Great time management ideas from the world of improv wisdom

I've just finished typing in my notes [1] from the delightful little book Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson. I've been taking my time reading this book (much more than I expected - I'm not sure why), but it's definitely worth reading. For me it took a little while to get into, but it ultimately excelled at my "Scribble Test" [2].

I'll be writing more about the book in the future, but in this post I want to highlight my take on Madson's contributions to time management ideas from the improv perspective.


On saying "yes": Madson encourages us to

Substitute "Yes and" for "Yes but." Add something to build the conversation.

From the GTD perspective, this reminds us of our power to make choices. Every day we're flooded with opportunities, which require us to decide: "Should I say yes?" Thankfully, with a system like GTD in place we're able to make those choices from a position of knowledge - since we (ideally) have 100% of our commitments listed, we have a good sense of whether the opportunity is one that we're willing to spend time on or not. If so, we can make mature choices about what we're willing to trade off or give up (if necessary) to take on this new commitment. If not, we can be clearer about saying no, ideally maintaining respect for those making the offer.

Without being conscious of our opportunities and choices, we run the risk of becoming "yes people," which, while possibly exciting (as Danny Wallace learned in Yes Man in which he says yes to everything), can really cause stress and anxiety. Fortunately, having a complete inventory and freed-up minds allows us to stay more open to opportunities of real value, including meeting new people [3].

On planning: We're told to

Give up planning. Drop the habit of thinking ahead.

To me this maxim supports the idea of doing minimal planning (a nice fit with David Allen's Natural Planning Model [4]). This helps because I sometimes spend too much time planning, which can get in the way of action (one of the book's themes). She also says:

Motivation is not a prerequisite for showing up.

We can see this as addressing procrastination with the idea that just getting started is a useful wedge. I've found that once I'm rolling, I can often keep going. I also found the corollary - all starting points are equally valid - very liberating. Put another way, which Next Action we choose may is probably not as important as choosing one!

On priorities: Madson also tells us to start the day with what's important, and to use rituals to get things going. These are great ideas; Julie Morgenstern takes the former to an extreme in her book Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work, and Thomas Limoncelli encourages us to develop routines for things that occur regularly in Time Management for System Administrators.

On perfectionism: The author spurs us to boldly lower our standards (!), a notion that I initially rebelled against, but which started making sense. Too often I worry about doing the best job in the world - really "nuking" a task - when I could get by with less. If this sounds like a cop out, don't sweat; what she's really telling us is to listen to ourselves. She notes that the idea of "thinking outside the box" really means seeing what is really obvious, but, up until then, unseen. In other words, trust yourself - the "easy" solution is most likely a great one!

On decision making:Madson's seventh maxim ("fact the facts") provides concrete advice for making troubling decisions.

The facts of any problem emerge when we look at the details. Writing them down allows you to be your own counselor. Be sure to include a realistic action plan, and then follow your own advice. Facing facts can be the first step in making important changes in your life. [5]

On focus: The chapter "stay on course" tells us to remember what our purpose is in acting. With the myriad distractions in modern life, maintaining focus is crucial (in fact it's a principle of Allen's book). The improviser says that "every improvisation has a point" and encourages us to ask often: "What is my purpose?" [6]

On making mistakes: The books tenth maxim - "make mistakes, please" - encourages us to move out of our comfort zone, where mistakes are possible (and likely). I really liked her admonition to proceed boldly, which I believe helps us be more productive. For example, instead of sitting on an email I'm about to send to someone I respect, admire, or just plain don't know, I'll just write it, briefly proof and spell-check it, take a breath, and SEND IT. I used to work the wording over and over, worry about what the recipient might think, and generally be anxious about reaching out in the world. This maxim says to just do it. And if there's a mistake? Take a bow and say Ta-dah!

On visualizing outcomes: David Allen is well known for his great advice to "visualize wild success." One thing I've wondered is what to do with the visualization once the outcome is complete. I felt that holding on to the image was unfair to both the outcome (I want to respect the reality) and the vision (I don't want to dilute future visualizations). Madson has a nice perspective on this:

We need to let go of outcomes. ... Things don't turn out as planned. You don't need to abandon your dreams; just don't let them get in the way of noticing what is taking place. Observe the currents of life, accept what is happening, including mistakes, and continue working to create the best outcome. The key here is a flexible mind.

Wow!

On action: To me, this is a lot of what the book is about - acting, based on the moment. As Madson put it:

The essence of improvising is action.

