As some of you might know, starting last semester (and continuing on this semester) I’ve been rethinking my personal “system,” the way I organize all of the “data” (writ large) in my life. This includes things like RSS reading, email, academic articles in PDF format, notetaking, my to-do lists and other project planning related data, appointments/schedule, and so forth. In this effort I’ve paid a lot of attention to what Merlin Mann and the community at 43 Folders as well as the LifeHack.org Blog. In part this is because Merlin is a Mac geek and since I am too, this works pretty well, but generally I agree with Merlin’s aesthetic and approach to these kinds of things.
One of the things that is huge on 43f, and in much of the “geek” productivity community has been GTD or getting things done, a “methodology” developed by David Allen. While there are many aspects of GTD that I find really interesting and fairly common sense, and I have enjoyed the technological interpretations that Merlin and others have helped develop, I’m putting forth something of a criticism of the hegemony of this system, because I think other ways of thinking about personal and group productivity are in order. Particularly as it relates to some audiences (like academics) where the system is not particularly suited.
Among the threads that I’ve followed more carefully at the 43Folders forms, has been one on GTD implementation for University Students. One common theme in this thread is the difficulty of using this kind of system for university students. GTD was, as best I can tell, developed for applied fields (ie. business and consulting), for people whose daily routine incorporates a variety of different situations and tasks/projects, but to be clear, people for whom most of their work happens in an office situation of one sort or another. (If people have a different interpretation then feel free to offer it).
GTD uses basic organization efficiency principals to encourage its partakers to: complete short tasks firsts (ie. tasks that would take anywhere from less than 2 minutes to 5 minutes), to split large projects/taks into smaller actions that take anywhere from about 5 minutes to about 20 minutes. Once tasks are broken up and organized each “action” is then reogranized so that “to-do” lists are generated for different contexts. Contexts in tern cover all of the material and situational requirements for a given task. A fairly typical context list might include contexts like “errands” and “phone” and “internet” and “home-office” and “work,” so that you can always take advantage of your situation and know immediately what needs to be done.
In fairness Merlin has from time to time remarked that there are only so many contexts when 80% of your tasks require you to be in front of your computer with your hands on your keyboard, and I think this is a problem that’s particularly true for academics, but ignoring this for a moment, I would also emphasize that I think there’s a point (like GTD for computer people) where the system can only be stretched so far before it starts to break down. When organizational systems of any kind break down, the results are never pretty: we either become engaged in an endless cycle where we’re thinking about maintaining the system on the same level as we’re thinking about what’s in the system–over-thinking–or, complete breakdown which creates massive disorganization as information begins to fall through the system. Neither of these outcomes are, to my mind, acceptable.
Given that, and the fact that I think this entry has gone on too long already, and I’m not yet out of things to say, I think I’m going to turn this into a little mini-series in the academia section of TealArt. It’ll show up, as usual, on the home page as well. The series will include topics that I find particularly relevant to students and other people working in the academy; although I suspect that writers and creative folk will probably find this useful as well.
Keep in touch, and feel free to comment here or by email to tycho.at.tealart.dot.com.
Cheers, tycho
I have to agree with you that the GTD system has limitations. I work full-time for a university and am also taking classes there. As a secretary I’ve run into the limitation you mentioned: most of my work is done in front of the computer in my office and therefore the GTD tool/context categories have not been as helpful as I originally thought they would be.
I was a bit surprised at this at first. Then, from reading David Allen’s website over time and from my own past experiences in sales and customer service, I eventually concluded that the GTD system was designed for and is best suited for those who are constantly on the go. Hence, the tool and location-related contexts: if you’re between flights in an airport you need to know quickly whether you need to make a call on your cell phone in the five minutes you have or type something on your laptop, and you can quickly skip all items listed as @home or @office.
This doesn’t hold true in a secretarial office where deadlines and importance are more relevant than which tool/context is being uased. After several tries with the GTD system in Outlook I switched to the four-way Important/Urgent matrix system favored by the American Management Association, substituting categories A (Important AND Urgent), B (Important/Not Urgent), and C (Not Important/URGENT) for the GTD categories, There is no D category (Not Important/Not Urgent) because if something falls in that category I have to wonder why: either I don’t need to be doing it at all or it needs to be re-categorized into at least Category C. This, combined with using Outlook Journal as a semi-automated “Work Done” tracker, has helped organize my work better and reduce the feeling of overload during busy seasons.
