Modelesis

Much of today’s task management issues stem from using the email inbox as a task management system.  Thus far, solutions have revolved around re-educating ourselves on inbox management.  Now, a couple startups (and at least one large email player) are actually rethinking the way our inbox works.  As they carefully tread new ground, task management laypeople will benefit immediately, while productivity experts will initially struggle with this new paradigm.

Like such things are prone to do, the media storm surrounding  Flappy Bird has subsided.  For weeks, the game’s sudden rise to fame and perplexing demise by its creator, independent Vietnamese game developer Dong Nguyen, brought about many theories and thoughts.  Although the matter has seemingly been settled, the loud chorus claiming that @dongatory was incapable to cope with success brought to my mind a question we seldom ask of our own projects, one which carries deep implications: are we ready for wild success?

I’ve been using GTD since late 2006, but it really took on a whole new level for me after reading The Secret Weapon Manifesto. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, Getting Things Done (GTD) is a time/task management methodology first introduced by Dave Allen in his 2002 book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”; The Secret Weapon (hereafter “TSW”) is a specific, detailed guide to implementing the GTD methodology using the popular Evernote note-taking service.