GTD. The most common problems in use and solutions
- I seem to have done everything right, but nothing works. What am I wrong about?
- I read so much about GTD, tried to start several times, but nothing came of it. Why?
If you asked these questions, then you have not given up and you have a chance to return everything under control. It is not enough to sort out all the cases from the beginning. It is also necessary to develop a number of habits and rules in order for the system to “spin”, as it should be. I will tell you what I had, using a personal example.
The book is read, the to-do list from MS Outlook is ported to MLO. There was a half-hour pause when I sit, look at the screen and cannot understand - and now what to do about it? To put in the inbox was the easiest - picked up and dropped. But what's next? Can someone spy a real to-do list?
Task: to contact a friend XXXX and ask him for his to-do list, in order to understand what to do next.
So, the list has been sent, let's look into it. COMMERCIALIST, WAREHOUSES, SUPPLIERS ... Hmm, but am I doing programming? Yeah, let's try this - PROGRAM1, PROGRAM2 ...
STOP !!!!
Here is your first mistake. You decided to copy someone else’s system without even understanding its principle and, most importantly, not accepting its rules for yourself. But in the future we will have to live with all this.
Postulate:you must unconditionally trust the system and follow its rules.
Stop and immediately begin to develop rules that will not allow double interpretations. The tougher and simpler they are, the more efficient your system will be and the easier it will be to live with it.
For example, rules for establishing contexts:
Or a rule for naming folders: begins with a noun that displays the essence of the affairs collected in the folder.
As an example:
ACCOUNTS. Pay for
PURCHASES.
HOBBY Electronics . Reading books.
What will it give us? The list will grow over time, and finding something in it will become a problem. What was it called? “For payment”, “Unpaid”, “Bills”? .. Knowing that this is a noun, you will quickly find the desired folder, since you have already formed this name once, taking from your head what seemed to you most fully reflecting the essence. The second time you don’t have to rack your brains for a long time - you have three times less options (exclude verbs, adjectives, moods).
The more there are such small rules, the then it will be easier.
So what do we need to do at this stage? Right! Develop a rule. So, we look at our task - "The user reported an error in the program, fix it."
We correct the heading - “Fix a bug in the program XXXX: incorrect behavior of function A”. The user's letter, additional data, your thoughts on this matter go into the note to the problem.
Now we have another problem - where to put it?
STOP!!!! You forgot something. Rules, rules and rules again. First mark the task with contexts, and then calmly send the task to wherever you want. In my system - place, time (if any), action, status (if any).
What does this rule give me? I am sure that all my affairs will be marked with contexts, and I can always find them by sections. So I ... TRUST THE SYSTEM.
And yet - where should I put this? The answer is simple, and you probably already guessed - according to my rules. Yes, we build rules for our folders, where you will group and store all your affairs. It all depends on your imagination.
For example:
WORK \ DEVELOPMENT \ PROJECT SUCH THAT \ PROGRAM A \ ERRORS IN PROGRAM A
Why am I not very worried about the folders where to place? Because I have a number of safety nets in the form of contexts. The task will be available by slicing them and will not disappear from the field of view at the right time.
And if at some point (and he comes, believe me!) I decide that I need to reorganize the folder system, then I will not lose anything - because in the end we work in contexts. Folders are needed only in order to plan our actions within the framework of the chosen goals. Goals tend to change, become irrelevant. But the task is not. If this is a call, then this is a call. The action “call Andrey” cannot get rid of context = call.
Yes. There is such a moment. Things are laid out, you continue to sit and look at beautifully laid out tasks, not understanding what to do. Moreover, you don’t even understand, but what did it give you NOW?
All the “profit” obtained as a result of these actions is the separation of grains from the chaff. Tasks from goals.
I repeat again, for those who do not remember. A task is an action that can be performed. A goal is what you want to achieve by completing tasks.
Examples of goals : get a job, release the next version of the program, solve the problem with a neighbor's dog, which spoils your lawn early in the morning.
Examples of tasks: download resume samples, call Andrei, and schedule an appointment, make changes to the program description on the site, go to a neighbor and threaten to fill his face if he forgets to clean up after his dog again.
So what's next? Slice the tasks in the current context for your location and possible actions, and proceed with their implementation. That's all, nothing more is required from you at the moment.
And most importantly - stop remembering something! It seemed worthy of your attention - write in your inbox and calmly continue to work. There will be time - you use your entire set of rules and the case will be ground in due time under the millstones of your system.
Deviate from the rules - you will dissolve your mess yourself.
And who said that everything will be decided as if by magic? Everything that you had before makes itself felt. Do not worry, you are not the first to go through all this.
Uff ... It seems to have said everything? What do you want to say in the end?
There is nothing complicated in GTD! It all comes down to simple primitive actions.
- I read so much about GTD, tried to start several times, but nothing came of it. Why?
If you asked these questions, then you have not given up and you have a chance to return everything under control. It is not enough to sort out all the cases from the beginning. It is also necessary to develop a number of habits and rules in order for the system to “spin”, as it should be. I will tell you what I had, using a personal example.
GTD entry
The book is read, the to-do list from MS Outlook is ported to MLO. There was a half-hour pause when I sit, look at the screen and cannot understand - and now what to do about it? To put in the inbox was the easiest - picked up and dropped. But what's next? Can someone spy a real to-do list?
Task: to contact a friend XXXX and ask him for his to-do list, in order to understand what to do next.
So, the list has been sent, let's look into it. COMMERCIALIST, WAREHOUSES, SUPPLIERS ... Hmm, but am I doing programming? Yeah, let's try this - PROGRAM1, PROGRAM2 ...
