A GTD’er asked David Allen:
I have read Getting Things Done many times and am attending the Boston seminar. I have a question: Why is it so hard for human beings to get organized? Why do the techniques you recommend require so much effort and encounter such resistance from human nature? I’m not interested in this academically, but if there is some biological/psychological/historical aspect of human nature that makes it so difficult to organize, it might help us learn how to overcome them and get where we should be…
David’s response:
Everyone is already organized to the degree they need to be, to have the world match up to their internal standards. And usually “having to get organized” refers only to things they don’t care that much about. In other words, oil painters have their brushes organized, fishermen their tackle boxes, golfers their clubs.
When your life as a whole and what you’re doing with it takes on the same kind of gut-level identification with an experience you have to have, you’ll probably overcome the resistance to creating and maintaining structure to keep it that way.
Some people are more naturally organized than others. It’s a talent, a gift, a trait, I think. Just like playing the piano or any other skill – it comes more easily to some people, but you can learn how to play. You may never play as well as Chris Martin, but you can learn and improve.
On the contrary, I’ve learned to become more organized because of human nature. I am driven by getting things done (not TM there) and by being reliable. I found out awhile ago that I tend to not accomplish those goals when I’m not organized. And if I’m organized, I can accomplish those goals which makes me happy and makes my life easier. And the biggest thing that I’ve learned that works for me is to write things down. I have two, maybe 3, methods for keeping track of items and they work for me. And the biggest thing is that I have the discipline to follow through with this which is what a lot of people lack.
This was my experience, too. That gut-level identification or desire is what I needed to propel me into overcoming the initial resistance. Often the resistance is just the fear of the unknown (e.g., fearing that the organizing will take too long, require more work than I really want to output, etc.). But learning the habits of GTD for getting organized rewarded me with higher levels of clarity on my life and work. And *experiencing* that extra clarity reinforced the original gut-level desire to get (and stay) organized. Soon after that the flywheel starts to turn and what initially feels like “work” becomes second nature.
I love DA’s answer because it speaks to how I am about things I WANT to do and feel passionate about. The need for a system accompanies the many things I have to do, that are not quite so internally driven, that are extrinsically driven activities. I have to organize and manage a speaker class that is something like a 13-week conference. I have to do it, its an obligation, I even enjoy it, but it is not the same as my daily writing, responding to students, clients, friends, who have asked me to write about something for their benefit. I have no trouble with the latter. I don’t have to put it into and through a system, it’s an intrinsically driven activity. David tells us to pay attention to what has our attention, and when I do that organization ceases to be difficult. When I have to shift my attention to something that is not what I am naturally paying attention to, organization is difficult, I fall off the wagon, and fight my way back to GTD.
Here’s my two, two cent’s worth:
1) A different take that I’ve observed over time – people usually say this (“why is it hard to get organized”) when they’ve hit crisis mode (i.e., they forgot to do something critical, they’ve fallen behind on a project).
2) I agree that people are generally organized. I was talking with my banker about “being organized” and she said, “well, I’m not organized; I have post-it notes everywhere.” I said to her (as I do everyone), “Actually, you are very organized – you do what works for you to keep you moving forward.”
— Jeffrey W. Cox
http://www.FixYourToDoList.com/blog
http://www.EnhanceYourOutlook.com (a productivity add-in for Microsoft Outlook.)