5 ms·

A year is not long enough.

will_pseudonym 11y ago
Curious, why do you feel that way? What changed after a year? I feel like I know after a year if something is right for me or not, like my fiancé, lol... A fancy checklist system needs more than a year? Seems spurious to me.
- luketych 11y ago
  I have spent over 23 minutes writing this, wtf is wrong with me? : In my own (slightly bizarre) experience, it's more about the habits than the "fancy checklist" system. It's more than a checklist system, more than a calendar, etc. It's how these pieces work in concert with one another. Whether through GTD or some other system of operating/thinking, we are all craving a way to have things taken care of for us and not having to worry about them. Imagine if you had a little robot friend that reminded you about your appointments. It would wake you up when you wanted to be woken up (and never failed you like an alarm clock). You could tell the robot to remind you of an idea you just had and want to think about at a different time & the robot would remind you at a good time. This robot could be seen as an extension of the mind. Like the invention of ink & paper. But this little robot doesn't exist yet. We have to use our own hands and minds, or we can delegate to other people. GTD is an attempt to do this. Now I should admit that I do not follow GTD fully. I am using GTD plus some other pieces, but I do see GTD as one of the hearts. And this took me 2-3 years before I started to reap the benefits. For the first 2 years it was an off-and-on thing. Things would run smoothly, and then a clog would get caught in the piping, leading to productivity relapse. The problem with GTD is that there are too many integral pieces, and if any one of those pieces breaks down the whole system breaks down. I was fortunate enough to have health issues and not have a job at the time so I could pour countless hours into this on the faith that I would reach consistency. In hindsight, the only reason why I bought into GTD religiously in the first place, inspiring me to put in retarded amounts of time was that I was reading heavily into willpower, and the importance of conserving mental energy, especially for decision making and other high-level brain functions. The book Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister had endorsed David Allen and GTD. I respect Baumeister immensely as he is an opponent of the self-esteem movement, a movement that has really fucked up many peoples' ability to self-regulate their emotions and focus. As everyone was focusing on the promises of higher self-esteem (Baumeister also started in this area), he was researching things like self-control, emotional intelligence, focus and willpower.
  - will_pseudonym 11y ago
    > ... I was fortunate enough to have health issues and not have a job at the time so I could pour countless hours into this on the faith that I would reach consistency. ... That was so jarring to read. Mostly because it's so common in my country (USA). Health problems should be nothing but unfortunate. If they're fortunate, it's because the system is broken. I find the high level pieces of GTD to be done, but the formality and rigidity were not freeing to me as they were described. I've got a system that works amazingly well for me, and I'm happy. I definitely learned from GTD, which I'm so thankful. I'm sure I'm still using parts of it as a system, but it was more stuff that I found out didn't work for me, which definitely valuable.
- luketych 11y ago
  P.S. This does NOT mean we have to live our lives like robots! The goal is to have a system that frees our minds, allowing us to be ourselves. I would argue that running around, forgetting to do things, or trying to balance more than a few things in the mind at once, isn't human. That is not how we are supposed to live our only lives. The system should exist not to run our lives for us, but to take care of any thoughts we may have in our minds so that we can start with a blank canvas again and get back to our creative, spontaneous selves. If someone reading this does not see themselves as creative or spontaneous I have to ask, "can you remember a single time in your life where you were creative and/or spontaneous?" And if you can think of one then you have to ask youself, "Why?"

Curious, why do you feel that way? What changed after a year? I feel like I know after a year if something is right for me or not, like my fiancé, lol... A fancy checklist system needs more than a year? Seems spurious to me.

luketych 11y ago
I have spent over 23 minutes writing this, wtf is wrong with me? : In my own (slightly bizarre) experience, it's more about the habits than the "fancy checklist" system. It's more than a checklist system, more than a calendar, etc. It's how these pieces work in concert with one another. Whether through GTD or some other system of operating/thinking, we are all craving a way to have things taken care of for us and not having to worry about them. Imagine if you had a little robot friend that reminded you about your appointments. It would wake you up when you wanted to be woken up (and never failed you like an alarm clock). You could tell the robot to remind you of an idea you just had and want to think about at a different time & the robot would remind you at a good time. This robot could be seen as an extension of the mind. Like the invention of ink & paper. But this little robot doesn't exist yet. We have to use our own hands and minds, or we can delegate to other people. GTD is an attempt to do this. Now I should admit that I do not follow GTD fully. I am using GTD plus some other pieces, but I do see GTD as one of the hearts. And this took me 2-3 years before I started to reap the benefits. For the first 2 years it was an off-and-on thing. Things would run smoothly, and then a clog would get caught in the piping, leading to productivity relapse. The problem with GTD is that there are too many integral pieces, and if any one of those pieces breaks down the whole system breaks down. I was fortunate enough to have health issues and not have a job at the time so I could pour countless hours into this on the faith that I would reach consistency. In hindsight, the only reason why I bought into GTD religiously in the first place, inspiring me to put in retarded amounts of time was that I was reading heavily into willpower, and the importance of conserving mental energy, especially for decision making and other high-level brain functions. The book Willpower by Roy F. Baumeister had endorsed David Allen and GTD. I respect Baumeister immensely as he is an opponent of the self-esteem movement, a movement that has really fucked up many peoples' ability to self-regulate their emotions and focus. As everyone was focusing on the promises of higher self-esteem (Baumeister also started in this area), he was researching things like self-control, emotional intelligence, focus and willpower.
- will_pseudonym 11y ago
  > ... I was fortunate enough to have health issues and not have a job at the time so I could pour countless hours into this on the faith that I would reach consistency. ... That was so jarring to read. Mostly because it's so common in my country (USA). Health problems should be nothing but unfortunate. If they're fortunate, it's because the system is broken. I find the high level pieces of GTD to be done, but the formality and rigidity were not freeing to me as they were described. I've got a system that works amazingly well for me, and I'm happy. I definitely learned from GTD, which I'm so thankful. I'm sure I'm still using parts of it as a system, but it was more stuff that I found out didn't work for me, which definitely valuable.
luketych 11y ago
P.S. This does NOT mean we have to live our lives like robots! The goal is to have a system that frees our minds, allowing us to be ourselves. I would argue that running around, forgetting to do things, or trying to balance more than a few things in the mind at once, isn't human. That is not how we are supposed to live our only lives. The system should exist not to run our lives for us, but to take care of any thoughts we may have in our minds so that we can start with a blank canvas again and get back to our creative, spontaneous selves. If someone reading this does not see themselves as creative or spontaneous I have to ask, "can you remember a single time in your life where you were creative and/or spontaneous?" And if you can think of one then you have to ask youself, "Why?"