What's the next action

Using GTD, what's the lesson?

23 01 05 - 13:32 - Bookmark this post

I started using the GTD methodology in late october of last year. I was blown away by David’s book and felt that this was something I could really use in my personal and professional life. After a while I figured I could help other people by writing about my experiences with this method. So this weblog started on dec. 2nd. I realised that I would be on holiday 10 days later but hey! I can pick it up after I get home right? Wrong! I had three amazing weeks, not thinking about lists, next actions, ticklerfiles and brainstorming. Just chilling on the beach and in the mountains, doing only what we want to do. So when I came home and had to go to work, I already had a slight feeling that picking up GTD the way I planned to would be that easy. I would like to talk a bit how I started using GTD, what I think went wrong (before I went on a holiday!) and what my plans are for the coming months. Yes, I have been inspired by the amazing posts of Merlin over at 43folders.com and yes, some observations are very similar. It shows me that I am not alone in this and help is at hand when you go online.

How did I start?

If I remember correctly, somewhere in september/october I read some weblogposts about GTD. Especially the ones from Merlin and Anil Dash. All within the same week. I thought to myself: “this must really be something, let’s check it out”. After buying the book, I immediately started implementing the system. That’s where the first flaw (in my opinion) started. I didn’t take the time, really take the time, to fully implement the system. For instance, I didn’t collect all the ongoing actions, projects and open ends in to one big box. No, what I did was cleaning my Inbox into some tasks and to do’s and hoped everything started to fall in place. Collecting, Processing and Organizing at once….I run a lot of projects, both big and small, and I couldn’t help it. I didn’t give myself enough free time at work to really start the system. The result: Still a lot of papers, open ends, different tasks and reminders all over the place.
Also I didn’t invest in hardware (yet). I don’t have a good ticklerfile, archive cabinet or other hardware that is recommended in the book. The reasons are multiple: I don’t have GTD implemented in my homesituation yet (more on that later), I don’t have the room for (analog) archiving at home. Did’t find a good ticklerfile yet. At work we have archives for our client material. But since that is on the other side of the office, I’d have to walk every time to get something. Ofcourse that is good for my health, but it stops me from working that way. An archive at my desk? No option, due to space constraints.

The first month

That’s when my other vices came into play. Well, they are not really bad vices, but they tend to get the upperhand. First: Software cures all. I have the nasty habit to keep fiddling and tweaking with software untill it suits me just fine. Not realizing (then) it was just procrastinating me for what I really needed to do, Getting Things Done! I clicked on every link in every forumpost on GTD : Gear,Gadgets,software and toys and installed it to see how it worked. This worked perfectly with my second bad habit: Informationjunkieness. Yes that is a made up word. Forgive my poor English writing skills. But the thing is: I love to read and know things. I use RSS intensively (see my post on the GTD setup). Both for work and private. With RSS, I read too much. Picture this: I commute every day. 1 hour in the train. So that is 2 hours a day. In those 2 hours, I read my RSS feeds, see interesting articles and flag them as interesting and “must read more on it”. Result: One big pile of articles I don’t get around to read. In comes vice no.1 :“Hmmm….I need some software to make this reading easier”...
Same with GTD, instead of just doing things and getting it to work for myself, I surfed the net for tips and tricks. Ofcourse that is not a bad thing, but it stopped me from really really implementing the system in my life and work. I kept seeing tips and thinking:“yeah I can do that, good idea!” and instead of implementing that idea, I made a note of it, dropped it and never looked back at it. Bad bad bad…

Not everything was that bad. One of the best things I learned the first months is the concept of “The Next Action”. Just by some clear thinking and untangling a big list of projects and to do’s I got some control of projects again. I am currently working on a huge project at work. The process of GTD, the basic rules, gave me an understanding of the work that had to be done. Not only by me, but also by my team of webdesigners, programmers and interface engineers. This helped me identify tasks for others and enforced some clear communication to my client. One tip from the book has helped me tremendously: in a meeeting, just ask what the next action is. Don’t let decisions ringing in the air, don’t let people stare at each other about the about the work that lies ahead. But shout it out loud: What is your next action? How do you get forward in this project?

