Anyone who says 'delegation is procrastination' obviously does run a business and is prett thick. You hire people to do jobs for you - this is called delegating. Jeez

Also you have absolutely no idea what GTD is. How an earth is a 'waiting for' also classed as procrastination??? have you read the book at all? Waiting for are for things like a document to arrive, a phone call off somebody, someone to deliver a report you need, etc. it's so if you don't recieve it in due course you chase it up and not forget about it!!!

Wise u, your looking foolish.

Do yourself a favor, and rethink this post.
On the other hand, look at all the traffic it gave you. Kudos.

Assaf.

People, please don't listen to this guy. Read or listen to David's book and see for yourself.

They even sound like a cult.

I tried to use GTD for years, bought the book and struggled to even finish that terribly written garbage. The only thing I've adopted is the "bucket", which by itself is actually mostly counterproductive. At least this way I don't forget about things forever.

3. It feels like a cult
A. devotion: I like his system.. know nothing much else about him. As far as the religious stuff.. I had no idea. Not a clue. And that shows how much he has been pushing that.
B. Charismatic leadership: Nice guy.. but don't see him much. And he's no Steve Jobs.
C. Separation from the community: Does he keep the group tight? On a narrow path? He goes out of his way to be general about the process. He provides one software solution for Outlook.. other than that? People like the concept, but it's not a cult. There are no secret meetings or beliefs, not dues paid, just a guy selling a few books. not a big deal.

10. Delegation is procrastination
No, if you have subordinates and too many tasks delegation is part of your job!

Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon on time management:
"Here's what I know:
Time must be explicitly managed, like money.
You can always change your plan, but only if you have one.
Ask yourself: Are you spending your time on the right things?
Develop a good filing system.
Rethink the telephone.
Delegate.
Take a time out.

Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think."
— Randy Pausch (The Last Lecture)

22. Panic focuses the mind
yes it does.. and staying in panic mode and using it daily to perform is called stress. I imagine that you may be young and do not yet have to deal with the consequences of constant stress. I'm on blood pressure medication for hypertension. I have a spare tire around my middle. Over time stress changes the distribution of fat deposits if you gain any weight. It ages you faster. You are much more susceptible to illnesses.
National geographic has a wonderful documentary on the effects of stress: Killer Stress: A National Geographic Special
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278078/

1. You have to read the book - or listen to the audio recording, or go to the seiminar etc. Last I checked books and classes are how teaching and learning works.

2. It’s not practical
GTD says it is a philosophy and can be adapted to your own styles and tools. It is as practical as you want to make it.

3. It feels like a cult
It feels like a cult because it does have an affect on people and changes how they come at their workload. People use principles from it, and want to share those of value for them. Each person takes something a bit different away from the GTD ideals.

4. There’s no conflict between writing and thinking
Yes there is. The fear of forgetting things or dealing with complicated information and data or planning requires you to write it down. So does anything you can't DO rigth away but do not want to forget. Writing things down in a reliable place you can refer to later allows you to clear your mind and focus on your immediate tasks.

5. There’s an advantage in thinking about what you have to do
Yes, thinking about your current prorities, not 3 or 4 projects you might eventually get too. You do not understand the type of clearing your mind of clutter discussed in GTD.

6. There’s no limit to what you can write down
So you just leave it all clogging your head? Einstein himself said he wrote everything down he didn't need to remember so he could maximize his brain.

7. Incubation is the same as procrastination
No, procrastination is putting off what you need to do now. Incubation is putting off something distracting you from what you need to do now.

8. “Waiting for” is procrastination
Waiting for is follow up on delegated tasks, dates or events that have yet to occur and you can't act on. Again, not the same thing. I can't have a superbowl or 4th of july party a week early. Likewise if I am waiting to see if I got a job in another state before I sell my house and move, I am not procrastinating on selling my house because I am waiting for the job call back.

9. Deferment is the same as procrastination
Again, deferment is future tasks you can't do yet because the events tied to the tasks have NOT occured.

10. Delegation is procrastination
Delegation is working with other people and assigning tasks.

11. What if the person you delegate to isn’t using GTD?
Then they work the way non-GTD people do or whatever way works best for them. GTD serves you not others.

12. Sometimes procrastination works
Discipline, training, planning beat out panic everytime. Panic is how amatures respond to a crisis. Its lazy and risky.

