My day with The David
Last Friday I spent my day in Seattle at the Getting Things Done RoadMap seminar. It was excellent in many directions.
My friend Bill and I left town at 4:30am in order to be in Seattle by 8:30am. We lucked out on the way up and encountered no traffic–the drive home was another story, though. The seminar was held at the W hotel. Nice place, tasty food.
I had a few expectations going into the seminar. Since I wasn’t new to GTD, I was hoping for a bit of a pick-me-up. A little external motivation to get my schtick together. I was also hoping to glean some new tips and tricks that I might’ve missed somewhere in the dozen or so times that I’ve read the book. Last, I was hoping to meet a few new folks and talk to The David about licensing GTD to colleges and universities (my MBA cohort had to go to a Saturday seminar about business etiquette–GTD would be more useful).
No sauce
I’ll spare you the blow-by-blow and just get right to the point. Though the seminar really was all that and a bag of chips, there was nothing new. If you’ve read the book a time or three, you’ve already got everything at your fingertips. When you get to your seat, you’ll find a notebook waiting for you. It contains DA’s presentation, with spaces for notes–standard stuff. David doesn’t spray the crowd with special GTD sauce–no Vulcan mind melds. I was actually half expecting something special like this, though. I always felt like, "Sure, I’ve read the book, but I keep falling off the wagon because I never made it to a seminar." In my head I knew this wasn’t true, but actually going to the seminar hammered it home. If you’ve got other reasons to go, definitely go. But if you’re just hoping for some special sauce, save your money and spend the day trolling the various GTD forums. I also didn’t get as pumped up about GTD as I’ve been in the past (since there was nothing new to get pumped up about). I think this was a Good Thing, since I was able to have a clearer vision about how I can implement it, rather than getting all excited about new tools, etc.
KISSASS
For a very long time I had my GTD thing down pat. PC, Palm, folders. I relied heavily on my Palm for keeping lists. Now I’ve got a Mac and a Blackberry and I’ve been treading water, GTD-wise, ever since. I’m as vulnerable as the next guy when it comes to the little productivity temptations. I can get sidetracked for days with GTDTiddlyWiki, pimping out a Moleskine, or tracking down non-existent Blackberry task managers. The seminar kicked me into two "aha" moments. Moment one popped into my head at some point while DA was talking: KISSASS. DA didn’t say this, it just occurred to me as I reflected on how I’m prone to following productivity rabbit trails. KISSASS stands for Keep It Simple, Slacker, And Stop Slacking. The other thing occurred to me over the weekend as I was further exploring Entourage (Microsoft’s Outlook replacement for Mac). Entourage is "plain vanilla" but it appears to have been designed with GTD in mind. One thing I’ve always struggled with was how to keep track of Next Actions that are associated with Projects. David Allen says that he’s never had trouble with it by just using folders and his Palm. Great, but as he tells us, there is no single "right" way. I want a method that’ll let me associate digital files with projects and action items. The "Project Center" in Entourage seems to do the trick. I can create a project, associate email, files, contacts and so on. And I can have multiple categories (read, "contexts") for things. The catch is, it’s stuck on my computer. It doesn’t sync with the Blackberry task manager. I understand there’s some software that’ll allow me to sync with a cable, but then I’m violating my newly found KISSASS mantra. For now, I’ll be sticking with Entourage and mining the depths of Project Center. I may even start printing things out and taking them with me if it gets that bad. We’ll see.
