24 years later, it is still immortal

In 2001, David Allen published ‘Getting Things Done‘. In it he created the GTD method. Almost a quarter of a century later, that method is still relevant.

It is an achievement that has happened despite the huge current differences with 2001, and it is even more noticeable if we take into account that at this time dozens of apparently superior methods have been born. Most have died. The question It is not what makes a productivity method good, but what makes it immortal.

In the productivity ecosystem, GTD It is the crocodile: it has been practically unchanged for decades because it found the perfect evolutionary formula. Other methods have been disappearing in the meantime:

Or nobody talks about them, either they move away from the concept of productive method. Or they have simply not fulfilled adoption expectations.

GTD survives because it is not a system, but a Framework: It doesn’t tell you how to live your life, it gives you tools to manage it. A difference important enough.

Immortal methods Share a specific DNA:

1. Conceptual modularity.
2. Technological agnosticism.
3. Resistance to perfectionism.

Examples?

• GTD works equally well on paper as in Notion.
• Pomodoro You only need a stopwatch.
• Kanban can be implemented with post-ps or with Trello.

The extincts often died overing the entertainment.

• ‘43 folders‘It depended on physical archivators. In full digital era.
• ‘ZTD’ demanded a bestial transformation.
• ‘Getting Results Agile’ asked to manage six simultaneous approach areas.

When a method needs to be another person or do something analog, it is convicted.

Neuroscience knows how to explain why the simplest survives: our brain prefers equivalent to ‘System 1‘That advocates Kahneman: automatic, intuitive, without cognitive effort.

The methods that survive explode our biases instead of fighting them.

Extinct methods demanded a heroic discipline for our efficient nature. Lost battle from day 1.

The next time you want to adopt a new productivity method, those that sweep libraries and proliferate in the form of Reels condensing its content in a minute, Do not ask yourself if it is better than the one you already use, ask yourself if it will survive when the technology changeswhen your motivation runs out and when the novelty disappears.

Immortal methods are not the most perfect, they are the most adaptable. Like crocodiles.

In Xataka | 99 Undecuted Tips on Productivity

Outstanding image | Savannah Wakefield in Unspash