The legacy I didn't plan to leave

Why I'm optimistic about the longevity of the GTD® methodology.

When the first edition of Getting Things Done came out in 2001, I felt fairly complete. The manual captured what I’d spent decades learning, testing, and refining. I wasn’t so much an entrepreneur as I was a researcher and educator, and, in a way, I figured my job was done (at age 55). At the time I was not driven to grow or expand the small training and coaching business that we had created. And no matter how well the book might do, I figured if I got run over by a bus, and someone was interested, they could pick it up and implement its functional principles for stress-free productivity. The methodology had proven itself successful with thousands of people in our trainings and coaching and had gone viral in some of the most demanding organizational cultures.

(Signing my first edition of Getting Things Done, 20+ years ago):

So I was mostly satisfied that I had completed something valuable. And it was done. Right? Wrong. What hit me next was the big Now What?

I was still alive and well, and the initial success of the book proved to me that GTD could be spread without me being engaged in person—i.e. it could still provide great value in a virtual form. So, as it is such a valuable methodology and can be implemented regardless of who you are, how you are, and where you are, there’s a big world out there with lots of folks who could benefit from it to improve their conditions in life and work. They would just need to know it existed. So, the question became: how could we reach as many people as possible, with the least effort?

That then led to many years of exploring ways to spread it. I wrote and co-authored more books, we implemented a global licensee structure, I continued taking advantage of more media exposure and brand promotion. That’s a big preamble to what I’d really like to express here.

The people who have been attracted to the methodology around the world are some of the coolest folks you’d ever meet. And quite a few of them have so understood and integrated its essence and applicability in their own training and coaching businesses, it is slowly, steadily, “organically” expanding its global reach.

What’s really satisfying is that whether I live another few days or decades, there are stellar people carrying the GTD flag and in their own ways will probably keep it alive and well for many years to come. And at a top quality level, doing the methodology the justice it deserves. Each of them have an inspiring personal story of their own transformations with adoption of GTD and an integration of its principles that is thorough in their life and work.

A great example of this is a recent podcast I saw/heard with two fellows below whom I have known for many years and consider super friends. Both are part of Next Action Associates, our GTD licensee for the UK and Ireland.

Todd Brown - whom I met when he was a senior guy in Training and Development in a global bank in London. Afterwards he shifted his career and became co-founder of Next Action Associates. A superb trainer and coach. Todd’s also an avid sailor and jazz bass player.

Robert Peake - our CTO for many years when our business was located in southern California. He moved to the UK with his British wife, and joined Next Action Associates there. Not only is he a superb GTD coach, he writes beautiful poetry and does excellent wood carvings and other crafts.

I highly recommend you check out their half-hour recent podcast with the link below. It is a magnificent example of why I’m not worried about the legacy of GTD. There are more than a dozen other people in various places around the world I could also single out similarly in this regard, but this is what triggered my thinking for this essay. Listen to the podcast

In the long course of history, having people understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine. - J. William Fulbright

All the best,

David