
Getting Things Done – Revised 2015 - denisw
https://gettingthingsdone.com/store/product.php?productid=17035
======
gtuckerkellogg
I was on an America West flight to Phoenix in 1999 when David Allen sat next
to me. The passenger compartment was bare bones -- no overhead vents, for
example -- and I was in a pissy mood. Allen was not. He immediately struck me
as the most seasoned, at ease traveller I had ever seen. After he got himself
adjusted I asked him if he travelled a lot. He smiled and showed me his United
frequent flyer card. It had his name, and "Five Million Miles" embossed on it.
I asked him what the hell he was doing on this crappy America West flight. He
was flying from Geneva to his home in California, and had missed his
connection, so United put him on the next available flight.

He was a "CEO coach" at the time and, while I normally don't badger strangers
on planes with questions, we ended up talking for a good part of the flight.
When his book came out, I recognised his picture on the jacket, and wrote him
an email. He remembered me, and offered to get together for a glass of wine
when he was in Boston.

Of course I got his book, and of course it changed my thinking. I wouldn't be
writing this if it hadn't. I have ADD, and am also deeply suspicious of self-
help literature. I couldn't stomach the moralizing of Stephen Covey and his
ilk. But GTD, and Allen as a person, work just great for me, and work with my
ADD. I've tried variants, electronic and paper, but everything that works for
me is within the GTD ecosystem.

~~~
redmaverick
So, what is the current system that you are using for GTD? I need to be more
organized and productive but I really don't have the time/patience to read the
book. So, if you can give the tldr; of your system or a web app that forces
one to use GTD without all the theory would help as well.

~~~
peteretep

        > So, what is the current system that you are using for
        > GTD?
    

Back when I had a job with responsibilities (team of 40), I did the
following...

First of all, I used "Things.app", for the iPhone and for the Mac, although
really any of the many tools should do - the important thing for me though was
that anywhere I could read email - or have a random thought - I needed to be
able to access my organization system; I wanted to get it out of my head and
out of my Inbox in to a real organization tool as QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE so I
could stop thinking about it.

I'll talk about three separate places here: Email Inbox, Things.app Inbox, and
Things.app Today.

At the beginning of each day, I would go to my email inbox, and scan through.
Normally about 100 items:

* 50% could be deleted because I was CC'd, but there was no action item for me

* Anything that could be done in under two minutes, I'd do; this was generally Yes/No type answers, or quick clarifications

* Anything that would take longer, I would - IF AT ALL POSSIBLE - attempt to delegate. Quick two minute email to someone else, trying to get them to do it, and then I'd add a todo list item: "FOLLOWUP: Did John send Dave the RFP for Acme corp", and then ask Things.app to schedule it to remind me (by placing it in Things.app Today) in x days, where x was task-dependent. Trying to get new managers in my team to delegate ruthlessly was always very difficult - but if they couldn't do it, they'd get swamped quickly, and no-one would win.

* Anything that would take longer that I couldn't delegate, I would add a Todo item for today with a brief summary of what it was to Things.app's Inbox list; incidentally the Inbox list is also where I'd put absolutely anything that cropped up during the day - my boss asked me for something, I remembered I'd promised someone something I hadn't delivered yet, or I had an idea that would take 6 months to do but was worth thinking about.

All email would be archived in this process.

This process would get me to Inbox Zero, but I would still have items in
Things.app Inbox - generally about 8 - 14 items - that really needed my
personal attention. First pass I'd try and make sure each was actionable;
"Sort out team development plan" not in the least bit actionable. However,
giving it 10 seconds though led me to realize that our HR Business Partner
could probably help, so he got a quick email "Please could you schedule some
time with me to sit down and talk about team development?", at which point, it
becomes a "FOLLOWUP" item as above. This generally got rid of 4-5 items.
Remaining items I would then drag to the Today list. These tasks could be
pretty diverse: "Reread James' email about data governance", "Fill out ATR for
new DevOps person", "Disabuse Neil of the idea that we should be using
Docker".

The Today list was often 3 - 15 items long; generally about half were
"FOLLOWUP" items, as per the above, and these could be ticked off very quickly
by hitting reply and sending a slightly more urgent or threatening message,
and I'd then reschedule the "FOLLOWUP" item to the next day.

Of the remainder, I would attempt to sort them in order of importance.
Anything that was a multiple hour task, I would create an appointment in my
calendar to do it, as well as a "FOLLOWUP" scheduled to make sure I'd done in
- "Prepare salary review spreadsheet" was going to take 5 hours, so I'd block
5 hours off, book a meeting room where no-one could find me, and then forget
about it until the appointment came up.

