The Metaphysical Foundation of GTD

David Allen, The Only Two Reasons To Be Efficient:

I have concluded that there are only two good reasons for handling this physical material world as efficiently as possible:

(1) The physical world is important, or

(2) The physical world is not important.

If you care a lot about material success or production, you will obviously want to maximize your output by minimizing your resource requirements to make them happen. If you make it easier to get from here to there, you can go from here to there more often. Or you can go from here to farther than there with the same investment.

And if you don't care about material success or production, because of a greater allegiance to spiritual or aesthetic values, you will obviously want to be distracted and engrossed as little as possible in the physical world you still have to negotiate. If you want the freedom to spend time being contemplative, meditative, or reflective, you will undoubtedly want things done here with maximum efficiency.

Either way, if you're going to do something at all, getting it done with as little effort as you can get by with should be the game.

For personal productivity at the more subtle levels, that means dealing with things that have your attention, as soon as they have your attention. It means clarifying your intentions, outcomes and projects and the actions needed to take to move them to closure. Thinking about things without actually finishing the thinking exercise and tracking the results is wasted energy.

I think efficiency has gotten a bit of bad rap in the last few years--in the equation of doing the right things and doing things right, the latter has gotten short shrift. But think about this: if you know what you're doing, efficiency is your only improvement opportunity. Getting it done with the minimal amount of resources.

And that's going to be true, no matter where you put your stores--here or in Heaven. Interesting that the people I know who are the most effective at getting things done with the least amount of energy are either the most materialistic, or the most spiritual.

(web archive via Ricky's RAM Dump)

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Comments

[Ricky Spears]

It's always great to see other Christians using the GTD methodologies. I'm not a great Sunday School teacher, but I think I would be much worse without a tickler file to remind me to call to follow-up on prayer requests, next actions to help with preparing my lesson, and a Sunday Shcool phone list in my truck that serves as a prayer list on my commute. Press on my brother!

[Matthew Cornell]

I really appreciate your break down - nice, clear thinking. Thank you.