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Ev Williams: Achieving balance with GTD
Merlin Mann | Nov 27 2005
evhead: Ten Rules for Web Startups Ev's ten rules for a startup are all strong, but #10 particularly caught my eye:
Right on. Slightly off-topic, but on my mind...as I commented earlier today, I'm finding myself increasingly uncomfortable framing techniques like GTD strictly in terms of "productivity" (although the ability to be more efficient and productive is definitely a nice perk). GTD fights stress not by transforming you into a drone or a brainless corporate cog, but by affording a framework for recovering and maintaining smart focus. What you do with that focus is entirely your affair -- clearly people will use it for everything from building a very swell startup to managing their music career and beyond. Gratefully, nowhere does The David say you have to turn into an enormous-toothed White Guy running sales seminars at the La Quinta Inn. In any case, when we're doing GTD right, Ev is right on the money: balance is sewn into every stitch of your week. Even two years into using GTD, I have to say I'm still pleased -- and sometimes even surprised -- at how well it still works for me. Whenever I fall off the horse, I'm usually just a mini-review away from feeling retuned to my priorities and commitments. I agree with Ev; it's powerful stuff. I do wonder if there's a better term for GTD's goals and methods than simply "productivity" or even "time management" What do you think? Does it matter? 19 Comments
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I agree entirely with what...Submitted by Andrew Burke (not verified) on November 27, 2005 - 7:00pm.
I agree entirely with what you're saying about the term "productivity." For me it always conjures up "widgets per hour," or "cases closed." I for one am more comfortable with phrases like effectiveness, or relevance; especially when I'm trying to get that relevance from someone else. They are softer terms that put the onus back on the system rather than the individual. Productivity as a term suggests quantifiable data when so much of how we do things, or how we improve how we do things, is effective and/or relevant, yet too subtle to be quantified. » POSTED IN:
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