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For a birthday present a few years ago, my wife got me a gift certificate for a sushi making class. It was incredible, firstly because I love sushi and secondly because it was incredibly insightful in the realm of productivity.

David Allen has an axiom “Mind Like Water” to show how you should react to changes and inputs. Throw a pebble into a still lake and the ripples will be appropriate for the size and weight, throw in a boulder, again, the water responds to the stimulus.

How are sushi and GTD alike, you ask?

When an Itamae, sushi chef, is preparing a Norimake, a traditional sushi roll, his goal is uniformity through out the larger roll. Each piece, when cut, should look exactly like every other piece from that roll.

This is how any productivity system should work. Every project or speed bump, no matter it’s size or intensity, should be uniformly treated. It should be treated the same as every other project. If you have some cucumber in every piece of sushi, and by cucumber you mean effective project planning, it shouldn’t change if it is a huge gnarly project or a little spicy tuna roll, er, small personal project.

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Most of us make To Do lists that really aren’t so much about doing things, as they are lists of stuff without definition or context. We feel better knowing that we put everything on a big To Do list, but if my experience is any indication, I think many of us get “deer in the headlights” after we realize just how much “stuff” we have and no idea how to get it all done. In a 2003 interview by Management Consulting News, David Allen, states:

…what most people call a to-do list is incomplete and unclear, which is highly unattractive. Everything on your list is either attracting or repelling you psychologically. There is no neutral response: it’s either, oh boy, when can I mark that off or, get out of my face. If there are still a lot of decisions you need to make about items on your list, your brain glances at the list and says, I don’t have the energy to do all that thinking, go away. 

Even if we can get out of the headlights and across the road, we’re still left wondering what to do next. This is a crucial moment of decision about whether to move forward (decide on next action) or stagnate / procrastinate / panic / etc. In his post, Andre Kibbe suggests that a common form of procrastination is what he calls “serial digression,” and he offers us the following example to illustrate his point:

Many To Do items that people write down are multiaction tasks, like “Set up Dell,” as opposed to a genuine next action like “Read Dell Quick Start Guide.” The aim of a next action is to keep your attention on the most immediate physical task instead of the outcome. A To Do like the one in the example is overloaded, conflating what needs to be accomplished with what needs to be done.  Any project, no matter how large or complex, can be parsed into at least one next action that’s simple to do. Not everyone can get into Harvard, but anyone can download the admission form.

Put another way, David Allen remarks in the MCNews interview that, “You don’t usually see specific actions on to-do lists because most people haven’t forced themselves to sit down and finish their thinking about what has their attention. They collect items in their in-basket or think they have made a list, but there is another level of thinking that is required to move forward.”

What we’re left with are what Andre Kibbe defines as “Next Distractions” noting that, “Procrastination is more than not doing priority tasks; it’s doing non-priority tasks.” In terms of what Kibbe calls “Crutch Activities,” he argues that, “No task exists in isolation. A key consideration of any activity is not what the activity is, but what it leads to.”

So, whenever we go to check our RSS readers just before starting a project, fire-up our browser to find something on Wikipedia, or even write that next blog post (ahem…), be sure to remember the suggestions and quick tips that Andre Kibbe offers in his post. And watch out for the deer.

What’s the Next Distraction? 

For the most part, the applications that are specifically designed for project organizing are way too complex, with too much horsepower to really be functional for 98 percent of what most people need to manage. — David Allen 

Jered and I often mention the Mac OS X application OmniFocus. It’s a terrific application to bring the concepts of GTD to your computer in an elegant, yet effective way. If you haven’t tried OmniFocus, but are looking for a rock-solid project task manager, definitely head over to The Omni Group site and give it a try. You won’t be disappointed. 

My first impression when Jered introduced me to OmniFocus was one of amazement. It does everything I’ve ever wanted in a task manager, so I gave it a trial for a few weeks. Unfortunately, OmniFocus was still a bit too much for me.  I’m easily distracted by bright and shiny things (taking me shopping is a dangerous proposition), so I found myself managing (okay, playing with…) the application more than tracking and completing tasks. Not that I didn’t like OmniFocus; quite the opposite. I simply didn’t need all the features.  On the other hand, Jered swears by OmniFocus, and given what I understand of his workflow, it definitely fits well. Sometimes we don’t need all the features applications such as Omnifocus have to offer. 

