Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

gettingthingsdone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 57 posts

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#21

Post by dwightgunning »

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

When I was in my early 20s my immediate reaction to hearing about any new personal-development / self-help book was that it's probably BS.

Then occasionally a couple caught me. Seven habits, GTD, How to win friends... are the 3 books that left a lasting impression with me.

Now in my early 30s I look at new productivity / self-help tools like the way I look at any given religion. You probably don't really need it but it might just be the one that works for you. And if it makes you a better person without messing with anybody/anything else then go right ahead.

There's no one size fits all.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#22

Post by 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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#24

Post by tjradcliffe »

tvanantwerp wrote: post #18

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…

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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#25

Post by 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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#26

Post by TeMPOraL »

cactusface wrote: post #20

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.

> 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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#27

Post by redmaverick »

gtuckerkellogg wrote: post #22

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 na…

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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#28

Post by tumba »

sanswork wrote: post #11
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) si…

I have found adopting time/energy contexts to be helpful. I believe the original blog post is http://simplicitybliss.com/blog/a-fresh-take-on-contexts.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#29

Post by afarrell »

gtuckerkellogg wrote: post #22

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 na…

I too am interested in what particular system you use. I found that it was a useful framework for thinking about tasks, but in college I was never able to use that framework to implement a system and then keep up with it.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#30

Post by gtuckerkellogg »

redmaverick wrote: post #27
gtuckerkellogg wrote: post #22

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 na…

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.

My current system is emacs org-mode for my inbox and all computer-based action lists, and Todoist for anything I need to carry with me. Since much of my work is done in emacs, org-mode makes the most sense for me. But honestly, the GTD ecosystem has gotten a bit polluted by really good team-based apps.

At the time GTD first came out, there was more of a hard line between personal task lists and team-based responsibilities, or maybe it at least seemed that way because the technology was so limiting.

That said, technology is not the solution; a decent process is. Google image search "one page GTD summary" or "GTD workflow" and the key features are technology-agnostic: a single inbox for actions, a good decision making process, and context-dependent action lists so you don't wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat about something you forgot when you had the opportunity to do it. In the last 15 years, my favorite GTD systems have been a Moleskine notebook and my old Palm Pilot. I've changed my systems over time, but not because the current systems are particularly better in general; they are better for me in context.

Post reply on HN