Team Taskmaster

GTD: Creepy Cult or Perfect Approach to Productivity?

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Productivity
Organization

I was chatting with a colleague the other day about time and task management. When I mentioned David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach, he surprised me by shuddering and saying, “Ugh, that cult thing.”

Huh? Cult? Here I was thinking GTD was a pretty good (okay, perhaps a tad overengineered) way to keep your life organized, but my quite intelligent and well-read friend was likening its followers to the adherents of Heaven’s Gate.

I was curious, so I did some research. Turns out my friend isn’t the only one with that reaction. Apparently, there are quite a few folks out there who don’t trust David Allen’s connection with John-Roger, a controversial spiritual guru.

It’s not that the GTD books will turn you into a thought slave; rather, critics accuse GTD of being part of a program to recruit people into John-Roger’s religious group, the Movement of Inner Spiritual Awareness, which has been labeled a cult.

Okay, so that’s a little bit creepy to consider. But then again, I’m not using any GTD strategies for spiritual enlightenment; I’m using them to keep my inbox empty and my deadlines managed. All this makes me wonder: What’s your take on the whole GTD thing?

(image by flyingpurplemonkeys via Flickr, CC 2.0)

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posted by CC Holland
August 20, 2008 @ 7:32 am

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