Yesterday I pulled a Jon Stewart on David Allen in the first installment of our chat. He was one of the other Johns (Oliver or Hodgman, take your pick) to my Mr. Stewart. Xerxes was more like Jim Cramer – if the latter never spoke and was useful in a time of crisis.
Today, you’ll get to know the other part of David Allen. Part two, in fact. In this installment, we avoid such matters as the current state of the economy, auto manufacturing and Billy Bob Thornton.
It was a real pleasure to talk with David. I plan to attend/infiltrate next year’s GTD Summit and hope to meet him face to face, as well as all of the other amazing people that went this year. My mission: Convert them accordingly.
And now, here’s that second part of the interview I promised only four short paragraphs ago…
MV: Whenever you look at the future, you have to look at the past, an for me the past is ongoing; GTD has really taken a foothold as a popular niche on the web, and the future seems to be bright for it in the collective consciousness that’s out there. There are countless blogs, applications that are either a result of or related to the overwhelming popularity of it. Does it make you a bit of a “proud papa” to know that you’ve had quite a hand when it comes to the inspiration for the various sites, books and other offshoots that GTD has spawned or do you just feel that you need many lawyers?
DA: (Laughs) Yes, and…all of the above. I truly is kind of both. I mean I’m actually bemused by it a bit. I’m still trying to figure out how come only a million people have bought this book (Getting Things Done) and there’s 6 billion people on the planet – I guess the plan is moving a little slow – I mean, everybody should’ve bought it. That’s one take I have on it. The other is I wonder it took someone so long to put something together that’s so simple, so subtle, and so very easy to come in and out of yet so powerful. Then I put it out there and people just latched on to it. It’s just an indication that I got onto something that was universal enough that lit a spark out there in that way.
And you know, you’re right. There’s people out there that are saying, “Hey, if you like David Allen, come do my stuff!” To that I say, “Well, I don’t think you got what David Allen was really talking about.” So there is a bit of subtle misrepresentation of what GTD is out there.
MV: So what you’re telling me is that if only one million people out there bought your book and there’s 6 billion people on the planet, then most of the world is following Eventualism and EffTD. So I need to write a book. Fast.
DA: (Laughs) You may be on to something. Let’s not rush that.
MV: I never do.
I knew that I had to look at GTD from a very different vantage point when you started talking about heights and flying and runways and stuff as far as Horizons of Focus was concerned due to my intense fear of the air. And the fact that you ask GTDers to go so high up there is both ambitious and uncomfortable. Isn’t being productive supposed to create ongoing comfort?
DA: Yeah. If there’s no part of you “up there” – don’t go “up there.” I’m just saying go there if there’s a part of you there that’s not managing. It’s usually not managing because of the part of you that’s been living in fear because you’re up there, don’t have a parachute and don’t have any landing gear.
I heard Paul McCartney once said that he “never set a goal in his life.” He did okay. You don’t need to set any goals unless there’s some part of you is committed to something for which a goal is going to be required. In which case, you better damn well set a goal. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck up there with no way to get down. You decide.
MV: So there’s flexibility with GTD then?
DA: There’s absolutely no flexibility at all. I mean, how flexible is gravity?
GTD simply says “Hey, what do you have your attention on?” How you deal with that; the degree with which you deal with that is on you.
You know, people get mad at me for their lists. I simply say, “I’m sorry but it’s not my list, dude.” My only thing is if you want to be clear and free then you better clear all the things that you have created that are preventing you from doing that.
MV: Speaking of gravity/falling from great heights, summits are all the rage right now, and have been popular on mountains for years. Tell me about the GTD Summit.
DA: Well, you know this was kind of a “build it and they will come” - GTD became this sort of global phenomenon. There are a whole lot of radical non-joiners that don’t have time to be there that fit the typical profile of GTDers. I wanted to get all these people together; they are totally independent, don’t really join anything and get them together to see what happens. That’s what it is.
If nothing else, It gave me the excuse to invite 30 of the coolest people I know and be in conversation with them on stage.
MV: I would have made it, but, you know…I need to eventualize sooner to make the trip from Victoria.
DA: Hey, tell me this…why is it when I go up to Victoria it doesn’t feel as if I’m traveling as far away as it really is because it’s in the same time zone? Have you figured that out yet?
MV: No. However, Canada is working really hard to change how the time zones run so that they go north to south instead of east to west.
DA: (Laughs) Then I’ll have jet lag getting up there.
MV: This all started because President Obama only spent 7 hours in Canada on his first trip. If the time zones were laid out as proposed, it would have seemed more like 15.
As the self-professed expert of eventual productivity, I like to champion its cause. Tell me, is there anything you find yourself doing in an eventual fashion? I mean, come on…you must do some things eventually.
DA: Most every single thing that will truly fulfill my destiny as a human spirit on the planet I haven’t gotten to yet. So, I’m a champion as well. I think I should be part of your club. Maybe make me an honorary member. Please.
MV: (somewhat flabbergasted) Oh…umm…wow. My cousin Xerxes over here – who is a big fan of yours – is just giddy with joy. Absolutely. I mean, it’s the whole “keep your friends close but your enemies even closer” mentality at work here.
On that note, I thank you for your time today…if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be doing this – and I’m not just talking about this interview.
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