Apr 23
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I’ve argued that the single most important part of any such system is the daily list of three things. I thought GTD shunned this idea, but ZTD adopts it. When I did a fairly extensive study of available productivity lit in the late 80s there was one idea that ran through all the otherwise disparate systems, the daily big three list, or what the ZTD folks are calling the three MITs. I can’t help being drawn to the ZTD way, because what I taught, when I taught time management, is that the important part isn’t the system. The important part is todevelop a reflexive habit of checking. Once that habit is in place it can be expanded to check various lists or contextual cues. But absent that single habit all the lists and systems in the world are a waste of time, as anyone who ever forgot something at the store despite having a shopping list in their pocket can tell you. <grin>
Might as well plug my all time favorite books on the subject: “Do It Now” and “Yes, You Can Get It All Done And Still Be Human”. Neither seem to have a footprint in Amazon, although I still have a copy of the latter. The former has a 1988 audio cassette version by a dude named Bliss…and suddenly I’m a bit more interested in GTD. Didn’t know it was his work.
No, GTD doesn’t shun the idea of having three things…. and it does emphasize that it isn’t about the system but about a trusted system of collection and developing productive habits of working.
Bliss isn’t the developer of GTD. GTD is a model for organization, not a mental model for how to approach work. Which is why it works for some, but does nothing for those who can get ready perfectly but not actually get anything done.
My bad. After a trip to wikipedia for GTD I see Allen, inadvertently no doubt, recycled a 1976 title of Bliss and Hancock.
Que?
This blew my mind, as “enlighten, enliven, empower” is a little mantra I came up with and have taught since the late 80s and is the source of my three-e logo in the upper left of both oblios-cap.com and semantictrestructuring.com. I’m not so vain as to think I’ve been ripped off, but it’s still a little unnerving. Anyway, I see now he’s the got syntax wrong. Help them see the light so they can be full of life (rather than simply alive) and then give them power. Don’t mix up the order or you’re putting a gun in the hands of a baby. Syntax matters. And so this really is just a diverting coincidence.
Then I made the mistake of looking deeper at the wikipedia entry. Dude, nothing to creep me out like a John-Roger connection. Before his death Peter McWilliams wrote a blistering expose of the John-Roger cult, but as part of the settlement he was after—and got—McWilliams ceased publishing it. I actually corresponded with McWilliams a bit by email in, what, ‘95? Great guy, and a great loss to us now that he’s gone. I had a former John-Rogerite in one of my classes, and loaned him my copy of Life 102, but that was a mistake as he relapsed into the cult and, of course, I never saw the book again.
I’d totally forgotten the Huffington/John-Roger connection. Yuck.
I’m amused as heck by the pull at amazon once Life 102 got into my shopping cart. You can see it here. Wonder how Dawkins feels about the company he’s keeping.
Anyway, I am at last at ease about why I’ve resisted GTD; I’m recalling the Bliss book and its companion, “Do It Now” which I really did think were the cream of the crop, way back when. I hadn’t realized the Allen system and the Bliss book shared a title. No wonder I was confused. Ultimately what matters isn’t which system but the simple act of putting whatever system one chooses into action.
Peace.
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