Of what remained - generally 30m - 90m tasks, I'd then take all but the top
five, and reschedule them to the next day. This was a struggle to get my
managers to done - people are hopelessly optimistic, and think they can get
through more administrivia in a day than they can. If you restrict yourself to
3 to 5, it'll force you to delegate more aggressively, and you'll also be
surprised how many items that keep getting kicked down the road take care of
themselves.

The process up to this point took 20m to an hour depending on how
conscientious I'd been in keeping up to date with it.

I'd then try and blast through the top five, generally managing two or three
of them. I would attempt to get ALL of these things done in the morning each
day, and set aside the afternoons for important meetings and for large blocks
of work that needed doing.

The key features of this:

* You need a system where you can TRUST that if something goes in to it, it won't fall back out of it again. The scheduled FOLLOWUP tasks for me were that

* You need to be able to add items to this super easily - whenever you think about it. That way, you're not carrying around items in your head, which is when you get snowed under

* Your email Inbox is a very shitty Todo system, and it'll stress you out. Get items out of your Inbox and in to a real Todo system as quickly as you can. If you're stuck on Outlook, and so don't have an Archive function, create a folder where a copy of every email gets duplicated to so you can aggressively delete from your Inbox and still go back to emails that had important information in.

~~~
nileshtrivedi
Good point about delegating. My filter chain for all incoming tasks is:
Discard -> Delegate -> Delay -> Do. Works nicely.

------
phs2501
This may sound rather trivial but honestly the biggest problem I had with the
previous book was how targetted it was towards the "traditional" higher-
management executive in its language and examples. A lot of them were things
that I had a very hard time relating to: preparing for the staff meeting,
going over regional sales figures, working on your golf swing. I was sort of
hoping he'd write a version "for the rest of us" with more down-to-earth
examples.

Given his clientele the previous focus made sense, but since it became sort of
viral I was hoping if it were revised it would become a little more all-
encompassing. I'd be curious to know if the previous focus was still the case
in the new version. (Probably not enough to buy it to find out, though; as I
said that was my biggest problem with the previous book and it's not that much
of a problem...)

------
tmalsburg2
In my experience, GTD is overkill and managing things that way is a time
consuming task in itself. I converged on something simpler: I have four lists.
One that contains everything that absolutely needs to be done. Then there is a
list for things that can be done but are not essential. This list is a pretty
amazing collection of ideas and when I have some time left, I pick an item
that looks appealing in that situation. Then there is a reading list and a
list for completed tasks. All lists are stored in one org-mode file (along
with tons of other things). The list with important stuff is frighteningly
long. At first this bothered me but I got used to it. Now I see it as a
resources. There is always something on that list that I'd like to work on.
Once a week I go through this list and move some items to the non-essential
list. If something stayed long enough on the important list and nothing bad
happened, it's probably not important.

~~~
seanp2k2
Sounds similar to the 4-quadrant system of important / not important and
urgent / not urgent. I forget the name of that, but it always seemed like a
decent idea for guiding prioritization (if used as a hard rule, it would
inevitably lead to not-urgent-but-important things never getting done).

~~~
sygma
You are referring to the Eisenhower Method:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management#The_Eisenhower_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management#The_Eisenhower_Method)

------
ilovecomputers
I adopted GTD back in college (around '08-'09) after learning about it from
Merlin Mann and reading about it in the book "Dreaming in Code." If it taught
me one thing, it taught me to learn how to say no to commitments. Sure, I'd
like to work on this fun software project or go to this hackathon, but then I
think of all the work it will take and the existing work I'm committed to. At
that point, as much as I'd like to do otherwise, I say no to the proposed
commitment. GTD is core to my life. All my commitments are consolidated and up
to date in my Things app. I honestly couldn't imagine how I could have been
productive without it.

edit: I also recommend those familiar to GTD to listen to Merlin Mann talk
about it on his Back to Work podcast:
[http://5by5.tv/b2w/95](http://5by5.tv/b2w/95)

Helps you rediscover some principles about GTD.

------
joonoro
I haven't read it, but I always liked the piece of advice from GTD about 5
minute tasks. If a task takes less than 5 minutes, do it _now_. During the day
I usually accumulate small tasks and realizing that they take almost no time
at all does wonders for staving off procrastination.

~~~
morituri
This was my starting point to GTD. It's not even 5 minutes, it's the 2 minute
rule.

