Quote:
I understand. I just wanted to clarify the misconception that priorities are “not GTD,”*or that the brain can always determine priorities more quickly and easily than an automated system. I think the brain determines urgency, but a system can track priority reasonably well.
|
I think there is a misconception about your interpretation of priorities, vis-a-vis this discussion. GTD certainly allows for priorities (with intuition filtered through observation), but not in the classical time-management sense of A,B,C,D or High, Medium, Low, etc. Most of the comments pointed against priorities are directed at the A,B,C type of priority systems. As Kelly Forrister (one of DavidCo's top coaches) has said about what makes a good GTD list manager, "It does not force priority codes (really folks, this is GTD 101)".
From your description of Life Balance's automation, it sounds like it will adjust the order of items in the list and change the colors of items. Aside from being a visual distraction/nuisance, I would not trust any automation to have the ability of making priority calls at all, even if then are just for informational purposes. My windows and garage (etc.) do not get dirty on any predictable schedule, so Life Balance's hints/suggestions would not be accurate, nor helpful (meaning that it would get in my way). The variables involved with those tasks negate any benefits from calculations that lead time could provide. Sometimes my garage needs weekly cleanings, and sometimes it doesn't need cleaning for months. How would Life Balance's system deal with that variable? On the other hand, my intuition and observation handle these variables without any stress at all.
One of GTD's benefits is reduction of stress. Automated reminders, suggestions and/or alterations can create stress. Even simple ones. After reading a Merlin Mann article, I turned off new e-mail notifications. Without those automated interruptions, I now approach e-mail proactively, with vigor. Before, the new e-mail notifications made me feel like the proverbial Pavlov's dog.
Having a automated system attempt to bubble particular items to the top removes some of your active involvement in that decision chain. In my experience, distancing oneself from a decision ultimately results in weakening the overall decision-making process. Any isolation (however small) removes a bit of you from the focus of the moment.
Do you walk around your home with your eyes closed? Maybe you live in a mansion. For me, I immediately know when my areas need cleaning. It doesn't take any bother to observe one's surroundings.
GTD does work with priorities (I'm not sure where you disconnected on that topic). I am just against Life Balance's automated [bubbling hint/suggestion coloration] system (at least as described in your posts). Before this triggers another misinterpretation, I am not against automation in general. Automation is fantastic for some things. GTD priorities is just not one of them.
Being able to customize the fields in OmniFocus is one of the reasons that I licensed the software. As has been stated time and time again (particularly in the previous pages), if a priority field of any type is ever implemented, it would be best that those of us who choose not to be hindered with it can hide it completely. Unused fields are unnecessary and are distractions. Giving users the choice to view only used fields makes both camps happy. Do you seriously not understand why one (who doesn't want a particular field) would not want the ability to completely hide it?
One of the other concerns I have is that the OmniGroup have limited engineering resources. Aside from some of their original products taking a backseat, Ken has posted that they are spread a little thin. I've been waiting a while for the Omni code-ninjas to fix a basic AppleScript issue. Given that, I'd hate to see engineering time and code expended on features that don't add core value to the GTD user-base at large. OmniFocus is already gaining a reputation for being too complicated. A day doesn't go by where I don't notice a post, message or tweet about users choosing Things or the Hit List over OmniFocus. Adding a feature from Life Balance isn't likely to win over users who want less fields and less complication.
To close, here are some seminar comments from David Allen that I felt are pertinent:
"How do I decide what to do? Has that thought ever occurred to any of you? How would you like to feel, absolutely 100% confident, that the choice you are making is absolutely the best choice from a moment to moment basis for the rest of your life? Well, you can get there, but it is not free. Its a eternal, vigilant process. Nobody is going to take your intuition away from you. Every thing you decide to do is intuitive. Deciding to come to this seminar was intuitive. Deciding to listen to this seminar is an intuitive judgment call. There is a lot of other things that all of you could be doing right now. So what made you decide to do this? You didn't wake up and say 'A plus B to the third power...oh! I've got to go to the seminar!' Nobody is going to manage your life but you. So that little thing is the individual unique part of you — and you are not going to systemize that. But the reason to do all the rest of this is to free yourself up so that you really listen to who you are and what you really want to do. And you are able to keep your focus 100% toward where you put your choices and not feel like you've got distracted energy. Thats where the doing comes in."