Adult ADD Strengths

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity is a book by David Allen on the topic of productivity that is a big hit in the blogosphere and there are several blogs that have been inspired by GTD. I particularly like his idea that we shouldn’t be relying on our memories to remember to do items and if we have a system to keep track of all the loose bits of data we have to do AND WE REVIEW IT REGULARLY, it frees up psychic space in our brain that we’d otherwise use to keep reminding us to do things (usually at times when we can’t). He also has a good visual matrix to process incoming information into logical areas. While their are core principals to the process, there’s a lot of room in flexibility in actually implementing it.

This is one reason I think that it may be appealing to ADDers. People with Attention Deficit Disorder need (and simultaneously resist) structure. I believe it works best when they can create the structure that works for them. One thing I notice when I coach ADDers around time management is how different we are, and there is not one solution that fits all. I believe that’s one reason (there are many more) why many ADDers have trouble with time management, they try to take a system designed for someone else and make it their own without adapting it to their needs and what works for them.

Here’s the place of his “official definition” of Getting Things Done, it’s worth checking out. Here’s one of his benefit paragraphs on that page

Implementing GTD alleviates the feeling of overwhelm, instills confidence, and releases a flood of creative energy. It provides structure without constraint, managing details with maximum flexibility. The system rigorously adheres to the core principles of productivity, while allowing tremendous freedom in the “how.” The only “right” way to do GTD is getting meaningful things done with truly the least amount of invested attention and energy

Listable is a cool site for creating lists where the users create lists which users vote on individual items within the list to change the ranking of them. An online democratic ranking system.

They created a list called the 19 Resources on the Best Getting Things Done Resources.

Here’s 10 of their top 19 Getting Things Done Resources

1. The delicious GTD tag
2. Lifehacker.com “geek to live, don’t live to geek”
3. 43 Folders. An industry in itself, blog, wiki, podcast, google groups and forums.
4. To Done
5. Lifehack.org Blog and forum. On Leon’s community pages is a researcher looking for procrastinators to participate in an paid online study. I may have a few readers that fall under this category:)
6. The blog from Mr Allen himself . Note that the blog ranks above his website.
7. The official site of David Allen, creator of the method.
8. What’s the next action. Here’s their top ten posts
9. GTD Jumpstart
10. The GDT zone of Officezealot

and #11 is Titled a Really Good Summary of Getting Things Done. It’s a nice set of notes from the GDT book.