How is This GTD?
October 31st, 2008 Oliver StarrCategories | David Allen | Getting Things Done | Implementation | Tips - How To's
The Examiner.com has a post called “The Thirty Day File” that reads as follows:
Ok, You have started using GTD. You have 43 Folders in the desk drawer file cabinet. You are still inundated by requests for your time - all of which are urgent. Try the 30 day file approach. It could be a bit dangerous - but that’s up to you.
- Step 1 - When you get a request for some activity or task, date it and file it in your 30 day file.
- Step 2 - If at the end of 30 days no one has gotten back to you on this item - trash it.
- Step 3 - If your boss asks you how it’s coming - say “Great”, pull it out of the file and move it to your active stack.
Try it. It works!
Since the author opens by stating that “you are using GTD and the 43 Folders approach towards productivity” it makes sense to assume that this author is also using GTD to some degree.
Given that I have to ask how this “Thirty Day File” approach towards prioritizing what needs to be done aligns with GTD in any way shape or form?
From my perspective this seems like abrogating control to whomever in your life asks you for things the most frequently and it appears to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Natural Planning Model. In fact it seems more like the evil opposite of GTD a demon we call “Latest and Loudest”.
Even if you ignore the obvious question “Yes, but what if I’m my own boss and only I schedule what I need to do and when I need to do it?” this approach appears to be fraught with potential disasters from almost every angle imaginable.
What’s ironic about this is that the advice comes from what appears to be a highly authoritative source. Howard Flomberg has some impressive credentials and would appear to be someone that should understand GTD and be able to apply its concepts correctly both to his own life and by extension to the lives of people that take his advice.
Now I’m not claiming to be the definitive source on GTD - as those of you that have been reading GTDtimes from day one are aware, I am a relative new-comer to this practice. That said, if it is obvious to me that this approach is pretty much the antithesis of GTD than it must seem even more agregious to those of you that have been practicing GTD for years.
On the other hand, perhaps I am misunderstanding something fundamental either about this method of prioritization or about GTD. Thus what I’d like to do is ask your opinion: is this GTD or is this GTD’s arch nemesis disguised as GTD by a well meaning expert on workplace productivity who doesn’t quite grasp the nuances of GTD as David Allen conceives it?
I trust that you’ll let me know what you think in the comments. And, if you happen to be Mr. Flomberg I would welcome your comments and critical analysis as well.
One does not need to implement GTD to use the “30 day file” method. Even the “30 day file” itself is not needed in this method. Just put the stuff on the huge pile in the corner of your office and wait for the boss to come. Than search the pile and do what the boss tells you to do.
Extremely efficient method, indeed. Just collecting and dumb doing. No processing, organizing, reviewing. No time Toulouse.
Those 3 simple steps seem way too risky to even try this method.
What if your boss comes to to you on day 31 to follow up on the project? But wait, you already trashed that task yesterday. Along with any of the details that went along with it.
What do you now when your boss asks how’s it going with task? Still tell him/her it’s going “Great”?
Boss comes back to you on day 31. You’re shafted cause you chucked it.
It’s not “great” anymore. It’s more like people will be thinking “Oh damn! How do I ask my boss to remind me about what the heck he/she wanted me to work on and all those details??!!! I’ll look like an idiot now. I should have held on to that stuff!”
Not the smartest of approaches in my opinion.
Too risky to just “trash it” after 30 days. Best to “put it back” into your file.
Tes - it seems to me that this method also has another benefit: it completely cuts out the need for a weekly review!
In fact you probably only have to do one other review again while using this method a final review.
Just keep trashing stuff that’s thirty days old until your boss fires you and then you can just dump everything that’s left into your circular file and be done with it. This “final review” is especially speedy. Even if the pile is really huge it should take you less than thirty seconds.
Editor
I assumed that this was meant for cases where there’s a distinction between your own work and one-off requests you’re getting from other people. So you’d plan on doing your own work based on GTD principles, while the 30-day file plan is for other things.
And the trash can aspect of this just feels like a mistake.
This is a variation of the old “C drawer” method. I think it was one of Alan Lakein’s methods but I might be wrong.
The idea was that low priority items (classified “C” in the “ABC” classification) should be put in the C drawer and only retrieved if someone followed up. The C drawer was reviewed every so often and items which had naturally gone away trashed.
I used to use a C drawer with moderate success. Nowadays, being a GTDer, I find I have the time and capacity to do a lot of stuff I would have let slide into oblivion in the past.
For those items I really feel I would rather not be doing, my equivalent of the C drawer is to put them on the Someday/Maybe list until something happens to increase their priority or it becomes obvious they can be deleted.
The real problem with this 30 day file is that when you effectively ignore a request (i.e. not answer, not commit, force the requester to follow up with you) then you are violating a implicit commitment that we all make to each other to respond to requests.
In other words, it’s one thing to respond to a request by saying “no” or discussing the issue. It’s quite another to create the illusion that you’ve ignored the request while in fact you are tracking it. It’s dishonest and lacks integrity.
To me, GTD is all about integrity. Approches like this seem prone to undermine the essence of GTD.
I understand the idea of filtering but I think it is unwise if it could in any way lead to a broken commitment.
Just my $.02
WOW - I DID start some conversation. OK, perspective time…
How much of the stuff that comes across your desk is totally inconsequential? This is the what I was talking about. Obviously if your boss sends you a task - that does NOT go into the 30 day file.
I’ll take the hit for not making this obvious — I WILL fix this in a future article and credit you for taking me to task.
Howard Flomberg