A man does not need many things. But the things he does own should serve a purpose. They should be well made, beautiful and functional. They should improve his life in some meaningful way. And ultimately, they should reflect his personality and what he values. This site is about those things.
You can’t manage time, you can only manage actions. And you can’t do that until your mind is clear of all the junk that’s keeping you distracted and unfocused.
That’s the premise behind David Allen’s remarkable book, Getting Things Done. The book has spawned a movement, particularly amongst the tech community, because of it’s instantly applicable, immensely practical step-by-step process for achieving a “mind like water.”
Getting Things Done argues that the traditional time management and goal setting methods don’t work, because your mind is too full of junk that it reminds itself of over and over again even though you a) aren’t sure what it is, and b) can’t necessarily do anything about it right now. This low-level, tactical stuff is what prevents you from focusing on the larger picture effectively, and is largely what raises your stress level. The GTD process is designed to combat this.
Allen breaks his process into 5 steps: collecting anything and everything that’s on your mind, processing each “to-do” by identifying the ideal outcome and determining the appropriate next action, organizing it into a system that works for you, reviewing it regularly so your mind learns to rely on it instead of itself (freeing you to do more creative work), and finally doing it with a clearer head and sense of focus.
For some people, implementing the entire process might sound like overkill. But everyone I’ve ever met who has tried to seriously implement even pieces of Allen’s system has reaped tremendous dividends.
Things is a beautifully designed task management application for the Mac that is largely based on the concepts in Getting Things Done, or GTD. The premise of GTD is to capture anything that’s on your mind that is unresolved, and to organize it in a system that you know you’ll refer back to frequently.
Things makes implementing GTD simple and fun. With an extremely easy to use interface, it allows you to instantly capture any outstanding to-dos on your Mac or iPhone. You can easily organize and view your tasks using the common GTD methods (by project, context, level of effort, etc.) However, the system is flexible enough for non-GTD folks to take advantage as well.
The real strength of the application is its beauty – it feels better than most other task management applications. You actually enjoy using it because of the interface, and that makes it easier to get in the habit of collecting everything. Developing the “collection habit” is one of the primary ways GTD implementors get tripped up – Things helps form that habit much more easily.
