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COMMENT PAGE FOR:
URI A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done
DIR text version
fairity wrote 2 days ago:
Iâve been using GTD with Evernote for a year now and itâs been a
huge help.
One thing that really surprised me was that David Allen doesnât
recommend a specific digital app to implement the GtD system through.
The lack of a singular recommended app surely decreases adoption of his
system. And, I imagine thereâs a 9 figure opportunity in becoming
the officially endorsed gtd app. My guess is heâs uncomfortable with
technology and doesnât care about the economic upside.
100011_100001 wrote 3 days ago:
When I found GTD I thought I found a life changer. I sat down and tried
to reduce my overwhelm. For my work alone I had 111 projects.
It helped a lot, but then 1 year old I stopped using it. The problem is
GTD is too heavy process wise. There are a lot of little actions you
have to take, which at times end up taking as long as next action items
since action items will continue to grow.
All GTD web apps always left something out that I did. I lost count how
many different websites I tried. I count that as a net productivity
loss.
There are a few solid GTD ideas that I have stuck with, but my process
has become a lot simpler that it's almost a non process.
Things that GTD is right about
1. Inbox zero
2. Doing a todo dump in a list
3. Having a small number of "in" work
I still follow these three ideas. The rest of my process is a lot more
present oriented.
giomasce wrote 3 days ago:
Any suggestion on a (possibly self-hosted) web application to manage
GTD lists?
KlatchianMist wrote 3 days ago:
The thing that really made task management stick for me was the
creation of a personalized task management meta-model: What workflows
do I wish to follow and which task attributes and views are needed to
enable those workflows? After thinking through that, it became easy to
find and configure a task management app in a way that it got
consistently used.
Here is the reference I used for creating my own task management
meta-model:
URI [1]: https://sagar.se/blog/a-task-management-model/
mfrankel wrote 3 days ago:
Here's a 4 minute video intro to GTD:
URI [1]: https://brevedy.com/getting-things-done-3-minutes-video/
CoffeeAfter2pm wrote 3 days ago:
I've often thought that GTD needs a prioritization system (apparently
discussed in chapter 9 of the book, but rarely seen in such
posts/blogs/writeups). I've tried to make a hybrid system using a BuJo
with GTD and a modified Eisenhower-matrix style priority system, but I
haven't used it long enough to recommend it. (I hope to post it here to
HN once successful.)
garrickvanburen wrote 3 days ago:
Iâve adopted the âSomeday/Maybeâ, âWaiting Forâ, âNext
Actionsâ, and âWeekly (P)Reviewâ portions of GTD, beyond that,
all my commitments are in my calendar, as I found a decade ago that my
biggest impediment to getting things done was answering âWhen?â
metacritic12 wrote 3 days ago:
The big problem I have with GTD is that there doesn't seem to be a
concept of prioritizing tasks or even deleting bad tasks.
What's the part of the process where I decide the time ROI of Task A is
10x and the ROI of Task B is 0.5x?
Jtsummers wrote 3 days ago:
It's been years since I read the book, and I was surprised I still
had it (my wife had me do a major purge of the library a couple years
back, this one apparently made the cut).
Priorities are discussed in chapter 9. Deleting tasks is discussed in
chapter 8 (along with the weekly review).
steveklabnik wrote 3 days ago:
The {weekly,monthly,quarterly,yearly,whatever} review is where you do
this sort of work. It's true that in GTD itself there's no concept of
"priority" directly; it does exist implicitly in the difference
between a "project" and "someday/maybe" lists. Prioritizing a project
means it's a project, not on the list, and deprioritizing one means
moving it to the someday/maybe list. Same with deleting tasks, if
it's not useful, just delete it.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
> The {weekly,monthly,quarterly,yearly,whatever} review is where
you do this sort of work.
That's true, but it doesn't tell you how to prioritize. It likely
can't, as there are many different methods to do so, and none stand
out over the others. However, I wish the book had made it clear
that this is not covered, and you should consult other resources
for this.