Here are a few end-of-chapter bullets that should make a lot of sense to my readers who practice GTD:

• Act in order to discover what comes next.
  
• You don't need to feel like doing something to do it.
  
• Schedule a difficult task and stick to your timetable.
  
• Invite a buddy to join you in doing what you need to do.
  
• Do the hard thing first.

On enjoying the ride: The author's final chapter really spoke to me. If I'm not careful, my serious analytical side overshadows my ability to be joyful and have fun in the moment. So having Madson encourage me to have fun ... well, thank you! She puts it this way:

Having fun loosens the mind. ... We need to be reminded of our capacity for delight and pleasure.

More on this delightful book in later posts, especially as it relates to career changes, and to designing and delivering presentations. Highly recommended!


Related

• In a very funny 2006 Commencement Address, Stephen Colbert talks about the value of saying yes to life.
  
• In Improv as a Business Skill, my friend Chris Brogan writes about the importance of improv in business. Chris also has a LifeHack.org Podcast: Episode 1: Interview with Patricia Ryan Madson.
  
• John Moore interviews Madson in Better Business Through Improv.

References

• [1] Two posts related to reading are How to read a lot of books in a short time and Double your income in a year ... by reading!? An update on reading for learning, plus a current list with brief comments.
  
• [2] See "Interesting, but not useful," or Does it pass the scribble test?. I've actually been thinking about an updated version that evaluates the usefulness of a book (to me, at least) by asking "How many ideas did it generate?" Tracking this is straightforward because all notes go into a text file and are tagged Wiki-style (see My Big-Arse Text File - a Poor Man's Wiki+Blog+PIM). Madson's total? 33!
  
• [3] I've been doing this since the beginning of the year - see my article A geek "gets" networking: The strange magic of connecting with others.
  
• [4] The Natural Planning Model is described in the book, but Matt Vance's GTD summary, gives an outline: Five Phases of Natural Planning Techniques:
  1. purpose / guiding principles (Why are we doing this?)
     
  2. mission / vision / goals / successful outcome (What would wild success look, sound, or feel like?)
     
  3. brainstorming (How would we accomplish it?)
     
     1. view the project from beyond the completion date
        
     2. envision wild success (suspend "Yeah, but. . .")
        
     3. capture features, aspects, and qualities you imagine in place
        
  4. organizing (identify components, sub-components, sequences, events, and/or priorities; what must occur and in what order? When do we do these things?)
     
  5. next actions (Where do we start?)
  
  
• [5] You may also enjoy Eight tools for streamlined decision-making and A BENJAMIN FRANKLIN "WHAT DO I DO?" Decision-Maker.
  
• [6] This is related to "Lakein's Question" - "What is the best use of your time right now?" - which he describes in the classic How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life.
  

Some hopefully humorous reflections after oral surgery

This week I'm recovering from some (apparently) minor dental work. I'd like to offer some observations on day two that you may find helpful. Additional contributions in the same vein (and I do mean vein) are quite welcome!

On the procedure itself: I found that vigorous rough scraping sensation on my palette, while not painful at the time (thank God for Novocaine), was strangely unsettling. I had to wonder: Did the dentist decide to use a cheese grater instead of a knife? I mean - How hard can it be to just slice a nice, clean (preferably mini) beef-jerky slice off for the gum? The gum is kind, it is gentle, it DOESN'T NEED MUCH!

On the reasons people in public think you're not talking to them:

• jerk
  
• addle-minded
  
• jerk
  
• recovering from re-start of frontal lobotomy work in your area
  
• simple
  
• deaf
  
• thinking about something important (rare)
  
• jerk

A fun in-procedure tip: While getting your work done, pass out for a bit - you should see the looks on their faces when you do! (Of course you can't see the looks because you're blissfully unconscious. It's like your body says - "They're not using general anesthetic? Time to kick it old school...") Safety tip: Come out of it in 5-10 seconds. Otherwise they'll take you to the hospital which, while much more pleasant than what you're leaving, means you'll have to come back and do the whole thing again (there is no "bookmarking" in surgery).

On things that are more difficult to do without the use of your mouth:

• talking
  
• sex (varies)
  
• eating jello through a straw
  
• whistling (yes, even with chewed up crackers in your mouth)
  
• saying "I was born on a pirate ship" while holding your tongue

On not talking after: Gives me a new appreciation for New Englanders whom I thought were being unfriendly. It turns out they are almost all having tissue grafts. All the time! I find I have much more compassion for them now, though I still can't explain those who have some other excuse. Stuck suppositories, I'm pretty sure.

