"It is possible to be effectively doing while you are delightfully being in your ordinary workaday world" (pg xi) - what is the motivation for GTD and/or PKM? - All productivity hacks rely on an ability to actually be productive. If you only work on productivity systems, you leave no time to be productive, to actually produce work. What are you so keen to produce? Envision this first and foremost - cut everything else out. "ruthless execution"" --- "whatever doing at the moment is just what you need to be doing" (pg xi) - How much time is wasted "strategically procrastinating" when you shouldn't be doing what you're currently doing? - How much angst is created from not feeling in "relaxed control" - In the book Time (?) the author points out that poverty is created by the mismatch in what you're doing and feel you should be doing. --- David Allen lists 2 objectives^ 1) capturing all the things that need to get done 2) make decisions about inputs you let into your life 3) always have a plan for next actions ^Allen lists two objectives; but I split the second into two. --- Peter Drucker coined the term "knowledge work" in the book "The Landmarks of Tomorrow" --- =="Ineffective personal organizational systems create huge subconscious resistance to undertaking even bigger projects and goals that will likely not be managed well" (pg 8)== --- "You've probably made many more agreements with yourself than you realize, and every single one of them is being tracked by a less than conscious part of you...." (pg 12) - Allen calls these Open loops - How much of honoring these agreements with myself revolves around doing them by a certain date? Certainly having these items on my to do list gives me a feeling of unease, but adding helps me feel in control. This seems like a paradox. --- "Anything unfinished must be captured in a trusted system...clarify exactly what your commitment is...review the system regularly" (pg 13) Example: - Plan Montana trip - Be ready to travel: hotel, flight, ticket - Research flights --- Outcome -> Next Action (by thinking) -> Action Reminder --- =="You have to think about your stuff more than you realize but not as much as you're afraid you might" (pg 15)== --- "Outcome thinking is one of the most effective means available for making wishes reality" (pg 15) --- =="The key to managing all your 'stuff' is managing your action" (pg 18)== --- GTD is a bottom-up approach (pg 20) --- =="There's a part of you that thinks you should be doing something all the time. Everything you've told yourself you ought to do, it thinks you should be doing right now...this creates in stress... whose source can't be pinpointed" (pg 23)== --- collect → process → organize → review → do (pg 24) --- =="As soon as you attach a should; need to, or ought to to an item, it becomes an incomplete." (pg 26)== --- "Have as many inboxes as you need and as few as you can get by with" (pg 29) --- "tickler file" for material thats incubating (pg 34) --- =="Every decision to act is an intuitive one. the challenge is to migrate from hoping its the right choice to trusting it's the right choice" (pg 48)== - sitting down to read GTD is intuitive, and I have a nagging fear that I will waste this time instead of (fill in the blank). A long time horizon and time-informed plan, like a scope of work, feels like it would be helpful --- "What to do when is based on context, time , energy and priority." (pg 49) --- "You can either do predefined work, do work as it shows up, or define work." (pg 50) --- "When defining work, consider the six levels: life, 3-5 year vision, 1-2 year goals, areas of responsibility, current projects, current actions." (pg 51) --- Relaxed control = clearly defined outcomes + reminders in a trusted system that is reviewed regularly. Combines vertical and horizontal focus. (pg 54) --- See pg 62-70 for discussion of vision -based outcome thinking. - HMW re-imagine conservation design as a more general framework to attach tidbits like this in 2nd Brain? --- - [ ] Capture the GTD Planning Process as a framework for scoping/planning --- "distributed cognition" is a benefit of getting things out of your head (pg 72) --- =="a project is sufficiently planned when every next-action step on every front can be moved" (pg 76)== - I refer to this as the "next action frontier" --- A project that does not have a next action is by default a "Someday /maybe" project. --- "If greater clarity is needed, shift thinking up to the natural planning cycle" (pg 78) --- "all you really need to do is manage lists" (pg 96) --- "A simple and highly functional reference system is critical... greatest obstacles... biggest opportunities." (pg 97) - within hands reach, envision one alpha system --- Items with