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Knocking Down Walls: GTD Ownership vs Orthodoxy
This brief post is in response to a couple forum comments by Liz and Lisa. I started this as a reply in that thread, but I wanted to post it generally so that I could (hopefully) clarify my views on “GTD orthodoxy”, how I interpret and apply GTD as a framework, and how all this relates to kGTD.
Owning your Subject
I have a very simple approach for any subject that I want or need to engage in: ownership. Whatever I do, I try to “own” the concepts, vocabulary, processes, etc. By “owning” I mean that I explore the subject fully. I immerse myself as much as possible given time and circumstance. My goals in “owning” a subject are also pretty basic: Confidence to work in it effectively, the ability to “successfully make mistakes” in it, and the knowledge of what I can ignore, abuse, and change in it.
Renting Apartments vs. Owning Houses
Owning a subject is like owning a house, and if you don’t own, you rent. Renting an apartment, for example, limits what you can do to make it your own. You can hang pictures and lay down rugs and move your own furniture in, but you can’t make major structural changes to the rooms. Forget about skylights and new doors and a light well. You are stuck with the vision and intent of the owner, the original architect, etc. Conversely if you own a house you can knock down walls, rearrange plumbing, etc.
Like a house, if you want to really be productive and “make it your own” then I don’t believe in renting GTD, I think you have to own it.
Renting GTD means that you are living in somebody else’s system. You are limited in how much you can push it and make it truly fit your life. And if it doesn’t fit your life, I don’t believe it can really be a “trusted system”. The idea that there is only one correct, “orthodox” way to implement any system, GTD included, is like offering people only one style of house to live in. Uniform solutions are a myth.
Owning GTD as a productivity system “house” that you can live in means that you can knock down walls, put in that Jacuzzi and skylight and generally make it fit your lifestyle.
Removing one too many walls
So you own your house, how far can you go? All this lovely talk of “ownership”… doesn’t that mean that there are no parameters to how much you can change GTD? That’s anarchy! Well, you can’t knock down every wall. The trick here is this: some walls are load-bearing, some aren’t. You can kick down walls that aren’t structurally critical, but knock down a load-bearing wall and the roof may fall in entirely. Most of the discussions about GTD orthodoxy seem to indirectly be about figuring out where the load bearing walls are in the system. I do believe that the GTD system is pretty tightly defined and that most of the framework is pretty essential, but there are lots of areas that can be changed to customize it for your life, mood, personality, weak points, etc.
kGTD as a home-in-a-box
One of my goals with kGTD is to have it be a sort of “GTD home in a box” that you can set up yourself. It is absolutely critical that you explore its nooks and crannies and “own” it as much as possible, making changes to the non-load bearing walls to make it fit your needs. My job is to make sure the load bearing walls do just that and, if some structural element isn’t working for members of the kGTD community, to consider how and if it should be changed.
So here we are, all together figuring out which walls are load bearing, which aren’t, and trading tips on redecorating and how to build a new porch or retiling the kitchen. Personally, I’ll be out back in the pool.