On how to keep your mouth smelling fresh-as-the-sea when you're prohibited from brushing or rinsing:

• fire
  
• cool mint tea (don't chew!)
  
• diluted hydrofluoric acid. (Remember, a little goes a long way!)
  
• Clorox and a scouring pad.
  
• gentle brushing of the tongue (preferably your own)

On the time of the year: Depending on the date you have your work done, you can get some good humor mileage by leveraging holidays. For example, on Halloween (of course): what says "happy fun" like real sutures and blood. Safety tip: Use sparingly.

On what not to eat:

• popcorn (esp. unpopped)
  
• thumbtacks
  
• scalding hot cheese pizza
  
• sponges (unless properly moistened beforehand)
  
• toast
  
• scalding hot soup

On playing with your very active almost-six-year-old: Don't. The problem is that, even though you're not talking, your face and mouth appear relatively normal from the outside, inviting the usual amount of direct impacts via knees, chins, and projectiles-masked-as-toys of all sorts. Parenting note: You should probably go ahead and play anyway, 'cause you love her so much. Just bring an old rag.

On the side-effects of Penicillin that you're sure you're experiencing:

• anemia
  
• black, hairy tongue (my personal favorite)
  
• diarrhea
  
• fever
  
• hives
  
• nausea
  
• skin eruptions
  
• stomach upset or pain
  
• swelling in throat
  
• vomiting
  
• severe agitation
  
• anxiety
  
• confusion
  
• fear of impending death (probably warranted)
  
• feeling, hearing, or seeing things that are not real (may not be new for you)
  
• white patches on the tongue (thrush/yeast infection)

On pleasant surprises during the procedure:

• hip green "orthopedic" laser-protecting glasses (no, you don't get to take them home - I asked.)
  
• almost total lack of burning meat scent (yours) during cauterization
  
• how much the gentle tugging of the sutures reminds you of when your mom used to sew clothes around the fire. but of course she wasn't sewing through your gums.

And finally, on when you'll know the practice of dentistry has matured:

• all work done with sprays and pleasant-smelling patches
  
• the worst words that you'll hear from the dentist is: "This spray may feel a little cool."
  
• the tools used are smarter than the users
  
• posters of Eric Drexler adorn the office
  
• the most painful part is when they take a DNA sample to grow your own skin and bone - in situ
  
• you really understand what Clarke meant by (paraphrasing):

  "If technology is distinguishable from magic, it is insufficiently advanced."

What are the essential habits of GTD?

My GTD Workflow Assessment/Tips Checklist from a few weeks ago got me thinking about the specific set of behaviors that make up David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology. So for fun I examined each tip, asked "Why should I do this?," and attempted to collect and name the underlying habits. Note that I found it fairly difficult to reduce these down so that there's no overlap, yet still find enough to get more detail beyond Allen's wonderful end-of-book summary:

• "keep everything out of your head;
  
• decide actions and outcomes when things first emerge on your radar, instead of later; and
  
• regularly review and update the complete inventory of open loops of your life and work."
  

Overall I found the exercise stimulating, but the results are very preliminary. That said, I'll offer the habits I came up with in hopes that they'll stimulate some thoughts.

For each one, read "The habit of ____":

• 100%_CAPTURE
  
  
  • Commitments, projects, anxieties.
    
  • Tracking things that matter or have your attention.
    
  • Needs to be 100% complete to be effective.
    
  
  
• APPROPRIATE_PLACEMENT
  
  
  • Putting things where they belong, rather than leaving them out and doing it later.
    
  • Includes physical items (e.g., files, supplies) and action reminders into your inventory (e.g., putting information and appointments into your calendar).
    
  • Central to this habit: Don't wait - put things in their places right away if possible.
    
  • Leads to efficient access.
    
  • Dealt with in detail in Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out.
    
  
  
• CONTROLLED_COLLECTION
  
  
  • regular processing and emptying of a small number of collection points that everybody (including you) uses
    
  • Should account for all channels of "stuff" flowing into your life.
    
  
  
• DECOMPOSITION
  
  
  • Identifying projects (a desired outcome requiring more than one action).
    
  • Breaking every project down into at least one next action, then putting the result into your inventory.
    
  
  
• EFFECTIVE_PROCESSING
  
  
  • Allen's processing diagram.
    
  • Starting at the top and quickly working through items one at a time, in order, not putting anything back.
    
