The 6 Surprising Mistakes that GTDers Make

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[No. 2 - October 2009]

2TIMESYS.COM

THE 6 SURPRISING MISTAKES THAT GTD速ERS MAKE

And How to Stop Making Them| Francis Wade | 2time-sys.com GTD and Getting Things Done are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. 2Time: Time Management 2.0 is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.

2|Page While David Allen’s Getting Things Done® (GTD®) is a wonderful system for time management, those who use the system can easily find themselves making some big mistakes—and stuck in a rut that stops them from making the improvements they seek.

I found myself in this position when I moved from Hollywood, Florida, USA, to live here in Kingston, Jamaica.

Four years I ago, I moved my business and family to a country I had not lived in for over 20 years, and I discovered that the way I was managing my time no longer worked. Daily life in Kingston was much more hectic, unreliable, and chaotic than the life I’d left behind in south Florida—with more interruptions, greater unpredictability, and many professionals who had a very different relationship with time commitments than I’d ever experienced in my working life.

Also, I arrived on the island with a new wife, and the switch from bachelor to husband only made things more difficult. After some missed appointments, late arrivals to meetings, and lost opportunities, I realised that the system I’d been using as a Florida bachelor simply wasn't working.

I went looking for solutions and once again picked up GTD. I had read the book a few years before and implemented many of its principles, but not all of its practices.

Perhaps, I thought, now was the right time to implement the rest of the system.

Perhaps this would be the key to becoming more effective in my new environment.

I continued my search through other time I didn't find the help I wanted, and it management systems, wasn't because the ideas weren't sound. trying to find one that I discovered that I still loved the Getting would work, when it Things Done book, but several of the struck me that I was methods just wouldn't work, no matter making a big mistake— how diligently I tried to implement them.

For example, I had started to keep a calendar of almost all my activities, and I’d gotten rid of most of my lists. This fit my new environment because it was difficult to predict what would happen from day to day, and juggling commitments was much easier to do in an electronic schedule than in my head. GTD, and most other systems, don’t support the method I was using.

I continued my search through other time management systems, trying to find one that would work, when it struck me that I was making a big mistake—the first of many, but probably the biggest one.

While there aren't a flood of people moving from the U.S. to the Caribbean, I discovered that I wasn't alone in making this mistake—and other mistakes—and I

©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

3|Page realised that lots of professionals around the world who make major changes in their lives find themselves in the same spot.

Mistake #1 – It's MY System, Stupid!

I went looking to GTD and other systems because I thought that I would finally find someone who understood me and the circumstances I faced as a 41-year-old exbachelor who had recently moved back to Jamaica from the USA after 21 lifechanging years.

Well … guess what? As you might imagine, no one in the world had created a system that would fit me and my circumstances.

Big surprise!

But as I desperately searched for solutions, I realised that I was not alone.

No one had developed a system for students at Cornell. No one had developed a system for triathletes. No one had developed a system for researchers at AT&T Bell Labs in New Jersey or management consultants in Toledo or trainers in Rio de Janeiro. (All of these are roles I’ve played at some point in my career.)

I looked at my life and realised that no one was developing time management systems for use by different people, at different points in their lives, and living in different countries.

I could never find the perfect system. This annoyed me at first, until I had an insight.

"Hey, STUPID … stop looking for solutions outside of YOU!"

That was my big mistake: looking for the perfect time management system to fit my life, rather than realising that I was already the OWNER of my own system.

That was my big mistake: looking for the perfect time management system to fit my life, rather than realising that I was already the OWNER of my own system.

How could it be any other way?

I did what everyone else does when they read GTD or learn any other system from a book, website, or classroom: I picked out the parts I liked and ignored the rest.

In other words, I built my own system—without knowing it. When I looked back, I realised that I had done this in high school, in college, in my first job, when I did my first triathlon, when I moved to Florida—and now I needed to do it again here in Kingston.

©2009 Framework Consulting Inc. GTD and Getting Things Done are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. 2Time: Time Management 2.0 is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company.

