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To-Done: Scheduling tasks
Merlin Mann | Aug 18 2005
How I learned to stop worrying and love my schedule This is an intriguing idea. Peter converts his to-dos into scheduled blocks of work.
If you’re reading this and thinking “so freakin’ what?” you’re probably not alone, but some of the GTD acolytes in the house might be hollering “Blasphemer!” since David Allen often suggests using your calendar only for “hard landscape” items, such as appointments with others, while leaving to-dos as “when you can” items that get knocked off as time, energy, and context allows. But, the idea is really quite sound for someone like me (and most of the people I know). If you handle all your own work and scheduling (a/k/a “don’t have a ‘real’ job”), it’s entirely up to you to choose and do all the tasks on your theoretically unlimited lists. Giving yourself timed assignments like these seems like a potentially smart way to ensure that your stuff is getting done when you think it should. Since you put the tasks in there, you’re certainly entitled to remove them as well, right? You’re just making some modest paper walls to give a shape to something that’s often frustratingly formless. Neat idea. I continue to admire and enjoy how people are adapting the patterns of GTD without hewing slavishly to every syllable of the book. This is a terrific example of how one pattern (“get it all down”) might seemingly contradict another (“calendar is hard landscape only”). Of course, they’re not really contradictory at all unless you choose to treat Allen’s suggestions as an operator’s manual or fundamentalist Productivity Bible. While that approach is useful for getting started with a system like GTD, it does seem valuable to let the ideas evolve and adapt into something that better comports with your own needs. Edit 2005-08-18 09:35:25 - The referenced To-Done post was by Peter Flaschner not Keith Robinson. Sorry for the error (and thanks, Jay). Technorati Tags: calendars, GTD, productivity, todos 27 Comments
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 David. It's always satisfying...Submitted by TubbyMike (not verified) on August 19, 2005 - 2:48am.
David. It's always satisfying to see that someone has been thinking the same way as me. I've had the idea that GTD is a lot about patterns; maybe the wider stuff that Merlin posts is too? But "GetItAllDown" certainly has potential as a pattern, along with many other GTD techniques. Something like "SeparateCollectionFromProcessing" (only with a snappier name) would be another potential pattern. Many of the Life Hacks over on the 43F Wiki would also potentially qualify as patterns that people have tried and found to be generally applicable. Of course, there is also scope for describing GTD Anti-patterns too; things that people have tried as a possible solution to productivity problems, but in the end turn out to cause more problems than they solve. For example, an Anti-pattern could be "UseExpensivePDASoftware" (not that I'm bitter). It strikes me that the 43F Wiki would be a good place to explore this further, if Merlin was amenable. The Unsorted Life Hacks section looks a bit like a prototype Patterns category anyway, and is always an interesting read in any event. » POSTED IN:
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