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You are here: Home / Archives for 1 - Productivity / a Productivity Philosophy / GTD

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.

Filed Under: GTD

Mind Like Water?

August 18, 2011 by Matt Perman

Mind like water is one of the main metaphors utilized by GTD. I’m not so sure, however, that it’s actually a good or biblical state of mind.

Note, for example, Tim Chester’s excellent description of the Christian’s prayer life in Total Church:

Calvin however, says a “sweet and perfect repose” is not the characteristic of the spiritually advanced but simply of those whose “affairs are flowing to their liking.” “For the stains,” he continues, “the occasion that best stimulates them to call upon God is when, distressed by their own need, they are troubled by the greatest unrest, and are almost driven out of their senses, until faith opportunely comes to their relief” (Institutes 3.20.11).

Biblical spirituality is not a spirituality of silence; it is a spirituality of passionate petition. If we are engaged with the world around us, we will care about that world. We will be passionate about people’s needs, our holiness, and God’s glory. We will not be still in prayer. We will cry out for mercy with a holy violence. If we are silent, it will be because in our distress, words have failed us. This is the spirituality of the psalms—a spirituality in which all of our emotions are engaged.

Filed Under: GTD

Getting Things Done Quick Review and Summary

March 8, 2010 by Matt Perman

Drew Buell has posted a good, brief review of Getting Things Done, which summarizes the system into four very good points.

Filed Under: GTD

Why Some People Spend So Much Time Fiddling With Their GTD Categories

September 3, 2009 by Matt Perman

Many productivity bloggers, including Merlin Mann at the very helpful 43 Folders, have noted that many people seem to waste a lot of time fiddling with their GTD categories.

Sometimes the words against this can get pretty harsh. And I grant, it can be a waste of time.

But what we really need to do is step back and ask: why does this happen? Why do so many people feel a need to rework their GTD categories?

I think this is a symptom that the GTD process is not completely ironed out. There are snags in it. People intuitively feel this, and hence are motivated to get them ironed out. But they can’t really figure out how to get this kink out, so they are stuck endlessly changing their categories — and even software — in the quest for the solution.

If the GTD context categories were fully in sync with the way our minds want to work, people wouldn’t be wasting time fiddling with their contexts or changing software. The fact that they are shows that more progress needs to be made.

Filed Under: GTD

How GTD Can Help Keep Your Basement From Flooding

August 25, 2009 by Matt Perman

Last Thursday or so, we had about four inches of rain. I was in my basement Friday morning and didn’t notice anything. On Saturday morning, however, I went down there to get something, only to find that the carpet was saturated with water. It turns out that our sump pump had failed, creating a big mess.

Could GTD have helped keep this from happening? Well, it provides a critical tool I’m going to use to help keep this from happening again.

Before this happened, I never gave much thought to the life expectancy of a sump pump. And our sump pump gave out earlier than would have been expected, anyway. But the reality is, every sump pump will eventually fail. The thing is, you don’t want to wait for it to fail to find out, because that means a basement full of water.

So it makes sense to replace your sump pump on a regular basis. For me, there’s a big insight right there: If you have a sump pump, you need to have it on your agenda to replace that sump pump when it starts to get old. That’s a simple concept, but it had simply never occurred to me before.

But how do you remember to do that? That’s the challenge. You could just trust your brain to somehow randomly bring it to mind every few years or so that it’s time to change your sump pump.

But I don’t really want my sump pump to take up even that much thought. I don’t want to have to program it into my head to pause every few years and say to myself, “is my sump pump getting to old?” I’d rather automate everything I can. It’s also less likely that I’ll totally blank it out since, after all, 7 years is a long time. And the consequences of forgetting can be large.

Enter the tickler file (or “action calendar,” which I call it because I keep it electronically). An action calendar is simply a list of repeating tasks that you keep in your task management software (whether Outlook, OmniFocus, Things, Remember the Milk, or whatever). You set each task to repeat at whatever interval you need. Every day or week (depending on how many tasks you have in there), you review it to see what needs to be taken care of.

In my action calendar I’m just going to create a repeating task for every 7 years to replace my sump pump. That way, before the pump gets to the point of failure (unless it breaks before it’s time — which is entirely possible!), it will be replaced. And I don’t have to think about it otherwise, because the reminder will come up automatically when it’s time.

Here’s the interesting thing: There are all sorts of things like this you need to keep track of as an adult, and they occur on both short-term and very long-term intervals. Things like: refill the salt in the water softener, change the furnace filter, change smoke detector batteries, keep up with the kids’ immunizations, renew your tetanus shot (every 10 years), renew your passport (every 10 years), and so forth.

I used to think that there was some big mystery to remembering these things. That you just had to trust that they would come to mind at the right time. But there is no mystery to it. If you have a tickler file (action calendar), remembering when you need to change the furnace filter or update your tetanus shot or change your sump pump simply becomes a matter of creating a repeating task. That gets it off your mind, and you can trust that you’ll see it when you need to.

And it could save you a lot of hassle, also.

Filed Under: GTD

Short Call-Outs from Getting Things Done

March 5, 2009 by Matt Perman

Sprinkled throughout Getting Things Done are short call-outs with useful quotes from people and short summaries of insight from the section. These are an easy-to-overlook but very useful feature of the book.

I thought it might be helpful to list some of these call-outs from chapter 3, “Getting Projects Creatively Under Control.”

You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction. — Alvin Toffler

The goal is to get projects and situations off your mind, but not to lose any potentially useful ideas.

The most experienced planner in the world is your brain.

Have you envisioned wild success lately?

If you’re waiting to have a good idea before you have any ideas, you won’t have many ideas.

Outlines were easy, as long as you wrote the report first.

When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. — Will Rogers

Don’t just do something. Stand there. — Rochelle Myer

Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. —  George Santayana

People love to win. If you’re not totally clear about the purpose of what you’re doing, you have no chance of winning.

Celebrate any progress. Don’t wait to get perfect. — Ann McGee Cooper

Often the only way to make a hard decision is to come back to the purpose.

If you’re not sure why you’re doing something, you can never do enough of it.

Imagination is more important than knowledge. — Albert Einstein

The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas. — Linus Pauling

A good way to find out what something might be is to uncover all the things it’s probably not.

Plans get you into things but you’ve got to work your way out. — Will Rogers

Filed Under: GTD, Project Planning

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What’s Best Next exists to help you achieve greater impact with your time and energy — and in a gospel-centered way.

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About Matt Perman

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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3 Questions on Productivity
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Productivity is Really About Good Works
Management in Light of the Supremacy of God
The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards in Categories
Business: A Sequel to the Parable of the Good Samaritan
How Do You Love Your Neighbor at Work?

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