4|Page I needed to start with the knowledge that I’m already the owner of a time management system that works well in some ways and not in others.

The first mistake I made, one that GTDers also make, is overlooking the fact that our job is not to implement David Allen's system (which probably works perfectly for him) but instead to custom-create our own—using GTD as a powerful guide, an awesome starting point, and an invaluable source of input.

My attention really should have been on me, my needs, and what I needed to do to take my system to the next level. I had to take responsibility for something new—that the system I was using was MINE, even if I’d forgotten that I had made it.

The problem with GTD and other systems I studied was not that they were bad. Instead, I was trying to make them do what they couldn't do: run my unique, one-of-a-kind life. And that's the same mistake that many others make—because the fact is that we are all unique, whether we live in Tokyo, London, or Miami.

The first mistake I made, one that GTDers also make, is overlooking the fact that our job is not to implement David Allen's system (which probably works perfectly for him) but instead to customcreate our own

When I realised for the first time that I had a system in place before first discovering GTD, and that I was in fact doing an upgrade, a light bulb went on. This was MY system, not anyone else's. But until I realised that, I got myself lost by trying to make GTD and other systems become the solutions that they could never become.

The truth is, I felt a bit stupid, but I also felt a tremendous sense of relief.

Mistake #2 – Feeling Guilty for Not Using 100% of GTD When the stupid feeling wore off, so did a vague feeling of guilt—but not all at once.

We mistakenly think that implementing GTD is like buying our very first car: before it’s bought, we own nothing. A void exists.

But implementing GTD is more like taking a car that you already have and upgrading it, customising it, and turning it into a hot rod.

Our problem is that we forgot that we already owned and operated a time management

©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

5|Page system to begin with. Before GTD, we already possessed complex ways to manage our time, built on habits that took us years to develop!

Customising your car by installing a new engine certainly takes a level of care and attention. I remember spending two days in my garage trying to change my carburetor on my 1983 Toyota Corolla. I failed miserably, and all I succeeded in doing was putting the old parts back in place. It was tough, demanding work that was much harder than it seemed it would be from the shop manual that I’d bought.

Well … guess what?

Making changes to your existing time management system is tough work, as it requires changes to habits and practices that you’ve perfected over several years.

Most of us are actually in good shape—until some kind of life change comes along and our system stops working the way it used to work. We become married, or have a new baby, or get promoted—and all of a sudden, stuff starts falling through the cracks. Commitments that used to be easy to keep—such as exercising, seeing friends, or keeping up with email—start to look impossible as balls get dropped left and right. We miss appointments, start running late, fall behind in our communication, and forget to empty our voice mail inbox.

We know something is wrong, and we look for solutions—as if we’re shopping for our very first car.

What we find is GTD, and other time management systems, that are the product of one person's experience.

Making changes to your existing time management system is tough work, as it requires changes to habits and practices that you’ve perfected over several years.

But what we don't know is that, in each of these cases, the new system works only for the person who created it. In other words, it's based on the experience of a single person, and oftentimes only a handful of people can implement every last piece—including the person who made it up in the first place.

Most of us do what everyone else does.

We choose what we like and ignore the rest. We don't understand certain parts, so we leave them out. A few of us experiment with each and every piece of the system and determine that some just don’t work.

Whichever way it happens, the result is the same: an incomplete implementation.

Less than 100%.

©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

6|Page While this is the smart thing to do, and many creators of time management systems will agree that you must do it to retain your sanity, we still have a little feeling that we’re not getting 100%. And if there’s one thing we learned in grade school from Mrs. Phillips, it's that getting 100% is what it's all about!

Because we don't understand the fact that changing habits is tough work, and because we don't appreciate the fact that no one except a handful can actually implement ALL of these systems, we tell ourselves that something must be wrong with US. "I should be doing better at this. I’m lazy and undisciplined. I need to stop procrastinating. I’m not smart enough."

These are just lies.

And we need to stop telling them to ourselves—or start ignoring them if we can't stop them altogether.

There’s nothing wrong with us. We just have a few mistakes that prevent us from realising what is really happening when we try to improve this particular part of our lives.

