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be the worlds best
April 2008 
My 15 minutes of fame...thanks to Zaadz
Posted on Feb 15th, 2007
by 
Duff
Duff
So I've created an internet sensation with my GTD Mastery 100 checklist!
I blogged about it here, and emailed it to 10 friends on January 30th. That's it! Then the magical internet took over. I guess people can smell quality and love to spread the word, eh? :)
I've been LifeHacked, I've been Dugg, I've been del.icio.us'ed like crazy (over 700 bookmarks), I'm high on Google, pumping GTD through my veins.
I set up a mirror site for my checklist because the original document was just a Google Doc, and has started to not respond as quickly with all the traffic. I can barely edit the thing, it's so slow.
Hopefully this little burst of fame will allow me to connect with enough amazing people who want to be the world's best at something important that I can help people to achieve more than they ever dreamed possible!
I blogged about it here, and emailed it to 10 friends on January 30th. That's it! Then the magical internet took over. I guess people can smell quality and love to spread the word, eh? :)
I've been LifeHacked, I've been Dugg, I've been del.icio.us'ed like crazy (over 700 bookmarks), I'm high on Google, pumping GTD through my veins.
I set up a mirror site for my checklist because the original document was just a Google Doc, and has started to not respond as quickly with all the traffic. I can barely edit the thing, it's so slow.
Hopefully this little burst of fame will allow me to connect with enough amazing people who want to be the world's best at something important that I can help people to achieve more than they ever dreamed possible!
Access: Public
I'm on LifeHacker.com too! If only I were actually uber-productive! haha
The big irony of all this is that luck is beating productivity a million to one right now.
Woooohoooo!
Nice work Duff! Love to hear it.
This is my favorite:
“Work–and life–is ecstasy, bliss, pure joy.”
To achieving more than we ever thought possible……..
nice work bro! keep it flowing :)
~C
Thanks for the support!
People are now commenting on my list in languages I can’t find translators for!
Swedish?
http://poder.dk/2007/02/13/100-steps-til-at-blive-gtd-master/
Japanese?
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kennak/20070213/1171332533
If anybody knows how to translate these pages, I’d love to figure out what people around the world are saying!
that rocks!
Hey Duff (i.e. the GTD Ninja)
Here's a comment that's going to be forwarded to your inbox – I expect a response within 24 hours or else you'll be in violation of Step 60.
Anyway… I'm writing b/c I just read through all of your GTD 100 list – I actually skimmed it when I saw it on del.icio.us/popular. But didn't tag it because it was on Google docs – it must've been a subconscious decision b/c of the impermance of the URL or something or lack of a connection to an identity when I saw it.
So I came across it again via your comment on Paul's blog via WH's 2/16 Speedlinking.
There's something about lists that have the power of ten that really resonate with people. Top 10 or Top 100 lists make it to del.icio.us/popular all the time.
I'm not sure exactly what you consider “productivity pr0n” but I've tagged 18 articles with GTD on del.icio.us since June 21, 2005 – yet I only do 3-4 things on the most basic tier. (My GTD brain here: http://del.icio.us/kentbye/gtd)
I just unsubscribed from like 30 e-mail lists that I haven't really read in the last two years, but I did just subscribe to your GTD Mastery list. Looking forward to your posts on tips for moving up the chain. I'm curious as to your best practices – especially when it comes to your optimized toolset – both digital and old skool Hipster PDA. I only see a partial list here: http://del.icio.us/duff/GTD
Hey Ebb,
I'm creating a blog on http://gtdmastery100.com that will explain more about the checklist and how to move up it.
One thing many don't realize is that I am not scoring 100 yet! Many of the items on the list were written in part to motivate ME to step up to a higher level of GTD mastery.
Instead of creating a system or tool that I'm already the best in the world at, I decided to create something that would help me grow and learn while simultaneously helping others to grow and learn.
I do hope to score a 90 or above in the next year though, and I have several coaches who are helping me to get there, as well as other steps and plans to make it happen.