STOP !!!!
Here is your first mistake. You decided to copy someone else’s system without even understanding its principle and, most importantly, not accepting its rules for yourself. But in the future we will have to live with all this.
Postulate:you must unconditionally trust the system and follow its rules.
Stop and immediately begin to develop rules that will not allow double interpretations. The tougher and simpler they are, the more efficient your system will be and the easier it will be to live with it.
For example, rules for establishing contexts:
@ - place
# - time
= - type of action
~ - status
Or a rule for naming folders: begins with a noun that displays the essence of the affairs collected in the folder.
As an example:
ACCOUNTS. Pay for
PURCHASES.
HOBBY Electronics . Reading books.
What will it give us? The list will grow over time, and finding something in it will become a problem. What was it called? “For payment”, “Unpaid”, “Bills”? .. Knowing that this is a noun, you will quickly find the desired folder, since you have already formed this name once, taking from your head what seemed to you most fully reflecting the essence. The second time you don’t have to rack your brains for a long time - you have three times less options (exclude verbs, adjectives, moods).
The more there are such small rules, the then it will be easier.
So what do we need to do at this stage? Right! Develop a rule. So, we look at our task - "The user reported an error in the program, fix it."
Rule - the task should contain only the action that is actually performed. A sentence should begin with the words what needs to be done. The meaning should be most accurately displayed in the title. Everything else goes into a note
We correct the heading - “Fix a bug in the program XXXX: incorrect behavior of function A”. The user's letter, additional data, your thoughts on this matter go into the note to the problem.
Now we have another problem - where to put it?
STOP!!!! You forgot something. Rules, rules and rules again. First mark the task with contexts, and then calmly send the task to wherever you want. In my system - place, time (if any), action, status (if any).
What does this rule give me? I am sure that all my affairs will be marked with contexts, and I can always find them by sections. So I ... TRUST THE SYSTEM.
And yet - where should I put this? The answer is simple, and you probably already guessed - according to my rules. Yes, we build rules for our folders, where you will group and store all your affairs. It all depends on your imagination.
For example:
WORK \ DEVELOPMENT \ PROJECT SUCH THAT \ PROGRAM A \ ERRORS IN PROGRAM A
Why am I not very worried about the folders where to place? Because I have a number of safety nets in the form of contexts. The task will be available by slicing them and will not disappear from the field of view at the right time.
And if at some point (and he comes, believe me!) I decide that I need to reorganize the folder system, then I will not lose anything - because in the end we work in contexts. Folders are needed only in order to plan our actions within the framework of the chosen goals. Goals tend to change, become irrelevant. But the task is not. If this is a call, then this is a call. The action “call Andrey” cannot get rid of context = call.
I sorted things out. What's next?
Yes. There is such a moment. Things are laid out, you continue to sit and look at beautifully laid out tasks, not understanding what to do. Moreover, you don’t even understand, but what did it give you NOW?
All the “profit” obtained as a result of these actions is the separation of grains from the chaff. Tasks from goals.
I repeat again, for those who do not remember. A task is an action that can be performed. A goal is what you want to achieve by completing tasks.
Examples of goals : get a job, release the next version of the program, solve the problem with a neighbor's dog, which spoils your lawn early in the morning.
Examples of tasks: download resume samples, call Andrei, and schedule an appointment, make changes to the program description on the site, go to a neighbor and threaten to fill his face if he forgets to clean up after his dog again.
So what's next? Slice the tasks in the current context for your location and possible actions, and proceed with their implementation. That's all, nothing more is required from you at the moment.
And most importantly - stop remembering something! It seemed worthy of your attention - write in your inbox and calmly continue to work. There will be time - you use your entire set of rules and the case will be ground in due time under the millstones of your system.
Deviate from the rules - you will dissolve your mess yourself.
Damn it. There are still problems!
And who said that everything will be decided as if by magic? Everything that you had before makes itself felt. Do not worry, you are not the first to go through all this.
- There is not enough time for some tasks that still need to be solved. It is
solved by a strict daily routine at first, when certain tasks are done at a certain time, it does not matter if there is something or not. We actively use time filtering. - Some execution tasks take too much time. Again - there is discomfort from the feeling that “everything is stuck”.
We need to split the task, to ensure that the execution of one task does not take more than a certain period of time (I have up to an hour). - Some tasks “pop up” too late, there is discomfort from the fact that I don’t have time to do something. It is
solved by the status context or priorities (the repeated task “check categories ~ Important, ~ Avral, and prioritization / weight of tasks). You can use the Goals flags, say “the things I want to do this week” - There are tasks that are important, but for some reason I avoid them (frogs). It is
solved by a strong-willed decision and setting the daily task - “eat at least one frog.” If the frog does not eat at a time, then it must be crushed. - Long todo lists. Again, the discomfort of feeling that the mountain of affairs is growing faster than they are done.
It is solved by delegation, splitting into categories, daily routine, filtering by goals (why do you need to see in the current list of tasks what you are not going to do this week?) - Tasks for which it is not clear what to do now. Those. we are sitting, looking at the task, we don’t understand what to grab to start doing it.
This is simply a mistake in defining the task. Most likely it is a goal or “elephant”. It is solved by opening MLO and dividing this task into small sub-tasks that involve very specific actions (call, find, ask, write ...)
Uff ... It seems to have said everything? What do you want to say in the end?
There is nothing complicated in GTD! It all comes down to simple primitive actions.