Back to academia: the GTD tool contexts did not hold up for my academic tasks for the same reason: it is also usually done in a static physical location or two. For that work, deadline is also usually more important than tool context. However, I didn’t find the AMA system worked as well here since my academic work has more and tighter deadlines than my career work does. I’m still trying to work out a system for the academic work but so far what’s working is simply to create a task labeled with the class or project name and copy and paste any major pre-determined class assignment deadlines from the syllabus into that entry. They’re all in one place, show up daily on my Outlook Today page (since they have no item due date) and allow me to move completed assignments out of view by cutting and pasting them to the end of the entry’s text. This keeps the next item due as the first thing I see when I open the entry. Intermediate deadlines that I have to figure out, such as a timeline for research, could be typed into this system as well. So far, though, I’ve found it best to enter those as appointments on my calendar so that they are in view immediately when I open Outlook Today or my calendar.
The main tool I’ve found to be helpful is teaching myself to have consistent habits, such as checking assignment lists and Outlook Today daily, and reviewing my work at least once a week in the AMA system. Without The Human Factor, all my systems all fall apart!
I’d be interested to hear what other systems folks have tried for their academic work, besides GTD. And thanks for starting this! Sometimes it helps to have someone say “the Emperor has no clothes!”
Comment by Laura S. — 22 January 2007 @ 8:52 am
[...] I also really loved the comments that people posted in response to the last entry. TealArt hasn’t been a very comment-y blog for too long. We can and should change this, though. [...]
Pingback by Rethinking GTD: My System at TealArt — 26 January 2007 @ 10:17 pm
[...] As I said last time, GTD is all about getting all the pieces together to make it possible for you to do everything you need to do when you can. I’ve called this the “on the go” phenomena. This view of productivity assumes that given enough time, and the completion of pre-requsite tasks, you should be able to get anything on your list done at any free moment. [...]
Pingback by Rethinking GTD: Production Times and “the Zone” at TealArt — 3 February 2007 @ 11:30 am
[...] Sorry about missing last week’s essay: I basically missed last weekend in total, and it threw my entire week into a really interesting place. And by interesting we mean, crazy like no other. Suprisingly, or perhaps not, I was able to keep abreast of everything, and the only thing that continues to languish, is something that I’m “strategically avoiding.” Anyway, for this segment, I wanted to talk about the ways that I use the computer, breifly. I’ve always been a big fan of keeping digital data organized long before easy solutions to do so were commonly available. While there are some software tools that I think make this easier, a lot of what I do is just trying to find a systematic way to organize one’s data that lets you stay “in touch” with what you have, and find what you need when you need it. I’m also very much aware of GTD’s “one system” maxim, and I think this generally is the best way to run one’s digital experience. If you’re new to the series, links to the previous articles follow. I’d also love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or ideas for me. Part One: Getting Other Things Done Part Two: Rethinking GTD: My System Part Three: Rethinking GTD: Production Times and “the Zone” [...]
Pingback by Rethinking GTD: The Digit(al)s at TealArt — 17 February 2007 @ 6:29 pm
[...] Part 1: Getting Other Things Done Part 2: Rethinking GTD: My System Part 3: Rethinking GTD: Production Times and “the Zone” Part 4: Rethinking GTD: Review (and A Little Rant About Footnotes) Part 5: Getting What Done? (An Explanation of “in the generous sense”) [...]
Pingback by TealArt Productivity: Rethinking GTD at TealArt — 18 March 2007 @ 10:39 am
I’ve been thinking about the issue of contexts lately and wondering if the idea isn’t a bit out of date. I used to have one context for “work” and one for “work computer” then I realized that they were pretty much the same. How often in today’s world are we actually away from a computer or phone?
Other than “work” and “personal” I don’t use contexts these days, but I can definitely see that you might use them in a more creative way than “@phone”. What about contexts like “late afternoon” or “when I’m feeling creative”? Those might be more helpful.
