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Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

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Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#51

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.

I just check my copy of GTD. It's just 250 pages, which can be read in a few hours. I'd recommend to read it. I'll be worth it.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#52

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 situati…

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).

You are referring to the Eisenhower Method: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_management#The_Eisenhower_...

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#54

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 ha…

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.

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#55
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

> 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 Effectiv…

"Winning through intimidation" Highly recommended. http://www.amazon.de/Winning-Through-Intimidation-Robert-Rin...

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#56
post #3

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 bo…

My experience with it was really different. I didn't read GTD first. I read this: http://www.brool.com/index.php/using-org-mode-with-gtd. Then I read this: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~charles57/GTD/orgmode.html. I thought, hey, this idea of having a trusted system and getting things I needed to do out of my brain and into the system might really help. I also loved the idea of putting my todos in contexts like "home" "office" "lunch" "driving". Those two simple things really made a huge difference for me...

Re: Getting Things Done – Revised 2015

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

_LOVED_ it.

Just to make sure I'm looking at the same book, is it "Self-Discipline in 10 days: How To Go From Thinking to Doing"? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880115107/ Thanks!

That's the one
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