My current best practices/tools include using Basecamp as a home base to manage projects and Next Actions and keep reference ideas, using Google calendar for my master calendar and reminder system (tickler), and using notecards (Hipster PDA or what I call a P.A.D.–Personal Analog Device) to carry around so that I have things like “errands to run around town” and “calls” in the appropriate context. I also use GTDGmail, but use only some of the features of it.
I also use the P.A.D. to capture ideas when I'm out and about, and to carry information/checklists that I want to be able to review if I'm not plugged-in.
My physical space is less than optimized currently, but I don't have much stuff, so I'll get back on track in a week or so. My paper filing system could use some improvements too, as could the “Feng Shui” of my living space.
One of the biggest things for me is to be able to keep all my commitments, and to not commit to doing as many things for people! To maintain clarity around commitments. So if I say “I commit to doing this by this date” I nearly 100% complete those sorts of things, but if I don't say “I commit” then I say “I can't commit, but I'll try.” Fred Kofman gives more details on this kind of language in his book and audio program Conscious Business.
What I'm most excited about now with the popularity of the checklist is helping people to both actually implement GTD (many pick up the book, few read it all the way through–my step #1!–and even fewer implement properly) and to combine the tools of GTD with other tools and approaches like keeping clarity with commitments from Conscious Business, like managing one's energy from The Power of Full Engagement, like managing one's state from Awaken the Giant Within, like knowing one's purpose and goals and what one wants to produce with all that productivity, like balancing doing with being and realizing that sometimes we get more done with less action (like the popularity of the checklist itself–took me about 2 hours to write, and I did no publicity).
Thanks for more info on your best practices – and I didn't think that you had already topped 100/100 on the GTD list. And it's still a good goal to work towards for sure.
Some stream of consciousness thoughts…
I'm intruiged by the notion of GTD from a spiritual perspective. There are some spiritual teachers – like Abraham Hicks – who say, there is nothing to be done, just be in the moment. Or of something along those lines. It's the whole notion of reaching a state of inner peace, and working towards the Absolute as Wilber would say.
And GTD is geared towards being engaged in the world – the relative world of living and doing. We have to eat, drink, breath and do stuff in the real world.
So it seems as though David Allan is trying to merge the principles of inner peace and outer action into his GTD productivity philosophy, and it certainly sounds like you're pulling even more insights from your spritual background.
And I think that's probably part of the reasons why your list caught on so much is because there was that deeper spritual component that the tech world demographic usually doesn't fully incorporate into their productivity pr0n.
That's part of my own intruigue with GTD is that is does serve as sort of a trojan horse for spiritual principles to the mass audiences who wouldn't hear them otherwise. And the most interesting thing is that they actually seem to work. Removing clutter and unwanted distractions can help improve attention, productivity and a greater sense of kicking ass in life.
But I still get back to the fact that even if you do get 100/100 that it won't be enough. That it's all just a wild goose chase, and that the only real way to achieve a sense of deep satisfaction is to go inward and to find it from within – not from doing anything out there or getting through the GTD checklist, which could be creating a container to break free from and do nothing but breathe.
You explicitly referenced the spiritual angle in your mastery section, but I still wonder if there are conflicts that come up from your own spiritual perspective between balancing the tensions between the inner peace and outer action. And I also wonder what would Thich Nhat Hanh or The Dalai Lama would say about all of this.
But I still get back to the fact that even if you do get 100/100 that it won't be enough.
I agree totally. I see GTD as part of Karma Yoga, the spiritual practice of action in the world. GTD has helped me to realize that “work and spirit are not two–the divine is in every to-do.”
It is a partial answer. Doing must be balanced with Being, work with play. But for those of us who must do knowledge work, why not work blissfully and productively while maintaining clarity with our commitments?
I'm really happy for ya, Duff. And really thankful for ya, too. When I saw that checklist for the first time a week or so ago, I felt its energy grow within me. I wouldn't really have given much thought to reading or listening to the (audio)book until I read over the list, but now am excited by the idea. It was really quite the genius idea you had there.