocus-screencasts/
http://5by5.tv/bb/80

maybe just type "omnifocus" into macsparky.com's search box and see what comes up.

is macsparky a site people go to for mac stuff?

I am kind of dying at this paragraph on their front page:

A lot of times people are disappointed with their visit to Apple headquarters. I think everyone expects it to be, literally, like the Wonka chocolate factory. Instead, it is a nice place full of nice people working very hard.

sorry, not very much about GTD, but I read that and... w t f

well, it's just d4vid sp4rks' personal blog.

he does m4c p0wer users on 5by5

* furiously googles 5by5 *

haha http://5by5.tv

it used to have gruber, marco, and siracusa's podcasts on it

You know the old "face for radio" adage about people on radio not being attractive enough on tv or not looking like you'd expect from their voices? I kind of feel like most bloggers have a voice for blogging and generally avoid podcasts.

dan benjamin is a damn fine producer though, he makes his folks sound good.

also god forgive me for putting more merlin mann itt but since you asked abt omnifocus

http://5by5.tv/b2w/141

(newb tip--skip to minute 24, right about where he starts talking about "wouldn't it be nice if there was a skip 30 minutes button for podcasts")

idk if yr podcast is dead or not but maybe if it's not you should have him on

Thanks. I've listened to Mac Power Users once or twice. And Back to Work a bunch. I like Merlin's stuff but its a little more high level than what I'm seeking right now... though I will try this particular episode. MPU I found a bit of a slog though.. sort of thing I'd skim as a website, but I found it pretty unlistenable. Will check out the site though.

trust hoos over me on this one.

again, i don't use omnifocus. but merlin helped in its creation so perhaps he'd be good? no idea. good luck.

For a brief period I used that OmniOutliner template that inspired their gtd product

i use omnifocus. it is good. it doesn't make sense if you're not using it to do GTD.

My friends:

You are smart and accomplished people.

Why are you spending so much effort around GTD?

You are smart and accomplished people.

Effort expended on GTD is effort not expended on GTD.

WTF

I MEAN YOU KNOW THIS

The main problem I've experience with GTD is that instead of feeling more efficient ploughing through a range of tasks with a sense of achievement, the effect is to reduce life to feel like an pleasureless drag with endless things to be done against a deadline.

Also sometimes your best work is done through procrastination...taking time to reflect and refresh your approach and take on board new ideas, and feel more creative

oh sure--i don't think anyone who does this stuff would suggest that the goal here is to become some kind of task machine. it's about creating a framework you can trust so that you can do that reflection and creatively refreshing open time *really freely* instead of worrying about the 50 things you're not doing, the 20 things that could be falling through the cracks while you're writing a song.

I get my best work done at my job by drinking a lot of caffeine, wandering the halls, and then going back to program

Why are you spending so much effort around GTD?

You are smart and accomplished people.

Effort expended on GTD is effort not expended on GTD.

WTF

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, April 3, 2014 4:41 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Some people don't need this--but I can tell you from experience that with my memory as faulty as it is, the variety and velocity of things I'm juggling would be completely unmanageable if I wasn't disciplined about the way I manage new and ongoing commitments. I can't control what the world throws at me--but I can control how I deal with it, and whether I deal with it in a way that respects the needs of the people making requests of me.

I've really reoriented my thinking on a lot of this stuff--it's not so much about *me and my existential panic* anymore as it is about playing the most useful and meaningful role I can for projects I believe in. Sometimes the most useful thing I can do is say No to someone, because a yes would really mean "Yes, I can do a sub-par job for you." And ultimately, the only reason I know enough about my own commitments and energy levels to be able to give confident answers to people is that I have an infrastructure in place to deal with all my shit.

I'm a nerd and I like fiddling, so I'll go from index cards to apps to notebooks to carrier pigeons, but the framework under the hood doesn't really change. Sometimes my perspective needs shifting--like the recognition that without a long term goal to connect my tasks to, they can feel unmoored and like a slog--but the mechanics are stable.

So this definitely isn't for everybody. But it does me a lot of good.

Why are you spending so much effort around GTD?

You are smart and accomplished people.

lol

Like, it's not about "Siri--schedule WORK ON NOVEL from 9-12pm Saturday," it's about feeling confident that you really *have* that time, and knowing you're not leaving anything pressing behind when you do it.