As my workflow is a bit more straightforward than Jered’s, (at least for now) I decided that I needed something simpler… an “OmniFocus Light” if you will. Enter Hog Bay Software’s TaskPaper. The comany’s odd name aside, the application’s promise is simple: ”For Mac users who want a simpler way to stay organized and get things done. TaskPaper is a simple to-do list that’s surprisingly adept. Unlike the competition, TaskPaper’s text based interface is focused on paper-like simplicity.”

Yes, I’m one of these people.

At first glance, TaskPaper doesn’t seem to be much more than the built-in Mac applications Stickies and TextEdit, which I often use for note taking and braindumps. The simplicity of TaskPaper is that it isn’t much more than these, but that seems to be the point. Just the basics, plus a bit more (e.g., the tagging feature is cool). 

In addition to TaskPaper, HogBay Software is well-known for their other application, WriteRoom, the back-to-basics writing program that gives you a “full-screen writing experience” and nothing else.  I’m giving both TaskPaper and WriteRoom the 3-Week Tech Trial (well, 15 days as that’s how long the trial version allows). 

Jered and Michael discuss an integration of David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week. How can two systems that seem to be so different be used together to make your life better?

Read more at: http://simplicityhabit.com/featured/gtd-4hww-productivity-perfection

The Simplicity Habit Special Edition: GTD vs. 4HWW

“[lifehack.org] He said that “our obsession with ‘productivity’ is getting in the way of our lives.” Nick started out by saying that the productivity industry is out of control, and that it’s making us less efficient, not more. I agree with Nick, and I can tell you why the productivity industry is like that: it’s about making money. more…

[putthingsoff.com] At the end of 2007, I stopped almost all the beeps in my life. I sold the PDA that had been bipping away at me, dutifully organising my days. Instead, I picked up a pencil and paper. So far, 2008 has been my most productive year ever. I went further too. I’ve given up on GTD and trying to bend my life to fit a complex blueprint. I stopped actively seeking online offerings titled 13 Even More Productive Ways to Wash Your Socks That Will Blow Your Mind. I realised far too late that the productivity industry has become a techno-spiritualist movement. People are now using productivity ’systems’, software and small beeping devices just because almost everybody else is. more…

Your thoughts?

I came across this post over on Lifehacker that brought our point home.

[Lifehacker.com] Mac user Dennis Best says that using David Allen’s Getting Things Done productivity system on your Mac doesn’t mean you need to find the ultimate GTD application—that the tools you already have in Mail.app, iCal and Finder get the job done fine….Not to be all finger-waggy, but ultimately it’s up to you, not your software, to work the system. [more...]

Read Dennis Best’s extensive original posting on his blog here:

Getting things done (simply) in Leopard: The best Mac GTD app might be right under your nose

Although Best’s post addresses apps on Mac OS X, the same principle applies for any OS, or any technology that promises to increase your productivity.

[dennisbest.org] GTD’ers like myself are jumping from app to app looking for the right fit. (How productive is that?) The fact that none of them fit probably says more about my shortcomings than the talents of the developers. Fact is, I’m lazy when it comes to using this stuff and fall off the wagon quickly. [more...]

Best makes an excellent point that following the GTD habit (and other methods for that matter) tempts us to be on constant watch for the next best thing, which really goes against the whole idea of GTD as it is outlined by David Allen. Also, we can’t blame the developers; we only have our mistake of not doing the deep self-reflection necessary in order to adopt the right productivity tools for us as individuals, not the newest that “everyone” is talking about (or selling).

Finally, no tool will ever prevent us from being Human. Sometimes we do fall back on old habits, and we have to be okay with that every now and then. Truly following GTD (or another good method) provides the means to get back on track. Nevertheless, those of us who are “productivity tool addicts” tend to look for the next perfect tool to help get us back onto the proverbial wagon. I’ll go so far as to liken it to allowing an drug addict to relapse, then allowing him/her to try out some new drugs off the street before getting back into rehab. It just doesn’t make sense, but we still do it anyway.