no action go to (1) trash, (2) Incubation (tickler file), (3) reference. --- The GTD system is a dance between processing and organizing. --- =="Whenever you come across something you want to keep, make a label for it, put it in a file folder, and tuck that into your filing drawer...if you can't get it into your system immediately, you're probably not ever going to." (pg 128)== --- next actions must be observable (pg 130) --- "All you really need is lists and folders" (pg 140) --- ==Resist the impulse to put tasks on your calendar that are not absolutely required that day (pg 143)== --- Organize Next Actions by context so you can easily subset the list to what can be done given your current context (pg 143) --- Allen travels with a Read/ Review folder and a Data Entry folder (for processing new information) when on the road (pg 152) --- "Distributing action triggers in a folder, on lists, and/or in an e-mail system is OK as long as you review all the categories to which you entrusted your triggers equally, as required." (pg 154) - I like to keep action triggers and reference material as close to the source as possible (e.g., a meeting agenda in the meeting invite, an Amazon purchase in my cart) but it's critical that I trust I will see that thing at the moment of decision. Further, I should keep a list of all of these places so I can confidently review them when needed. --- Create an inventory of projects to put a stake in the ground for every open loop. - Projects might be sourced from Areas of Responsibility, Goals, Values, etc. See all the different frameworks, including my 10 goals, for inspiration. Allen's is on page 177. - "12 problems" (Feynman) was recommended by Feynman to help constrain (or inspire) what to collect. Always keep 12 problems in your head and collect anything that might help with one of those. - Another frame is Tiago Forte's "resonance filter" from Building a Second Brain. --- Someday/maybes also include my tasks checklists like Gifts & Date Ideas. Can be combined with reference (link to Sie film Center, etc.) (p 169) --- Allen recommends adding triggers for activating projects, events, and decision catalysts to calendar. How would this interact w/ reminders app? (pg 171) --- Tickler file is a daily reminder system that is reviewed each day (pg 175) --- "Be open to creating any kind of checklist as the urge strikes you" (pg 179) - Create checklists at all levels --- =="A real review process will lead to enhanced and proactive new thinking..."== (pg 182) --- Context-based lists could be created as views using tags in ToDoist: 'show all computer, calls, etc.' becomes `@work` list. (see pg 183) --- "The Weekly Review will also help sharpen your intuitive focus... You're going to have to say no." (pg 185) - Bottom up approach to managing resource constraints; combine with top down: does 'yes' get me closer to goals given constraints? How should I prioritize it? --- Create checklist for weekly Review (see pg 186) --- "Point of view is that quint-essential human solution to information overload in in a world of hyper abundant content, point of view will become the scarcest of resources." - Paul Saffo *It's the context stupid* 1994 (see pg 187) --- "the magic key to the sustainability of the process is the weekly review" (pg 184) - post-mortem (Friday) or pre-mortem (Monday)? - Allen recommends 2-hours --- The 4-criteria model for choosing actions 1) Context 2) Time available 3) Energy available 4) Priority --- The 3-fold model for evaluating daily work: 1) Pre-defined work 2) work as it shows up 3) Defining work --- The 6-level model for reviewing work: 1) Life 2) 3-5 year visions 3) 1-2 year goals 4) Areas of responsibility 5) current projects 6) current actions (the "runway") --- =="I can safely say that all of us should be doing more planning, more informally and more often, about our projects and our lives. And if we did, it would relieve a lot of pressure on our psyches and produce an enormous amount of creative output with minimal effort." (pg 211)== --- The core of GTD is asking "whats the next action?" make the decision now or it will naw at you. --- =="I've discovered that one of the subtler ways many \[people] fall off the wagon is in letting their action lists grow back into lists of tasks or subprojects instead of next actions." (pg 243)== --- =="Things that have your attention need your intention engaged" (pg 251)== --- =="Your life and work are made up of outcomes and actions when your operational behavior is grooved to organize everything that comes your way at all levels, based upon those dynamics, a deep alignment occurs, and wondrous things emerge. You become highly productive. You make things up and you make them happen." (pg 252)==