Comment by Jennifer — 19 March 2007 @ 5:37 pm
I’m a student, and I’ve found that GTD actually does work very well, but that contexts are the least important component for students. Or rather, they’re the most invisible. They’re very good for extra-curriculars of course: errands, home-life, phone calls, etc. However, when it comes to organizing your school work, it really comes down to three components: Your projects, your project support material, and your calendar.
Here’s the trick. The default mode for GTD is to process your inbox and throw stuff into contexts or calendars, then ‘review’ your projects for actions. I find that the inbox processing is somewhat light, but requires more thought (mostly because faculty tend to be vague about what they really want.) I review my projects every other day, however. I turn my projects list into project plans. Most things I schedule on my calendar. For everything else, I just identify “next actions” from my project plans to get components of my project done. It’s not a problem that 2/3 of my next actions are @online or @computer; the point is to figure out what the next action is. Context is just a convenient way to preemptively filter out actions that you can’t do.
One trick I’ve noticed that I need to do is to make myself go to contexts that I don’t normally do, in order to clear the actions. For instance, if I have errands I need to run, I need to block two hours on a specific day to actually leave home or school when I’m not rushing to be somewhere. This sort of thing should be part of the weekly review. It’s important not to neglect the calendar. I keep a weekly calendar and a yearly (really: semester) calendar, so I can plan my days and flesh out the weekly calendar as long-term deadlines come up.
To really manage student actions well, I think we need a plug-in for academics. I’ve learned various methods for long-term planing of academic projects. GTD doesn’t teach you how to make and review your project plans. That’s what we need. GTD is just a method for dealing with ’stuff’.
Comment by John Christopher Jones — 17 April 2007 @ 4:50 pm
I think in the end I agree with you, and I think in a twisted way I work similarly to what you explain, but I think I conceptualize it differently.
The model of breaking things down to the widget stage isn’t one that works well for me, particularly with regards to things like writing for papers. I’ve gotten to the point that I can usually block off enough time to get them done and done well enough without really running to close to deadlines, so I just do that. It doesn’t translate well to the to-do list or the calendar, but I’ve actually been more pleased with that recently.
This is a matter of personal development as well, I suppose, but I’ve found that taking a sane course load actually makes it easier to stay on top of the pile. Maybe it’s a personal failing, but I sort of think that there’s a point where no system will let you get everything done.
These days, I tend to do project level planning in a notebook, and then generate actions (that I keep track of in a text file on my computer) that is organized into productive categories that aren’t quite contexts or projects, I suppose something like “spheres” makes sense. There’s a section for appointments, a section for on-campus errands, and a section for tealart, and so forth.
It seems to work for now, and maybe thats enough. I’m about as on top of things as I can really handle.
Comment by tycho — 17 April 2007 @ 10:17 pm
What I hear here is people saying that GTD is not very adaptable to academics, but I must disagree. Success is adapting it to the student, staff, or faculty realm relies on a clear understanding of how you work (e.g., what your contexts are), and implementing a regular review of all projects).
Comment by JE Miller — 18 August 2007 @ 8:50 pm
@je miller: I think there is some truth in what you say: GTD can be manipulated to work for people in academia, or in creative projects, or whatever, but, and this is an important clarification:
I know how I work, and I’ve come up with a number of different ways to organize my contexts, and the problem is that I either end up with to few contexts (@computer, and @not-computer) or to many (@email, @reading, @phone, @planning, @writing, @specific-progjects1,2,3, and so forth) and that’s not quite adaptive.
The other problem is that I’m forever switching modes and modalities as part of my work, in part to stay fresh and flexible. Sometimes I do planning on my computer, quite frequently I do planning long hand in a notebook. I use a laptop computer so that I can take things with me and change scenery. My main location-based concerns aren’t constraining factors as much as a list of things that I need to make sure I pack with me in the morning, so that I have all of the right files, books, notebooks with me so that I don’t get stranded without materials.
In GTD that turns into an awkward next action inside of @chores, or an awkward #pack_me context.
And I think you’re totally right, regular review of all projects, no matter what you’re doing is always a crucial element.
Comment by tycho garren — 18 August 2007 @ 9:00 pm