A GTD enthusiast shares, "I went home and didn’t think ONCE about work"

Cindy recently participated in a GTD course at her company. She sent along an email to her facilitator about her experience. With her permission, we’re sharing her letter with our GTD Times readers.

First of all, thanks for a great class! I really enjoyed it. You are an awesome instructor – very engaging and really good at demonstrating practical applications of the GTD concept.

I will admit that I was a bit skeptical about the GTD concept as I have taken time management courses before and was never able to make the concepts work in the fast paced/put out 100 fires every day work of IT training development/delivery and IT technical support. I wondered how constructed the responses from people having implemented GTD saying “GTD changed my life!” were. But hey, I will try anything once – twice if I like it. So about a week after the class – I took two evenings (about 2 hours each day) and did the mind sweep, Outlook task setup, etc. following the guides and what we learned in class. I also included home, family, and such in the setup. I finished on a Friday evening and for the first time in my career – I will say it again – for the FIRST time in my career – I went home and didn’t think ONCE about work!!! That weekend I was even able to accomplish many of the little “@Home” tasks that had been swirling around in my head as needing to be done, but I would forget because I had not written them down and scheduled them.

Before GTD I was stressed out and down to the last minute on completing many of my tasks, not from procrastination but from lack of organization. With GTD, I am now so “up to date” and “on track” with my projects and tasks that I have even received several “Thanks for the fast response!” emails and comments from several co-workers and upper management!!! I am even able to quickly gather “Completed Tasks” for my monthly notes and program review reporting to management. I completed my two sets of monthly reporting charts in record time because all of the information was literally at my fingertips!!!

I feel such a weight off my shoulders that I am still amazed every day at how well GTD works. There are not words to describe the feeling of elation of going home each night and not worrying about work and what needs to be done. I know it is all captured and ready for me to address tomorrow. To be able to actually focus on my family and home life without work raging through my head is quite an amazing feeling. I have even found time to take up training 3 times a week to run a 5K coming up in Oct. My next short term goal – and yes it is on my GTD list – is to run a 10K next Spring and next long term goal is to run a Half Marathon next year in the Fall. I have “Run a Full Marathon” in my 30,000 level “Someday/Maybe” list (not sure I will like running that much!).

GTD is working so well for me that I have asked my team to sign up for the next available GTD class and I will be sharing the concept and how it is working for me – doing what they do – with them at our offsite in October. Some are getting a taste with the Outlooks “Assign Task” from my GTD list that they are getting from me already.

The two quotes from class that ring so true to me are:

“Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.” – David Allen
“You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing.” – David Allen

So I can say without a doubt and with much enthusiasm that “GTD changed my life!”

GTD has changed my life so much at work that I actually felt guilty at first because I was not feeling that ever present swirl of turmoil in my head at all the things I needed to be doing that I figured I must not have enough to do. LOL!!! I soon came to realize that is the beauty of GTD – like you said – “mind clearing” – an amazing feeling to say the least.

Thank you again for a great class and when you see David Allen – give him a good ole’ Southern hug and a great big THANK YOU for me please!!!

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2 Comments

  1. I was thinking about this quote:

    “You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing.” – David Allen

    An I think there’s something more:

    “You can only feel good about what you are not doing, when you know what you are not doing and accept the consequences.” – David Allen + TesTeq

  2. Time management has been one of my biggest problems lately. I’ve been working more than 12 hours per day and I still bring home work. I haven’t had the chance to spend time with my 2-year-old kid for weeks now. When I come home at night, he’s already asleep and he doesn’t wake up till mid morning so I don’t even get to say hi to him. This has been going on for a few months now and I feel guilty because I am not there to guide him during the formative years. So I decided to quit. In as much as I wanted to implement time management, I don’t think I can do it with the amount of of load that I have. I think it’s also about making a choice. A man is happy so long as he choose to be happy.
    Let me share with you a great article on Discovering True Happiness within You. Hope you like it. =)

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