13. Trust your instinct and experience, not David Allen
You should trust people who have specialized knowledge with what they are teaching. I don't trust my instinct and experience alone to do brain surgery or split atoms. That requires knowledge. You go to school for that.

14. GTD doesn’t leave room for spontaneity and creativity
The whole point is to capture your spontanteity so you don;t lose it and get distractions out of the way so you can be creativity.

15. The world contains enough jargon
That jargon is labels assigned to specific actions, tools and concepts. Without those labels we have to use whole sentences to share and discuss simple things. Jargon doesn't mean anything negative, it just means there is depth and subculture within a subject.

16. Just because you can do something in two minutes doesn’t mean you should
And its doesn't say you MUST. It says its best to just get those things done when you can so they are not procrastinated and they are out of the way. The idea is anything that only takes a couple of minutes is pointless to defer/file or delegate because the effort to do so is greater than the effort to just do it.

17. Just because you can do something in two minutes doesn’t mean you should do it now
Again, you don;t have to. Stick it on your to do list.

18. David Allen can’t count to two
Not even going to comment.

19. There are too many GTD apps
Again, who cares. Open markets, popular tools. Look at the iphones for an example for this.

20. You’ll get more done with a routine
Any new one time task or projects are not routines. About 90% of the work I do is not rountine. A system like GTD that helps me sort, delegate and track those complicated projects is very helpful.

21. You should never pay attention to anyone who tells you to brainstorm
Brainstorming is 2 or more people sharing ideas about a goal or task or problem that they do not have an answer too. The activity creates a safe environment where participants can rapidly offer ideas and work them like clay together to find a solution. It is a proven technique.

22. Panic focuses the mind
You already said this. It does. But remaining level headed in a crisis is more effective and its even better to avoid a crisis. Panic usually opens you up to costly mistakes. Look at all first responders. Would you want your fire fighters, police and EMTs panicing?

23. GTD replaces doing with planning
If you go into doing without planning then your an idiot. Plannig avoids costly mistakes and wasting time. Allows you to remove redundancy, be effcicent with your resources and do things in the mots logical order.

24. GTD isn’t for everyone
That is fine, doens't mean its wrong.

25. GTD is only for people who don’t need it
This is an oxymoron.

26. It’s really, really anal
Your really, really a 100% wrong on every count.

Peace

But if you were to start with a list of your values, and build that out to what you have to do
here and now, then it would make sense to you that GTD makes sense.

It sounds like you have a lot of fear, and because of that- you're looking for reasons not to like it.

Wish I had read this before spending two and a half years trying to fit my life into a GTD-shaped box.

Gave up relying on other people's systems last year - there are too many bogus experts in this field - much better to work out what you need to do for yourself.

jml

But

I found the book beautifully written and pretty clear. It is to Allen's credit that he has never attempted to update or modify and is on record as saying that it's all in the original.

A key part of the system is having different lists for different contexts. This is one of the key "complexities" that people whine about.

Another key part is the periodic balancing of the whole. If you're not doing the weekly review, you're not doing GTD. I strongly suspect that most of the people who talk about it aren't.

Brainstorming: oh, come on! His approach to quick projects on the fly is very practical. Although I never got to grips with the rest of the system, I have found this useful.

Everything you say about procrastinationand delegation is wrong. He specifically addresses the question of dealing with non GTDists.

Peace and love

"22. Panic focuses the mind
We’ve already pointed out that most people naturally prioritize their work by waiting till the important stuff becomes urgent, then panicking and getting on with it. If GTD works, then you’ll lose the focus that panic can bring. And if it doesn’t, why do it?"

this behavior can become unhealthy really quick, we cant drive just based on

PANIC ATTACKS, STRESS AND LAST MINUTE ADRENALINE RUSHES. We would live in distress all the time, which would lead back to procrastinating

we need to learn to gain control of our minds and bodies

i do like #20

More helpfully, this post and almost all the subsequent comments are reminiscent of the myriad complaints and dismissals spouted from beginning students of meditation. Both are very subtle practices, and require a lot of persistance to really grasp their value and reap their rewards.

For another example, take physical exercise. Exercise really IS tough sometimes, and in response, some people come up with endless excuses to avoid it. And yet, none of those excuses affect the actual value of exercise.

