What Changes Would You Like to See at GTDtimes?

feedback_icon.jpgI can hardly believe it.  Six months have already whizzed by since we launched GTDtimes.  It seems like only yesterday we were figuring out which CMS to use and deciding what the header should look like for the site.  Now, after hundreds of articles, thousands of reader comments, dozens of video clips and many, many visitors GTDtimes has established itself as one of the most useful and credible GTD resources available for anyone interested in learning more about GTD, for anyone interested in sharing their own GTD experiences or tips or tricks with the rest of the world, and for getting the word out about what is happening in the Getting Things Done community.

None of this would be possible if it weren’t for the readers, like you, who take the time to pay us a visit, add us to your RSS feed reader, or send us a contribution from time to time.  As a long time blog editor I never take the readers of a publication for granted.  I always do my best to identify the kinds of content that I believe people will find valuable, interesting, engaging, funny, inspiring or even, on occassion annoying (after all we all need a little controversy from time to time, right?)

I’ve heard it said that the job of the journalist is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable and while I don’t believe that phrase does justice to the whole range of emotions that a good journalist can touch I do believe that the maxim offers some bookends between which the journalist can ply his trade.  That, however, is only part of the equation and with the new forms of media such as this website, where readers have the opportunity to voice an opinion in nearly real time and to put that opinion right up there alongside the original article the medium has become much less a pulpit and much more a conversation where everyone is invited.

In an age where big media seems less and less democratic and more and more a mouthpiece for a small and select group of companies and corporate ideologies, it is important that those of us working in the new media arena not forget that which differentiates us most significantly - you!

To that end, we’re planning on making some changes at GTDtimes and we hope that those changes will be as a direct result of your feedback and will help to make GTDtimes even more interesting, more useful, more educational, more enjoyable and more valuable (though perhaps not any more controversial  :-P  ).  To do this what we need above all else is your feedback.  If you could be so kind as to comment on this post with changes that you’d like to see we will do our best to implement them in the near future.

To get you started and give you an idea of what sort of changes are in the works, here’s what we’re planning:

To make GTDtimes more convenient we are going to try to implement a more regular schedule of publishing on specific topics.  In other words we’ll be establishing topic specific columns published on specific days.  More like a newspaper where you know that the “Food” section is on Wednesdays and that Sunday always has the big classified advertising section, we plan on breaking out specific topic areas that we believe are of the greatest interest and utility based upon what you, the reader, tells us are most important to you.

Of course some of these topic sections are obvious:  Getting Started, Software, the Cognitive  Science of GTD, anything written by David Allen, Book Reviews, Software and Gadgets, etc.  That’s not to so that we we won’t continue to cover breaking news related to GTD - of course we will - or that we won’t be accepting submissions (we want more of those than ever) or that we won’t be pointing to other posts on other sites (after all, discovering new GTD content and new people writing about GTD is one of the primary missions for this site), but beyond this, we want to hear from you.

What topic areas do you find most useful?  Is there some area that we’ve overlooked?  Is there some topic that we should be covering but aren’t? Are their contributors that you especially liked whom you’d like to see more often?  In short, what can we do at GTDtimes to make this publication more exciting, educational and valuable to you and your family or friends?  We want to earn your continued attention and the best way we know to do that is to provide the information that you want in a way that works for you.

Please let us know how we can improve in the comments below.  If you would prefer to let us know anonymously that’s okay too:  you can email your suggestions directly to me at editor at GTDtimes dot com.  As an added incentive to get you to provide suggestions on how we can improve, GTDtimes will be giving a gift to everyone that offers a constructive suggestion.  If you comment or email, please also send me your mailing address.   Then, be sure to keep an eye on your mailbox for a special thank you gift from GTDtimes for helping us to make our publication a better resource for the GTD community.  Thanks!


9 Responses to “What Changes Would You Like to See at GTDtimes?”

  1. My suggestion would be to make GTDTimes more about the optimizing GTD, overcoming pitfalls and “making it work”, and less direct promotion of David Allen Co events & initiatives.

  2. I will have to second what Mark says about “optimizing GTD”. One of the main reasons I go to GTDTimes and the David Allen website is for motivation purposes and to overcome little stumbling blocks. Sometimes all I need is to quickly read how GTD professionals or others best implement GTD, to get back on track. My whole setup is GTD and I read up on GTD daily.

  3. folks, if you want the gift that I promised in exchange for suggestions, please don’t forget to email me your mailing address!

    Thank you.

    Editor

  4. I’d like to see articles on real individuals in unusual occupations using GTD. Skip the basic office worker and show me how GTD works in a farm or doctor’s office or miner or other unusual places to be thinking of GTD.

    More concrete examples too, not just how the tools work but actual examples of action lists, contexts, projects, pictures of the project support materials, pictures of actual filing systems and so on.

  5. I appreciate hearing about the new applications for GTD, especially those that are web-based and accessible to all. As with the other comments, actual real-life implementation examples, challenges and udpates are very helpful in assessing where we might be able to improve or where we might already be doing well! As a part-time, working from home, married mother of 3, I also look forward to seeing how others implement GTD when they are not attached to a computer all day and have just as much to juggle personally as professionally, especially when those lines blur. Visual examples of others implementation strategies, weekly reviews and horizon mind maps are also very insightful.

  6. After writing several posts on my blog at http://johnkendrickonlne.com, the questions I get most deal with the weekly review. For some reason it seems people have difficulty committing to it. So an article showing the value and steps for an effective weekly review would be great coming from GTD Times.

    I just added my take on the subject at http://johnkendrick.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/the-five-ws-of-a-weekly-gtd-review/ John

  7. I would like to see more posts on that walk through how to start a GTD system. And reviews on the new online systems people are using that are GTD friendly. One idea might be having a reader do a 101 on how they set up and manager there GTD system as a guest post every Friday. Another would be putting up and online poll fill of GTD questions. For instance, to get a mind like water I…or I struggle doing XYZ with my GTD system.

    Love the site and check it daily.

    Could you aid some of david’s podcasts?

    Thanks,
    Tim

  8. In addition to the weekly review, I’d like to see articles about the horizons of focus and how different people approach both of these GTD components.

  9. I think you should have people outline in detail various ways they implement the five phases. You could survey a group of say, five people, on their “collection” methods for one article, then survey a second group on “processing” for a following article, etc. I think the same format could be used to work through the Natural Planning Model. If you did on item per week, that would be good for about 10 weeks worth of interesting and helpful posts. You could even do it again with a new bunch of people.

    I think another helpful series might be, “GTD Tweaks” in which users comment on changes they have made to the system and why. You could have a panel of others comment on the tweaks and why it would or would not work, for them. This would result in a good roundtable on varying approaches.

    I hope this is helpful, thanks for your work on “The Times”

    -Gordon

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