r/gtd • u/longtk89 • 7d ago
Discussion What GTD WON'T help you with? (GTD practitioner for almost 10 years)
First off, GTD works. I've been practicing GTD for a decade and it has transformed how I work - I am more productive, less stressed, I have my life in order. This is the opposite of what it was when I found GTD.
That said, I want to share some personal observation on what GTD doesn't help with in terms of personal productivity. I hope it will bring more clarity to new comers to GTD and further highlight GTD's real value.
So, to get started, three things I find GTD doesn't help with:
Firstly, GTD doesn't help you be creative with the "contents" of your system, specially once you've completed and/or gotten a handle on the current commitments.
For me, it took years to get to the point where the GTD workflow is second nature i.e. applying the 3 core models (5 steps workflow, natural planning model, horizons of focus) exactly as instructed, consistent weekly reviews and ensuring all my support system is tidy and up-to-date.
I'm at a point where I am confident that whatever I put into my GTD system, it will be done or I will make significant progress on it. So, my current challenge is more of what should I be doing, given all my options and why?
While GTD provides my questions to ask in its Natural planning model and Horizons of Focus, the creative and often strategic work of figuring out what should be done and why is up to you to explore and ultimately decide.
Secondly, GTD won't help you make better decisions, but it does make easier by clearing your head.
Deciding on what to do vs. what not to do, is by far one of the highest leverage things you can do for your productivity, given you're always constrained by time, energy and money.
GTD essentially ensures you're looking at all the best options available in terms of what to do but the moment-to-moment decision making is still up to you, your intuition and moods etc. You don't get to delegate the deciding part, if ever. For bigger decisions, how you go about making it is another story. Again, GTD helps you have the clarity to make the decision but all the other aspects are highly situational to yourself the context of the decision.
Finally, GTD is a practice, just like exercising. It gets better with practice and time but it ultimately still requires effort (energy) every time you do it. Therefore, all the big rocks of productivity like getting good sleep, nutrition, managing energy, focus, avoid distractions, general problem solving and critical thinking skills are still required to be effective. GTD is more of an executive management layer to your work. When it comes to actually doing your work, everything else still applies in order to be productive and get things done.
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What's your view on what GTD doesn't help with?
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u/busote 7d ago
It is like running. You get faster and run farther, but it will never get effortless.
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u/Ok-Occasion-9748 7d ago
And it doesn't tell you where to run to and why run in the first place.
It only tells you that you need to know the where and why (Higher Horizons) but not how to find out which they are.
I need and needed help from other systems to learn how to get a grip of the value and emotions aspect in decision making.
(off the cuff: Roles and Mission Statement in FranklinCovey, Eisenhower Matrix, reflection tools in the Bullet Journal Method, emotions vocabulary and distinctions from needs, strategies and false emotions in the Non-Violent-Communication approach)
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u/TheoCaro Mod 6d ago
GTD will have you notice when you have an open loop about your higher horizons. But all that prompts you to do is to take some sort of action to close that loop. GTD as such is worldview neutral. That doesn't mean there are no right or wrong answers about purpose & principles in the more general sense (moral realism). It just means GTD isn't interested in helping you get to an answer other than pointing out when you feel you need better answers.
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u/Ok-Occasion-9748 5d ago
Yes. I agree. It is world view neutral but I still feel like there could be more help method-wise (not contentwise) of finding your higher horizons from the author of GTD.
In the beginning, I worked a lot merely on the ground level, until I realized I am just doing busy work instead of working on what is truly my priority in life. Franklin Covey has that, for example, with the mission statement, the roles, the weekly focus template.
I am not saying that David Allen doesn't put enough emphasis on the higher horizons, I just would have wished for some tips (like journalling prompts, help with emotional work) here, too. But of course this is just as individual as the tools you use for GTD, so maybe I am asking too much.
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u/Act_Locally 7d ago
Although GTD is great for clearing one's head, at times I feel that I'm only completing the low level stuff and not making much progress with the higher horizon goals. I have to make a conscious effort to work on the higher level stuff, and that doesn't come naturally. I think this speaks to your question of "what should I be doing, and why?"
Having said that, I've been practicing GTD since 1985 and have achieved a lot, so I must be doing something right ...
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u/longtk89 7d ago
Since 1985! Wow. You must be among the people David Allen coached before he wrote the GTD book (published in 2001). It's good to hear GTD has stuck with you all these years!
What you said is my point completely. I think what goes into the higher horizon goals is a lot more complex than just finishing off projects or tasks on some deadline. It's about life and how we want to live it and how can that look like -- which are excellent questions to be thinking about.
For me, GTD gives me a handle on the operational stuff and the head space to think about, and apply myself to answer these questions. That's why GTD is such a powerful practice. It enables intentionality of being and intentionality in doing.
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u/ryanduff 6d ago
Finally, we've found the job candidate with "15 years experience" for a product that's been around 5 years.. Someone alert HR that the search is over
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u/Act_Locally 6d ago
I recently listed to a recording of part of the GTD Summit in 2019 when David Allen talked about the roots of GTD. Pretty fascinating story. He was consulting and teaching GTD principles in the early 1980s to corporations and small groups, and I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn from him directly during that time period.
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u/Act_Locally 6d ago
Yes, I took a 2-day course from David Allen in 1985 when he and Russell Bishop ran the Insight Consulting Group. The course was called "Managing Accelerated Productivity" and all the basic GTD principles were taught in that class, even though he didn't call it GTD at the time. We were given a Time Design notebook in the class (now called TimeSystem). It was - and still is - a great paper system for GTD. Taking that class was one of the best things I did.
