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Tech Junkies Crazy About 'Getting Things Done'
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"Getting Things Done" is a method to increase productivity at work and at home. It relies on a number of decidedly low-tech gadgets, such as Post-It notes and electronic label makers.
So it may be surprising to learn that it's become a cult phenomenon among an unlikely group: technology junkies. The method has inspired dozens of blogs, Web sites and even underground software meant to adapt the tenets of GTD to your computer.
Published in 2001, the self-help guide Getting Things Done by David Allen offers many recommendations and rules to live by.
For example, if you have something in your e-mail inbox that would take less than two minutes to respond to, then just do it: Stop putting those little things off.
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Omar Gallaga, who covers technology culture for the Austin American-Statesman, says the fundamental tenet of GTD is to "get things out of your head and into a trusted system."
"The whole philosophy behind it is if you clear these things out of your head that are constantly rolling around in there and cluttering things up, that you will have what David Allen calls a mind like water — everything will calm down and you will have time to think about deeper things and find deeper connections within your life," Gallaga says.
He talks to Michele Norris about some of the other rules of GTD and why the tech-savvy generation has so enthusiastically embraced it.
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