  • Stephanie Winston calls getting it down to the shine in The Organized Executive: A Program for Productivity.
    
  
  
• FRONT_END_DECISIONS
  
  
  • Deciding about action when things first appear in your life, not later.
    
  • Deciding as early as possible with as much clarity and boldness as possible (e.g., saying 'no' rather than 'let me think about it').
    
  • Recall Hemphill's insight that clutter is the result of postponed decisions.
    
  
  
• INVENTORY_BASED_CHOICE
  
  
  • Working from your inventory (calendar then next actions) when time is available, instead of your head, interruptions, etc.
    
  • May choose to accept interruptions anyway, but based on knowing what you're not doing as a result.
    
  
  
• KEEPING_THINGS_CLEAR
  
  
  • Emptying your collection points every 1-2 days, as well as keeping your physical and mental spaces clear.
    
  • Related: APPROPRIATE_PLACEMENT.
    
  • Keeping up with the daily flow.
    
  • Supports focus, which needs open space to thrive.
    
  
  
• NEXT_ACTIONS
  
  
  • The habit of clarifying the next action on stuff entering your life.
    
  • Asking the question "What's the next action?"
    
  
  
• OUTCOME_FOCUS
  
  
  • Visualize the desired ending situation for both actions and projects.
    
  • Asking the question "What's the successful outcome?"
    
  • Related: KEEPING_THINGS_CLEAR.
    
  
  
• REGULAR_REVIEW
  
  
  • Maintaining your inventory as often as necessary, i.e., the care and feeding to keep them current.
    
  • Whether we're doing the right things (vs. doing things right)?
    
  
  
• SITUATIONAL_AWARENESS
  
  
  • Consciously choosing most important thing to do in the moment.
    
  • Awareness of your time choices (how much a task needs, how much you have at the moment, what kind is necessary), of Next Action needs (how urgent), and of yourself (how much energy you have, what your priorities are).
    
  • Relates to interruptions, e.g., whether to allow or not.
    
  • Not using multitasking as a strategy.
    
  • Which workflow phase I want to be in at the moment. (See my post A GTD WorkFlow tool: The five stages on a business card cube.)

I do agree with Allen that these all reduce down to managing focus effectively, i.e., attention management - the mature use of our attention in the face of many "bidders," including clutter (both physical and mental), and a slew of modern-day inputs (including information, interruptions, meetings, etc.) And I guess the ultimate point of all this is choice - how me manage ourselves, and how we choose to act in each moment.

Put another way, methods like GTD try to help us ask (and answer) the question: "Do your time/action choices match your goals and purpose in life?" which seems like the ultimate measure. And I guess that's why habits like those encouraged by methodologies like GTD are so interesting to me.

As usual, comments always welcome!

A GTD-er's perspective on Mission Control's "Productivity and Accomplishment" workshop

I had the privilege of attending the two-day Mission Control workshop on Productivity & Accomplishment, which was facilitated by Rosemary Meehan Tator, who did a fantastic job. I met Rosemary via one of the davidco GTD forum members when perusing the thread Bridging GTD with other works outside of Franklin-Covey. In this post I'll share what the workshop was like, and analyze some of its strengths as compared with David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology, which I've been practicing for about a year (!)

Note: I was very pleased to attend this workshop for a number of reasons. First, as a self-taught student of personal productivity (I say I'm creating my own a "Master's Degree" in it), I really enjoy learning these systems, and looking for common aspects and great ideas, esp. ones I can apply to my own life. Second, I'm exploring a second career and I'm trusting that becoming an expert in the field ("owning" your subject, as Ethan puts it in Knocking Down Walls: GTD Ownership vs Orthodoxy) will make me valuable to potential employers/partners. Third, I'd love to synthesize something new from these aspects, and I'm hoping that pouring these ideas in will keep me going! And finally, Watching Rosemary in action was great modeling for developing my own presentation skills and style.


The workshop

The workshop was held over two days, and (surprisingly to me) spent about 2/3 of that time on concepts (not tools or practices). I had some personal resistance to this (more below), but at the end I think the balance made sense. As Eric Mack puts it in Methodology + Technology = Productivity, tools without a method are useless (or worse).

