So here we are, at the end of the Lean GTD series. It has been quite an experience for me. There has been two radical changes in my GTD system.
- A better flow in the stream of efficiency, breaking down the batch & queue processing for about 50% of my stuff, allowing actions I have already commited myself to do, to zoom past the inbox and directly onto my actionslists, and thereby reducing handling time and waste.
- A pull-based review system, based on a handfull of smaller routines. These routines gets performed on demand, when the corresponding emotions invade my thinking. This have allowed me to free up 3 hours of review-time every week. But more important, it allows me to apply the rigth amount maintenance to my GTD process, adding even more maintenance if things heat up and my mind gets pinned by incoming stuff.
I'm really happy with the result. A great deal of annoying fiddling with the system has been banished, and my ability to keep GTD up and running has been greatly improved.
One of the really nice benefits has been getting rid of great piles of unprocessed stuff and loads of unfinished reviews. Man, have these been haunting me, giving me a bad conscience, and even worse, making me feel like a GTD-looser. Now, these sources of dismay are no part of my life anymore. And right now... I don't miss them.
So now it's time to look ahead. I have been through a phase of radical change in my system. A phase of Kaikaku (I love these japanese words). Now it's time to move onto Kaizen, the phase of gradual step by step perfection.
Having mapped my system thoroughly through this proces, and having clarified the benefits and values the system provides, I will now go into cruise mode, slowly refining it bit by bit, confident that I have have a solid framework in place. I will collect ideas for refinements, and from time to time implement the ones that seems most promising.
I hope some of you have found the series interesting. Thanks for reading. Please share your comments, and... keep it lean!
- Jens Poder
Hi Jens, it's a shame that you only get almost to none comments - because I think your suggested changes really make sense. They declutter some of the bulky parts of GTD and I really enjoyed reading the series. It is also nice that you attacked the beast from a different angle. Thanks for sharing this.
-Lennart
P.S: One thing I noticed: Please link the newer posts at the end together - that makes the reading of the whole series way easier.
Hi Lennart.
I'm glad you liked the series. This blog only recently switched to english, so traffic is slowly rising. Now it's out there anyway :)
I
Hi Jens
I read your article on LEAN GTD... It's very interesting for me since I'm now trying to implement GTD at the moment. I share some of your points of view. To use LEAN is a brilliant idea.
Thank you for sharing and saving me oceans of time :-)
regards Flemming
Hi Flemming
Good luck with implementing. It can be quite a personal journey :) And thank you for commenting.
Hi Jens
I found this series of articles very interesting to read and found my self nodding along at many of your points. Fx. the point of "feeling" the clutter in a todo-list. I didn't realize that is what happened, but you made it a conscious thing for me now
I would also be interested to head you views on the other half, so to speak, of GTD. That is the archiving part/the someday-maybe part. Do you use LEAN on that as well or is it something you simple don't use GTD for?
Hi Kim
My Archiving and Someday/Maybe routines have been the same for some time now.
I use hanging file folders for my Reference archive, and the ToDo-lists in Outlook for my Someday/Maybe.
Right now I'm not totally happy about my archiving system. I use a labeler and a hanging files. And it's a little slow. But it's not a big problem.
My main focus is on standardizing my new system. I need to train myself in the new habits to reap the benefits of change.
I really enjoyed reading this series. I have learned about lean and gtd but never put them together. Very nice. I will give your pull system a try. And you have gained a reader.
Hi JJ
Thanks you for commenting. Good luck with implementing.
Regards
Jens Poder
I've read Lean solutions and I've thought of combining it with GTD methods. Apparently, you've done it a way ahead of me. Anyway, you've done a great job!
What worked, what didn't? What are you doing now? Time for an a reality check eh?
BTW, I love your leanGTD image at the top of the page, do you mind if I use it?
Sure go ahead.
Well. I still do almost no weekly reviews. I am running a fairly uncomplicated GTD-ish setup now.
I'm not doing it quite the way it's proposed in the lean gtd series. But the basic idea has sort of ingrained itself into my workflow. I will review the part of system that needs reviewing at the time it feels important, not on preset dates.
I think the main value of my Lead GTD work has been to get rid of a lot of the proces overhead that I used to have. It has become second nature to me to cut stuff from GTD flow. The weekly review batch and proces has been one of them.
Hi Jens,
I'm curious about the uncomplicated GTD setup you are running now. I tried to run a GTD system with various tools/software/PDA and failed to implement it completely due to too much overhead and MUDA. Hope to know how your new lean GTD works.
Andrew
Hi Andrew
I'm running it even leaner now :) I have completed abandoned my attempt to implement GTD as such. It's simply to rigid for my use.
I think that the most important point that I have learned form my GTD period is this one. If you can do it quickly then do it now! Don't stockpile stuff to do.
The idea about writing stuff down... well... it can also be a trap. You risk ending up spending to much time handling enormous inventories of trivial tasks that aren't all that important.
I do a kind of GTD today, but I have totally dropped the idea about writing down that someday/maybe @hardware i might want to buy staples. It's just a complete waste of time in my opinion. I you wan't to spend time on those kind of acitivities then organize your sock drawer instead :)
The problem about GTD, I think, is that it doesn't put enough emphasis on the triage part of task handling. It's in there in the gtd thinking, it's just drowned out by all the talk about trivial office supply optimization stuff.
I use Things now a days, and only for the important high priority stuff. There's no someday/maybe cut hairs in ears stuff in there. Once a week i look at the list of projects that I have going, and consider which project will need attention. The other ones gets scheduled to start in 7 days, so all tasks relating to these disappear. That allows me to focus.
Thanks you for reading.
Hi Jens, Thank you for posting this. Combining GTD with LEAN was an excellent idea.
You article helped me to become conscious of the difficulties I was facing with GTD.
Thank you again.
Sarkunarajah S
Jens,
Great article series. A real eye-opener for getting back on track with the dreaded weekly review. Thanks!