Sean’s Blog

Yesterday turned out to be the nicest day weather wise we’ve had in a while, so I spent almost all of it in the garden which is why I didn’t update.  So without further ado here is Getting Things Done, Chapter 1:

A New Practice for a New Reality

Our jobs and lives have become less defined, according to David Allen.  As knowledge workers, we are given tasks without clearly defined ends or steps.  This a a change from the traditional model of work where the steps are clearly defined and the goal is apparent.  And it turns out that we are not very good at handling this ambiguity.   The tools we have (weather they are email, dateplanners, PDA’s etc) are insufficient to help us keep up.  Our jobs keep changing as well.  I can relate as almost every job I have had has morphed into something completely different to what I was hired to do.

Allen thinks that top down approaches (ie big picture) are too easily disrupted by the day to day details of work and life.  What we need to do is to achieve a “Ready State” where we can focus our attention 100% on the task at hand without distraction.  We need to be able to enter this state whenever it is needed, or ideally constantly be in it.

“Open Loop” is the term used for any sort of commitment that you have.  These open loops, if not handle in the right way will always be pulling us out of our focus and creating stress.  We need to manage these loops.

The first chapter seems to be really a problem statement with a high level view of how we are going to solve it.  Keeping things off your mind and in a trusted system, defining action, and defining a finished state or success, seems to be where we will spend the rest of our time.