Some of the topics covered included:

• Habits (existing ones don't serve us these days);
  
• Communication/work (the workplace has changed);
  
• Getting your hands around all of your commitments;
  
• Incompletes (cause stress, must be managed);
  
• Purpose (what drives each action);
  
• Time (only way to get something done is at a specific time in our future);
  
• Creating attractive actions, and looking at them as accomplishments;
  
• Having a capture tool (similar to GTD);
  
• Setting up your personal system;
  
• Calendar-centric scheduling (putting everything you're really committed to doing on your calendar);
  
• "Not doing" lists (things you're not willing to commit to, but don't want to put back into mind - go way beyond GTD);
  
• Managing supporting information (similar to GTD's general reference system); and
  
• Email and Meeting practices.
  

As you can see, a lot was covered. The facilitators were extremely respectful, knowledgeable, and passionate (and likable), and strongly supported questions (and questioning). The organizers also made an effort to address varied learning styles, with well over a dozen exercises, experiences, and discussions to help cement the ideas.

That said, there were hundreds of PowerPoint slides, and a good bit of sitting and listening while people read to us. Also, some of the language (which I found strangely ceremonious) got in my way, at least at the beginning. However, overall I thought the format definitely got the ideas across.

Finally, my fellow participants (there were eight of us) were intelligent, honest, willing to learn, and full of wisdom. A hell of a bunch! I don't know where Rosemary got us all...


Some concepts in common with GTD

Again, some of the fundamentals will be familiar to GTD-ers. Here are some that came to mind:

• Our minds are occupied by commitments (to selves or others) we've made.
  
• Getting all commitments out of our heads frees up focus, creativity, and energy.
  
• We must have a grip on 100% of our commitments, or our minds will be distracted.
  
• We need systems to help with managing all this, and tools to implement the methods.
  
• We must regularly capture commitments and ideas that come to us, and transform them into "work," i.e., put them into our systems.
  
• Regularly reviewing our choices allows us to work on what's important in the moment.
  
• Regularly emptying stuff that comes into our lives is crucial to minimizing distraction.
  
• In our modern world we can't do it all; we have to make choices.
  
• Modern "work" is hard due to changes in the amount of information entering our lives, and old systems/ideas don't scale.
  
• It is difficult to adopt a new system, even if helpful (habits fight it).
  
• It works best to get control of the mundane day-to-day aspects of life (actions and projects) before tackling the higher-level ones (goals, purpose). -- updated
  

Great stuff! And I hope you get a flavor for the overlap with Allen's work.


Mission Control strengths

That said, there are some major differences between the two, with one of the biggest being Mission Control has you schedule every single action that you're ready to commit to in your calendar on a specific date and time. This differs from GTD, in which you schedule only those things that must happen on a specific day or time. In a way this is a philosophical difference, and it's been discussed quite a bit on the davidco forums (see below), but I can certainly see the advantages. For example, it's not uncommon for GTD practitioners to have actions that slip by. With Mission Control I think that's much less likely. Also, I suspect it's harder to procrastinate when you're staring at an item in your calendar.

Another big difference is the way Mission Control looks at time (as a sequence of "Nows"), and that a thing you care about doing can only take place at a certain day and time. GTD agrees, but leaves it up to you to dynamically decide which to do in the moment (possibly simplified by "context"). To that end, they have you phrase everything in future tense, so that life looks like a series of accomplishments. Neat!

Finally, I believe Mission Control better ties in the purpose for doing things (you actually try to say why in your action), which they claim makes them more compelling. I think this is one area that GTD doesn't address strongly (I talk about it a bit in It's not about productivity...), and can lead to the feeling of "having" to do actions, rather than being drawn to do them.

Here are a few more Mission Control strengths I noticed:

• Directly addresses interruptions & distractions;
  
• Strong support for effective meetings - guidelines, integrating w/schedule;
  
• Teases apart the notion of incompletions in much more detail;
  
• Talks a lot about habits and how they resist change;
  
• Breaks "completion" down into more specific types, rather than GTD's 'next actions' and 'someday/maybe';
  
• Fixes the disconnect of agenda items and action: you only have agendas if they're connected to a scheduled meeting;
  
• It is natural to put all activities in the calendar, e.g., daily routines, morning prep, exercise, maintenance of system itself (!), etc. This completeness appeals to the geek in me.
  
• Related to above: Makes it natural to schedule time for interruptions, and for checking email, RSS feeds, etc. This is big!
  