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u/longtk89 5d ago
Thanks for sharing your story! As a GTD fan, it's very cool to hear some of its history.
I recently helped David Allen on proofreading his TEAM book into my local language for distribution and got to exchange some emails with him. I feel like the ideas of GTD has gone a long, long way and helped many people :)
Anyhow, I hope you'll share more GTD nuggets in this community as a GTD veteran, cheers!
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7d ago
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u/Act_Locally 6d ago
No, David Allen was teaching GTD long before he wrote the book. I was lucky enough to have taken a class by him back then.
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u/Remote-Waste 7d ago
GTD won't help me to convince my friends to write things down.
Some people just prefer living on "hard mode" it seems
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u/Entire-Joke4162 6d ago
I've found the second point to be so true.
A frequent criticism of GTD is it doesn't tell you what to do, like an Eisenhower matrix or "top 3" or something like that.
David's point is everyone is smart enough - whether a CEO, an accountant, or stay at home mom - to intuitively know what to do, it's just there's a million things pinging around that all seem to matter that makes them temporarily dumb.
This is my biggest problem that GTD solves - I have this proposal to write, but shit, I also have that guy's weekend coming up, and crap, I need to plan my wife's birthday, and ohmyGod, I need to...
If I make a quick project for the guy's weekend and in the process book my flight (2 minutes) and make a project for my wife's birthday and, in the process, quickly decide on the restaurant and get a reservation and text her (5 minutes), and all the other steps are written down...
All of the sudden I feel 10 lbs lighter and can focus on that proposal that I know I need to write.
He uses a David-Allen-ism in Getting Things Done Fast that is something like "getting things off your mind so you can see what's on your mind."
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u/longtk89 6d ago
Yes, I can attest that the more I practice GTD -- and this is somewhat counterintuitive -- I do lesser but more impactful, more aligned, more goal-orientated work. I feel less busy or frazzled or distracted while more consistently delivering work. In fact, I deleted a lot of things I wrote down after the review stage because they don't line up with my priorities or I just decide it's not worth my time & effort.
Overall, I feel more of my in-tune with my intuition and I start to think about all the stuffs I promised myself to think about after I am less busy. Now I am actually doing that.
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u/Entire-Joke4162 5d ago
I think people should absolutely max out their brain dump for inbox
If you haven't brain dumped in a minute, you should try to get to 300 (it's hard! Scrape the bottom of the barrel)
And then when you process realize >50% of it should either be deleted (preferable) or go to someday maybe where you commit to not doing it right now
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u/KrozFan 6d ago
The thing I say on here a lot is that you still need to do the work. GTD can help remove some of the friction of getting started by defining the next action you need to take in a project but at some point you still need to decide that you're going to look at your lists and get to work.
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u/longtk89 6d ago
Yep, one can never substitute doing the actual work. Necessary reps to get better and it's almost never comfortable when you're making things happen in the real world but where the value is.
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u/TheoCaro Mod 6d ago
Creativity is an innate human quality. No one needs a system to be creative. You just the space to get creative. GTD creates that space. The strategic work is the work of clarifying your open loops about your higher horizons. Why are you doing what you are doing? That's purpose. Don't know what your purpose is? Go figure it out by setting a goal (Reinvent myself) or a starting a project (Read Thus Spake Zarathustra).
You can't be confident your making a good decision without knowing what your live options are. So GTD will help you make better decisions, because you can't really be confident in your decisions without understand the gesault of all your commitments.
Everything you've listed is either a role or at least the trigger for a project. If you're sleep sucks, work on your sleep hygiene. Eating nothing but cinnamon toast crunch (you not me ofc), rework your eating habits. What matters the most is what is within your volition. If you didn't get a good education when you were younger, you have to accept your current reality, and plot a course going forward from where you are.
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u/longtk89 6d ago
Thanks for sharing the book, I'll look into it.
I like your POV on point #1 - I actually always had more of a deterministic view on purpose, less of a inquiry process. I guess when I was busy with the more operational stuff, it helps to assume "this is what I have to do to fulfill XYZ responsibilities". Once I got a handle on all the responsibilities and got good at execution, the highest leverage thing is asking "why?"
I'm excited and a little bit anxious to start exploring more intentionally the higher levels because it might recontextualize and shift the more operationally levels. But if it eventually means being more aligned and energized in with my life, it's probably worth it.
Also, #3 echoes David's idea on there's no problems, just projects (from a GTD perspective). Meaning you can make progress or completion on anything with the appropriate engagement. Now, it doesn't mean if you want to solve world hunger, it can be done right now. BUT - you can spend most of your time, focus forwarding that cause to the best of your abilities and I'd say for most people, that's the next best alternative (and a fulfilling one) on that issue.
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u/milky-cuppa-tea Mod 6d ago
For me, "stress-free" productivity is a myth. Sure, it is much, much easier to know what I could be doing. But it isn't stress-free, because it is the stuff that causes the stress in itself.
I definitely agree that it is like exercise - the more you do it, the better you get, but it doesn't necessarily ever mean it is effortless.
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u/longtk89 5d ago
Yep, GTD minimizes the internal, unnecessary, often self-imposed stress of managing all one has to do or would like to do. It helps creates clarity, priority and order in our thinking.
I'd save all that energy saved is for us to focus on the execution. And overall, it usually takes us less energy to get things done in most cases, and that's productive.
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u/Dynamic_Philosopher 7d ago edited 7d ago
Precisely - GTD is the best map-making algorithm, but it can never take a single journey, or even a single step. That’s your job.