Does anyone else find the trademark hilarious?
A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
151–160 of 235 posts
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#152One thing that does increase my productivity is keeping track of what I do during the day. I didn't have productivity in mind when I started doing that, but the fact is, as I want the data to be accurate, as soon as I hit the "Work" button I focus on work and only on work. Not sure I recommend it thought...
What do you use to keep track of your data?
Atimelogger
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found something similar. Kanban boards have probably made me more effective, but more than that, they've made work a lot more enjoyable by helping me limit the number of open projects at once.
Do you use any particular kanban implementation?
Trello is great. Lightweight (compared to Jira + Addon), super fast (also via keyboard shortcuts) and fun to use
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#154>Lastly, if something might require action someday, but not now, it is added to the someday list. These are things that you want to remember, but shouldn’t be cluttering up your ‘next actions’ list. Things like ‘Learn Japanese’ or ‘write a book’ go here.
So let's take "learn Japanese" as the example, because that is a goal of mine and I already am engaged in achieving this goal.
Before having any awareness of this GTD concept, I simply have been studying flashcards daily (anki, 5 new words a day), and when I get a chance read and do exercises from a Japanese grammar book I bought. Down the road, I know I need to at some point engage in watching Japanese TV, listening to radio, and finding Japanese speakers to engage with in conversations to improve my reading ability.
I know these things because I already learned Chinese and I figured out the smaller steps to break down, but how on earth would I break these into "actions" (from the article - "Every project should have an "next action") if I had no concept of how to learn a language?
For example, another goal I have is "become a dank ass motorcyclist - drag knee!" Right now I just putt around in the Santa Cruz mountains and do what I can, but what would I put for "next action" for this project? I guess schedule a track day?
Basically, how do I learn to break large tasks I know nothing about into "actionable items?"
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
A similar trick works for avoiding sugary treats: don't strongly oppose this desire - instead say to yourself you can eat it at a later time and move your mind to something else. (When you finally eat whatever it was you so much desired, you didn't really fail, because you are only consuming 1 unit for those 3/5/whatever days, instead of one every day...)
The cafe where I buy my lunchtime salad also sells a range of excellent cakes, which are very tempting. I've learned to tell myself that I only need to exercise self-control (and not buy a cake) while I'm in the queue to be served . It sounds obvious, but consciously reminding myself that the situation I'm trying to avoid is time-limited is a great help.
Hah, until you cave and get back in the queue ;)
Sorry, projecting a bit. I have absolutely zero discipline when it comes to cake.
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#156While I most probably don't follow the tactics of GTD (haven't read them and don't want to) I aggressively follow a strategy that really works for me : reducing cognitive load. I make a point to commit nothing except the task on hand to my working memory. When I say "I should remember to", I immediately stop and use a Messenger bot I coded for that purpose When my wife say "Can you remember to" I immediately ask her…
One of the keys to GTD is capturing tasks, which is precisely what you describe. After they're captured, you can plan them. This is the second thing you describe (putting something on a calendar, or into a work queue like your trello card).
If you do that, you're already getting most of the benefits of GTD. Getting everything out of your head so you can remain focused on the immediate task at hand.
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#157I read David Allen's book in 2002 and immediately started implementing it. At first it felt like godsend. Capturing every "open loop" (everything that is not the way it should be = everything with a delta between current and desired state) and deciding for each of them if there is any action that I need to take and if so, what the very next step was - that practice alone released a ton of energy and gave me a sense o…
I had the same issue. This is why I now prefer a kanban board. As much as I dislike overhyped "lean" in software, in the TPS spirit I think it's a great way to prioritize and avoid planning waste. With GTD I found I spend too much time writing task lists that would become outdated soon. WIP limits bring focus.
What do you mean by "WIP" in this context? Work in progress? If that's the case, what does "WIP limits" mean?
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#158>Lastly, if something might require action someday, but not now, it is added to the someday list. These are things that you want to remember, but shouldn’t be cluttering up your ‘next actions’ list. Things like ‘Learn Japanese’ or ‘write a book’ go here. So let's take "learn Japanese" as the example, because that is a goal of mine and I already am engaged in achieving this goal. Before having any awareness of this GT…
Your next action might be, "research steps to becoming a dank ass motorcyclist".
And if that's too broad, could break it down to "look for beginner motorcyclist YouTube channels / subreddits", or "look for motorcycle coach"
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#159While I most probably don't follow the tactics of GTD (haven't read them and don't want to) I aggressively follow a strategy that really works for me : reducing cognitive load. I make a point to commit nothing except the task on hand to my working memory. When I say "I should remember to", I immediately stop and use a Messenger bot I coded for that purpose When my wife say "Can you remember to" I immediately ask her…
"commit nothing except the task on hand to my working memory" is essentially the summary of GTD done approach.
What character did you insert after "G" in "GxTD?" It's not rendering on my browser, weirdly.
Re: A Beginner´s Guide to Getting Things Done
#160>Lastly, if something might require action someday, but not now, it is added to the someday list. These are things that you want to remember, but shouldn’t be cluttering up your ‘next actions’ list. Things like ‘Learn Japanese’ or ‘write a book’ go here. So let's take "learn Japanese" as the example, because that is a goal of mine and I already am engaged in achieving this goal. Before having any awareness of this GT…
> how on earth would I break these into "actions" [...] if I had no concept of how to learn a language?
If you don't know how to break a larger task into actions, you are simply unable to perform the task, regardless of whether you use GTD or not. What GTD does is make you consciously aware of the process of breaking down larger tasks into smaller actions.
> Right now I just putt around in the Santa Cruz mountains and do what I can, but what would I put for "next action" for this project? I guess schedule a track day?
It sounds like you think that the "next action" needs to be different from the previous one. It is not. If you want to learn the piano, you can just perform the action "practice the piano for 30 minutes" every day, unless you decide that you want to take a different "next action" at some point.