After the holiday

When I came back from New Zealand I found out life goes on without me. A big no-brainer you learn early in life but it’s good to be reminded sometimes. I didn’t read my workmail for three weeks, hadn’t read any RSS feeds and didn’t know what the latest and greatest thing in online marketing was when I came home. And the best thing? I didn’t feel bad at all. One thing I learned while on vacation is to really relax. I don’t go on vacation really often, I just keep on working and reading and writing. I decided: “That’s gotta stop.”
I truly think that GTD is going to help me with this. I don’t know how just yet, but I am going to find out.
When I got back, the bad implementation of GTD backfired on me. I couldn’t find anything, had a long list of overdue items, projects sort of stumbled on but weren’t running real smoothly and my notes were all over the place. So what I need to do is start again. Not totally from scratch, but just pick up the book and review my notes from the implementation phase. This might take some time, while the projects I am working on don’t stop. Worse, they need a kickstart as well and I can’t allow myself to put that of… So I have the feeling I am going to juggle with the implementation again and I don’t want that! Maybe I should take one day off but still be at work to re-start the implementation again. Any thoughts on that?

Home implementation

This has been discussed in forums as well and I have to agree, when you don’t work at home, you need a separate system for work and private. I want to implement GTD at home as well, but I want to do this with my girlfriend. She hasn’t read the book yet (The DaVinci Code was more interesting, couldn’t blame her) and I think she has to understand from the book why some things are implemented the way they are. Furthermore we are in the process of buying a house and moving to another city. Eventhough that is a great GTD-project, I feel I have to wait with the full implementation after the move. I don’t want a half implementation at home and a half at work, that will freak me out even more.

Software and hardware

Ah! The big procrastinators! On the hardware side: I need a ticklerfile and a good archive. Period. This will be the first purchase the coming week, because I found out that the lack of these items gives me stress when at work. I need to talk to my supervisors about this investment.
On the software side: Re-evaluate my Outlook add-in and re-evaluate the software I use now. I am currently evaluating Mindmanager for use at work (remember the big project?) and it feels good to me. Not using Evernote for a month makes me not going back to it instinctively, so I have to figure out why that is. My setup at home is mostly non-Microsoft (apart from the OS) and pro-Mozilla. Since there is some movement in the open source community for GTD-related software, I might keep an eye on that. For instance, EssentialPIM is on my evaluate-list. But foremost on this subject: Stop fiddling, get to work!
On this subject one more resolution: update this weblog for everything to work properly. I found out some links and archives are not functioning well. This will be fixed soon!

Suggestions

Since GTD got a lot of coverage the last year, the buzz and discussions around it have gone bigger. It has become clear that the system as described might need an update. I can only find myself next to Merlin on this one: Branch out and drill down, update for the always-on generation and tools for implementation. The Outlook add-in needs to much tweaking if you are a manager for an interactive agency like I am. 90% of my work is done online and the default settings for the add-in don’t cover that enough in my opinion.
Furthermore, I would like to see David or anyone from DavidCo come to Europe (well, the Netherlands actually) for some seminars. Or give us some information on consultants in this area. Maybe I overlooked something, but I couldn’t find it. Just to be able to talk to someone about GTD really helps me get forward. Mail and web may not always be the best solution. Sometimes you just have to sit down with someone and talk face to face.

Conclusion

I think Q4 of 2004 was a sort of dress rehearsal for my GTD implementation. I am glad I started this weblog, because I can read back and find some thoughts and reasonings from months ago. And it gives me a platform to speak about progress, problems and victories. That helps.
I do hope the popularity GTD gained last year will continue this year and I can read (in lower volume ;-)) some great new tips and tricks. Ofcourse, David’s company can profit from that and they should. GTD has the great feature that it makes you a evangelist right away. That is something they should benefit from and I really hope they will.
GTD in 2005? I am gonna work this thing. Really really hard. Just so it gives me time and space to do the nicer things in life and perhaps catch up on some new things :-)

I hope this (lengthy) article helps you focus on your own implementation of and dealing with GTD. If you have any questions or some of my rambling is unclear to you, please leave a comment. I appreciate all reader input and try to answer as best as I can.

If you’re checking out MindManager, make sure you try out the ResultsManager GTD addon for it. It’s from a long-time MM user and developer, Nick Duffel, company name is Gyronix, at http://www.gyronix.com/

I’ve been evaluating it for the past 5 days, even though I know almost nothing about GDT. It has a great “dashboard” feature, which pull all the actions from all your linked MindMaps into one place, so you can review and edit them. So far it’s done a great job at keeping me focussed on the work and revelling in the accomplishments.
Stew - 29 03 05 - 19:26

Earlier this year, you mentionned you were evaluating MindManager. Did you complete your evaluation? I am eaager to hear your feedback.
Francois Lavaste - 09 08 05 - 02:51