My reader (actually I do have more than one, thanks Mum and Dad!) will have noted that I haven’t posted for a few days and maybe they’ve wondered at my productivity of late…

Things have been frantic this week and I feel the need to openly express my feelings to both David Allen, the “inventor” of GTD (Getting Things Done) and Eric Mack who wrote eProductivity, the program that makes it all work for me in Lotus Notes.

Dear David and Eric

I’ve always been a very disorganised person who’s known of my need for some sort of methodology to organise my work life (especially) better.

Quite a few years ago I stumbled across the book, “Getting Things Done” that David wrote and knew in my heart that implementation of his ideas would make a major change in my life.  Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, every attempt I made was met with dismal failure because all the systems I tried to wrap around the concepts became unwieldy and overly complicated.

Then, by happy chance, I came across eProductivity and I’m really pleased to say that my life has been changed.  It seems only right that at this point I give you an example.

Normally, my wife and I try to take a week off work, (we work together as joint senior pastors of a church), in the middle of the year which is winter here in New Zealand.  Then during New Zealand’s normal holiday period (over New year and into January) we take the balance of our leave and have a decent break as well as taking in the Christian Rock Festival, Parachute.

In the past I’ve always gone on these holidays with one eye on the pile of work left on my desk and the myriad of emails in my in-box that I really wasn’t sure weren’t important.  As you can imaging, the holidays were less than effective in being a time of relaxation and renewing!

This last break, taken just last week, was different.  Thanks to GTD and eProductivity when we left for the little out of the way place (no TV, internet or landline phone) that we had chosen, my inboxes were empty, my trusted system had everything in it and, more importantly, I knew where I was at and what was coming up.

This meant I could truly spend time with my wife and daughter (the two older boys being either at work or elsewhere) and actually be fully present for them.  (They thank you for this too by the way)

And here’s the really interesting thing.  I knew that when I got back to work this past Tuesday that there were four projects that would take all my attention.  My system told me this and it was right.  Having GTD in my life allowed me to let mess gather around me over the past four days as I worked only on these extremely important things.  (These projects were all time restricted and they were things that I couldn’t do any earlier as they required input from others that would be available when I got back from my break.)

I’ve discovered that not only does GTD let me clean things up (empty inboxes etc) but it also gives me the freedom to let things get messy while I do what is important.  And I have the confidence that next Tuesday, when I do my next Weekly Review, things will be back to looking pristine again.

Its an interesting dichotomy isn’t it.  The freedom that GTD gives me by keeping me out of a mess includes the freedom to allow things to get out of control for a while when that’s the best thing to do!

David and Eric.  I thank you with all sincerity for the freedom you’ve allowed me to have.  You guys, (and those amazing folk who work with you), rock, you really do.

Kindest regards

Paul

Photo by rachaelvoorhees

Related posts:

1. GTD for Kids Being a really big fan of GTD (Getting Things Done)...
2. GTD and eproductivity Opportunity This is for all those people who use Lotus Notes...
3. An Empty Brain – GTD Style… and more One of my most viewed posts recently has been “Oops,...
4. What a Great Feeling I’m blogging about GTD and eProductivity. If you want to...
5. GTD and eProductivity Highlight What's really important I’m blogging about GTD, eProductivity, leadership and books. If you...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.