We are family
One unexpected sensation from the seminar was that it felt like you were hanging out with DA’s family. David and his wife Kathryn were there, along with Jason Womack and a few other folks. I spent the breaks trying to find Jason during a quiet moment, but that guy was more popular than David! There were always people hovering around him, so I never got the chance to say hi. David also mentioned Eric Mack, another blogger I read. (Speaking of bloggers, I did meet Ryan Holcomb, who helps develop stuff for Tinderbox. We had a nice conversation about Tinderbox and GTD (I admit, I’m getting sucked in).) There were a couple of helper guys whose names I missed. One dude was wearing a shirt with circles and pants with squares. When I write that, it sounds clownish, but he pulled it off. No, I don’t know why I noticed that. But it makes me remember my white satin parachute pants that I had in high school. Which I regularly wore with my red Nike Vandals and a red and white checkered shirt. Dork. Moving on…
Marketing GTD
One thing that was a little surprising, but not offputting, was the upsell that went on throughout the seminar. In my mind, it’s just been a book and a smart guy talking about it. Turns out that they’re ramping up the marketing machine, and good for them. They seem to be doing it mindfully and I appreciate that. There is a special members-only thing that’s available for RoadMap participants who are willing to cough up monthly cash. Sounded interesting and when David revealed his mindmap of the program, it was chock full of ideas. They also had a table full of stuff like CDs, books, laminated versions of the workflow, etc. Low key, though. They also do a bunch of levels of coaching and consulting. I spoke with David briefly about whether they’d develop a curriculum for universities and he said that someone else was asking about it too. Seems like there’d be a great market, especially in degree completion and business programs. Even "freshman seminar" type classes would benefit.
Wrap up
I’m glad I went and I’ll encourage others to go–especially newbies. Not likely that I’ll ever go to another GTD seminar, unless the physics of the organizational world suddenly change. The two major insights that I had were worth the price of admission. The notebook full of scribblings will come in useful over time, too. It was good to find out that there’s nothing "special" at the seminar–it’s all in the book and in your head.
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6 opinions for My day with The David
Tim
Nov 15, 2005 at 7:00 am
Of all the things in this great post, the thing that stuck out most for me was “tracking down non-existent Blackberry task managers.” I swear I’ve spent hours doing that! Why are there no good options?! Good advice- I’ll try to kissass rather than focus on my blackberry disappointment.
JV
Nov 15, 2005 at 9:01 am
> We had a nice conversation about Tinderbox and GTD…
Spill it, Bren. I asked around about Tinderbox for a month before my Switch. Never got any answers. I was mostly interested in A/Bing it with Devonthink (which I ended up going with because the demo version was fully functional).
What am I missing out on with Tinderbox?
Rosa Say
Nov 15, 2005 at 9:13 am
Mahalo for sharing this Bren, you’ve made me feel a little better about not being able to join you there!
I like the thought behind your new acronym, for it all boils down to the personal application of what we do with GTD isn’t it. As a coach I inevitably get into a variety of personal productivity issues with people because they have to break out of their stuck systems, whatever they may be, before they can break through and forward to the “higher thinking of MWA”- or whatever new learning I’m teaching them - and “keeping it simple” is always what it takes. Too much complexity, including new tools, just muddies the water even further.
Truth is that the majority of people are NOT early adopters and techno whizzes, even in business. My professional application (and my personal one, so I can walk what I coach) is to go back down the paper roadmap as much as possible versus the digital one, just like that procrastination-killing date stamping trick I’d posted on a bit ago.
You’re a great conference commando Bren, and I’ll welcome attending more of my wannagotos through you!
A hui hou, (until the next one :-) Rosa
Bren
Nov 15, 2005 at 8:21 pm
JV: not much to spill. Ryan is (obviously) a Tinderbox fan, though not a fan of their annual $90 updates. Like you, I’ve enjoyed DevonThink and am still trying to figure out if Tinderbox is something worth 1) the money and 2) the time it takes to master it. If you don’t hear any more from me about Tinderbox, that’s a message.
Rosa: missed you too, wish you could’ve been there. You missed it, and yet you didn’t. :-)
Bill Peschel
Nov 15, 2005 at 9:07 pm
‘Getting things done’ earlier than expected
I’ve been meaning to write a series of posts about David Allen and his productivity system “Getting Things Done”. A recurring pattern in my life is this feeling that very
Scot Herrick
Nov 15, 2005 at 9:07 pm
All of us bloggers should have had signs on our backs saying that we were there! I got there early and had a nice conversation with Jason and it’s obvious that a lot of people knew who he was.
The people by me were from Oklahoma and Louisiana (I was surprised). Had lunch with a bunch of Boeing people, which was interesting in its own right.
Though I have read the book about three times, I actually learned a lot that I missed in the book - I think I learn about connecting the dots better in a seminar/classroom environment than through a book. And I connected all the dots. Worth the price of admission, as David said.
It was fun and very worthwhile for me.
Scot