I’ve seen Moleskine notebooks, Hipster PDAs, Palms and Treos, Windows Mobile Devices, and everything in between, from the simple to the elegant. I’ve seen excitement spawned by the latest GTD-related software at SourceForge, or from XYZ company, or from Joe in his basement McGyver-ing something from VB, Java, some string and a peach pit. All this has lead me to a conclusion:
WE ARE ALL WASTING TOO MUCH TIME HACKING OUR SYSTEM TO GET THINGS DONE, AND NOT ACTUALLY GETTING ANYTHING DONE.
Consider this a challenge, a manifesto, a rant, but please consider what I am saying here. I’ve experienced it. I’ve experienced the backlash that accompanies the posts about not wanting to try the latest and greatest version of Shadow Plan, or My Life Organized, or the aforementioned TurboCalendarTaskListandBreakfastCooker 3000.
It is time to confess, I am a PV (Plain Vanilla – I’ve even seen someone refer to Plain Chocolate, an update on Plain Vanilla, as if it is a Plain Vanilla 2.0) Palm user, using a Tungsten E and Palm Desktop. I will also tell you that I am a recovering Agendus user, and I stopped using it because of performance issues. I do not work in the technical or sciences field, but I am a real user of GTD on a day-in-day-out basis. (I have my Green Belt, thanks, despite what I thought in a previous post). I am happy with my system and it works for me. This is what everyone should strive for – something that works for them. I have no argument with that.
However, every day when I read a forum or read my e-mail lists, I read about someone who has found the latest and greatest software, or has been using MLO and has developed the XYZ Template (not sure if MLO has templates, I’m sure someone will chime in and tell me how it actually works…), or is resurrecting some long-dead program on their Apple IIe to see how it works with GTD, and to see if they can hack the Palm to sync with it, or there is some new program that seems GTD-ish and they are going to press the developer to include some GTD hooks. All the other GTD'ers then chime in with advice on how to set XYZ up, or how to go through a complex syncing to get it to sync with ANOTHER program, or a comment about how they tried it, but chose another program, and the poster should too.... It is all just so much window-dressing. It is all so time-wasting. It is what one poster on one of the forums called Productivity Limbo - a phrase that I really like. I’ve been there, I got the t-shirt – and trust me, you don’t want it.
I was at a point about a year ago, when I was en-route to work and recording voice memos to myself for later processing, when I screamed into my phone that I should stop farting (not the words I used) around with various software for my Palm, pick something, and use it. I did settle on Agendus for about a year, until 3 months ago, when the aforementioned speed problems made me stop. I kept that voice memo around for about a month to remind me to stop the constant treadmill of downloading and trying, downloading and trying.
If you have been on this cycle, think of this: how much time have you wasted importing all your todos/appointments/checklists/whatever into each system you’ve tried? How much time trying to seamlessly transfer data from one desktop program to another? How much time farting around, and calling it “Hacking the GTD system?”.
If you have found something like Bonsai or MLO or whatever, and have been using it for sometime, and that is your system, then great for you. But if you are like many that I see that are flitting from one system to the other, to the other, to the other….. I have some news for you:
THERE IS NO PERFECT GTD SYSTEM! It is dependent on the user using it, regularly, as their trusted system.
By all means, try something. But do it slowly and deliberately. Use something for a period of at least weeks if not months before you determine there is no way that you can integrate it into your system and be happy. Then, slowly, as if you are beta-testing, try out something new.
Good luck to you all, but remember – as you go on your quest, make sure that you are doing something on your way there, otherwise it is all for naught.
P.S. - Whether you agree with this post, or disagree with it, please leave a comment. I'm interested to see if other people feel this way, or if everyone thinks I'm out to lunch.
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9 comments:
So very true! Thank You!
Sirpa-Kaarina
Finland, Europe
I am absolutely agree with you.
Plain vanilla approach is the best, and keeping mind that GTD system is just a method, not the final goal, or not the Holy Grail.
Too much planning kills doing and we will be more far away from the result than at the beginning.
GTD platform and tool independent, everybody has to find his/her own solutions/methods.
Attila
Hungary, Europe
I don't know that I want to say that Plain Vanilla is best. What I do want to say is confirmed in your last comment.
GTD is platform and tool independent - absolutely. Everyone has to find his or her own solutions or methods - absolutely.
It's the infernal hopping from one tool to another to another to another that I think is where time goes to die - it's a total time sink. You have to be very very conscious of that, I think, to successfully implement GTD. Otherwise, it is just so much farting around.
Martin,
Great blog comments.
I'm not a Palm or major electronic user but some times I feel the "pressure" to have an electronic system.
I have a T-shirt that matches yours as I have spent oodles of time, looking, downloading, trying to learn numerous suggested applications for electronic GTD.
I too found that most were not what I needed. I was wasting a LOT of time trying to learn unnecessary things.
I think one sign of maturity is to know when to stop trying to learn some thing and move on to what works for you.
I've taken to skimming most group posts re: the latest and the greatest.
So I'm back to mostly analog but Vitalist does look interesting. I may explore that a little more some time...it's on my Someday/Maybe list.
Thanks for a very thoughtful post.
I didn't know our little club even had t-shirts! My advice - if you have a system you like, use it for heaven's sake!
I have a notebook that I carry around, I've talked about it in this post. I wouldn't give up my notebook, it is too quick an input system. I wouldn't give up my Palm either, as it is so very searchable. I wouldn't give up lots of things, but that is because I have found some very simple things that work. I believe that is the key to GTD - find something, use it.
I found your blog via the Ready For Anything list. I tried a few different systems for GTD but settled on a plain text file edited with Emacs and org-mode. Since I already used Emacs for text editing, the implementation wasn't difficult.
But I wouldnt recommend this to anyone unless they already use Emacs.
I downloaded Thinking Rock since someone said it was the next big thing, but I scrapped it. Better to get things done with my plain text files than waste time learing YAGT (Yet another GTD Tool!)
Charles
You've got it right -- stop bouncing from system to system and start doing the real work of trusting one system. Find something that works, and then work it. Amen.
You don't understand why some people swing from system to system. It's because it forces them to do a review. The other reason is that plain vanilla simply doesn't work for everyone. I find that people with the newer Palms (using Tasks) don't understand that the older Palms can't do repeating todos. You need another program for that.
Honestly, I've never understood why someone would feel concerned about how many systems or software someone else tries. Usually, all it takes is life getting more hectic for a person to lose interest in tweaking their system.
Hi teri,
Thanks for the comment. It's interesting that nearly a year later, that post still gets everyone.
The point I am trying to make is not that people should be encouraged to try new gadgets/software/systems, it's that they try a new on EVERY DARN WEEK. They should stick with one thing - for a minimum of 90 days - and then try and move on to something else if that isn't working for them.
Otherwise, it's just transfer of data after transfer of data after transfer of data, and really they aren't accomplishing anything.
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