Category: “Getting Things Done - GTD”

What’s the final goal of someone who wants to learn GTD (Getting Things Done) or any other method of personal organization? Surely, and even if sometimes they aren’t aware of it, it’s the same goal as anyone who wants to acquire a new skill or improve one that already has: Be better. Be better in some concrete aspect of their life or be better in general. Develop as a person.

Altough Getting Things Done is essentially an individual oriented management method, more and more organizations, companies and work teams are trying to incorporate the GTD culture among their members. It might seem obvious that, when each worker enjoys a sense of clarity and control with respect to their work, the collective result benefits to a large extent.

Many people are aware of the importance of achieving a good level of personal productivity to have a better life in general. They know that it’s not just about doing more things, but rather doing them better, intelligently, spending less time with them, using certain mechanisms, connections, and synergies to achieve better results. They know that mastering the management of oneself will help them have a greater control over their life, less stress, more time to enjoy what they like and the people they care about… And they know that this will impact almost every aspect of their life, and ultimately, of their overall happiness.

When Winifred Gallagher, author of Rapt: Attention and Focused Life, was diagnosed with cancer, decided that that hard disease and its treatment shouldn’t be at the center of her attention at all times. She realized that when she paid attention to the things she enjoyed about life rather than to her disease, her day went through in a much more pleasant way.

There are tons of people who do what’s strictly necessary to keep their current working and living situation, and that might be alright. It’s a life philosophy as right as any other, although it has more inconveniences than advantages.