Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen, available in many editions and formats. Link is to Amazon page. You can also visit the Getting Things Done website.
I’ve heard of David Allen and his “getting things done” (or “GTD”) method a number of times in the past and finally decided to read/listen to his classic book which first came out in 2001. I must have been reminded of him recently in some way, although I don’t remember just how, and I got the audio book from the library. It’s read by the author, who sounds very engaging and thoughtful, and I was really fired up by his introductory chapters. Then he kind of lost me as he headed into the chapters that delineate exactly how you’re supposed to do things his way. Most of his work has been done in the business world, and so many of his examples are drawn from that arena. I think that was part of why I drifted away.
And part was the rather silly means he uses to get people on track. For instance, you have to write all of your “capture” items down, each one on a separate piece of paper. Then you can transfer the items to a digital app or list later, if you’d like. To which I say,”Fuhgeddaboudit.” (Is that how you spell it?) And he seems to be fond of wire inbox trays to keep on your desk.
However, unlike Marie Kondo, who basically says that you have to do things her way or not at all, Allen is tolerant and easy-going enough to say that even if you put only a few of his ideas into practice you’ll be better off. Glean what you can. If you decide to go full GTD, all the better, but any change you can make in the right direction is a good thing. So what I’m going to do in this review is to deliberately avoid going back and re-reading anything, instead laying out what I got from the parts of the book I listened to and found helpful. There are actually five steps in the full GTD system, but I’m going to examine only what I remember. Then if you find what I say to be interesting and helpful you can go and examine the book for yourself. How’s that for a deal?
So here’s what I’m trying to put into place:
1. Capture everything.
This is the first step of the five official GTD procedures. You have to have some way to capture ideas, thoughts, obligations, deadlines, contact info, names, shopping lists, menus, recipes, schedules—you name it. Otherwise, you try to carry these items in your head, leading to a) anxiety, b) lack of flow, and c) something(s) falling through the cracks. How many dozens of times have I put together a meal or other event and found myself going through a mental checklist? Many. How many of those events have gone off perfectly? None. How many items have occurred to me as I’m driving to the venue when it’s too late to do anything about it? At least one item per event. I suddenly realize, ‘Oh no, I forgot the decaf!’ or ‘I don’t have the half & half!’ or whatever. But it’s too late. We just have to go without.
The very few occasions when I’ve written down a timeline and a checklist have gone so much better. I’ll say to myself, ‘Why don’t always I do that?’ But I don’t. The temptation is always to think, ‘I don’t have time to write stuff down. I’ll be fine.’ Does it make any sense to say that I don’t have time to do the things that will help me out? No, none.
I’ve mentioned my friend Wendi in other posts, I think. I worked with her on many wedding receptions and other such events over our years at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington DC. One thing you could count on with Wendi: there would be a printed-out schedule and checklist. When were the items supposed to go into the oven? When should the cold items be put out on the tables? Who was responsible for doing what? There it was, all spelled out. I’m sure she would say that there were still glitches, although I don’t remember anything in particular ever going wrong. We all knew what we were supposed to do and we did it. Some of the receptions were pretty complicated—the wedding reception for the vegan bride comes to mind. Oh man! It was really something. I especially remember the yogurt bar where the guests could make their own parfaits. (Yogurt isn’t vegan, but we negotiated some purely vegetarian items. I made some kind of tofu spread, as I recall.) It was pretty monumental. And I should ask my friend Pat who was in charge of the unbelievable Easter breakfast we had at our church this year how she organized it. She uses her phone a lot, so I think she must have had a list-making app. But I’ll get to apps later.
2. Review everything.
If you have all these fabulous to-do lists, and shopping lists, and I-must-get-together-with-this-person lists, but you never look at them, then they’re useless. So Allen has a step (I think it’s #3) where he has you sit down regularly and look over your lists. It doesn’t have to take all that long. I’ve been keeping a running list of tasks related to our remodeling project, for example, and I’ve been finding that it’s very helpful to keep going back over the list, perhaps at some point when I have a few minutes of waiting. Instead of seeing what one of my fave political/news websites has to say, I can (and sometimes even do) look back over my list. Sometimes there’s an item I can get done. Last night, for example, I uploaded the pictures I’d taken of the defective dinnerware I’d received and put them in an e-mail to the supplier. (They got right back to me, by the way. I will be including full info on them later, but I’ll just say here that it’s a site called “Gibson Outlet,” and their customer service is fabulous.) What we, or at least I, tend to do is to have a daily task list. But when we (or I) don’t get everything done, there’s no mechanism for moving the items to another list. Allen has you keep “project” lists, with the definition of a project being anything that has two or more steps. Which leads to the next insight, which is . . .
3. Do the next needed action.
I’ve mentioned before the mantra of “do the next right thing” and also of “eating the elephant one bite at a time.” This is the same idea but applied to every project. Allen says that in the business world there are often meetings on projects that accomplish nothing because there’s no decision made about what needs to be done next. So everyone leaves with a fuzzy understanding of what actually needs to happen, thus leading to last-minute panic and missed deadlines. He gives a non-business example of someone saying, “I need to get my car tuned up.” Okay. What’s the next needed action? Hmmm. Well, I need to call the tuneup place and get an appointment. Do you have the contact info? No, I don’t. Where can you get that? Well, I want to use the place that my friend Fred said was really good. So what’s the next needed action? I need to call Fred and get the name and phone number of his place. Nothing is going to happen on this project until you have that information. After that, the next needed action will be to call the tuneup place and get a time to come in, and then put it on the calendar, . . . and so on. All pretty elementary, right? Of course that’s what needs to happen. But often we walk around with a vague idea that something needs to be done but we have no concept of going ahead and, like, doing it. And then one day the car seizes up on the freeway, and we’re left on the side of the road, moaning, “I knew I should have gotten that tuneup!”
4. If the task takes two minutes or less, do it now.
Be stern with yourself! Hang up that bathrobe instead of leaving it draped across the bed.
You know what? This post has gone on long enough. I’m going to quit for now and pick it up tomorrow with some ideas for tools, including my new app that I’m crazy about. (We’ll see how long that enthusiasm lasts.)
In the meantime, I’m off to do the next needed action to get ready for bed.