> Prioritizing a project means it's a project, not on the list, and
deprioritizing one means moving it to the someday/maybe list
Yes, but it does say that weekly/monthly you should move items from
one list to the other. As I said in another comment, my
someday/maybe list is hundreds of items long. How do I choose which
one to put into the active projects list? It's not feasible to look
at hundreds of items and just decide which ones are important.
I've been using GTD for 15 years. Even if you put 30 items in the
Someday/Maybe list per year (and this is conservative for me),
you're looking at over 300 items by this point - especially given
that of those 30, you'll probably be able to do only 3-5 in a given
year.
morninglight wrote 3 days ago:
This is an advertisement for yet another self-help book.
.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
Not sure why you're downvoted. Even if GTD is a great book, it is a
self help book.
kevinmgranger wrote 3 days ago:
The idea that the post is an advertisement is ludicrous, and they
are being downvoted accordingly.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
Some notes from someone who's attempted GTD for 15 years. My trouble
with it is that it really hasn't worked when your lists become large.
> When you first start to use GTD you should take an hour to write down
all things you want toâor have toâdo.
An hour is not even close to being enough. A whole weekend may get you
to 50%.
> If itâs something that you want to remind yourself about later
(âI really didnât understand this article, I should have a look at
it again in two weeksâ) it should go into your calendar or your
tickler file
The problem is that my tickler files become bloated with these, and it
becomes a daily burden to open that day's file and try to decide. If I
deferred something till later "because I couldn't decide what to do
with it", there's a 90% chance I'll defer it again. These are items I
want to work on actively, and not put in the Someday/Maybe list.
> This is where the some day/maybe list comes it. ... This list should
be reviewed weekly along with the rest of the system as described in
the weekly review section below.
Perhaps many people don't have as much aspiration (or imagination), but
my Someday/Maybe list is huge - hundreds of potential TODOs/projects.
Reviewing that every week is a huge burden, so it's not done. I treat
Someday/Maybe almost as a garbage dump - I don't look at it, but my
brain takes comfort that I've captured it somewhere.
It's got to the point that I now have an "intermediate" list in between
my active and someday/maybe. This list contains items I must do, but
I've placed them there because I lack the bandwidth. Whenever I finish
a project, I move items from this list to the "Active" list. I need
this intermediate list because I know once something goes to
Someday/Maybe, it's practically lost in all the noise.
One of the problems with GTD is it doesn't address how to focus or
prioritize, nor what to ask yourself during the review. I've found
making a Do Not Do list to be far more effective (as in, at the
beginning of the year, I list projects that I commit to not doing until
I'm done with the ones I do want to do). Listing goals for the year and
asking myself weekly/monthly what work I did not tied to those goals is
helpful during the review.
euroderf wrote 2 days ago:
> It's got to the point that I now have an "intermediate" list in
between my active and someday/maybe. This list contains items I must
do, but I've placed them there because I lack the bandwidth.
In an Eisenhower matrix, this sounds like "Important" but not
"Urgent", i.e. the upper right quadrant. Things that are not getting
done this week, but are likely complex, so they can benefit from
providing details.
The Eisenhower matrix relates to my main beef about most productivity
schemes, which is that every task has not less than half a dozen
attributes to set. With a 4-corner matrix, just drop it in a corner
without having to give it a lot of thought or fiddle with a lot of UI
widgets. Maybe fill in more widget-level details after your
subconscious has had a chance to mull it over.
coutego wrote 1 day ago:
I had a similar experience and concluded that the most important
thing is to learn to drop as many things as possible.
If the list are getting too big it just means we are trying to do
too much. The objective should be to trim those list down as much
as possible. Too many someday/maybe things? Well, time to decide to
move them to never/surely not category (i.e. delete them or put
them in the "won't do" category).
Too many things in the TODO/Next/...? Well, it's time to think
whether they absolutely need to be done. If they really, REALLY do,
do they need to be done by you? Delegating, asking someone to do
them or just externalizing them to some service can be a
possibility.
