What's the next action

It was 2 years ago today...David Allen thought me how to play...

29 11 06 - 23:26 - Bookmark this post

OK, bad Beatles impersonation, I know…but today marks the two year anniversary of my weblog! Hurray! Now, I know I haven’t been the best of blogger here. You know, posting regularly, replying in comments, changing the looks of this site. And every now and again, something breaks for a couple of days. But hey, it’s amateur journalism man…gimme a break! I still need my dayjob to support my wife and kid ;-) Anyway, yesterday was already a sort of pre-party with the list 21 articles on GTD. Thank you for your replies by email and comments, and for the linklove through several other blogs. Much appreciated!

On this happy-happy-joy-joy day I don’t want to put the spotlight on myself. I’m modest. So last week, I asked a half dozen other GTD bloggers to tell me their thoughts on two years of GTD. We all know since the 43folders-interview with The Dave, it takes about two years to really get going with GTD. And I can vouch for that. I’m two years further down the line and man do I got a long way to go to really turn blackbelt and have a mind like water. But I do feel that progress is made! I do notice with myself that in tiny victories, the little steps are taken. So I asked the other bloggers to give me their thoughts on that subject. Since I am in the Netherlands and most GTD-ers are in the USA, I forgot it’s a holiday (Thanksgiving right?) so I didn’t get a lot of responses yet. But I would like to share some quotes from a couple of bloggers. I raked some links to go with their stories, I hope all our thoughts and ideas can be of any help for you, my valued readers

First up is Pascal Venier, One Cheese Eating Surrender Monkey Typing!

“I discovered GTD in the summer of 2004, just after I switched back to using an Apple Mac in July of that year. It was, as far as I can remember, through the Tinderbox site, that I first heard about GTD. It was through Ryan Holcomb’s excellent template Getting Things Done Tinderbox document also available through the Tinderbox’s Public File Exchange page. I seem to remember that I soon later discovered Merlin Mann’s 43folders blog.”

“My biggest breakthrough was probably starting using a filing cabinet à la David Allen. Like many, I was not initially very impressed by the idea of using a label-maker, but in hindsight it has marvellously played its role.”

“It is always very tempting to try new software to implement GTD. One way to look at this is that it can be time consuming and a way to procrastinate. Another is that hands-on experiments conducted to explore possible implementations of GTD using a specific sofware or combinaison of softwares can be very helpful to get to understand the core principles of GTD.”

“Two of the best solutions I identified were Devonthink and MindManager, for which I have developped simple
templates, which I have shared on my blog. Each can work very well. Yet, since last week-end, I have reverted to using Backpack”

“I have for a while been very tempted by exploring the possibility of running productivity workshops and maybe even do some productivity coaching. [...] For the time being, this is however safely parked in my someday-maybe list! ;^)”

GTDWannabe also gave me some soundbites on his past and future with GTD

“I still feel like a Wannabe – I don’t do anything other than runway stuff right now. But, I’ve thought about it, and I’m okay with that. I know exactly what I need to be doing for the next year in my life, so it’s okay that I don’t zoom up to the 30,000 or higher levels.”

“I love contexts!!!  They are one of the best nuggets of wisdom that I extracted from GTD.  The concept that you need to have something, or be somewhere, for a particular next action is so powerful.  Every NA I create gets a context, and I have just over a dozen.”

“Why GTD?  I was having trouble with procrastinating, and this seemed a fine way of helping me get more work done.  After 15 months or so, it has helped, and it has not.  I’m still struggling with procrastination, but now I know exactly what I’m not doing.  Before, it was a big fuzzy mess of “I should be doing something”. 

“Biggest breakthrough: Realizing that capturing, processing, organizing and reviewing are NOT the same thing as doing.  I’m very productive when it comes to the capture/process/organize parts.  The doing I’m having more trouble with, but that’s back to procrastination. ”

“Everyone can benefit from new tips and trick.  This has opened me up to exploring more self-help stuff.  Some of the books that are either current for me are: The Now Habit, Thinking Visually, Problem Solving with Post-It Notes, Do It Tomorrow.  It’s interesting to realizing that given a little work up front, I could learn to be even more organized and productive, thereby making my life easier later on”

Katy of Flippingheck decided to write a blogpost about it while celebrating a new look for Flipping Heck (Thanks and congrats Katy!) but I will still give you some quotes from her post

“Now, with GTD contexts (even though I lump them together in a Moleskine), I know I can safely ignore anything with a “P” next to it when I’m and work and ignore anything with a “W” next to it when I’m at home. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad after all!”

“The thing was that I’d tried almost every product or new website that came on to the market and nothing just seemed to “click” with me.”

“One final thing that GTD has really helped me with (other than a whole new efficient way of organising projects/next actions) is that it’s really kicked my procrastination into touch.”

Also Matthew Cornell kicks in with his own blogpost! Great pointers!
“Where am I on the belt scale? Somewhere between the last three, I suppose.”
“I still have some next actions that sit around longer than I’d like, becoming a bit smelly.”
“I still don’t do the weekly review every week.”
“I still have anxiety about some of my actions – but I still do them!”
“Put another way, It’s not about productivity: Real change focuses not on techniques but on the way people think about themselves, their colleagues, and their work.”
Thank you Matt, very inspiring!

Pascal, Wannabe, Katy and Matt, thanks for your input. Grab a beer at my costs, it’s time to celebrate! Next up (this weekend or so) will be some of my own thoughts on two years of GTD....

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Fijne verjaardag! ;)
Ruben Timmerman - 03 12 06 - 13:26

Congrats on hitting the 2-year mark! You’re well on your way and I think you’re doing just fine as a blogger (speaking as another person who counts on the day job to feed the family).
Marc Orchant - 30 12 06 - 00:26

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Frank Meeuwsen