I have spent most my life afraid to do tasks because I felt that perhaps I should be doing other, more important tasks

I have spent a lot of time doing nothing

^omg this I relate

Also sometimes your best work is done through procrastination...taking time to reflect and refresh your approach and take on board new ideas, and feel more creative
― mohel hell (Bob Six), Thursday, 3 April 2014 11:09 (4 hours ago) Permalink

just make sure reflection is scheduled in, as a task ;)

never actually used this GTD thing though which I assume is some formal methodology? it sounds from this thread as though it means having a diary.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81eVFxzU5KL._SL1500_.jpg
it's a book

His name is David Allen, but I just refer to him as "g" in correspondence, for "guru"

never actually used this GTD thing though which I assume is some formal methodology? it sounds from this thread as though it means having a diary.

― ^ 諷刺 (ken c), Thursday, April 3, 2014 4:05 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.toodledo.com/images/gtd/gtd.gif

there's the book in a jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOCKp9eij3A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ymQPf3QAF4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpZmIiIXuZ0

maybe not the healthiest of "life" "hacks" but i've found that skipping breakfast is like 30 minutes to an hour you get back every day (or at least more time to sleep in).

thats real

oh lols in that case i do this anyway (with emails at least)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/kenjuggle3/20140404_113505_zpsec64fe04.jpg

i guess whoever sent me this advice must have based it on that GTD thing then

i despise the word "diarise" btw

when you're sliding into work and your priority list's about to burst. diarise it. diarise it.

when you've eaten too much and your stomach is about to burst, diarrhoise it

I don't think I have ever seen "diarise" as a word before today

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXaDebIbjig

ugh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXaDebIbjig

alright, i'm gonna reread this this week

woo

Tearing Hoos a New One (THaNO)

― gff, Thursday, August 30, 2007 9:05 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

thanatos

also, i'm not sure how wrong quincie is about kinda attacking this stuff. i'm getting to the point where i'm probably going to use it without thinking about it as much. i mean, i doubt i'll stop thinking about this kind of shit ever, but i do see myself not spending much time on reading about productivity, i guess. or i'll still read it but not as much. maybe i should stop typing now.

if anyone wants my productivity advice, it's study apple. read gtd too, but study apple for some of the more high level shit. no one is actually going to do that but me, but it's a good idea.

i'm just reading and re-reading the book and thinking about 1. how effective i think it is or is not 2. how reasonable i might make implementation of parts or the whole, 3. whether it will be generally or particularly effective as to what i consider to be my own personal issues.

i'm getting to the point where i'm probably going to use it without thinking about it as much. i mean, i doubt i'll stop thinking about this kind of shit ever, but i do see myself not spending much time on reading about productivity, i guess. or i'll still read it but not as much

right i mean

'back to work'

GTD just seems, imo, to become something of a hobby for some folks. Like knitting or whatnot. I'm all for hobbies! Hobbies are important! But GTD is not going to be my particular hobby. That said, I am reading this thread, and this lame book "More Time For You" was actually really helpful when I was drowning in e-mails every goddamn day.

I think the key thing to remember is some of us are passionate about things but have absolutely no organizational skills to do anything about it, so being passionate about organization is a self-feeding loop that lets you do other, more important, things

my first exposure to GTD was from some goofball who was dating one of my friends. he had to-do lists for his to-do lists, and ended up getting fired after he got caught jerking off at his desk in an open office plan. so i didn't think much of it.

now that i want to ratchet up my EQ (Efficiency Quotient) to Maximum Deliverables (which I'm aware is an ambition straight out of a Herzog film), i bought a copy and will skim for any good ideas. can't imagine it'll hurt.

def true that people (like me) too often get lost in the weeds, fiddling with implementation details because its *fun* for them, when precisely that kind of fiddling & meta-work can be a barrier to actually working.

friend of mine accidentally ~~~deeply offended me~~~ once by saying "it just seems to me that a lot of your stress is self-created. like, do you really *need* to keep track of 4 different calendars?" and in a sense the answer is no--i don't 'need' ~4~ *different* calendars--but in a sense the answer for me is definitely yes. and so the task becomes improving how i deal with those tools.

one of the things i've always appreciated about merlin mann is that he gets that and emphasizes it as a central point--that your focus should be *time for the stuff care you about*, the titular 'back to work,' not the fiddling with mind maps and text files and apps and index cards and calendar plugins.

early on in my working life i expressed interest in going to an effectiveness/time management seminar, so my boss (who was great personally and professionally) strongly recommended i attend a particular course. i was really surprised at the presenter's advice, which was practical in predictable ways, but also included strong doses of "stop trying to be endlessly productive, if you finish everything you have to do early, do you know what will happen? they will give you ever more additional work. it will make you crazy. don't worry, you can still be great." i've heard a lot of speaker advice in professional settings, just not that advice.

that dude was right. slacking off is the only way that pays when it comes to crappy jobs with bad management.

