[daiglebox]

Made you look, didn't I?

Actually, I'm serious. David Allen is different than most of us, and that difference explains a lot of the disconnect between strict, pure David Allen GTD and those of us so much in need of it.

Let me explain.

I've seen a lot of discussion in the OF forum lamenting the fact that GTD ignores Priorities. To state it simply, DA believes you should plan in Projects, but work from Contexts. Therefore, when you're at an airport with 20 minutes on your hands and a cellphone in your pocket, you look at your "Calls" context and that's what you do.

Makes sense as far as it goes, The problem is, it doesn't go far enough to cover "the rest of us."

Here's what makes DA different than me and (statistically) you: DA is The Boss.

DA can look at any given Context list and decide what's important at that moment for where he is and what tools are at hand. I can't. My boss decides what's important - and when he tells me, I better have a way of marking those actions accordingly.

In other words, DA and I come to GTD from opposite directions. DA makes a call because he's near a phone. I am near a phone because my boss says I need to make a call.

And that, my fellow wage-slaves, is a critical difference indeed.

The reality is simple: if someone else is constantly pushing things onto your plate, you need to know which things are steak, which things are veggies, and which things are garnish. And that's the pusher's call, not yours. You're the pushee.

Fortunately, the solution in OF is just as simple. Here's what I do:

I start every action assigned to me with a number (1, 2, or 3) followed by a symbol (I use the equal sign). Here are a few examples:

1= Send flowers to Boss's mother from him (Mother's Day is tomorrow).
3= Sched appt to have tires rotated on Boss's car.
1= Buy Boss's wife a great anniversary gift from him (anniversary was yesterday).
2= Tell Jenkins he's being transferred to Cleveland (the Boss hates him).
3= Buy Jenkins a bus ticket.
2= Begin training your replacement if you don't get high priority items done.

So now, all I have to do (in either Projects or Context mode) is type "1=" into the search field, and only the most important items (in my Boss's humble opinion) appear. I can quickly see that I have assigned each action an appropriate start/due date, moved it to the right place (if it belongs to a Project), given it the right Context, and so on.

Most importantly, I can be sure that of the 200 actions currently stuck in my OF craw, I can instantly see the relative importance of each action, and make sure I don't do a 2 until I've finished all the 1's, no matter where I am or what tools are handy.

That's how I keep myself in the context of "employed." <g>

PS: the reason I don't use the Flag for critical items is that I flag actions that I'm waiting for. This let's me keep "1= Call Dave to schedule lunch meeting with Boss this Fri" in the "Phone" context, and to even check it as "Done," (after all, I made the call), yet still see that I'm waiting for Dave to call me back and confirm that he got the voice mail I left for him and that he'll be at the meeting.