Focusing is not as much about deciding what to do as to decide what
not to do. I know, they are logically equivalent things, but the
main issue is that most of us are not psicologically well prepared
to accept that we just won't do many things we would like to do, so
we invent complex systems to keep track of what we won't have time
to do and unnecessarily stress us in the process. Learning to just
let go is one of the most useful things I learnt in life.
zeitlupe wrote 3 days ago:
> An hour is not even close to being enough. A whole weekend may get
you to 50%.
This is one problem I have with GTD: It talks and talks about
collecting and sorting tasks but does not care much about whether you
should do them in the first place. It invites overloading yourself
with tasks and want-to-dos instead of thinking about if that tasks
are truly important to you in the light of a perpetual shortage of
time to do all the stuff you would like to.
Jtsummers wrote 3 days ago:
[1] The five basic steps of GTD:
1. Capture
2. Clarify
3. Organize
4. Reflect
5. Engage
(2) and (4), in particular, deal with whether the actions are worth
doing along with the when and where of doing them. Which is covered
in all the decent summaries I've read and the book itself.
URI [1]: https://gettingthingsdone.com/what-is-gtd/
dougskinner wrote 3 days ago:
I don't think this is an accurate assessment. Yes, GTD wants you to
get everything out of your head and onto the "paper" in front of
you. And yes, this might take a long time for some people, up to
hours or days. But the key thing is it's all written down. Once it
is, then you go through the collected inputs and actually figure
out what to do with them. But you can't do that while your brain is
still going "did I write this other thing down?" You need a clear
mind before you start processing.
d0mine wrote 3 days ago:
One trick is to schedule a fixed block of time e.g., an hour before
launch every morning and work on these maybe/someday tasks (you can
choose the next task using whatever criteria you like e.g., "what
looks the most interesting dopamine-generating right now" or "boring
but important even if without a fixed date" depending on your needs
(or a combination of the two: start with interesting, and persevere
through the boring parts by using the fixed time slot)
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
It's a nice trick, but what is it trying to achieve? Also, if I'm
going to spend an hour daily on Someday/Maybe tasks, then those
tasks really are not "Someday/Maybe", right? Are you really
suggesting I look over that list daily?
I think people are misreading my comment as saying "I have so many
things I want to do, and there isn't enough time to do them, and
GTD doesn't help."
This is not my problem. My problem is:
"I have a lot of items on my Someday/Maybe list, over 90% of which
will not be done, and that's OK. Reviewing this list every week (as
GTD tells me to) to decide if I should move any to the 'Active'
list is a huge burden"
d0mine wrote 3 days ago:
If you believe you can review your list everyday, then your list
is not large enough ;)
Obviously, it would defeat the purpose to try to review it
everyday -- classic quadratic algorithm -- nothing will be done
and a lot of anxiety may be generated.
If you are stuck and can't choose in a reasonable time, pick at
random, and work on it: avoid multitasking (if it "maybe/someday"
task, then you can afford it).
If 1000 hours over 4 years is too much for your purposes, pick a
different frequency -- having the habit should help either way.
If there is no amount of time you are willing to reserve for your
list than call it "Never" (that is fine -- as one data hoarder to
another).
packetslave wrote 3 days ago:
One thing I did to address exactly this (way too many items in
Someday/Maybe to review effectively every week) was to separate
the list into two:
- Someday (I'm 90% sure I am going to do this, but I'm not
actively working on it right now). This gets looked at during my
weekly review.
- Maybe (I might do this at some point, but I'm 90% sure I won't
do it in the next month). This gets looked at during my monthly
review.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
Yes, this is similar to my intermediate list above (probably
should call it "Backlog"). These are things I must do - just
not now.
For the "Maybe", to be frank, I just stopped updating it.