"Allen talks a lot about 'mind like water,' this high level of success where you've got your version of this thing *so* down that when Stuff shows up on fire at your door, you know exactly how to handle it.

It's a state where that you're OK with whatever gets thrown at you--you're capable of handling it and returning to a place where you're *ready* to take the next thing on confidently and without feeling like a crazy person. If you accept that as a useful end state worth pursuing, you're gonna get pickier about the things you allow into your life at all--and if you do *that*, then you get into my wheelhouse about 'priority' in the more profound sense of what matters most to you, rather than the way most people mean it, 'the 11 things I'm not working on today.'"

www.5by5.tv/b2w/95

^^^^ stuff like this is why i appreciate merlin's approach so much, he makes it clear that despite the proliferation of //hacks// and hacks writing about hacks, the goal of this stuff isn't to *do more stuff faster* or have the best designed mindmap, but to really understand how you're spending your time so that you can figure out *what's worth it* and cut out the shit that isn't. doing the right things.

"There are levels here. There are things you *have* to do, because people expect it of you and there are consequences, other things depend on it. Those quarterly reports that you're maybe putting off.

There are things you *have* to do that are reoccurring and regular, and immovable, like--3pm, I pick my daughter up from school. If I miss that, I don't get feedback for a second draft.

Then there are more abstract things you *have* to do like make time to have a meaningful relationship with people you care about.

Until you know what all those things are, you haven't even gotten to the point of the things you'd *like* to do--until you know about all the stuff you have to do, and have a content sense that it will be taken care of because you trust your system, you're gonna have a hell of a time getting into the pliant state it needs to be in to make something cool.

If you can't get to the point where you know enough about your work that you can walk away from it with confidence, how can you enjoy your life?"

my first exposure to GTD was from some goofball who was dating one of my friends. he had to-do lists for his to-do lists, and ended up getting fired after he got caught jerking off at his desk in an open office plan. so i didn't think much of it.

I fucking love this story very much, thanking u :)

HOOS your thoughts are valuable b/c I always thing of GTD as a GeorgetownGrad-CongressionalIntern-CorporateLobbyistWannabe-RepublicanSWMdude thing, so that you dig it is *cognitive dissonance* time

But basically I think ya'll don't give yourselves enough credit for the ability to GTD without GTDlifehack methodology.

Also I am totally projecting because I only turn to lifehack shit as a way to procrastinate, not to actually get shit done.

Oh but my other secret shame confession:

The absolutely awful book that I would never, ever have even considered picking up--it pains me to even type the title--the Fucking Four Hour Workweek oh god the shame. . .

It is a terrible, terrible book but actually a bit helpful to me in one, and only one, respect: for pointing out that people like me (overeducated homeowning bored-stressed person with savings and shit) really have no excuse not to just quit their hamster-wheel life for a while and do the shit they *really* want to do instead.

Like, it seemed pretty nuts to just have two people quit jobs and go nomadic for awhile. We had zero models for actually doing that. But that terrible, terrible book--which I think of in the GTD genre--kind of called b.s. on that.

So, I have a GTD-type book for the fact that I have Not Gotten Shit Done in the GTD sense.

But I don't give that terrible, terrible book more credit than I give me + spouse for taking what amounted to a very small risk to do this thing that we did. That was actually nbd in practice.

(context: quit jobs and moved to Mexico/East Asia for a year just because)

as someone who read books by this guy
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/b7/MattLesko-cropped.jpg/200px-MattLesko-cropped.jpg
i don't think tim ferriss is that bad as far as hucksters go.

imagine it's like homework for therapy sessions people don't have, q

that you dig it is *cognitive dissonance* time

― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Tuesday, April 8, 2014 9:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

recently found out that my favorite anarcho organizer guys & one of the founders of SF Food Not Bombs is a huge GTD stan and i was like

"oh. that actually makes...perfect sense." piece of one of his essays "still we rise"

The need to respond to racist attacks, US bombings and the dismantling of civil liberties is real. However, being frantic doesn’t mean getting things done and being busy isn’t the same as being effective. I am accustomed to crisis organizing, where folks are routinely frantic, burn-out and turn-over are high, long-term memory and planning are minimal and highs of success are fewer than lows of frustration. Yet reflective action, at its best, includes planning, goal setting, leadership development and evaluation to strengthen future efforts.

a little over fifty pages in

i'm making a supercut of all the meaty parts from B2W's four-episode overview of GTD

got the first ep down to about 40 minutes from 80

smdh