The jbrains Blog

Who's to blame for the reader not getting the message that the writer intended? Did the writer fail to be clear? Did the reader fail to engage with the message? What if I told you that no one is to blame?

The subtitle of the book Getting Things Done is "the art of stress-free productivity". Given our collective aversion to "grindset", it might be worth remembering that the real power of GTD lies in the "stress-free" part and not the "productivity" part.

If you frequently find yourself wondering how the day slipped through your fingers, then you need the Two-Minute Rule.

Most people exhaust themselves trying to carry too much information in their working memory. Instead, use Inbox Technique as one of the starting points to working more effectively and with more ease.

Getting Things Done calls them open loops: unresolved tasks where you're blocked because you are waiting for someone else. Open Loops are a common source of significant, painful stress and worry. Fortunately, the advice in GTD trains us not only to manage these Open Loops, but also to feel downright placid, even when we're waiting for others, and even when they might be a bit unreliable.

When interactions "go wrong", the very thing you are most likely to complain about and try to change is the very thing that most people find hardest and most painful to change about themselves. Result? Merry chaos. I propose an alternative that might actually work.

LinkedIn is full of strong opinions, weakly articulated. You don't have to succumb to the temptation of yelling back about how wrong people are. You can break the cycle. Here is an example of how to do exactly that.

"I can't use to-do lists, because when I write things down, I see how much there is to do, then I shut down and go back to bed. It feels awful! I hate it." The struggle is real, but I propose a way out: a way to have the benefits of the to-do list without the crushing anxiety and constant reminders that you're disappointing everyone, especially yourself.

You are probably used to interpreting deadlines as a control mechanism, especially since that's how it seems to be in software development. Imagine seeing deadlines as an act of love! No, really! I believe we can make this happen together.

Many people struggle to apply the ideas in Getting Things Done, partly because those ideas seem like abstract "good things to do", rather than as simple, practical solutions to immediate problems. Michael Lopp's metaphor of "Blue Tape" offers another way to understand the power of Inbox Technique, which might help you (or someone who needs it!) persist in writing things down, even when it seems like they're doing it, but nothing's really happening.

Describing the transformative benefits of Getting Things Done sometimes sounds like cult indoctrination. Describing the concrete steps of getting started with GTD risks making it sound like pointless busywork. I propose another way to think about GTD that, I hope, makes it sound more compelling, both to get started and to stick with it.

If you frequently find yourself wondering how the day slipped through your fingers, then you need the Two-Minute Rule.