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Knowledge Work Athletics and Getting Things Done
For those who are into this stuff (i.e. process geeks like yours truly), another treat. In October of 2007 David Allen, the “Getting Things Done” guy, gave a Google talk that is worth watching. Here is the Youtube link: And for those who don’t want to sit through a 45 minute presentation (or who prefer to just read), I give you my extended talk notes below. There is no spoon,
David Allen GTD / Google Talk NotesBringing to conscious awareness what the thinking process is that facilitates our ability to get things done — need to know what “done” means and what “doing” looks like… “What is it that we really need to clarify out there to surf on top of this game instead of feel buried by it?” Start with what works first…back up… “what’s the principle behind that”… Your brain is not for holding commitment — it doesn’t work well that way… by writing things down you change the way your brain interacts with a piece of information or a task: distributed cognition Only seen “the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the value of getting things “out of the psyche” in order to negotiate with it at a much more objective, elevated level than to be “in” it — still at the beginning of testing and researching what those tools are for freeing the brain up for what it’s really designed to be good at: INTUITIVE INTELLIGENCE [which no system can match] The martial art of life and work — GTD describes the art of work (work = all encompassing, distinction between life and work dissolves)
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See our trading book in real-time. Trade setups, execution reports and real time market commentary. Claim your 14-day trial to the Mercenary Live Feed. “Martial” deals with surprise Your training in the martial art will dictate how good you are with surprise… allocation of energy and surprise… a lot of competitive edge comes from how you deal with surprise, personally and organizationally “Mind like water” – pebbleness, boulderness and so on… water not confused or tensing up before the rock hits it… The power in a karate punch comes from speed, not muscle. But if you’re distracted, hung up, not present and available, you are not totally relaxed and you lose speed. Mind like water = “Perfectly appropriate response to, and engagement with, whatever is present.” If you are not fully available to the new thing with your full resources, you are compromised… most people look like Pig Pen with this cloud of “stuff” swirling around them, potentially compromising their ability to see, and to respond, to the next thing with all resources available to them. Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to concentrate. It’s “just physics”… you concentrate electricity, sunlight, etc., it just gets more powerful… Your ability to concentrate is directly proportional to your ability to eliminate distraction. Distraction severely jacks up your productivity… and who distracts you more than anybody? YOU… [Unless you have kids and coworkers on your shit!] Distraction is created by mismanaged commitments. Creative Developmental Work is all good — focusing on something else you need to do is a total WASTE OF TIME though unless there is pragmatic gain from it Stuff pops in unbidden when you don’t trust a certain system, and so your brain worries about it Your mind is limited in its ability to manage commitments, because it is handicapped in its ability to remember and remind. Your mind is a fabulous servant but it’s about 7 years old emotionally… your mind doesn’t have one — if your brain had a brain it would only remind you of things when you could do something about them There is usually an inverse proportion between the amount something is on your mind and the amount it is getting done. Get it off your mind and into the loop of an external system… If you don’t give appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves. ~~~~~~~~ – you have captured, clarified, and organized all your commitments, at all all horizons, and Your ability to refocus, rapidly, on the right things at the right horizon at the right time is the master technique of knowledge work athletics. Your ability to know (what to focus on) and shift that focus at a moment’s notice is the master key here. Perspective is your slipperiest and most valuable commodity. Therefore methods for maintaining perspective are your most important tools. Viewpoint, attitude, altitude ~~~~~~~~ - Control: conscious focused engagement, aware of all options at any one time and place ~~~~~~~ The matrix of self-management (four quadrants: X axis control, Y axis perspective, hi / lo combos of both) Bottom left quadrant: Reactor (low perspective and low control, reacting to new surprise inputs good or bad – ideas, interruptions, crises etc.) Bottom right quadrant: Micro Manager (high control and low perspective, taking dinky bullshit minutia responses to an issue, overstructure, too controlled) Too controlled is out of control by the way – When you get overcontrolled and upset you turn reactive, overstructure, lack of flexibility, sense of insecurity Upper left quadrant: Crazy Maker (high perspective and no control – wacky ideas or unconstrained inputs, throwing stuff out willy nilly left and right — no sense of constraints or resources) Crazy makers often fear “control” as being shoehorned into micro management (perceived stereotype negatives of GTD, “don’t fence me in with rules” etc.) Upper right quadrant: MASTER & COMMANDER (high perspective and high control – eye on the prize, but will clean a toilet if required… can shift their horizon EXACTLY where it needs to be) MASTER & COMMANDER = THE ABILITY TO WALK THAT INTERESTING LINE BETWEEN STRUCTURE AND FREEDOM… TO “GET THERE” MOST ELEGANTLY The GTD Models Mastering workflow: The five keys to gaining control Collect Horizons of focus: The six levels of work (perspective) 50,000 ft – purpose, principles If you don’t name it, it owns you (labeler is big) FIRST you get control, THEN you work on perspective… high correlation between maintaining both… if you lose perspective you lose control, and if you get out of control you give up your perspective Mastering Workflow (control) Collect – anything that has potential meaning to you [life to it longer than the thought itself] - Physically collect the environment… stuff you need to decide meaning about… anything that’s not “supplies, reference material, decoration or equipment”… grab all the “in process” stuff - Typically takes 1 to 6 hours just get the complete “dump” of all the stuff Process – next you have to clarify all that stuff, what you need to do, think and decide - Most people’s existential experience with their organizers and planning tools is fatigue, simply because they don’t clarify what they need to do about what’s in there - The majority of to-do lists are simply incomplete lists of very unclear stuff Every single email, every single thing in your categories or folders, is either attracting you or repulsing you psychologically every time you look at it — there’s no neutral territory Review – stay on top of the system to make sure it is current and complete and functional If you don’t care and feed the system then your mind has to “take the job back” and then you are “there” and not “here,” defeating the purpose of the system in the first place Do - engaging, making actual decisions etc “Start with cat food”… Horizons of Focus begins w/ bottom up (next actions first)… then work their way up… typically so much stuff to work through and clear at ground level before making it up to the highest levels of perspective Make sure you have implementation and deck-clearing capability first, or otherwise you’ll resist taking on bigger things because you know you couldn’t handle them The old models didn’t work – why? - Often they only dealt with ONE aspect, either perspective OR control - Were not complete, failed to tie perspective and control together If you “just organize the important things,” cat food will take half your day… you have to do ALL OF IT If you only have half or three quarters of your stuff in your system, then your mind refuses to let go and you might as well not have a system at all… it’s all or nothing to change the game… - Old way also “compressed the models” — tried to do too much in one step… you have to break out the steps Take it as close to the zeroes and ones as you can… different behaviors, different tools, different best practices for the various stages of taking back control - Disconnected from reality – you can’t focus on your “life vision” with 50,000 emails blowing up your inbox - Were system-dependent – the old methods were too “do it exactly this way,” need to be more system agnostic and results oriented… “whatever system keeps my head clearest” should be the driver How / why David Allen came up with this - Needed a better job Clear space is critical (also as a martial arts concept)… Is it easier to deal with surprise when you have 3,000 unprocessed emails or when you have zero? A lot easier to maintain at zero or close to it - A standard for corporate cultures? Work / life balance is a myth… in truth there is only “what’s next”… JS p.s. Like this article? For more, visit our Knowledge Center!p.p.s. If you haven't already, check out the Mercenary Live Feed!  Similar articles you might like: |
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