Whether you are newly interested in personal productivity or have been around the traps for some time, you will come across the acronym GTD at some point. I remember originally reading about it in 2005 and when it started hitting my radar with increased frequency I relented and investigated it. After reading about the concept on-line I went out and bought the book How to Get Things Done, by David Allen. I read the book over a weekend - it felt like a bit of a homecoming to me - and I adopted the approach called GTD and within weeks I was hooked. That was years ago, and I never looked back.
Without getting in to too many details here, the most basic premise of this action based approach to productivity is that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks. David Allen refers to mind like water, a zen-state that you reach when your mind can absorb new tasks / information / stimuli like a pond in to which a stone is thrown - there is a temporary ripple effect and then things settle back to the former state. If this sounds a bit airy-fairy to you, relax, GTD is very, very powerful in a pragmatic way.
Over time I have adapted GTD to fit my life and my work and in part it lead to me starting my consultancy and this blog.
What follows is not for the GTD initiated. This is meant for GTD naives.
You would have noticed that I try to use videos in my blog to illustrate new products or concepts, and I thought that it made most sense to point you in the direction of David Allen himself giving an overview of GTD at a Google Tech Talk.
A graphic illustration of some of the key concepts he talks about:
After you watch the video and remain interested I suggest reading the excellent GTD Primer on the BlackBeltProductivity Blog. They went through all the trouble of summarising every chapter of the book and have a page on the blog for every chapter. I shamelessly and unapologetically link you to these summaries as I do not believe in reinventing the wheel. In fact, not reinventing the wheel is one of the principles I adhere to most fervently at work and I think some of my colleagues will smile wistfully if they were to see me write it here.
Chapter 1: A New Practice for a New Reality
Chapter 2: Getting Control of Your Life: Mastering the Five Stages of Workflow
Chapter 3: Getting Projects Creatively Under Way: The Five Phases of Project Planning
After watching the videos and reading the first couple of chapters you should have a really good feel for what GTD is all about. At that stage you will be thoroughly introduced to GTD and therefore I would have achieved my original intention with this post. It may also have a profound effect on your life.
If your interest is piqued I suggest you Google GTD and start reading, there is tons of useful information out there.
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