However, that isn't to say that none of these items have a legitmate root complaint. #19 is SPOT ON, and is aggravated by the fact that most "GTD" apps are complete crap, and do little to nothing to actually speed up or enrich a good workflow. A good GTD app ought to make it easy to do "the right thing", and should act as a kind of learning tool for GTD - the structure of the app ought to naturally inform the user about the relationships between Next Actions, Projects, Stuff, etc.

(Disclaimer: I am writing Yet Another GTD App based on the ideas in the previous paragraph. Whether or not that goes to make #19 on your list better or worse will be up to users.

I tried GTD and I can tell you I did 6 hours a day of shuffling and 2 hours of actual work and I saw the declining financial results of my business as I was using it. Not good.

I have found the silver bullet for my needs and that is a program called "Taskline" - it automatically schedules your work for you based on deadline and priority and it has made me as productive as I have ever been. (No I have no affiliation with the company who makes it). The difference with using such a clever program and GTD is that with GTD is 80% organizing - 20% doing - with such a clever program as Taskline it's one click a day generating your schedule and (for me) 12 hours a day actually working!!

But... I will tell you that overall the times when I was most productive was about 10 years ago when I didn't use any kind of scheduling system or todo list at all and I just did what had to be done (what my intuition told me to do) and you know what - that is what works best!

http://www.darklingwood.com/2009/06/why-gtd-getting-things-done-doesnt-work.html

It actually creates more stress for most people, and more confusion, as the obsessive types end up with endless lists. They even have lists of lists, and they argue about the best way to organize them.

GTD is a closed system, as the new books about GTD are the same as the old books. There is no progress as it is based on a cultish mindset.

Most of the blogs promoting GTD, are people who are making money off GTD. Its hype.
Some of them are also members of MSIA religion, who are promoting it for that reason, and they promote books by John-Roger to their clients.

Here are some other links, with some good points about why GTD is not helpful.

David Allen: The master of getting thing done - July 1, 2007
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/07/01/100117066/index.htm

David Allen - GTD - John-Roger - MSIA - Insight Seminars
http://ww w.factnet.org/discus/messages/1/19604.html?1143714430

http://www.booktalk.org/post42557.html

Kona's Dad: GTD a Cult?
http://konasdad.blogspot.com/2006/11/gtd-cult.html

I find that my mind is project-oriented. Maybe it's because I'm self-employed and creative and not "anal." I use a very simple system. I have tasks organized by projects. If a task has a due date I give it one. If it's urgent I give it priority. So, instead of wasting time breaking everything down into contexts and next actions, I organize by project instead of context. Under each project, I have a list of relevant tasks. I tag tasks as described above. When I get down to "work", I look at my list of projects. I pick the project that I need to work on, then scan the list of tasks for that project and pick one to do. Check it off when it's done and go to the next one in that project or another one, if I so wish.

With that attitude, why even bother making your bed?

That's why when designing my application http://www.gtdagenda.com I only kept in mind 2 of his ideeas, contexts and next actions. Those I felt were the best in the book.

28. GTD generates a lot of stress when processing emails, which means something is amiss. (The issue: Your email inbox is both a communication channel and a source of tasks. "Processing" by itself takes too long to keep that channel open and flowing properly.)
29. David Allen says "work intuitively" from our lists. Sorry, most people can't be intuitive with a list of hundreds of things. Their mind shuts down as they scan their tasks looking for the best one.
30. There is no mechanism for balancing areas of your life within your day. In fact, a recent TIME magazine article quotes David Allen as saying you should have everything in one list since you are one person. Do you really want to see a list with personal phone calls when at work?
31. Some things fly at you and need immediate scheduling into the day without going through the whole collect/process/organize bit.
32. It takes up to a year to fully master GTD. Only the brave and very motivated will make it. The failure rate is very high.
33. The book lacks practical, detailed instructions for a whole host of real-world situations. Example: File drawers with mixed resource and action items (e.g., research notes).
34. You're on your own to figure it all out. Who do you call when you grab something from your inbox and say: "What do I do with THIS?"
(See http://www.priacta.com/Coaching/Training_FAQ.shtml#TROGTD)

"Vanilla" GTD just doesn't address these issues. One system that does is Total, Relaxed Organization (TRO). (Well, it doesn't solve the problem of "jargon". Sorry!)
(See http://www.priacta.com/TRO)

Kevin Crenshaw, Executive Coach, Priacta

We've had SMART goals, 7 habits and win-win thinking. This is just one more fad. If you wait a while it too shall pass.