A basic principle of the Getting Things Done approach to managing your commitments is to keep nothing in your head.  We here at David Allen Company believe our head is a “great place for having ideas, but a bad place to attempt to hold on to them.”   This is true because we believe you’ll forget something stored in your head – we call it psychic RAM – as new inputs show up in your life and compete for your valuable mental real estate.

When I present this concept in GTD classes, it’s without exception that someone makes a humorous remark about age, saying something like, “Oh, I thought it was just happening to me more when I hit 40.”  No, I remind them, it’s not so much about age as it is about the design of the brain.  Most of you’ve heard or seen the research that the average person can only hold onto 7 concepts (+/- 2) in their head at one time.

Last week I was reminded again of the unreliable nature of our brain to hold onto simple tasks…by my 14 year-old son.  It goes like this.  My youngest child lost a tooth, a molar to be specific.  As you can imagine she was very excited because in  the Bader house – perhaps like your own – the Tooth Fairy pays a visit to exchange some cash for the tooth.  Any of you that have or know 8 year-olds will agree this is a big deal.  Plus my daughter’s tooth was a molar, a larger back tooth.  Somewhere in her beautiful mind she developed the reasonable  – to her – assumption that the larger the tooth, the more money she gets.  This did turn out to be the truth, but not because of her reasoning, and you will see why.

My wife and I were in the family room with our daughter asleep on the couch.  Our 14 year-old son volunteered to carry her to bed.  He then came down and said he can place the money under her pillow and remove the tooth.  We both agreed, but stressed the fact that he must wait until she is really asleep.  He gives us the line, “Guys, relax, I got it.”

Fast forward to 7 am the next morning.  We’ve all slept, our son jumped on the bus at 6:40 am and my daughter entered the kitchen wearing a sad face.  “Daddy”, she said, “the Tooth Fairy didn’t come last night.”  I did what any loving Dad would do, I concocted a story about how I remembered once when the Tooth Fairy didn’t come to take my sister’s tooth until the next day when we were all at school.  I told her to place her tooth back under her pillow, and I stepped outside to make a call.

“Hey Dad, what’s up?” answered my son.

“Oh not much”, I replied then paused before I finished my thought, “Tooth Fairy.”

After about one-tenth of a second he said, “Oh man, I forgot.”

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I covered for you, but this is going to cost you.”

We spoke when he came home from school about the principle of not keeping things in his head.  My son is a great kid, student, and athlete and I believe he may finally be listening to me when I speak about GTD.

So my daughter got her money, although it cost me a few extra bucks – “Tooth Fairy interest” – and perhaps my son received a simple, funny and valuable learning moment.

How you doing?  Anything in your head?

Danny Bader is a senior presenter with the David Allen Company.  He leads public and private workshops around the world.  Read more about Danny.

Tags: Best Practices of GTD, Danny Bader - Staff Contributor, Family, Humor //
Add Comment »