What's the next action

Blink and GTD

16 04 05 - 21:50 - Bookmark this post

I was browsing my feeds this evening, basically just chilling on the couch. I read a nice article on the weblog Face-to-Face about the new book of Malcolm Gladwell ‘Blink’. I was already curious about this book, because of his earlier book ‘The tipping point’ and I just got more curious. Because the book deals with decisions we make without thinking. And this got me thinking (no pun intended) about how this relates to Getting Things Done. Since GTD involves a lot of thinking sometimes (processing, reviewing, five phases of planning) I can imagine how you can change your mind while thinking about Next Actions. But is this the right decision then? I haven’t read the book yet, but as I read the editorial review, it seems you make the right decision in the first couple of seconds. So how does longer and more intense thinking about projects (What is the next physical action? How can I move this forward?) change this? Interesting thought. I should read the book first before I talk more about this I guess. Perhaps someone already read the book and has an opinion? I look forward to your comments.

I’ve read ‘Tipping Point’ and I’m about 1/2 way through ‘Blink’. I like ‘Blink’ better.

From what I’ve read so far, ‘Blink’ is less about what you do consciously, and more about all the brain connections that happen in the blink of an eye that give you your “gut feel” impressions, and leave you with the impression that “something just isn’t right” – that sort of thing.

I’m sure the same mental flashes of intuition feed into the decisions you make on which Next Action to work on. There is a story / study in the book that talks about how military commanders and traders on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange found each other to be very much alike. They felt like kindred spirits because they think about things in similar ways – in their jobs, they have to routinely make split second decisions on limited data sets, and their decisions can have significant consequences.

Very interesting reading – I’m enjoying it very much.
Dwayne Melancon - 17 04 05 - 10:08