Comments on: Getting Things Done: The Power of the Collection Habit

By: Toby

Toby — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:18:35 +0000

Hi Trent,
I’m getting a lot out of this series, thankyou. However I’m having a problem with the collection stage.
How do I produce a master list when I’ve got various streams of ‘work’ coming in? At home I get letters to action, books to read, emails to answer, voice notes to process and a todo list I’ve generated on the computer.
Should I make a note of all the paperwork on my computer todo list? Already it’s huge and unusable!
At work it’s worse, I also get customers ringing with urgent work, customer bug reports, internal memos and work coming on the internal bug tracking system.
Should I be duplicating all the information on one list? It would be an awful lot of work.
Do you have any advice please?
Thanks
Toby

By: G. Weiss

G. Weiss — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:55:10 +0000

IQPC/Six Sigma & Process Excellence IQ put together a really great video interview with David Allen. You can find it at http://www.sixsigmaiq.com/sponsor_video.cfm?externalid=704.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:33:28 +0000

Thank you for posting these articles. I have been trying to put GTD into action at work and home, but have been struggling. I just came back to your site and found these articles. Going to go back through the steps with your articles and see if I can get over the road blocks!

By: Sandy L

Sandy L — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:50:22 +0000

I enjoyed this article. I’m personally a big fan of to-do lists so this article resonates with me.

I think this advise works best with people who are already fairly efficient though. Most of my close friends/family see me as very organized person. When they ask for help, they almost always avoid the to do list.

They say that making a list of everything they need to get done is overwhelming and depressing. It has had the opposite effect. They just want to avoid life even more.

In those extreme cases, I’ve had to focus on asking “what’s the 1 most important task you have to get done today?” I think picking 1 thing often starts the ball rolling.

It’s not a one size fits all formula, but I certainly love operating with lists. I don’t know what I’d do without them.

By: Lyann

Lyann — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:45:28 +0000

I would totally agree with you on his, “the only time I tend to fall behind with it is during times of extreme crisis or extreme time management situations where I have more things going on than my calendar can hold”, the sad thing is that in my office, there ARE more things than my calendar can hold. As a teacher, i am multitasking almost all the time and it’s more than usual to find tha you have to be at more than 2 places at a time.

My solution? Quit full time and take on part time work where i deal with the core business of teaching not all the othervstuff than spreads myself too thin. The downside is less pay, but more sanity.

It’s easy to say it’d worth it but sometimes I have my doubts.

By: Ryan Holt

Ryan Holt — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:26:42 +0000

Long time reader, first time commenter. Thanks very much for your review on GTD… I read the book a few years ago and found it to be a huge aid in helping me to get on top of my schedule. Biggest challenge that I face now is finding a tool that will help me implement all the methodology in such a way that doesn’t increase workload just to move tasks from one trusted system to another. Currently I’m using toodledo and am now working with Nirvana.

Quick suggestion; could you perhaps put a main post up with links to all the GTD posts in this series? Would love to pass this along to some friends.

By: david/moneycrashers

david/moneycrashers — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:23:52 +0000

Time management is a key, both perosnally and professionally. People who are effective at it usually have higher positions at work (they are capable of management) and usually have fairly successful relationships and personal lives.

If you are not good at it, do something, do anything.

It is a key to success at life.

By: Fauxthoreau

Fauxthoreau — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:41:00 +0000

Thanks for this post. For me, reading this now has been most excellent timing and a nice boost of confidence. Last night I just finished dumping everything in my inbox, processing it, and doing it–with my actual email inbox. A miniature version of what you describe above, to be sure, but I wager the overwhelmingly positive feelings I felt seeing my empty inbox were similar. It’s crazy how much a little thing like an unwritten reply can weigh on you, and it often gets heavier the longer you wait. And you’re right, now I’m enjoying keeping everything up to date and riding on the good feelings.

By: Marlon Ribunal

Marlon Ribunal — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 05:57:13 +0000

People have obsession of the “Inbox-Zero”. They are preoccupied with “emptying” their inboxes without really “making sure that all of the open-ended things are either being closed or are moving forward.” I’ve been trying to follow the GTD discipline myself but I always fall short. I know exactly what you mean when you say it “feels so good to start running through these processes that I almost become addicted to it.”

By: Owing Money Sucks

Owing Money Sucks — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:36:25 +0000

This corresponds to the studies that show that most high powered CEO’s of major corporations have very few loose ends in their lives.

It’s tough to handle broken commitments as it is, but to break our own commitments to ourselves is extremely difficult to cope with. Self-forgiveness is the hardest thing that I typically deal with on a day to day basis.