Instead I now have a sort of bucket list: Things I'd really
like to do before I die. Even if I can't do all, I should be
able to do quite a bit of these. It's basically a "higher
priority" Maybe list. The idea is when a random thought pops up
into my head ("Write a blog post on X"), I ask myself "Does
this belong in the bucket list?" If not: "Wouldn't my time be
better spent on the bucket list?" If yes, I just discard the
thought. Sure, it'll pop into my head often, but why bother
adding it to my "Maybe" list if I can't be bothered to review
that huge list?
manholio wrote 3 days ago:
Sounds like you are an overachiever. The big implicit assumption of
GTD is that, while it makes you more productive, there is still a
limit on how much you can take on. Workload is not specifically
addressed, but implicitly the overflow will go to the Someday folder.
I think the answer to this problem is not any productivity trick, but
to aim for exponential growth of your business, career, etc. so that
Delegate becomes the primary workhorse instead of Next Actions.
Prioritize actions you perform and projects you start so that they
are conducive to a long term self-sustaining increase in your
productivity. And accept that you may have limited success/luck in
unleashing the exponential and that some projects will forever stay
out of your linear reach.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
> Sounds like you are an overachiever.
Not at all. I'm not trying to achieve all, or even most of those
things. I know I won't even be able to do a tenth of them.
One of the core ideas behind GTD is to get these things out of the
mind and into a trustworthy system. My Someday/Maybe list is huge
because I get it out of my mind and put it somewhere. How many of
them I get to do in my life is not at all a concern I have.
> Prioritize actions you perform and projects you start so that
they are conducive to a long a self-sustaining increase in your
productivity.
When your list is hundreds of items long, and GTD tells you to
prioritize every week, that is unsustainable.
For my work GTD, things are simpler. The scope is limited, and
there's not attachment to any project. The job dictates most of
what needs to be done and it makes prioritizing almost trivial.
It's the GTD for the non-work stuff that explodes.
bachmeier wrote 3 days ago:
> When your list is hundreds of items long, and GTD tells you to
prioritize every week, that is unsustainable.
One of the nice things about GTD is that you make everything
explicit. It quickly becomes obvious when you have too many
active projects, nudging you to decide which project are really
worth doing. The same goes for having too many next actions.
> It's the GTD for the non-work stuff that explodes.
Great if you're actually getting all that non-work stuff done,
but I just can't imagine you're doing hundreds of non-work items
each week.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
> It quickly becomes obvious when you have too many active
projects
The issue I'm discussing isn't the number of active projects,
but the number of someday/maybe projects.
> Great if you're actually getting all that non-work stuff
done, but I just can't imagine you're doing hundreds of
non-work items each week.
See paragraph above.
The issue I'm complaining about is that GTD tells you to review
the Someday/Maybe list often (e.g. every week). I'm pointing
out the infeasibility of that. Culling the Someday/Maybe list
is fundamentally problematic in GTD, as the whole point is to
get these ideas out of our head and into a list somewhere.
bachmeier wrote 3 days ago:
I don't agree. You're describing tickler items. If you make a
decision that you should revisit the potential item in two
months, it goes in the tickler for that time. Indeed, that's
exactly why the tickler exists.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
No, I'm describing Someday/Maybe. If you're not sure when
or even if you'll do a project, it goes into Someday/Maybe,
and you're supposed to review this list regularly.
Tickler file is for when you'd like to be reminded of
something. So yes, if indecisive about a project, you can
let it sit there. However, if you decide you won't do it
any time in the near horizon, you move it out of tickler
files and into Someday/Maybe.
The two are not mutually exclusive, of course. One could
treat the Tickler file as equivalent to Someday/Maybe, but
for me that would be horrible. I can't imagine having to
deal with hundreds of items spread across only 43 folders.
notaclevername wrote 3 days ago:
My strategy to handle a too-long someday/maybe list is to
clarify how often I want to revisit the list. I have a list
to review weekly, a separate list to review monthly,
quarterly, etc. I have separate lists for someday/maybe date
night ideas, vacation ideas, professional development ideas,
and so forth.
Someday/maybe exists to get something out of my head and into
a trusted place where I know Iâll see it again at an
appropriate time. If I know that I only need to see something
quarterly (or when planning a date night), I donât need to
revisit during every weekly review.
