Getting Things Done: Prologue

I recently read David Allen's Getting Things Done, motivated proximally by the Fisher Files (see last post) and distally by my longstanding distress at the disorganization of my life. It's a well written book, and while it does have some repetition it avoids the vacuous sloganeering common to self-help books. The system itself is relatively simple:

1. Create "buckets" for all the "stuff" that flows into (any aspect of ) your life. Everything must come into a bucket that's part of your trusted system (see below).
2. Regularly process your buckets into a system, typically consisting of some combination of calendars, to do lists and project folders. The details of how you push paper or computer files are largely up to you, but the key is that you develop an inherent trust that nothing will be "lost" from the system.
3. Develop a mode of working focused on "next actions": the next physical, visible actions that you can do to make progress on your projects.

The goal of this system is to free up the time and energy your brain is unconsciously devoting to keeping track of all your "stuff". Even people with partial organizational systems (probably most of us) are affected by the amorphous, nagging feeling that there is something else we should be doing now. What's remarkable is how a system focused on the nuts and bolts of everyday life can have positive effects on much broader and long term aspects of life, such as career planning, personal growth, family life and a sense of purpose in the world.

I've just started GTD, and I'm planning to blog my experiences for my own benefit and hopefully for anyone else looking to increase their flow and reclaim their lives. I'll try to touch on both my specific implementation and these bigger questions about why I'm making this change. Here goes!

The Fisher Files

MIT Physics professor Peter Fisher (with whom I took 8.033 12 years ago) produced two seasons of podcasts back in 2007 called the Fisher Files. Unfortunately something disastrous happened to the stylesheets or something because the website is basically unusable in its present state. I had stumbled across this a few months ago but was put off by the wreckage of the site. TFazio recently mentioned it and this time I put the effort into downloading all the actual podcasts.

The podcasts revolve around the Getting Things Done philosophy of how to collect and organize the myriad daily tasks which make up our lives. Fisher nicely applies GTD ideas to many specific scenarios of academic life, making the ideas more directly applicable to me. He also goes further than just discussing ways to be productive, though, and tries to bridge the gap between accomplishing today's tasks and the almost spiritual goal of loving one's work and balancing it with other parts of life.

I'm so glad I went to the effort of grabbing them, because they're incredibly relevant to me right now. And in the hope of making them more widely available, I've collected the links below. I hope others will enjoy them as much as I have begun to!

Season 1 (largely about GTD)

1. Introduction
2. Buckets & Weekly Review
3. Projects
4. ToDo
5. Calendar
6. Putting things together [broken link]
7. Email
8. Files
9. Feeding the Bad Wolf
10. Gadgets
11. Multitasking
12. Reading

Season 2 (the academic life)

1. Impostor!
2. Screwed!
3. Thesis
4. PostDoc
5. Travel
6. Vacation [broken link]
7. Junior Faculty
8. Giving talks
9. Tenure
10. Teaching
11. What to work on
12. Summary

Yay, America!

Annoyingly, and unlike any other country I know of, the IRS requires me to file a US tax return every year declaring my foreign income. I'm currently below the (reasonably generous) exclusion threshold which means I don't have to pay any US tax on said income. I will probably eventually cross that line, however, meaning I'll have to go through the tedious process of calculating my US tax burden and then claiming deductions from that based on my UK taxes. For once it's convenient that British taxes are heavy!

That future irritation has briefly faded from my mind however, because I received a check today, out of the blue, from the US Treasury, for $248.62. Apparently I'm entitled to the stimulus tax credit (Making Work Pay) even though I paid $0 in US taxes last year. In honor of the goal of the stimulus, I hereby promise to spend it on something frivolous in the good old US of A.

Impersonal responsibility

The furore over BP CEO Tony Hayward's decision to watch a yacht race this weekend highlights the desire to pile the blame on somebody who should be in control when, in fact, the events are out of anybody's control. Don't get me wrong, if it turns out (as seems increasingly likely) that the blowout on Deepwater Horizon (or "Deep Horizon" as one of the inquisitors from Congress kept calling it) was due to BP's negligence then Hayward should be horsewhipped with a horsewhip. In the meantime he should be directing his company's sizable resources toward stopping the leak and cleaning the spill, but that doesn't mean he should be personally sucking oil out of the gulf with a straw, or forced to watch the live spill-o-cam 24 hours a day. Similarly, President Obama himself can't don a wetsuit and become a human 'junk shot' into the pipe, but the public acts as if his personal willpower is all that's required to plug the leak.

Finally, I think the members of Congress grilling Hayward should STFU until they've divested themselves of all campaign oil dollars, and the general public should follow suit until they are willing to pay 9 bucks a gallon for gas.

England-Algeria-Slovenia-Yanks

E-A-S-Y was how the tabloids greeted the news months ago of England's World Cup opponents. One thing that has become clear while watching this WC is that the English have an incredibly self centered view of the football world. The team's struggles so far are only a reflection of some internal collapse and have nothing to do with the opponents they've faced. Events in other games are only discussed with respect to how they affect England. There's an overriding attitude of entitlement against opponents viewed as not being in the same league (despite empirical results). It's funny to see this attitude so prominently displayed here when it is so often ascribed to Americans in other arenas. A few choice illustrative quotes:

Wayne Rooney, English striker

Before playing Algeria: "Against Algeria we can not be at our best and win the game."

When asked what he knew about his opponents: "Not much. Belhadj from Portsmouth, but I don't really know much more about them. I'm sure the manager will point out their strengths and weaknesses to us."

When booed off the field after a 0-0 draw: "Nice to see your home fans booing you. That’s loyal supporters."

Roy Hodgson, Fulham manager and commentator

When asked what effect the Slovenia-USA draw would have on England: "I don't think it matters, to be honest, since England are clearly the best team in the group."

Chris Waddle, former England winger

When asked whether a problem exists in the English locker room: "In qualifying we beat Croatia [ranked 10th in the world] twice and Ukraine [23rd] once. They are both far better than the USA [14th] and Algeria[30th], so there must be something wrong."

Getting prepped

My office today before the kickoff of USA-Slovenia.

St. John's Ball

Daniel managed to secure me a ticket to my first Cambridge may ball (all confusingly held in June), at St. John's college. It was a great time, with fireworks (above) and lots of other entertainments, bands, food and drink. I think Daniel has a photo of me in my tux, which I'll try to find and post.