Getting Things Done is a productivity methodology developed by David Allen of the David Allen company, and explained in a book from 2002 with the same title. Since that year, the GTD method has enjoyed an explosive growth. There are now thousands of weblogs dedicated to GTD, hundreds of books and articles and several spin-offs.
“Attention multitaskers: your brain may be in trouble.” So begins a Standford U. study on multitasking. Anyone attempting to multitask — type an e-mail and talk to a collegue, say — will soon have to fight their fingers typing along with the conversation, or your mouth uttering bits out of your e-mail.
Many people try to surf the wave of emails flooding their mailbox by defining a folder for each and every project they take on. That sounds very organized, but actually shifts the problem: filing mail properly becomes a project of itself. Simpler is possible.
The basics of GTD can be learned inside of two hours. Getting the methodology to stick, however, can be a bit more difficult. It's partly a matter of discipline, but there are a number of things you can do to help.
A couple of years ago I started peddling the GTD methodology as a way to reduce stress. With the fervour of the newly converted I'd pounce on any collegue who would listen (and a fair number of those who wouldn't) and try to convince them that this stress problem they had could be solved by jumping onto the GTD bandwagon.
The summer holidays are upon us. For most employees that's a busy time as they prepare for their absence: either for those staying behind, or for their replacements, or maybe even for themselves. What is funny is that during this busy time you tend to unwittingly apply parts of the GTD methodology.
Introverts are badly misunderstood. They're difficult to relate to, hard to talk to, and they cast a shadow over every party. In short, they're something wrong with them.
