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GTD, writer's block and learning a language

I'm studying Portuguese and, with the course soon finishing, our teacher had this "brilliant" idea of having a two-parts exam: for the written part we would submit a composition (theme of our choice) of about half a page and for the oral part, we would present the theme in front of our class. Taking into account that we're not an advance class, writing more than a few lines is enough of a challenge, now imagine the torture it was for me who has enough problems to overcome writer's block in any language.

I got the tip from a friend that, if I was to write and talk about a theme, it might as well be something I feel passionate about. After a lot of thought and procastination, I decided to write about the one thing I spent most of my time "researching" on. Imagine, all those hours spent reading GTD blog entries would finally be put to good use! :D Now, my second challenge was to find enough material on GTD in Portuguese to base my research on (I mean, how do you translate tickler file?) and find a couple of excellent blogs on the issue (hey, maybe the authors read this forum as well! Enoch and Antonio, please step forward if you're present). 43folders was quoted as reference in GTD in a Brazilian newspaper (Folha de S?o Paulo). Merlin is getting famous worldwide.

I managed to produce a very brief summary of what GTD. I intend to elaborate a little more in my presentation tomorrow. If anyone is curious of how it looks like, I posted it in my wordpress blog.

I just wanted to share this with you because I wanted to check if there are here any non-native English speakers blogging on GTD in their own languages. I'm also glad that I was able to combine two of my main interests and maybe I'll manage to get the people in my class interested about the system. Already my teacher told me she was very intrigued about it. GTD ? muito bacana!

TOPICS: Hacer
Natalia's picture

Hello, Laura! This is my...

Hello, Laura! This is my first post around here. As a matter of fact, I was just waiting for a good opportunity to register myself on this board. Now I had the perfect excuse: I am really implementing a serious version of GTD this week/weekend, and I just saw you post. I am Brazilian, by the way.

So, first of all, congratulations on your composition! It is impressive, very well written. Also, I ams sorry to say I have not found many websites or blogs in Portuguese that talk about GTD either, but I know there are some people here aware of it. The book was translated first with the title "Produtividade Pessoal", but now there is a new edition called "A Arte de Fazer Acontecer":

http://tinyurl.com/hvwmg

I bougth this new version a month ago, read it, and finally understood the difference, for instance, between project planning and next actions. I was tempted to buy the version in English, because I was already used to the terms by reading 43folders, and the price was about the same. I went for the Portuguese one, however, in order to be able to lend the book to more people. Anyway, if you want me to look up any expression for you on this tranlated version of the book, just tell me. I don't have my copy with me right now, but I think "tickler file" was turned into something funny.

Tell your teacher that "GTD ? tudo de bom"! (That is a new expression around here. I wonder how it became so popular, it gets on my nerves. ;) )

 
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