What I find is that, when I have more distance between
reviews, it is easier to call the list organically. After a
quarter, I havenât thought about some of those items for
months and I can easily say, âActually, that doesnât
sound interesting any more.â
quesera wrote 3 days ago:
A simple (if impure) solution is to add a secondary
"Someday/Maybe" list. Call it something like
"Eventually/Remotely-Possible".
Limit your S/M list to a comfortable number of entries, and
drop the ones that don't make the cut to E/RP. Review S/M
regularly, review E/RP only when curious, or when one of the
items becomes of renewed interest.
I'm an archivist by nature. I don't like to delete items.
E/RP can grow to thousands of items, and that's OK.
Occasionally one will be revived. The rest will be keep each
other company.
pessimizer wrote 3 days ago:
I think the complaint isn't that one couldn't try different
ways to manage the problem, it's that the system doesn't
address it at all.
quesera wrote 3 days ago:
I don't see this as an issue.
I don't think I've ever met a system that fully addressed
all requirements of all participants -- in any category
of systems.
There's no pretense to divine scripture here. Adopt the
good bits, avoid the dogma.
BeetleB wrote 3 days ago:
Yes, precisely. I've found solutions similar to the other
commenters. My complaint is:
1. This is a common problem - I'm not unusual.
2. GTD's approach to this problem doesn't really work -
hence everyone here listing how they solved it in a way
that differs from GTD (i.e. not reviewing it weekly).
rodolphoarruda wrote 3 days ago:
"GTDâor âGetting things doneââis a framework for organizing and
tracking your tasks and projects"
GTDâor âGetting things doneââis a framework created by David
Allen for organizing and tracking your tasks and projects.
toma_caliente wrote 3 days ago:
You seem to be implying the author is trying to claim this as their
own. They mention David Allen's book not too far into the post.
rodolphoarruda wrote 3 days ago:
No, that wasn't my intention. But it's interesting that you've got
that impression.
It's just good practice to indicate the author of a given
theory/framework/etc. right at the top of the article.
CraigJPerry wrote 3 days ago:
GTD has a concept of a tickler file - [1] - something i have zero use
for but i need the same idea for digital artifacts.
I tried different approaches over the years but iâve settled on the
PARA method - [2] - Very complimentary to GTD and similarly pragmatic.
URI [1]: https://facilethings.com/blog/en/the-tickler-file
URI [2]: https://fortelabs.co/blog/para/
nstart wrote 3 days ago:
Quick thoughts Iâve had for years on this article and about the book
Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Not trying to put this article down btw, since this was the article
that introduced me to gtd in the first place. That said, if you do feel
like trying gtd based off this article, I have a possibly helpful heads
up for you.
Try out the whole dumping things into an inbox and processing it bit
for a short while. Just the bit of building a habit of unloading
anything on your mind into the inbox. Donât worry too much about
projects and ticklers and whatnot. Once youâve done that for a few
weeks, you should pick up the book by David Allen and read it. And then
implement the rest of gtd.
As someone who tried gtd but didnât get it for many years, the book
has so much context behind the thinking of each concept (next actions,
projects, tickler, weekly review, etc). Every single summary of the gtd
method feels pale in comparison to that.
Now, everyoneâs journey might be different. But just know that if GTD
doesnât work for you after trying it based on a post like this,
itâs completely natural. Itâs a rare case where the source material
is really where all the gold is at.
andai wrote 2 days ago:
I'd like to mention there is an audiobook version, and also a "live
seminar" recording (Getting Things Done Fast) which presents the
ideas in a more informal, concise format (though I agree the full
book is well worth the read).
Loic wrote 3 days ago:
What I like from the book is that you have many small but really good
tips on the way to manage your stuff.
For example, getting a label machine to label your folders and store
them in alphabetical order. Really simple but works very well (at
least for me in the past 15 years of doing it).
Some were harder for me, I was not able to implement a nice "TODO
list I can take everywhere" and I am not really formalizing the "next
step" of my project.
But, for me, from the past 15 years, the best personal productivity
book by a large margin.
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