Mar

The difference between GTD and Integrity

Eli Lopian Category

Getting Things Done (GTD) is an action management method created by David Allen. It is based on the principal that we have to get things out of mind by recording them, so that we can focus on the task at hand.

Following are the differences between GTD and Integrity based on GDT principals.

GDT Core Principals

Collect

In GTD, we need a place (bucket) to dump all of our tasks.
In Integrity, we start with the monthly goals and find the controllable actions we start with the end in mind and leave out everything else.

Process

In GTD we take the task out of the bucket one by one and either do it if it takes 2 minutes, or delegate it, or defer it.

In Integrity we commit to the actions we will perform at the beginning of each day and week. There is no deferring or delegation per-se

Organize

GTD, there is a great need to keep track of tasks: Next Actions, Projects, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe. Filing them and searching for them is key.

Integrity, we keep a white board of the task the each person committed to. No need to keep track of what others do, or to wait for them, it must be committed by yourself or others. It is event driven and if a task is postponed, you can act to rectify it

Review

GTD –Daily and weekly, private review

Integrity, There are set group meetings daily and weekly. Committing to the group and not in private.

Main differences: Filing System

While GTD put a lot of focus on storing the tasks, Integrity focuses on doing the tasks required to reach a goal. Integrity has no need to file tasks, and to keep track of delegated tasks. The process is event driven and when a task (goal) is delegated, there is no need to track it, and to ask about it, or to wait for other people to finish.

Although this it is true that if everyone had integrity, there won’t be a need to ‘wait for’ tasks, but as we deal with other vendors and customers who don’t manage their integrity, we need to keep track of these, and using GTD is a good way to do it, especially since there will be a lot less of these tasks.

The big difference in my view is that with GTD there is no team work, no team commitment, and the delegation is brittle. It becomes too easy to be caught up on the periodical checking or deferred and delegated tasks.