While I’m far from the GTD master that I aspire to be, and I’m a bit of a heretic since I use it in conjunction with Mark Joyner’s Simpeology33, there are a few aspects of the system that have really helped me to enjoy it’s promises of stress free productivity.

Getting Things Out of My Head

The very first step in Getting Things Done is to collect those things that have our attention. One of David Allen’s questions to critics who say that GTD has no function for prioritizing is “So what’s on your mind right now?” It usually isn’t “Fulfill destiny as human spirit on planet”33; more likely you’re thinking “I’ve gotta get milk from the store” or “I need to call Bob” or “I wonder how Mary is doing on that project I handed off to her.”

The whole purpose of capturing the information is to get it out of our heads, so we can focus on what we are doing now. But we can’t just make lists and then leave the lists to languish. We have to process the information, either do something about it, decide we’ll do something about it later, or trash it.

The purpose of this is to reduce what David Allen refers to as psychic drag – that pull that slows you down mentally (and often physically) when there’s stuff weighing on your mind. We can say it’s not important, and if that’s really true, that’s great! But if your brain is holding it somewhere, it usually works best to get it out of there, and do something about it, so that you can move on to that goal of self-actualization.

If we decide to do something about it later, it’s critical that we have a regular review (GTD recommends we do it weekly), or that stuff we got out of our heads will creep right back in.

Contexts

It took me awhile to get the concept of contexts down. Basically, contexts allow us to ask “Where are you now, and what can you do where you are.” It’s pretty useless to have on your mind “Check in with Mary about that project” if you don’t have access to a phone or email. It’s also pretty useless to be at the Home Depot without an idea of what you need to buy to finish the molding on your new floor, but to have a list with you that says “Update blog with 3 new articles.”

I’ve started trying to keep my contexts pretty simple. Since I use my own personal hybrid of and GTD and Simpleology (since Simpleology does keep me focused on doing what’s important), I’ve started looking at organizing my daily targets into contexts. With the new Simpeology WebCockpit33, it’s a snap to sort them into “@computer” or “@phone” or “@email”. Even if you don’t use the @ sign, the drag and drop interface lets you sort them. You can move all of your work that related to email into one group, and all of your work that’s related to a particular client into another, etc…

The reason for this is pure efficiency, which is not the end all and be all of life, but it does help.

Flexibility

One of the main things about GTD is that it’s all about you. You choose what to work on, you choose how to work on it. It’s a framework – if you prefer pen and paper, use pen and paper. If you prefer a web based system, use a web based system. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve integrated it into my Simpleology Daily Target Praxes in order to stay focused on my goals, and be sure that I’m doing things that will move me closer to my targets.

Top Down Approach, after Most Important Action, within Contexts

In order to stay focused, for me it’s important to use a top down approach. My goal is to get everything done on my target list for that day. So it doesn’t really matter what I do first (unless one action is contingent on the completion of another, but then it isn’t a “next action”, is it?). But since I’m a human being, and I don’t always get it all done, I’ve started picking one Most Important Action and moving it to the top of the list. This is the one thing that will provide the most return for me on my effort. And if I do that, I consider the day a success.

First Step – Move today’s Most Important Action to the top of the list

Second Step – sort all of the rest of my daily targets into contexts

Third Step – Go!

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Related Resources

For an excellent comparison of Simpleology and GTD, be sure to read The Showdown: Simple*ology vs. GTD, on Zen Habits

Sign up for Simpeology 10133

Pick up Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity from Amazon.com33 or your local bookstore

The David Allen Company

Mark Joyner’s Atomic Mind Bombs
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  2. from his interview with Duct Tape Marketing333

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