------
tvanantwerp
There are important concepts I've learned from GTD--for example, the mental
strain of open loops and the importance of getting them out of your head--but
I have never been able to implement it in full over the long term. Trying to
go through the process consistently and in full every day is itself very time-
consuming. Much like a dieter who has one cookie and decides, "Fuck it, diet's
over," and eats all the cookies in the jar, if I failed to fully complete the
GTD process for a single day then I would tend to never do it again.

~~~
tjradcliffe
Cherry-pick. There are a lot of good ideas. I found some of the sorting of
tasks really useful. There are people who can sort, and people who can't. Give
me ten things and I'll find 10! different ways to classify them. Other people
seem to "just know" what makes the most sense. I found the classification
scheme in GTD extremely actionable and simple. Most of the rest wasn't so
useful to me.

------
heimatau
My story goes like this. I listened to the messages, heard other variations,
and still struggled with this concept. I'm not obsessed about the topic but
for whatever reason, I struggled to 'catch' the idea.

I tried calendars, mail clients, to do lists, etc. Nothing seemed to help.
Until I had someone teach me time management, in about 30 minutes. I'm not
sure how, I'm not sure why but...it all finally clicked for me.

I've been using Things for about a year but I had it for like six years. It's
my #1 application. I've been able to manage an 'inbox zero' for the past year.

My advice to newbies: Learn time management but start small. GTD isn't an all
in one solution, it wasn't for me, but it's a great skill to learn. Do one
thing, do it well, then build on that. If you ever overwhelm yourself with
tasks, take steps back (ask yourself _why_ you are doing these tasks). There
is satisfaction to GTD filing system but don't let that guide you, it's your
tool. Remember start small. A long journey always began with one step.

~~~
vowelless
I have the same story as you, except, once I downloaded Doit.im, I could never
look back.

For about 2 years now, I have been on the GTD wagon. It's become an obsessive
need at this point.

------
mrisse
I found this free ebook to be a good (and significantly shorter) introduction
to GTD.

[https://gtdfh.branchable.com/](https://gtdfh.branchable.com/)

------
r0naa
I am curious to hear what HNers have to say about this book. To be honest I
always thought that these kind of books (i.e personal growth / motivational)
were BS but that is problem a hasty generalization I made.

For those out there who read it, did it improve your project throughput or
productivity? bonus if you have ADHD

~~~
peteretep

         > To be honest I always thought that these kind of books
         > (i.e personal growth / motivational) were BS 
    

I feel I've had a huge amount in my life out of self-help books, on a real
variety of subjects. There's a lot of obvious bullshit out there (like The
Secret), but also plenty of gold. Scanning through my notes, and in no
particular order, I have extensive notes from (and thus enjoyed):

* 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

* Beyond Chocolate

* Driven From Within (Michael Jordan biography)

* Get Altitude

* How To Make Friends and Influence People

* Iron John (Robert Bly)

* Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)

* Never Eat Lunch Alone

* Psychocybernetics

* Pulling Your Own Strings

* Ready For Anything (same author as GTD)

* The Dip

* Ten Days to Self Discipline

* The Power of Now

* Personal Power (Tony Robbins)

* Warrior King Magician Lover

Some were easier reads than others, and I suspect I am unusual in that I have
a pretty rigorous system for making sure I regularly review my notes, and
implement exercises and ideas in the books, but I feel I'd be a very different
person for the worse without the value these books have added to my life.

~~~
kchoudhu
Meditations is hardly self-help...

I'm not going to deny the fact that it changed the way I look at the world
though.

~~~
peteretep

        > Meditations is hardly self-help
    

That it wasn't intended as such doesn't really change the fact it's
essentially a series of koans, much like many self-help books.

------
cactusface
I tried doing the whole works but the only lasting things from GTD were:

1) start each item on your todo lists with a verb

2) get lots and lots of folders and just keep creating new folders in a flat
hierarchy to organize things all the time. Even easier on a computer on a
computer.

A shredder is also good.

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _get lots and lots of folders and just keep creating new folders in a flat
> hierarchy to organize things all the time._

That's the most persistently useful thing I got from GTD. I have a cabinet
full of plain, labeled paper folders for filling. 90% of them I don't really
check at all, but I whenever I need that random document, booklet, photo, or
whatever, I can always find it there quickly.

~~~
cactusface
Yeah! So create a folder called "reference" or something on your computer and
do the same... so helpful!

------
chris_wot
I have visions of David Allen writing _Getting Things Done_ and then the next
year thinking "I really should revise this". 13 years later a second edition
is published.

------
talex5
Are there any important changes to the system here, or is it just a new
presentation?

After a few years using mGSD, I'm now using CueKeeper
([http://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2015/04/28/cuekeeper-
gitting-t...](http://roscidus.com/blog/blog/2015/04/28/cuekeeper-gitting-
things-done-in-the-browser/)), which I wrote based on the first book. Any new
ideas here I should incorporate?

