Getting Things Done (Book Review).

5 Minute: Quick Read.

 

(Image: Screen Shot from GoodReads My Profile Page )

 1 *. (One Star). 

  

Yes, I gave a one-star rating to Getting Things Done (GTD) on Goodreads. 

Probably it is the first such book in my collection.  

I am very well aware that it's against the tide. 

You can see that the book is rated by a high number of readers and often rated at 3 or 4 stars.  

There are a lot of fans too! 

But, please allow me to explain my views. 

I tried GTD sometime back but left it after a few pages. I couldn't proceed further. 

A friend now convinced its utility. The book is also on my wish-list of 39 HR-OB books. Again I started reading. I read it with a small reader group. We were reading a daily few pages (7 to 10), and then we discussed it online. And occasionally, we met online to discuss and share our views.  

I wanted to understand GTD clearly. So I read it slowly, savoring the substance. 

I took notes, and even sometimes made mind-maps of chapter concepts.  

But still, I couldn't relate to the book at all. 

One, In my opinion, the writing was not engaging at all. But that is fine; all may not be great writers. But the overall idea also wasn't appealing. I found it ordinary and common sense. The second -idea is not compact and tight. Still, I persisted and completed the book. Maybe something I was not able to appreciate. 

I even found David Allen's session delivered at Google and watched it. 

Instead of compact and tight, it spreads. Too many details and lists. At one point, David talked about 43 containers and several lists, so shall one need one meta-container and one meta-list to manage this all!  

There I lost it completely. 

Maybe I couldn't appreciate the book or its idea. I searched for reviews, reports, and videos about GTD. But in vain. 

I come across few criticisms—notably one from Cal Newport and one on creativity. I agree with them. GTD may be suitable for shallow work or people in the managerial mindset (Paul Graham's concept). They have long to-do lists and dynamic schedules. Typically, a doctoral student like me or a creative artist can't put time-box around his task list. It is challenging to follow GTD. 

I remember reading 7 Habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey. Though I don't follow his first-things-first system, it is much natural to plan month/week/day more like that. 

Moreover, there is an alternative view suggesting one can't manage time, but need to manage energy. "The Power of Full Engagement" - one more title on 39 HR-OB book-list outlines this. 

Such diverse views turmoil-ed the mind. The mind triggered radical thoughts. (For that I must thank my friend ). Do we need to squeeze so much in a day? Do we need a long to-do list? How about getting rid of time management need itself. Maybe we need to focus on essential-ism, or minimalism, or Power of Less - One more on the list of 39 HR-OB books. 

Finally, Adam Grant wrote a scathing criticism of the time management technique itself, and he recommended attention management as an alternative. It seems it is time to look at attention rather than managing time. 

What do you feel? 

Getting used to Digital Quarantine!

 3-minute quick read

We are becoming social media and mobile junky.

On average we check mobile every 12 minutes sometimes up to 96 times a day, adding to almost 35 days per year! Social media use is topping the chart with an average 2 hours 22 minutes per day. Try adding that for a year to find the lost time!

But worst is its effect on our mental health and reducing the most important psychological variable in our life – autonomy. 

This is not accidental, but tech firms are carefully introducing it like a Nicotine in Tobacco.We must block this. Andrew Sullivan has called it information addiction and you can find addiction evidence in scientific research. This is an attention economy at its worst!  

We certainly want to get value from technology innovations, but must block its detrimental effects. Often the haphazard effort like a digital sabbatical, removing apps, and notifications don’t show long lasting result. What we need is the overarching tech philosophy.

Cal Newport’s new book Digital Minimalism provides a road map of it. It introduces tech philosophy and shows action steps to adopt it in life.

The book outlines philosophical underpinnings, the aggressive intervention of 30-day digital quarantine. Then how to apply a balm of meaningful, satisfying activities. And adding carefully chosen value-adding social media activities only. Book also talks of 1600 people’s experiment of going on digital quarantine underscoring the importance of solitude, leisure, and attention resistance. It looks like a complete therapeutic package on this addiction.

I hope the book will help us to regain control of those lost 35 days per year and gain our foregone happy & satisfying life in post-Corona life!  

[This is my review of “Introduction” of Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. Reviews of remaining book chapters will follow. Watch this place!]

[Image Source: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/135807 ]

Sleepy students and early morning class !

Today morning when I met first year student in lift, she was not active as one should be.

I casually asked, so do you have class now?

And she cribbed - yes, this morning 0900 class is bad. And it was not good, even when it was at 0930 last term. We normally jump to conclusion that oh they spend night in futile stuff like movie, Facebook, mobiles, parties and crib in morning.

But still it made me think!

I have normally morning class once a week and I can sense they are drowsy, sleepy and not that alert in the class. They keep up popping in the class even after scheduled time. What I found (thanks to Google) is that ‘darkness hormone’ melatonin is the cause behind it.  The level of melatonin reaches high earlier as people get older. Thus for your faculty who is in his late 40’s or 50’s (or more!) this melatonin begins its effect at 10 pm, while for students – who are not so aged, the same melatonin shows its effect at 1 am.

Moreover when you keep your mobile at fingertips, browse Facebook, pumps up caffeine this further disturbs your sleep cycle at night. 

Irrespective of hormone or behavior, lack of sleep surely leads your behavior to moody, impulsive, and you show  poor performance in academics. I am proponent of  early morning routine and myself trying to go back to it with New Year resolutions round the corner. I hope students also should learn to strike a balance in their night-activities and morning-routines. Here are some useful tips to start with. 

I too try my morning classes to be more participatory and action packed , rather than mere lectures !

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments are welcome. 

Image source: http://www.com.cuhk.edu.hk/varsity/0401/Periscope/school05.jpg 

Unanticipated Consequence of Productivity tools !

PCMag has interesting article on productivity.  Opening of the article has interesting comment.

Has anyone noticed that the computer revolution has turned its focus from improving productivity to wasting time on trivia?

Isn't it what is termed as unanticipated consequences ? .

For instance :

• Email's were suppose to save our time. It consumes so much time, that Intel had toyed up with  no email days .  French firm Atos  has even extreme stance of "Zero email" .
• Message overloads from desktop notifier, email, smart phones is triggering attention deficit trait.
• Some time back , IIT's had instituted restrictions on internet uses as they found that it hampers the student performance.

As Tablets , i-pad are scheduled to enter classrooms, they will support teaching and learning ,but also will have different kind of challenges for teaching fraternity.  So if you have encountered any of them so far, do post in comments....