It's
generally a good thing when folks criticize David Allen's Getting
Things Done methodology because it stands out from the crowd and grabs
your attention. Yesterday's post from Organize It was titled 9 Reasons why Getting Things Done Sucks
and struck me right out of the gate. I read the article, half with a
sense of, "How could anyone be critical of GTD," and then realized that
it's not that bad after all. A little bit of criticism might be a good
thing, or so I tell my students at school.

Criticism, as long as
it's honest, is often a healthy sign of critical thinking. How does
GTD stand up to attack? Pretty well I think and here's why: Allen is
very clear in his book and subsequent talks
over the past six years- GTD is adaptable and can integrate into any
system that currently exists. It's more of a set of behaviors than
anything else. Kelly Forrister, a GTD coach, also makes it clear that GTD can sync with any number of high or low tech systems such as:

Notecards (low tech, think Hipster PDA )

Lotus notes

Outlook

Google Calendar and Gmail

Day Timer planner

The
fact that GTD is able to marry (or at least cohabitate with) these
current tools is a plus for the GTD side of things. Adaptable yes, but
what about the claim leveled recently that GTD is too simplistic?

Leo from Zen Habits ran an interview
with Dr. Stephen Covey in which the famed 7 Habits author called GTD
"too simplistic and superficial". No GTD practitioner likes to hear
fighting words such as these but consider the obvious: 7 Habits has
been around for 20 years and GTD a mere six. Clearly GTD has some
catching up to do and the FranklinCovey world is much larger than that of GTD. What will be the staying power of GTD? Time will only tell.

So
how does GTD stand up to criticism? Pretty well I think and the proof
is in the pudding. I describe GTD as "life changing" and that is
something that I say about very few other things in life (i.e. faith,
marriage, being a father). So am I a Getting Things Done evangelist?
Sure. But even an evangelist can take a good bit of criticism from
time to time.

Today's post is also found at HD Biz Blog