------
sanswork
I finished reading(well listening) to GTD last week and started implementing
the system this past week. Though I've basically taken a bunch of ideas from
it and changed it to fit my work and lifestyle(I also switched to time based
contexts over location mostly). I kept the processes the same. I also almost
never have paperwork so I ignored all the stuff about labellers and filing
cabinets.

The community around the book is seriously full of weirdly obsessive people
though. I've read discussions where people talk about how they've been
studying it for 3-6 years and just now feel like they are starting to really
get it and if you haven't put that much effort into it you won't get it. I
constantly feel like I'm missing out on something because I just didn't find
it that hard to understand?

The new book apparently drops all the talk about palm pilots which I'm sure is
nice but from what I've read if you read the original you probably won't have
much to gain from reading this one.

~~~
thirdsun
3-6 years? Sounds like someone who is in love with preparing for the actual
work. I know this situation - whether it is setting up your development
environment, getting the proper running gear if you want to get in shape or
researching the best controller for your DAW (I used to work in audio
production)...or reading books on how to get things done. These are tasks that
easily provide a feeling of accomplishment, without ever tackling the actual
work, the hard problems.

Don't get me wrong - it's good to prepare and I appreciate being organized,
but it's very easy to fall into the trap of an endless preparing cycle. At
some point there aren't any remaining benefits and all that is left to do, is
the actual doing.

~~~
insulanian
> it's good to prepare and I appreciate being organized, but it's very easy to
> fall into the trap of an endless preparing cycle.

I fall into that trap very often. If I'm learning a new programming language,
I'll read every book and article I can find about it, try to learn best
practices an architecture approaches, before even thinking about starting to
write an experimental program in it. Sometimes I think I should just dig in,
and research things on the fly. The worst is that I tend to repeat that
mistake :-) It seams hard to change person's nature/mindset.

------
kentt
Is the revised edition worth picking up if I've read the original. I've been a
die hard GTDer for a 5 years now.

~~~
mrisse
This Amazon review suggests not

[http://www.amazon.com/review/R3604ULQ9IPQIK/ref=cm_cr_dp_tit...](http://www.amazon.com/review/R3604ULQ9IPQIK/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0143126563&channel=detail-
glance&nodeID=283155&store=books)

------
flarg
FWIW I listen to the audio book every year and each time I learn something
new. For me the author's concepts of the natural planning system, cranking
widgets and rapid inbox parsing have been key to my work and personal life for
many years.

------
danieltillett
Has anyone come up with a solution for the problem of doing important tasks
that require blocks of time measured in weeks? I have projects that I need to
get to, but they need me to pencil in a few weeks of 100% time dedication to
get them done (they are the sort of projects that are so complex that you
can't do anything else while working on them). I find that I just can't carve
out the time to get them done as I have too many urgent and must-do-today
activities to be able to block out the time.

~~~
indymike
Large projects are just a sequence of inter-related smaller tasks. GTD is
exactly for learning how to deal with these kinds of problems. Oh, and if you
have too many urgent and must-do-today tasks, learning to delegate and
learning how to say "no" will change you life.

------
dade_
My experience: I read the book, learned the concepts. It was great, and I even
setup OmniFocus (Apple only) on my iPad and iPhone. Life was great, and then I
changed employers and I was back to Windows and BlackBerry. It completely
broke my workflow and I spent (WASTED) months trying new tools and finally
dropped it. I am now using the ToDo templates in OneNote which is a much
simpler approach, but still use many of the concepts.

------
monksy
Another book that I've found great about this is "Eat That Frog" it deals with
some of the more stubborn tasks in GTD.

------
hmottestad
Some ten years ago I got hooked on GTD while at United World College. I
thought it might make me a better student.

Today I am more careful and would steer clear of GTD simply because it doesn't
help me do the things I don't want to do. And the things I want to do, I'll do
anyway. While the things I don't want to do will be put off.

~~~
insulanian
I think we sometimes subconsciously hope that some system will do the things
for us. Then we get disappointed. I know the feeling.

------
hmart
It is not clear the format. Paper, epub, mobi??

------
a8da6b0c91d
If everything I need to do and keep in my head at a given time doesn't fit in
a mess of bullet points on a single letter sized sheet, then I'm simply doing
too much. No need for a system. Just recopy over the sheet by hand every few
days without the scratched off items, and add in some new stuff that comes to
mind. I have difficulty imagining a life so busy that a page of terse notes
couldn't suffice to keep on top of things.

------
webdevtool
Straight spam for a revised edition of an old self-help book.

Thanks, I don't see enough ads online.