I have read both David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Timothy Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week and while the two systems seem diametrically opposed, I think that they compliment each other and perfectly round out the rough spots of each.

Getting Things Done (GTD) Overview

By keeping lists of the next physical actions for each project, one is able to have a complete picture of what needs to be done. By sorting these actions into contexts, one can always find an action to do in the appropriate settings.

Getting items from an inbox to these lists and projects is broken down into whether the action can be done immediately, deferred to a “tickler file”, or added to a project. This process is developed into a quick and efficient one, allowing data to be quickly added to the lists.

Regular review and renegotiation of commitments are critical to the Getting Things Done system and should be done weekly.

Synopsis: Writing things down, keeps them off your mind.

4 Hour Work Week (4HWW) Overview

Retirement, in the traditional sense, is a lie and life should be spent in a series of “mini retirements,” using self employment and outsourcing to reduce the amount of time and energy expended in generating wealth to support the “mini retirements.”

A low information diet and ruthless application of the Pareto principle (the 80/20 principle) are required to reduce the inputs in one’s life, because with their application it is easier to get more work done when one has to.

Synopsis: The application of the Pareto principle and outsourcing to everything will free up time, letting you take mini retirements.

The Challenge

Getting these two seemingly disparate systems to play well together.

Thoughts

I think that GTD and 4HWW are completely compatible. Getting Things Done is the strategic and tactical while the 4 Hour Work Week is the undercurrent or theming of the process.

Creating a stress free life is attainable by the application of getting thoughts out of your head an on to paper, into a trusted system, which can include outsourcing, and then relaxing on a “mini-retirement.” This flies in the face of most management principles that go along the lines: “When someone is able to relax, give them more work, they can obviously handle it.”

The catch is, you aren’t working less, you are working more efficiently and why shouldn’t you benefit from that?

Tim Ferriss’ goal is have the reader be self employed and while that is a tempting idea, it is not always possible, that doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t take a “mini-retirement” every once in a while. Save up the leave, work out teleworking with your boss, it is possible to attaint the 4 Hour Work Week ethos without having to be self-employed (thusly responsible for your own health insurance, etc.).

Being stress free on your “mini-retirements” is going to be important, no one wants to be stressed when they are supposed to be relaxing, sailing around the world, etc. That is where the “Someday / Maybe” list comes in handy, writing down future “mini-retirements” or keeping a list of postcards that need to be sent.

Ferriss’ reducing input in one’s life is very similar to David Allen’s reducing the inboxes and in-buckets. Going on a media diet for a week or two can be very liberating, reducing one more source of stress. Everyone has stressed out a little bit out the TiVo getting full or missing your most favorite TV show. The way that the two methods are very intertwined is the concept of “mind like water”. A David Allen catchphrase which is the 4HWW realization. Take all of the things that normally make your day rocky, like dealing with angry clients, or fulfilling orders, and outsource them. This allows you to deal with the real issues through the application of the Pareto principle, which should make your life much easier over all.

Why shouldn’t people who are “Getting Things Done” also be able to enjoy a “4 Hour Work Week”? Followers of GTD generally know where all of their projects are, what they have to do next and where the rest of their commitments lie. If a knowledge worker is using GTD (that is the prime category for people who use GTD), most their work will focus around a computer and a phone. Both of those devices are portable and as long as there is a solid cellular network in your “mini-retirement” destination, it would be possible to do work should the need arise. And while I don’t advocate taking work on a vacation, much less a “mini-retirement”, the idea is not to let the fact that some of us can not escape the 9 to 5 from letting us experience Ferriss’ vision.

With keeping “mini-retirements” as a goal, application of the Pareto principle and reducing the number of inputs one has, Ferriss creates a great set of frameworks for the average person to work in. Allen’s Getting Things Done provides a tactical approach with strategic thinking to keep those frameworks in mind. All in all, I would say Getting Things Done and the 4 Hour Work Week are two compatible philosophies / systems.