Michael Sampson on Leo’s Zen Habits and GTD
April 23rd, 2008Categories | Implementation | Novel Uses of GTD
Michael Sampson over at Effective Collaboration has a post that I found quite interesting. Zen Habits is a very popular blog among the GTD community, however Michael, in a recent post, took exception to some statements that Leo made concerning GTD, its degree of complexity, and how he (Leo) has simplified the system. What do you think?
The image is from a related post over at Zoomstart.com .
Thanks for the call out Oliver. Hope you are well.
M.
While I think Michael has made a valid point that everyone’s situation is different in terms of what they have going on in their lives, and therefore the number of commitments they’re trying to juggle and the manner in which they do, I do think he’s missing the main thrust of what Leo is trying to say. A random tour around a few popular productivity/GTD blogs and forums often leaves me shaking my head at how unnecessarily complicated some people make things for themselves. Leo has obviously chosen a different path where he has reduced drag on his system as much as possible. It’s horses for courses. For me, I favour Einstein’s words, often quoted by David Allen - “Everything should be made as simple as possible but not simpler”.
Simon
Simon, thanks for the push-back. I like what Leo writes, and have linked to many of his articles … and I’m inspired by what he’s done.
However, his post that I wrote about back in July 2007 seemed wrong-headed to me. It suggested a way of simplifying David’s implementation of GTD without any reference to the work context and demands of David’s role. And that’s the point of my post.
Like Leo, my system is “simpler” than David’s … but that’s because my work context and the demands of my role are different.
M.
… and actually, even Leo himself acknowledges in the comments on his original post (http://zenhabits.net/2007/07/simplifying-david-allens-complicated-gtd-setup/) that …
“I think I wrote the post without thinking about the tone, and it does come off as critical. For example, when I said “This is way too complicated” I really meant “It’s way too complicated for me.”
I only meant to talk about the concepts of simplification of the system and the essentials that I’ve talked about before, illustrating it with the comparison. It ended up sounding like an attack on David Allen and his system, but in truth, it wasn’t meant to be.”
So with that said, I think we’re all on the same page. DO WITH GTD WHAT WORKS FOR YOU, GIVEN THE CONTEXT AND DEMANDS OF YOUR WORK.
M.