Tag: “Reflect”

A core concept of GTD is that the control of our daily activity (task and project management), to make sense and be done efficiently, it must be governed by a broader perspective (responsibilities, goals, vision and life purpose).

The Daily Review is a resource to sort the ideas generated during the day and arrange your work plan. First, you have to review your Calendar to have in mind the commitments for the next day, checking all the necessary stuff to ensure you are not forgetting anything. This is key to not appear at a meeting without an important document or information, to not feel a little bad for not mentioning a significant detail that emerged during the previous evening.

The most important difference between GTD and other personal productivity systems is, for me, that GTD does not trivialize task prioritization by assigning a single number or letter to each task. This method is not suitable for anyone with an average workload—understanding workload as the amount of tasks we have to do both in our professional work and in any other aspect of our life—.

It is great to have powerful tools that give us confidence and enthusiasm, but let’s face it, all this functionality is sometimes translated into complex personal management systems. Either because we do not go beyond the basics in the learning phase, or because we do not perform a self-analysis, reflection process about how we are using it, software sometimes becomes an inert stuff in which we do not evolve.

The most fuzzy part in a GTD application is always the one that manages what has nothing to do with control our daily activity. It is easy to shape a management system to deal with projects and tasks, but what about the components that have to manage the vertical processing and the natural planning? This is the workhorse that can differentiate a good application from the rest, by creating a fully integrated solution (control – perspective – planning) which would provide a higher value to the user.