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You are here: Home / 1 - Productivity / a Productivity Philosophy / GTD / The Three-Fold Method for Evaluating Daily Work

The Three-Fold Method for Evaluating Daily Work

August 4, 2015 by Matt Perman

This is a post from a while ago that contains an important framework that is always helpful to keep in mind. I’ve found it helpful in a new way recently, and thought you might as well.

David Allen very helpfully defines three different types of “work” that we do when doing our work:

  1. Doing predefined work
  2. Doing work as it shows up
  3. Defining your work

Many people get caught up in number 2, and let 1 and 3 slide.

He then notes:

Your ability to deal with surprise is your competitive edge. But at a certain point, if you’re not catching up and getting things under control, staying busy with only the work at hand will undermine your effectiveness. In order to know whether you should stop doing something and start dong something else, you need to have a good sense of what your job requires and how that fits into the other contexts of your life.

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Matt Perman started What’s Best Next in 2008 as a blog on God-centered productivity. It has now become an organization dedicated to helping you do work that matters.

Matt is the author of What’s Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done and a frequent speaker on leadership and productivity from a gospel-driven perspective. He has led the website teams at Desiring God and Made to Flourish, and is now director of career development at The King’s College NYC. He lives in Manhattan.

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