Can we give ourselves a break?

Mistake #3 – Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater Many who fail to implement as much of GTD as they think they should end up looking for other replacement systems, thinking that David Allen must have gotten it all wrong. They pick up one of the other popular time management systems in the hope that things will finally go "click."

At the same time, they blame GTD for being too complex, too hard to implement, too long, too boring, too geeky, etc. There’s now a whole industry based on correcting the "faults" of GTD. Just do a Google search to find them.

For a very small number of people, something does go "click," and they’re able to find another time management system that works better than GTD. But for the majority, the search is fruitless—as it was for me. ©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

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The mistake we make is that we don't appreciate that ALL feasible time management systems have some things in common. This is a little like knowing that all working automobiles have a few things in common, such as electrical systems, cooling systems, transmissions, etc.

The key to building a hot rod lies in understanding the underlying systems and how they work together. If you don't understand the basics of ignition, then you’re unlikely to be able to build a good Many think that their custom car, regardless of the kit you failure to implement GTD purchase or the car you use as your has something to do with starting point. the system ... rather than a lack of understanding of You may, however, think that your how time management failure to complete your hot rod was systems work. because the kit that you bought was badly written and put together.

Many think that their failure to implement GTD has something to do with the system that David Allen put together, rather than a lack of understanding of how time management systems work.

Well … surprise, surprise! Underneath all time management systems are some major commonalities that are inescapable, just as there are certain inescapable design elements in all cars. Building a car without respecting the basic design of all cars doesn't work, and creating/upgrading your own time management system without knowing the fundamentals is also doomed to failure.

In his book Work the System, Sam Carpenter makes the same point about business. Understanding the essential subsystems of a business is necessary to entrepreneurial success, and people who bounce from one business to another without understanding the fundamentals don't ever make a profit.

So don't throw away GTD. Instead, take responsibility for the fact that it's YOUR system you’re working on, and GTD is a powerful guide to help you create the time management system you need.

©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

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Mistake #4 – Not Knowing What to Keep The problem with picking and choosing from GTD is that it’s a little like coming up with your own recipe for a favourite dish. If you change a little here and there, will it still work?

The point is that it's a tricky business to work on improving your time management system when you have no basis for choosing.

When I was a college student, I remember trying to make bread pudding with a friend. I thought we could use slightly spoiled milk in the recipe. The result was simply awful, as I clearly didn't know which elements of the recipe were essential (like fresh milk).

As we continually customise, upgrade, and create our own time management systems, we run the risk of picking and choosing the wrong things from GTD, producing a mess that simply doesn't work.

Is Next Action essential? How about Ubiquitous Capture? Can you do without the Daily Review?

The point is that it's a tricky business to work on improving your time management system when you have no basis for choosing. There’s no escaping the fact that some education is necessary. Professionals need to understand the fundamental practices that underlie all time management systems. It's just like my prior example of the botched bread pudding. If I’d known the basics of baking, I would have known how to vary the recipe successfully.

My research has shown that all time management systems have a certain set of fundamentals that they need to cover—otherwise, they don't work. In my survey of time management systems, I’ve discovered that the creators have added a great deal that’s nice, but not essential.

The key to working on your own system is knowing the difference.

As I surveyed time management systems, I was able to detect what I believe are the essential practices, or fundamentals. I borrowed heavily from my degrees in operations research and industrial engineering and from Michael Gerber's book The E©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

9|Page Myth Revisited. (Sam Carpenter's book came later, but it would have made my job much easier.)

The 11 fundamentals I discovered are outlined in different posts on my 2Time blog, and you can review and critique them for free. By sharing them publicly, my hope is to improve our joint understanding of how we should all be working on our time management systems.

I envision a time when we'll all be able to use the best of different systems, resulting in designs that work well for our individual purposes. I also want to save us from the worst that could happen, which is that we end up with a bunch of funky-looking Rube Goldberg contraptions that fall apart!

Mistake #5 – Not Understanding that Things Change All of us, as creators of time management systems, need to embrace the fact that technology is changing rapidly, bringing with it some important challenges and opportunities.

