The GTD Cult

I finally tried out the material in David Allen's 2001 cult classic book, "Getting Things Done" (widely known as "GTD").

I'd had plenty of infected cult members try to turn me before - I always resisted.

What finally did me in - what allowed me to listen with an open ear - was a 2007 scholarly paper by Francis Heylighen and Clément Vidal, "Getting Things Done: The Science behind Stress-Free Productivity".

Turns out that Allen's ideas and methods mesh very well with the science of cognition and research in knowledge-worker productivity. Indeed, Allen's GTD seems to naturally guide the user into a state of "Flow" - the optimal balance of challenge vs. skill where we feel highly productive and "in the zone".

As Csikszentmihalyi, Abuhamdeh & Nakamura describe it, "Flow is a subjective state that people report when they are completely involved in something to the point of forgetting time, fatigue, and everything else but the activity itself. It is what we feel when we read a wellcrafted novel or play a good game of squash, or take part in a stimulating conversation. The defining feature of flow is intense experiential involvement in moment-to-moment activity. Attention is fully invested in the task at hand, and the person functions at his or her fullest capacity [emphasis added]."

The preconditions for getting into a state of Flow are

1. A sense of control
2. Clear goals
3. Match between skill and challenge
4. Feedback on progress

Turns out, GTD helps you gain a feeling of control, helps you see your goals more clearly, encourages you to pick your challenge of the moment based on your circumstances (including skill), and helps provide you feedback.

There's more to it, of course - I encourage you to read the paper. I still haven't read Allen's book, however, I did order a copy yesterday. Actually, five copies.