Getting Things Done – Revised 2015 • Hacker News Board

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#11

Post by sanswork » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:13 PM UTC

r0naa wrote: post #8

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

As I mentioned I've only been doing it for like a week so take this with that in mind. It hasn't helped me do work directly or my focus(well kind of has) but it has helped my organising work and not missing tasks or things I need to do that I put off to tomorrow or next week.

I think for ADHD the time based contexts help more than the books recommended location based ones(office, home, at a computer, with a phone) since I'm pretty much always near a computer and a phone. I have

Full focus(tasks up to 30 minutes that require my full concentration)

Short dash(same but up to 15 minutes)

Brain dead(tasks that don't require much thought or concentration)

Bored(Non-work related things that I find interesting but are still kind of productive, blog posts I want to read and stuff like that)

Someday/Maybe and waiting for stuff in the future or pending other peoples actions.

I took them from a blog post I can't find right now but I find them very helpful since a lot of my wasted time or distraction is in spent deciding what to do next or in situations where I have to do something in 20 minutes so I end up spending 10 minutes finding an appropriate task then realize I'm out of time and 10 minutes reading reddit or HN.

I'm still working on the breaking tasks down to fit the 30 minute window though so I have a few longer tasks in there still but its helping.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#12

Post by webdevtool » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

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

Thanks, I don't see enough ads online.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#13

Post by vowelless » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:15 PM UTC

heimatau wrote: post #6

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 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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#14

Post by kentt » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:17 PM UTC

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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#15

Post by mrisse » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

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

https://gtdfh.branchable.com/

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#16

Post by mrisse » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:27 PM UTC

kentt wrote: post #14

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.

This Amazon review suggests not

http://www.amazon.com/review/R3604ULQ9IPQIK/ref=cm_cr_dp_tit...

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#17

Post by dade_ » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:29 PM UTC

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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#18

Post by tvanantwerp » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 10:32 PM UTC

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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#19

Post by monksy » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 11:16 PM UTC

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

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#20

Post by cactusface » Sat, Jun 06, 2015, 11:25 PM UTC

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.