It's a mistake to think that a time management I remember using a paper planning system should be a static system back in the 1990s. I hauled creation and that GTD, as around a huge 8-1/2 x 11-inch book with strong as it is, is the final lots of pages, requiring refills that I had answer to all time to buy every few months. I felt quite management needs. productive at the time, but now I can hardly look back at that system without

shaking my head.

It's obvious to me that I could never go back to using a tool like that.

Technology brings with it all sorts of new opportunities, and we need to be open to finding new tools that better serve the goals of our time management systems.

For example, at the moment I’m still using a Tungsten T; I haven't upgraded to a smart phone. I know that at some point I will, as it's just a matter of time before one gets designed that meets my needs and budget. I keep looking for the right unit, and I believe that in a matter of a year or two, I'll make a purchase that will take my system to the next level.

No time management system should remain static. We need to improve our systems from year to year so that they can take advantage of new technology.

On the other hand, technology has also brought challenges.

Getting Things Done was published in 2001, and the volume of email that I receive daily has doubled several times since then. Š2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

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The best professionals aren't using the time management systems they developed back in 2001. Instead, they’ve upgraded them to deal with the number of emails they currently receive. Many now have the "zero inbox" as a personal goal, for example. This is a far cry from the times when AOL software proclaimed "You've got mail" whenever a new email entered our inbox and we thought that getting more email was a good thing.

Our time management systems need to be upgraded as the number of emails increases and the channels of communication multiply.

It's a mistake to think that a time management system should be a static creation and that GTD, as strong as it is, is the final answer to all time management needs.

It's also unlikely (and maybe impossible) for you to set up the same time management system in 2009 that you would have set up in 2001.

Don't make the mistake of getting stuck with a system that you created at any one point in your career.

Mistake #6 – Trying to Change Too Much, with Too Little I can't prove this with hard evidence, but my intuition tells me that people who take a time management course fail mostly because they try to change too many ingrained habits at once.

Those who pick up the GTD book for the first time are often inspired by the author's vision of Zen-like efficiency. The problem they face once they try to implement the system, however, is that they’re unable to change a new, complex set of habits all at once.

Many who take time management courses report that things go well for a few days—that is, until a crisis occurs that causes them to slip back into their old habits. At that moment, all of their new learning goes out the window, only to be replaced by a guilty feeling that they should be doing better.

What they don't know is that they’ve actually set themselves up for failure by thinking that they could change a complex set of habits all at once.

In my mind, the perfect time management program would fix this problem and urge ©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.

11 | P a g e students to come up with a plan for changing habits gradually over time, rather than all at once.

This approach is supported by the most recent research on changing habits, which argues that it’s best to focus on making small changes in habits, one at a time. The research also shows that habit changes require support, and we need to understand the specific kind of help required to make the changes permanent.

For some students in my online classes, this has meant being part of a community, using an approach based on 12-step programs. For others, this has led them to set up competitions with themselves and others to hit certain milestones that reflect improvement over time. Some have loved the idea of communicating in forums and on discussion lists, while others enjoy using daily tracking tools.

Each person has his or her individual support system, exactly as the research would indicate. Most have defined new habits that will take several months, and even years, to implement—and the better the support system, the more likely their success.

This mistake is easily corrected with some patience and good planning that allows for the fact that we are, after all, human. If we can accept that the time management system we have at the moment has successfully brought us to this point, then we can use GTD and other systems to help us set the stage for habit changes that we plan and execute for the duration of our careers.

Summary There’s good news: our six mistakes are easily reversible.

Taking responsibility for our current time management system is the start of a journey for most GTDers. This only enhances the impact that the system can have in taking our lives to the next level.

Francis Wade is the author of the 2Time research blog, which shares ideas with all users who are interested in upgrading their time management systems. To hear a message from Francis on upcoming free programs and more, visit http://2time-sys.com/GTDers http://2time-sys.com For additional information on GTD or the David Allen Company, see http://www.davidco.com.

©2009 Framework Consulting Inc.