The thing that keeps David Allen, developer of the Getting Things Done (GTD) philosophy, from being completely insufferable is that he freely admits to falling down frequently and has purposely developed GTD so that it's easy to get back up to speed. I'm a little over my promised six-month revisiting of Allen's original book, Getting Things Done and believe me, I have fallen down in the interim. About two weeks ago, I stumbled on this follow up on a bargain table and immediately thought "Oh yeah, I need to get back on that -- it was really working when I was working it." Last weekend, being about halfway through the book and at the zenith of inspiration, I took two days to clean the main areas of my apartment and "get everything clear and current". I still have half a dozen closets / storage areas (this includes my bookshelves and yarn stash) that need to be processed. I made a list of those and popped them all into my GTD software for later. It felt really good.I also set up the "pending" files, a set of perpetual dated files that hold the physical items you need for specific dates, which is where I'm keeping things like theatre tickets (and also dues for my various knitting and book clubs). The amazing thing? Not only is my apartment is still spotless, I've also started in on those closets. I don't yet have the "mind like water" that Allen advertises as the ideal of GTD, but I've had a couple moments that point me toward the possibility. This weekend, I'd like to sit down and work out the various levels of focus that GTD suggests -- the metaphor used is that of a plane taking off: from the moment to moment actions on the "runway", to your personal purpose/principles at "50,000 feet". Maybe this time, it'll stick. If not, I know how to get back onboard again.
