Hey All,
I've been using GTD for about 4 or 5 months now, and one of the most difficult aspects of implementing GTD has been regarding time organization.
I know, I know, GTD isn't about time organization, but for my money, I think you can't leave that out of the equation if you're looking at the bigger productive picture. Julia Morgenstern wrote a book called "Time Organization from the Inside Out," where she called for a technique called "Time Mapping," which is essentially to assign any task a home on your calendar to happen at a specific time.
This, of course, is a big no-no in Orthodox GTD practice, because the only things that should go on a calendar are time specific appointments that absolutely MUST happen on a certain day. If you start writing things like "clean yard" to happen at 2-4 PM on Saturday on your calendar, and then you don't actually do them because of other extraneous commitments, you will "lose trust" in this system, and never end up using it because you can't stick to it absolutely all the time.
Now, even Julia Morgenstern says in her book that a time map is, at best, only effective 80% of the time. Regardless, this it is still important for me do this because it's the only way I can accurately gauage when I'll be able to actually do things.
I think this is where GTD becomes potentially dogmatic, perhaps because the whole deal regarding "breaking commitments" largely stems from the teachings of John-Roger, the leader of the California based cult "Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness," of which David Allen has been a long time Minister and Practitioner, and whose GTD system is clearly influenced by. This may be a bit of an aside, but perhaps is important to note.
ANYWAY! To my practical question:
I need a computer program for the mac which is like iCal, but a little less gnarly and time consuming to enter events, more easy to use and flexible, which would allow for me to create such a time map which can be quickly altered, to provide for the requisite flexibility required by the 80% effective time map.
Any recommendations? Or comments?
I've been using GTD for about 4 or 5 months now, and one of the most difficult aspects of implementing GTD has been regarding time organization.
I know, I know, GTD isn't about time organization, but for my money, I think you can't leave that out of the equation if you're looking at the bigger productive picture. Julia Morgenstern wrote a book called "Time Organization from the Inside Out," where she called for a technique called "Time Mapping," which is essentially to assign any task a home on your calendar to happen at a specific time.
This, of course, is a big no-no in Orthodox GTD practice, because the only things that should go on a calendar are time specific appointments that absolutely MUST happen on a certain day. If you start writing things like "clean yard" to happen at 2-4 PM on Saturday on your calendar, and then you don't actually do them because of other extraneous commitments, you will "lose trust" in this system, and never end up using it because you can't stick to it absolutely all the time.
Now, even Julia Morgenstern says in her book that a time map is, at best, only effective 80% of the time. Regardless, this it is still important for me do this because it's the only way I can accurately gauage when I'll be able to actually do things.
I think this is where GTD becomes potentially dogmatic, perhaps because the whole deal regarding "breaking commitments" largely stems from the teachings of John-Roger, the leader of the California based cult "Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness," of which David Allen has been a long time Minister and Practitioner, and whose GTD system is clearly influenced by. This may be a bit of an aside, but perhaps is important to note.
ANYWAY! To my practical question:
I need a computer program for the mac which is like iCal, but a little less gnarly and time consuming to enter events, more easy to use and flexible, which would allow for me to create such a time map which can be quickly altered, to provide for the requisite flexibility required by the 80% effective time map.
Any recommendations? Or comments?
Last edited by blueruin; 2008-07-16 at 01:55 PM..
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