At Freelance Advisor we are big fans of finding smarter ways to work and many of the team have adopted David Allen’s approach to productivity and knowledge work.

Allen’s method, from his massively popular first book ‘Getting Things Done’, is not about meticulous planning and scheduling but more about finding smart shortcuts to getting into work ‘flow’ by harnessing our mind’s natural ways of working.

Meticulous planning can often fail when circumstances change and, while it makes sense for NASA and Neurosurgeons to be very clear about what steps are needed in a project and to plan (and train!) for all kinds of changes and contingencies, that level of detail is probably overkill for the average freelancer, contractor or independent contractor. And those of us prone to procrastination may even find that planning can sometimes get more attention than the work itself and rather than starting the job in hand they (I mean me!) get lost in detail. Or, worse, those with a bit of GTD knowledge can waste hours on end tweaking their GTD system till they have ‘the prefect setup’.

Getting better at Getting Things Done

Allen’s latest book, Making It All Work, helps illuminate some of the key ideas behind GTD, fleshing out some of the assumptions of his previous work and adding a new, streamlined approach to getting the core ideas across. The book works both as a primer for beginners that updates and in my opinion surpasses the original book as ‘the one to read and also a handy deeper exploration of the core princples and the sticking points that even GTD ninjas will appreciate.

The book works for those new to GTD and those who have only partially implemented it. It works for those who have fallen off the wagon and it works for those that really want to take their GTD skills to the next level.

‘Making It All Work’ – review

‘Making It All Work’ is Allen’s third and most interesting book. It’s a friendly version of his original ideas but rather than talk about the specific things you need to get working efficiently (an In Tray, a filing system, etc.) this book focuses on the principles at work behind the scenes. If you wonder why your mind wanders you’ll find a great explanation that not only fits your personal expereince but makes sense of why things tend to get tangled in your workplace, and how some very basic human habits and behavious can slowly become a breeding ground for ineffeciency and mess amoungst even the smartest of individuals and organisations.

A major part of GTD is that there is no boundary between work and home. It is all work, whether you realise it or not, if there is anthing that’s not complete in its current state and that needs some focused attention and effort to get it off your mind then it is work even if it occurs in the kitchen, bathroom or bedroom. And our mind is the same wherever we are so the same principles will always apply. A good habit at work, always putting new mail into a ‘pending’ tray for example, can (and probably should) equally apply at home – although I imagine there are many of us who will deal with a work invoice efficiently and sensibly but find that our home bills and letters are all over the place!

In MIAW Allen makes clear the universality of the techniques – they apply an work in the kitchen, the cubicle, the corporate HQ and even the Oval Office. The book is not about solutions per se, but about trusting the solutions that you choose to implement and understanding the pirnciples that inform them.

What I love most about Allen’s approach is its unashamed paradoxial pronouncements: statements like “if your mind had a mind you wouldn’t need a system” and “you don’t know what’s really on your mind till you get everything off your mind” are great gems for getting you thinking until you get to the essence of Allens’ system – the understanding that freedom to create and to be truly spontaneous comes only after you’ve carefully marshalled your thoughts, parked your ideas in a trusted system and created boundaries or, as Allen points out, “Trust in Allah! And tie your camel” – the universe will give you great ideas and stunningly creative solutions to your problems… trust in Allah… but that kind of wisdom doesn’t come for free, or to sloppy or inattentive minds – “tie your camel”.

Now is a great time for a book on strategies for ‘weathering the storm’. As uncertainty abounds I reckon it’ll be the guys and gals with a meta-system to hold all their stuff who’ll be leading us out of the current quagmire.

Allen has been a huge success in recent times because of the flexibility of his system, it does just enough to corale all your ’stuff’ but never squashes your thinking into a rigid box. It’s also a very geek friendly system, ask anyone involved in ‘agile development’ or ‘change management’ and they’ll immediately resonate with Allen’s ideas.

For Allen, Good design = Elimination of Drag, at least when it comes to productivity and economy. GTD is easy to learn (it’s not a big book), completely scalable (works for soccer moms and CEOS) and it clicks with our intuitive sense of our own, human, intuitions.

Not a system, but a systematic approach

I attended a David Allen seminar in London and have since followed up with one of his trainers. The one thing that always strikes me is that they tell you to put all your tools away, start with a fresh sheet of paper and a pen, and just write down anything that’s on your mind. In the seminars it takes a few moments to get started, especially if you think you already know what you are doing and have some confidence in your system, but once you get going it’s always astounding to realise just how much stuff you’ve been carrying in your mind, little tidbits of half done stuff, clogging up your psyche. At the last seminar I filled a whole sheet of A4 with a list of ‘open loops’ – and I thought I had a pretty good system for getting stuff out of my head!

And then… I was free… my attention at the seminar was so focused. Why? Because I trusted that I’d got everything where it should be. If something distracting popped into my mind I added it to my A4 sheet and continued to listen attentively to the seminar. It was a great feeling and something that gives me confidence that GTD really can help a mind like mine.

“It’s all about focus” says Allen, “removing distractions to focus and channeling focus to solve problems in the most efficient ‘drag free’ ways.”

Allen jokes about “sub-clinical distractibility” a mental state most of us can probably recognise and relate to – those of us that are worried about productivity at least!

While many companies are calculating the cost of distractions to their business, a recent study at Dell estimated $1bn losses due to distractions, a lot of the solutions, such as no email Fridays, or quiet hours are only external solutions:

“Solutions that only focus on decreasing the volume or speed of input will be temporary at best and artificially constricting and number at worst. We need to learn how to maneuver in the increasingly intermingled worlds of thinking and actions, which will provide a lasting cure.”

If distraction is the problem what is the cause? Other people for sure, but anyone who has spent even five minutes trying to meditate, perhaps focusing on their breath, knows that even in an empty room, with closed eyes, it’s really obvious that the mind wanders wherever it wants unless you actively try to control and tame the mind.

While concentration is often seen as a kind of mental muscle that can be trained to become stronger, DA suggests that it is also mis-managed commitments that have a large part to play in what causes our mental wanderings.

GTD is here to help, not only showing us how to clear our minds and get stuff into a system, but how to effectively work that system and keep it running so we can maintain our sanity when even more new stuff comes our way and, the good news:

“You need to think about your stuff more than you think, but not as much as you’re afraid you might.”