GTD's relative strengths

To be fair, GTD has its share of pluses and minuses relative to Mission Control. Here are a few strengths I've noticed:

• Relatively simple: e.g., no scheduling, two categories of action (next actions & Someday/Maybe);
  
• "Open" idea - book available, free support groups, lots of free articles;
  
• Very large and supportive user community (thanks folks!);
  
• Wide range of implementation tools (from paper through digital);
  
• Strong handling of WorkFlow concepts, "stuff" definition, and the five phases;
  
• Simpler (and more fun!?) general reference filing system;
  
• Very strong processing and organizing thinking (i.e., details on emptying the inbox, and deciding next actions)
  
• Simple but powerful view of "projects." (NB: I believe Mission Control has a corresponding perspective, but unfortunately we didn't cover it in the workshop.) -- updated
  

Let me also list some of GTD's challenges, which I suspect Mission Control might address:

• Lack of commitment to next actions - some slip through or aren't compelling (see for example "Stale" NAs or Cleaning out the Proverbial Fridge);
  
• Difficult with recurring tasks, and the "drip drip" method - e.g., scholarly writing;
  
• Making progress on difficult/unpleasant tasks (procrastination) and distraction (e.g., web surfing and habitual RSS reading);
  
• Squandering the day (see for example Killing Time-Wasting Impulsive Pleasures);
  
• Getting good at estimating, which can hamper planning;
  

Again, these are my take on GTD; YYMV.


Conclusion & Next steps

In conclusion, I was really glad to learn about Mission Control. It offers a different perspective from GTD on managing ourselves, one that has a lot of merits. I hope I've presented their work fairly and positively! Thanks go to Rosemary, Mary, Alesia, and my fellow students.

Of course the real test is to try it myself, and I'm going to commit to integrating the two. I'm not yet willing to drop my paper calendar, but I think there's a relatively straightforward method: Schedule every one of my next actions. I'm definitely hesitant to do so, but I'll give it a shot, partly because I've experienced some of the minuses listed above, and Mission Control has some compelling answers. More later!

As always, questions and comments are quite welcome.


Learning more

I'm told there are free webinars available through Microsoft. From Frank Buck's comment: Go to Microsoft Events Home and type "Mission Control" in the "keyword" field.

Here are a few other resources:

• Doing More byTo-Doing Less in Business 2.0 magazine.
  
• A nice summary by Roy Assad.
  
• To Do: Rethink Your To-Do List in Working Mother magazine.

Related threads on davidco's GTD forum

Here are a few of the davidco GTD forum threads that talk about Mission Control:

• Steve Hultquist has a great summary in Mission Control and GTD:

  Both recognize the fundamental truth that you can't get everything done (shown by the use of "someday/maybe" in GTD and "Not doing now/Never doing now" in Mission Control). In MC, this is the foundational idea, while it sits in the background for GTD.
  
  They both rely on the concept of "why would I do this", although, again, it's a bit more up-front with MC. In MC, the description of activities (Next Actions in GTD) are written in past tense describing the outcome purpose for the activities (Projects in GTD).
  
  Both GTD and MC focus a lot on capture, although I found that GTD was a bit more rigorous in making sure that the brain dump happened and everything was put into the system. This was discussed with MC, but wasn't as critical (from my perspective). MC uses the concept of "now" a bit differently, as in "there is a now when I will be doing this activity". So, in order for the activity to get done, I need to define the "now" in which it will get done, which turns out to be a slot on the calendar at some time. I didn't find this practicable. I find the GTD approach of prioritization in the moment to be far more appropriate for the way my life tends to flow.

• Frank Buck says:

  In a nutshell, my interpretation is that you have a list of stuff you are "Not Doing Now" and a list of "Never Doing Now." My take is "Never Doing Now" is "Someday/Maybe" and that you look at the "Not Doing Now" list to pick things to put on your calendar. The big philosophy difference is that everything is put on the calendar. The way things are put on the calendar, is that you block of time slots for certain activities (such as checking e-mail). I just don't see it as handling the details.
  
  Also, I called them one day to ask for a description of the model. Whereas you go to David Allen's website and you get a great deal of the methodology up front for free, these folks were pretty secretive. For example, when I asked what the "Not Doing Now" and "Never Doing Now" was all about, I couldn't even get a description of them.

• chinarut has a brief comparative analysis, including thoughts on community, resources, references, origins, online support, engagements, accessibility, and distinctions.
  

GTD Workflow Assessment/Tips Checklist

Thanks very much for visiting my site. I've temporarily brought this page down as I work on a ebook that tightens up and extends the ideas. Please contact me if you'd like me to help you assess, diagnose, and improve your productivity practice, or if you'd like permission to use these ideas elsewhere. Thanks!

matt