Maybe it’s just me, but 3 months was about as long as it took before I couldn’t keep up with GTD any more.
I’m trying to work out what the problem with GTD is. I really believe it is the way to get organized. I just can’t keep it up though. And from what I see, not many other people can keep it up neither.
To do GTD, there’s an awful lot of things you need to do. That’s not that the worst thing though. The real problem I see is keeping up with it. I suffered the same problem when trying to use the Franklin and then the Covey system. The problem is that you actually need to keep reorganizing yourself. With Franklin systems, you do that on a daily basis as you move tasks from one page to another, reprioritizing as you go. With Covey, the focus was on the Weekly Compass, where you decided what was important in your life and arranged to do that for the week. GTD is more flexible, and so fits better, but to keep up with it you need to 1. put things in your inboxes and empty them every day, 2. add things to your lists as you go, and 3. have a weekly review to go over your projects. And as I have 5 kids to look after and a full-time job, I just don’t get around to doing that. It just isn’t worth it for me. I’d rather relax and enjoy the moment than just keep getting organized.
Another problem is that any system out of necessity focuses much more on the system than actually getting things done. I spend much more time buying nice planners and creating fancy lists than I actually do doing the things I should be doing. I procrastinate because I don’t want to get the things done which I need to do. But then again, I sit in my office chair all day just waiting for a new e-mail to arrive because I’m bored with what I’m currently doing.
So I think the answer is to have a system which automatically tells me what I should be doing, and sends me mails to remind me.
Posted in GTD, personal organization, time-management, tools
