Eric Mack was the chief of technology of the David Allen Company for a number of years. Eric told me of having personally observed David Allen putting his own practice of Getting Things Done into action. Eric said David would come back from travel -- speaking engagements, workshops, in-persons with clients -- to a pile on his desk like everyone else. And he had the urgency of things not done while he was away -- like all of us.
Even though Eric was part of the Getting Things Done organization and was personally trained, coached, and reinforced in the practice at David's side, Eric found it awe-inspiring to watch David work. Most of us, even those of us trained and long-practiced in GTD, have a hard time resisting the latest, loudest, and largest. David, by contrast, picked up the thing at the top of the pile, processed it; picked up the next thing on the pile, processed it. Eric said this might take two or three work days.
What's even more remarkable, David didn't just resist the urgency of the latest, loudest, and largest: processing the pile meant clarifying, organizing, and reflecting. The first step, capture, was done. David had a pile on his desk and piles in his digital inboxes. The last step is the doing.
In between collecting and doing, clarifying, organizing, and reflecting are the work of conscious thought. What made this notable was (is) David's discipline to resist our reflexive cognitive responses to (1) fear -- which is often the simple discomfort of anxiety rather than an existential threat -- (2) greed -- small hits of pleasure -- (3) the reflexes of habit, and (4) the easiest.
The thinking is to choose actions that honor commitments made in service to our highest life's goals and purposes. The thinking is to support metacognition -- thinking about our own thinking -- in order to resist fear, greed, the reflexes of habit, and the easiest. David wasn't born able to do this. He's applied disciplined practice over decades. The paradox is David says he's lazy. His discipline allows him to stay out of an exhausting life spent chasing fear, greed, reflexes, and the momentarily easiest. Fine crafts people don't waste energy. Is it lazy, or is it exactly the right amount of force, applied at the right time, to the best effect? I call it Kairos, the optimum thing at the optimum time.
One of my enduring lessons from David, is a story of the time David and his wife, Kathryn, set aside a day to inspect their home property to take an inventory of all the projects and next actions necessary for maintenance and improvement.
Once David and Kathryn completed their inventory, they decided the optimum thing was to file the list, pour a glass of wine, and sit peacefully enjoying their home and surroundings. They were able to be fully present for that moment without having their attention pulled, as they enjoyed the view, to all the things undone or to do. They had captured them and would take care of them with the right amount of force, at the right time, to the best effect. Now they would unhook and simply be.
Having completed this post, now I'm going to put the laptop down, pour a cup of coffee, and sit outside to be fully present for a Sunday summer morning.
In addition to his role as founder and CEO of Kairos Cognition, Francis Sopper is CEO of GTD Focus.
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Warm regards,
Francis Sopper
REFERENCED IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
Eric Mack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmack/
David Allen: https://gettingthingsdone.com/about/
Getting Things Done: https://gettingthingsdone.com/
born: https://www.wired.com/2007/09/ff-allen/
Kairos Cognition: https://www.kairoscognition.com/
GTD Focus: https://gtdfocus.com/